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 Anthony Caraturo is in his second year at Suffolk County Community College. It is his passion to write about sports and share his thoughts with people who enjoy reading. He would love to one day realize his dream as a sports writer. acaraturo@gmail.com. |
| The year 2016 for the MLB was nothing short of a roller coaster. We saw teams like the Diamondbacks, Twins, Braves and Padres have miserable years yet again. We also saw teams like The Cubs, Nationals, and Dodgers excite and give fans around the league a taste of what great baseball could be. The Nationals and Mets in the NL East battled it out for the top spot in the division and ultimately in the end, the Nationals grabbed the spot and the Mets grabbed the first wild card spot. The Nationals’ Daniel Murphy had an MVP caliber season losing the batting title by a point, while driving 25 balls over the fence and driving 104 runs across home plate. The Mets battled significant injuries all season. They lost David Wright, Lucas Duda, Neil Walker, and starting pitchers: deGrom, Matz, Harvey, and Wheeler for the season at one point or another. The Mets still won 87 games and finished the season going 27-13, which was the best record in the MLB over that stretch. They unfortunately were beaten by the Giants in the Wild Card game 3-0. The Los Angeles Dodgers had a 91 game winning season, pitcher Clayton Kershaw for most of the summer and still found ways to win. That is what you have to do. Injuries occur but it is all about the next man up. If you can get those guys to step up you will eventually be in a great situation. Vin Scully, longtime Dodger announcer spent 67 seasons with the Dodgers which is the longest time a person has spent with a single professional sports team. Chicago Cubs fans finally have a reason to be excited. Even though they have not won a World Series since 1908, the light could not be any brighter at the end of their tunnel. They have combined elite young hitting with fantastic pitching which translated into a 103 game winning season. Kris Bryant will probably go onto win the MVP after his 39 home run campaign. Kyle Hendricks finished with an era of 2.13, the lowest in the MLB. They beat the Giants in four games and rallied in the ninth inning in that game down 5-2 to clinch an NLCS berth for the second consecutive year. The MLB regular season ended in a tragic way when the game lost a rising young star in Cuban born flamethrower Jose Fernandez. Fernandez broke into the MLB as a rookie at 20 years old. He touched all with his incredible story of facing a tough life in Cuba, which he tried to escape four times, eventually making it over on a boat (which was the same trip he saved his mother once she fell off the boat). He was 24 years old and we were truly witnessing what was the beginning of an incredible career. He finished the season 16-8 with 253 strikeouts. He will be missed by baseball fans everywhere and most importantly those close to him. |
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