Chicago Cubs: Addison Russell’s harrowing fall from grace

Chicago Cubs: “The Cubs have done it!”

People forget that when Addison Russell put together his breakout 2016 campaign, he was just 22 years of age and had just under one full big league season under his belt.

As a team, Chicago pretty much coasted throughout the entire regular season, winning 103 games and their first division crown since 2008. From Opening Day on, this team was appointed as World Series front-runners – and it’s not hard to understand why.

For Russell’s part, he came up big at Wrigley Field time and time again, hitting .272 at home, driving in 62 runs en route to an .833 OPS. Despite a so-so batting average, he was the epitome of clutch, slashing .391/.407/.609 with the bases loaded.

In October, that prowess stole the show on the national stage.

Russell took Dan Otero deep in the Cubs’ Game 6 blowout win to keep their title hopes alive and push the World Series to a winner-take-all Game 7. At that point, the blast seemed destined to live in team lore forever -a piece of World Series history we’d all remember forever.