Chicago Cubs: Ranking the top five Kyle Schwarber moments

Chicago Cubs: His return in 2016 was nothing short of magical

2016 was a magical year for the Chicago Cubs. That’s pretty much what people remember. What most tend to forget, however, is how the season inauspiciously started.

The dive and subsequent injury to Schwarber’s knee in the fourth game of the 2016 season was a major blow to a team who had been picked as a World Series favorite after a deep and somewhat surprising 2015 run to the NLCS.  Full tears of the LCL and ACL in his left knee was said to have ended his first full big league season before it even began. He was pretty much an afterthought and ghost for the team’s uber successful tear through the National League during the regular season.

A forgotten man, the news of his addition to the Arizona Fall League roster on October 22 sent both chills and a jolt of adrenaline through many Cubs fans as they remained one win away from a possible trip to the World Series. The thought that Schwarber could even walk around the dugout in Cleveland was farfetched; the idea that he could actually hit was preposterous. Or was it?

On October 25, Schwarber was named to the World Series roster and penciled into the roster for Game 1 against Corey Kluber, where he had a near-home run double off Kluber and walk off the toughest lefty reliever in the game, Andrew Miller.

It didn’t end up being a win for the Cubs that night in Game 1, but it sure as heck was a harbinger for Schwarber’s success and ultimately, the Cubs’ triumph in the Series.