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When I began writing this series, it wasn’t intended to be all good things that happened to the Chicago Cubs during the decade. Instead, it was intended to be a ranking of the biggest, most newsworthy, most important stories involving the Cubs. Some of you criticized my decision to rank the 2015 season at No. 10. That’s all a part of doing a “ranking” series like this; no one’s likely going to agree with each and every choice I make.
This particular story’s been talked about so much (and thus its ranking) that I’m not going to belabor or rehash all the issues, especially since Addison Russell was non-tendered earlier this month, ending his time with the Cubs. I wish him well in his future baseball career, and indeed, his life beyond baseball.
If you’re interested in revisiting the timeline, you can read all 28 stories Josh, Sara and I wrote on this topic over the last two-plus years in this StoryStream. Seriously, it’s worth re-reading everything there, to follow the timeline. I particularly commend Sara Sanchez for her excellent work on this difficult subject.
I am simply going to leave this topic here as an example of a major news story — why it’s in this ranking to begin with — that we wish wouldn’t have happened at all. There is no question that the Chicago Cubs are a different franchise now than they were before the allegations against Russell were revealed. Russell is certainly a different human being than he was previously. Let’s hope those changes, for the team and the person, are for the better.
It’s sad for Russell that he couldn’t have learned how to deal with life without being violent toward people he supposedly loved. It’s sad for the women in his life who had to deal with that sort of violence. It’s sad for his teammates and family. Russell’s not the only MLB player suspended for this reason. We can hope, given all that’s been publicized and efforts by MLB to counter this with education and support, that it will be the last.
I ask that you keep your comments to this post respectful.