You have no doubt what the Chicago sports news story of the year was. Actually, it was THE sports news story of the year, and such a big freaking deal that it was also a pop culture and hard news story.
Yes, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series in early November, for the first time in 108 years. Thus, the Chicago Cubs owned the sports news cycle of the past year and inspired us to kick off our “most popular stories of the year” segment about a week or two early in 2016.
The Cubs, because of their monumental accomplishments, lead off the series this year (numbers beside each link and headline denote total page views, click where highlighted to read the story).
1. Jake Arrieta Hurt Himself as well Fan Base with Hostile Tweet 5,684
That tremendous buzz and high so many Cubs felt on November crashed and burned on November 8th when Donald Trump was elected President by winning the electoral college. As of this writing, Hillary Clinton beat Trump by nearly three million votes, and counting, but hey a system put in place in the 18th century to protect the interests of slave states is the rule of law today, and thus a racist is now president-elect.
The next day Arrieta published a tweet that made waves. The Cubs’ third best pitcher in 2016, but National League Cy Young Award winner in 2015, took a pro Trump stance that was in opposition to most of his fan base, as Chicago voted 85% democrat.
Still publishing this post was a learning experience for me- I don’t need to answer 90% of my Twitter mentions. It’s a good thing I don’t.
Too bad Trump can’t also take a more mature and “I’ve got more important things to do with my life” attitude about Twitter.
2. Eamus Catuli! Sounds Sexual but Here’s the Actual Meaning 2,192
Before the Arrieta Tweet reaction op-ed broke our all time traffic record for a Chicago Cubs article, this one did. It also ended up on the Facebook group discussion board of a classic civilization course at a University in the Missouri Valley. Thus The Sports Bank is indeed educating today’s youth.
3. Kelly Crull Photos and Bio 1,234
“All hail Krul, and his glorious new regime!
-Sincerely
Little Girl”
You might recall that passage from a letter written to Lisa Simpson by her pen pal from a Banana Republic that experienced a bloody coup. The ending of the letter is voiced by one of the guerillas, while the beginning of the letter is the expression of a young child.
I don’t really care that much about other media personalities, but the internet really really really does. There was a time when I did care, many years ago, but now I know much better. This post is from that era, when Crull was still working for the Padres. No way I do would do an obvious clickbait post like this today, and I thought that I had deleted everything of that sort from the past. Guess not.
4. Horrible Look for Chicago Cubs as Owner Donates $1 Million to Donald Trump 789
Hey, 2016 was a total shit show of year in that the most disgusting human being possible is now set to assume the most powerful individual position in the entire world!
FUCK! Also, he only got there because the Russians hacked both major political parties, but sabotaged just one, thereby taking Trump’s side.
Hey, at least a mindless throw-away post about someone who works for a tv station owned by the team isn’t my all time #1 most traffic Chicago Cubs article anymore. That’s a plus.
5. Cubs Co-Owner Todd Ricketts Named to Donald Trump Cabinet Position 534
Noticing a theme here? Three of the top five, or 60% for you Trump voters who struggle with math, were about the man and presidential candidate who was championed by the Ku Klux Klan, ISIS and Vladimir Putin. Amazing how one of the best things I was lucky enough to be alive to witness, the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series, occurred in the same week (Wednesday to Tuesday) as one of the absolute shittiest (Trump winning the electoral college).
Like Frank Sinatra famously sang “That’s life! That’s what people say, you’re riding high in April, shot down in May.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.