Magical season honored with 5 MLB Awards
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CHICAGO -- David Ross' super selfie, Anthony Rizzo's acrobatic play and an amazing season capped by the Cubs' first World Series championship since 1908 helped propel the team to five Esurance MLB Awards.
Ross won for Best Social Media Post with his selfie from the World Series parade in Chicago that included a few of his teammates as well as some of the 5 million fans who attended the event on Nov. 4. President of baseball operations Theo Epstein received Best Executive, and the Cubs shared Best Trending Topic with the Indians regarding Game 7 of the World Series.
Rizzo captured two categories in Best Play, Defense and Best Social Media Personality. Give Ross an assist on the latter. In Spring Training, Rizzo and teammate Kris Bryant created an Instagram account to salute Ross, who retired after the season.
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The Cubs' five awards were second to the Indians, who took home six. Last year, the Cubs won for Best Pitcher and Best Breakout Player (Jake Arrieta), Best Rookie (Bryant), Best Manager (Joe Maddon) and Best Fan Catch for a grab made by a woman who used her cup to snag a foul ball, then promptly chugged her beer.
Ross' Twitter photo topped the Dodgers' celebration of long-time announcer Vin Scully and the Mets' Noah Syndergaard's funny tweet regarding a lightning strike that hit the Empire State Building in New York.
Epstein's award for best executive should come as no surprise following the Cubs' 103-win season, which paced the Majors. It has been quite a turnaround for the Cubs, who lost 101 games in Epstein's first season in 2012. He supplemented the youthful core with players like Ben Zobrist, Jason Heyward, John Lackey and Aroldis Chapman, which helped result in Epstein's third title; he won with the Red Sox in '04 and '07.
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Other finalists for top executive included the Indians' Chris Antonetti and the Rangers' Jon Daniels.
The Cubs and Indians' Game 7 topped Bartolo Colon's first home run in his 19-year Major League career and Giancarlo Stanton's performance in the All-Star Home Run Derby as Best Trending Topic.
The Esurance MLB Awards annually honor Major League Baseball's greatest achievements as part of an industry-wide balloting process that includes five groups, each of which accounts for 20 percent of the overall vote: media, front-office personnel, retired MLB players, fans at MLB.com and Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) voters.
The MLB Awards are an all-inclusive program, encompassing the top players and performances from both the American League and National League from Opening Day through the end of the postseason.
Individual awards went to the Best Major Leaguer in addition to the winners in the following categories: Best Hitter, Pitcher, Rookie, Defensive Player, Manager, Executive, Social Media Personality and Postseason Performer.
Winners were also recognized for the year's best Offensive Play, Defensive Play, Regular-Season Moment, Postseason Moment, Single-Game Performance, Social Media Post, Fan Catch, Broadcast Call, Player-Fan Interaction and Trending Topic.
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Voting began on Sept. 19 at 4 p.m. ET at MLB.com/awards, one hour after the inaugural Esurance MLB Fans of the Year winners were announced.
Winners of the 2016 Esurance MLB Awards were unveiled at a reception in Manhattan's Chelsea Market, on MLB social channels and during a live broadcast on MLB Network and MLB.com.