Honor-bound: MLB Awards put cap on season

NEW YORK — It’s difficult to pinpoint what the 2016 season will, or should, be best remembered for. It provided a little bit of everything: the end of a championship drought, an iconic franchise rewriting its own history, a beloved star player calling it a career and a revered broadcaster — largely considered the best ever — signing off for the final time.

It’s probably fitting that the World Series extended to the limits, going a full seven games, and with Game 7 going into extra innings. After a season like 2016, who was in a hurry for it to end?

A little more than two weeks after Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo squeezed the final out of the World Series, baseball’s awards season also came to a close, with the announcement of the Esurance MLB Awards, revealed on Friday on MLB social channels and during a live broadcast on MLB Network and MLB.com. Winners were also recognized at an indigo-carpet reception in Manhattan’s Chelsea Market on Thursday.

To no surprise, the two World Series participants, the Cubs and the Indians, were this year’s big winners. The Indians garnered six Esurance MLB Awards, while the World Series champion Cubs received five.

It’s something both fan bases can agree upon, in harmony: This year’s World Series was epic.

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“The final play to Kris Bryant, when he had to make that ground-ball play, and he had this smile on his face, even before he could make the throw to first,” MLB.com analyst Jim Duquette recalled. “That typified what the Cubs were all about. The team, the fun that they had and even the most important moment of the year, to break the curse of over 100 years, and he’s got a smile on his face to make the final play. That stood out to me more than anything.”

The Cubs won Esurance MLB Awards for Best Social Media Personality (Anthony Rizzo), Best Play: Defense (Rizzo), Best Social Media Post (David Ross), Best Trending Topic (Cubs-Indians Game 7, shared with Cleveland) and Best Executive (Theo Epstein).

The Indians were recognized for Best Defensive Player (Francisco Lindor), Best Play: Offense (Tyler Naquin), Best Trending Topic (Cubs-Indians Game 7, shared with the Cubs), Best Manager (Terry Francona), Best Major Leaguer: Postseason (Andrew Miller) and Best Postseason Moment (Rajai Davis).

Davis categorized his game-tying home run off Cubs closer …

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