When your team finally wins a World Series after more than a century, things move pretty quickly, maybe not Ferris Buehler quickly. It’s almost hard to believe that the Cubs won it all back in 2016-so much has happened since then.

Probably the biggest (recent) retirement news comes from Dexter Fowler who just called it quits after a 14-year career. In discussing how the world defines baseball years, the record keepers always “round-up.” While Dex began his ML career in 2008 and ended in 2021, he managed fewer than 30 at-bats in both ’08 and ’21.

Location matters in restaurants, timing is more important in professional sports. Fowler only spent two seasons with the Cubs, but they might have been the two most important seasons in Cubs history: 2015-16. He was hardly the best player in Cubs history, or in the game during any given season, but he couldn’t have been more important to the team’s success.

Editor’s note: I haven’t minced words when Fowler came up short with the Cubs or elsewhere, but that doesn’t detract from what he did.

Before the Cubs acquired him in 2015, they were shuffling a bunch of nobodies and place-holders in the outfield. Fowler blossomed in his first year with the Cubs (’15). reaching career highs in games played, at-bats, runs scored (102), homers (17), and stolen bases (20). He was a big part in the team’s surprising success.

The team managed to surprise the world when they signed him to a one-year contract during spring training. Everyone knows how that turned out for the Cubs and Dexter. His numbers weren’t as good, but he had some amazing moments, including the only leadoff homer in Game 7 of a World Series.

While he didn’t have an Aaron Judge walk year, he was able to parlay his Cubs career into a nice 5-year, $82.5 million deal with the Cardinals. The Cubs were never going to be able to re-sign him, but they lost him to their biggest rival. Thankfully, he never won anything with St. Louis.

He finished his playing career with a .259/.358/.417 slash, 127 homers and 149 stolen bases. Cubs fans won’t forget what Fowler did for and meant to the Cubs because he just signed on with the Marquee Network.