Cubs-Indians World Series: Addison Russell makes history while silencing doubters

Addison Russell played hero with a historic performance in Game 6 (Pic:CbsSports.com)

CLEVELAND-- It was July 4, 2014. Most of baseball had checked out as the day games were coming to a close and there weren't many scheduled for the night, given the holiday schedule.

And then it broke. The rebuilding Cubs were sending starting pitchers Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel to the first-place Athletics. The Cubs' big prize coming back?

A 20-year-old shortstop in Double-A by the name of Addison Russell.

At the big-league level, the Cubs already had All-Star shortstop Starlin Castro and one of their top prospects was a shortstop named Javier Baez (ever heard of him?). Plus, the Cubs were overall stocked with position-player talent in the minors -- and some in the majors like Anthony Rizzo. Why were they trading pitching for this kid?

It seemed obvious to many, but there were still those misguided few screaming "too many shortstops" or "who is going to pitch?" as if shortstops can't move almost anywhere else on the diamond and pitchers can't be acquired in free agency by a team with deep pockets like the Cubs. The bottom line was the Cubs had an opposing executive wanting pitching and they had the chance to grab someone they believed could be special.

After the Cubs' Game 6 win over the Indians, 9-3, do those folks still have the same questions about that trade by Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer et al?

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