Jake Arrieta announced his retirement yesterday, though the league had basically announced it for him about two years ago. Still, I’ll never forget his run that really started in 2014 and carried through the 2016 World Series.
There are few, if any, better feelings for a baseball fan than when your team has not just a genuine ace, but one that’s seen everything fall into place at once. The day of their starts, you anticipate not so much as a game but as an art viewing. Because there’s no chance your team is going to lose that day, that uncertainty and drama gets removed. You’re just watching how the canvas will be covered, what the brushstrokes would be.
Jake, for two seasons or so, did it with a cutter that moved so late and violently that you thought your reception skipped, and a with fastball that turned bats into dust. He eventually couldn’t overcome the incredible jump in innings from 2014 to 2015, but we got enough out of it. So did he.
He won the Cy Young in 2015, going 22-6 with a 1.77 ERA in 33 starts.
It’s rare when you know the other team has no hope. When Jake took the mound in that time, it was one of those so few moments all Cubs fans could simply relax and take in a game without anything riding on it. Even in pressure packed situations, like the wild-card game of 2015. As soon as the Cubs got one run, we knew it was over. The Pirates did, too. He also had two wins in the World Series, giving him more wins than any Cubs pitcher in that round basically ever.
Maybe that time is over, as pitchers don’t go more than five or six. Whether it is or isn’t, it was fun to live there.