Dexter Fowler had a fourteen-year career in the big leagues playing for the Rockies, Astros, Cardinals, Angels, and two seasons with the Chicago Cubs. Even though Fowler’s time with the Cubs only lasted two seasons, his impact will be talked about for a lifetime. Fowler was traded from the Houston Astros to the Cubs in exchange for Luis Valbuena and Dan Strailey in January of 2015. During his first season with the team, the Cubs made the playoffs and made it all the way to the NLCS, where they would end up losing to the New York Mets in a four-game sweep. Fowler hit .278 and hit two home runs in that 2015 postseason. In Fowler’s second and last season on the team, the Cubs won the NL Central and would go on to beat the Cleveland Indians in 7 games to win the World Series. Fowler made history in game seven of the world series by leading off the game with a home run off Corey Kluber, this home run would end up being pivotal in a game that the Cubs won 8-7 in 10 innings. In the 2016 World Series, Fowler had a .233 batting average, along with two home runs.
Fowler made history in another way by becoming the first African-American to play for the Cubs in a world series game, along with Carl Edwards Jr, Jason Heyward, and Addison Russell. On top of that, Fowler is the first African-American to start a World Series game, appear in a game, and take an at-bat in a game in Cubs history. Dexter Fowler was not the type of player to get his jersey number retired or get a statue of himself built outside of the stadium, but he will be a player that is talked about and remembered amongst Cubs fans forever. Fowler had arguably his most memorable seasons in the MLB while he was with the Cubs. He made his one and only career all-star team and helped the Cubs win their first World Series in over 100 years. Fowler finished his Cubs career with 30 home runs, 94 runs batted in, 33 stolen bases, and a .261 batting average.
In a recent interview for MLB.com, Fowler said, “To this day, people come up and say thank you. I wake up every day, and I’m like, ‘How did God choose me to win the world series?’ Not only a World Series but the world series. That was the biggest world series you could ever win. And we did it. The emotions just take over. It was overwhelming.” from this interview, it is easy to tell how much the fans of Chicago mean to him and how much winning the World for the Cubs meant to him.
Fowler may be retiring from playing the game of baseball, but he will still be around the sport and the Cubs. Fowler will become an analyst for the Marquee sports network. It is great to see Fowler come back to the Chicago, where he was beloved by the fans.
