TAMPA — It’s time for the 2016 Baseball Oscars.
It’s a simple enough concept: We take the Academy Awards, minus Best Documentary and Best Documentary Short — I could never figure out a way to convert those to baseball-ese — and apply them to the Major League Baseball world of the past 365 days.
In the order of Sunday night’s awards show, here we go:
Original screenplay: We hadn’t seen anything quite like what transpired in Toronto last year. Alex Anthopoulos, native Canadian, put all his chips on the table, pulling off a flurry of go-for-it trades, and it worked, getting the Blue Jays the American League East title and their first playoff berth since 1993. And then … Anthopoulos walked away from his job, declining to work with new team president Mark Shapiro, and wound up with the Dodgers.
Adapted screenplay: Ten years ago, would you ever have guessed that the Red Sox — still riding the honeymoon wave from their curse-breaking, 2004 championship — would finish in last place two straight years and three out of four? When they brought up the rear in the AL East last year, it felt rather familiar.
Supporting Actress: Plenty of players with super-athletic fathers come down the pike. When Michael Conforto arrived with the Mets last year, though, he boasted of a mother, Tracie Ruiz, who won three Olympic medals in synchronized swimming. Now, that is some major support. (Conforto’s father, Mike, played football for Penn State.)
Costume design: It’s coming up, as opposed to having already displayed, but I love that the 2016 Mets will honor their 1986 heritage by wearing throwback ’86 uniforms, with the pinstripes, for each Sunday home game.
Production design: The way the Mets redesigned their production last July, with three trades plus the Conforto promotion plus Travis d’Arnaud returning from the disabled list, dramatically changed the franchise’s fortunes for the better.
Makeup and Hairstyling: The game — the world? — has never seen two parties make up so smoothly and suddenly, after such high tension, than Alex Rodriguez and the Yankees. At this rate, A-Rod will be the team’s player-manager in another year.
Cinematography: The most memorable scene of the year came in the Nationals’ dugout during a game that meant nothing when Washington teammates Bryce Harper and Jonathan Papelbon went at it. The whole skirmish was brief, but it was staged beautifully, with Harper making his way from the field to the dugout and winding up with Papelbon’s hands around his throat.
Film editing: The Yankees received strong production from their first baseman throughout the 2015 season. That the identity of that first baseman changed, from Mark Teixeira to Greg Bird, was barely noticeable, so crisp was the editing.
Sound editing: When Matt Harvey’s innings-limit saga predictably suffered through a controversy last Labor Day weekend, with Harvey’s agent Scott Boras and Mets general manager Sandy Alderson throwing verbal howitzers at each other, each side attempted to present its version of what had been said when to whom, with respected orthopedist James Andrews among those getting sucked in.
Sound mixing: Texas’ Jeff Bannister suffered through a slew of pitching injuries in his first year running the Rangers, but his sound mixing of replacements, as well as his integrating of controversial Josh Hamilton, won him American League Manager of the Year honors.
Visual effects: Alex Vega, Yoenis Cespedes’ car detailer, became approximately five million times more famous last week because of the work he did on Cespedes’ car collection.
Animated short film: Hanley Ramirez’s shift to left field didn’t last very long, and his efforts to play the position evoked images of cartoon klutzes.
Animated feature: The Blue Jays’ offense was so ridiculously good, it brought to mind the classic Bugs Bunny Conga Line.
Supporting actor: Matt Harvey put together a virtuoso performance, replete with excellence and controversy, that would have won him Best Actor honors most years. But this was a very competitive year, so the Mets’ ace must settle for a supporting role.
Live action short: The high point of the Padres’ season occurred when they lifted their record to 10-5. Their revival turned out to be short-lived.
Foreign language film: The Royals’ postseason success benefited greatly from AL Championship Series Most Valuable Player Alcides Escobar and World Series MVP Salvador Perez, both of whom hail from Venezuela.
Original score: Home teams 15, Visitors 0. That phenomenon occurred last Aug. 11, with the hosts sweeping. First time ever. Pretty cool.
Original song: “Royals” by Lorde actually came out in 2012, but it became especially relevant this year thanks to Kansas City’s first championship since 1985.
Director: Those Royals made it to Game 7 of the 2014 World Series, and general manager Dayton Moore acquiring Kendrys Morales and Edinson Volquez in the offseason and then Johnny Cueto and Ben Zobrist midseason. Those guys complemented the core that Moore has constructed to bring a parade to the heartland.
Actress: Derek Jeter is out of the game (and seemingly happy about that), but his engagement to Hannah Davis, following a long and prosperous bachelorhood, still registered as big news. So Ms. Davis gets this honor for a second straight year.
Actor: Cespedes prevails because, even though he got a late start, not entering the national consciousness until his July 31 arrival with the Mets, he made up for lost time with a power surge at the plate, followed that with a dramatic free agency and capped it with a car show for the ages.
Picture: “Spotlight” is an excellent film that documents a very serious matter. In addition, for baseball nuts, you have a scene at Fenway Park, Michael Keaton (who played a character named Captain Gene Mauch in “The Other Guys” , Mets fan Stanley Tucci and Liev Schreiber, who narrated many of HBO’s sports documentaries.
Now let’s catch up on recent Pop Quiz questions, both of them from Howard Gold of Kearny, N.J.
1) Name the former Dodgers outfielder who appeared in the final episode of the “Batman” TV show (with Adam West as the title character) in 1968.
2) This former infielder’s daughter married legendary entertainer Dean Martin. Name him.
–Your answers:
1) Al Ferrara
2) Jim Baxes
If you have a tidbit that connects baseball to popular culture, please send it to me at kdavidoff@nypost.com.
