EXTRA: 4-2 + 4-1 + 5-2 + 8-3 = Sweep

Yes, it seems that Chicago Cubbiness has retained its essential character. The final round of the National League playoffs resulted Wednesday in the New York Mets managing to thoroughly wipe up the floor with the Cubs.

Looks like the Post won't have to take it back

There won’t be anything resembling a championship in Chicago from 2015. The year 1945 is still the last time the Cubs were National League champions, while 1908 is still the last time the Cubs actually won the World Series.

THE CUBS LOST their fourth game of a seven-game series on Wednesday, and bringing the cinematic images of Marty McFly and Henry Rowengardner to the ballpark didn’t do a thing to add to the Wrigley Field aura.

Although perhaps it is good that there wasn’t a single person who could be the goat – no Leon Durham a la 1984 or Steve Bartman of 2003. In short, the reason the Cubs lost to the Mets after being up on the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals is because the Mets played better this week.

So now, the Cubs have another reason to think of the Mets as a ball club they detest. And not just because everybody enjoys a chance to dump on Noo Yawk any chance they get.

The Cubs lost to the Mets, and there wasn’t any black cat a la 1969 to blame! The New York Post won’t have to take back its front page from Saturday.
 

Still the ultimate goat

NOW AS I have written before, I’m an American League fan – kind of pulling for Toronto to come from behind to beat Kansas City, and whoever wins there to whomp all over the Mets.

Just think, a World Series between the U.S.’ largest city and that of Canada. It almost sounds like the real thing.

Personally, I think Cubs fans ought to be pleased. Because their favorite ball club outperformed significantly what any fan had any right to expect from 2015. Who knows? It may even be one of those years that develops experience that pays off in 2016 or ’17.
 

How long until Cubbiedom forgives him?

A World Series title then could make the stink of Wednesday wither away eventually.

THEN AGAIN, YOU never know what can occur. Let’s not forget the 1993 Chicago White Sox team that came close to an American League pennant and had many people convinced that ’94 was THE year!

I’m not saying we’re going to see a strike come ’16, but who knows what could go wrong.

If we want a local angle, perhaps we can root for hometown boy Curtis Granderson (of the University of Illinois at Chicago and T.F. South High School in suburban Lansing) to keep playing as well in the series as he did against the Cubs.

Although I wonder how many Cubs fans will be big enough to make that leap. Somehow, I doubt there will be many. Probably about as few as those Cubs enthusiasts who actually rooted for the White Sox back in 2005 when they gave Chicago a World Series victory in our lifetimes.
 

Cubs, or ...

SO NOW BASEBALL is over in Chicago. Although we still have the World Series, beginning Oct. 27 and running at least through Halloween and potentially through Nov. 4. Way too close to Thanksgiving for my comfort level.

... twins?

Which may be the big drawback to all the rounds of playoffs that allowed a third-place Chicago Cubs team to even qualify for postseason baseball this year – November ought to be for “hot stove” talk speculating about the future, not watching ballplayers enduring the chill of autumn wearing those hoods that make them look like refugees from the Blue Man Group.

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