Oct. 22--So the Cubs aren't going to win the World Series this year after all.
They didn't win the pennant. They didn't win a single game in the National League Championship Series.
You'd think Cubs fans would be used to that by now. But this was the year they got used to winning.
The Cubs won 97 times in the regular season, then ousted two teams with better records in the postseason before falling to the Mets 8-3 in Game 4 on Wednesday night.
They clinched the division series at home, the first time that's happened in the 101-year history of Wrigley Field.
Let's take stock of all that before we start with the wait-till-next-year business.
Let's celebrate this year.
It was awesome. It was unexpected. It was thrilling.
It was a gift to the city of Chicago from a team of overachievers, including four standout rookie starters.
Ladies and gentlemen, we give you Cubs all-time postseason home run leader Kyle Schwarber, age 22. Rookie of the year candidate Kris Bryant, 23. Cardinal-killer Jorge Soler, 23. And who knows how this series might have ended if clutch-hitter Addison Russell hadn't been forced to sit out with a pulled hamstring? He's 21.
The Cubs are a homegrown team, young and hungry. Not a crew of grizzled veterans making their last stand. Not a collection of expensive talent purchased at the trade deadline to be offloaded in a fire sale the day after tomorrow. They'll be back. They'll have plenty of next years.
But this year was something special. Let's not forget it. There's so much to savor in the months before pitchers and catchers report to the desert.
Jake Arrieta's no-hitter against the Dodgers. Heck, Arrieta's whole second half, with that impossible 0.75 ERA that ought to win him a Cy Young Award. Four four-game sweeps. That Schwarber home run ball that landed atop the right field video board in that Game 4 win over the Cardinals in the division series. Six home runs by six different Cubs -- a major league record -- in Game 3 of the same series.
While we all were watching this postseason unfold, Chicago's other sports franchises were doing their October thing.
For the Bears, that thing is digging a hole early and spending the rest of the season trying to claw back out.
For the Bulls, it's a new coach and another chance for Derrick Rose to live up to his MVP hype.
For the Blackhawks, it's a perfectly plausible shot at a fourth Stanley Cup in six years.
Football. Basketball. Hockey.
We live in a town that has all of that, every October.
This year, we had baseball too.
