Another October Ritual Done!

Another October, another early exit from the baseball playoffs by the Atlanta Braves. Somehow, the fact that the Braves were denied a world championship for the eighth consecutive year, and the eleventh time in twelve years, by the Chicago Cubs -- baseball's goofiest franchise -- is all the sweeter.

Of course, Cubs fans are in a state of delirium, convinced that at last their ship has come in, that this is the year, et cetera et cetera et cetera. Somehow, I doubt it, but I've been wrong before. But they need to win eight more games to win it all, and I'm not sure they match up well against any of the three teams still alive in the American League, which is to say nothing of the fact that the Marlins -- whom the Cubbies will play in the NLCS -- are no chumps either.

In truth, the Cubs are one of those teams whose national following has always mystified me. Maybe it's their "lovable loser" image, maybe it's the fact that WGN is on most cable systems in the country, so the Cubs are really visible. I don't know. They're rather like Notre Dame and the Dallas Cowboys in the way they inspire the imagination of sports fans who have never been within a hundred miles of Wrigley Field or South Bend or Irving, Texas. There's something of a mystique about the Cubs, though, that's quite real. But I wonder: if they do win it all, what happens to all that mystique when ninety-five years of "Maybe next year" suddenly dissipates?