The Cubs win the division and are set to defend their World Series Championship what none of the other playoff contenders can say. They start out with Washington on Friday the 6^th of October. For Cub fans to outwit a former manager is paramount matters not that he was the last manager to get the Cubs closest to the World Series before Maddon. It is hard to outlive Cub lore.

This is a great stage and five games of hatred. I think the Cubs can win if this doesn’t become a series of one bull pen against the other. The Cubs can match anyone bat for bat. A starting staff coming into its own at the right time. They can go deep into games minimizing the use of the relievers. Their Achilles heel.

They’re going in with their starting staff  In tact and the comical question of which one should start the series. There are five good ones to choose from. Then which one goes into the bull pen for long relief? We’ll have to see how Quintana handles the success of being in the post season for the first time. Otherwise he’d be in the middle of a rebuild on the South Side for the rest of his career.

I think about the Dusty baker years with that freaking tooth pick always in his mouth. But he had the Cubs on the precipice of a World Series appearance in 2003. I’d never seen so many grown ups cry. With the rival White Sox winning it in 2005. Sammy Sosa gone by then. The Lou Piniella disaster yet to come.

The Dusty Baker years in Chicago is lush with story lines with a horrible ending. GM at the time Jim Hendry did his best to put great players on the field and yet could not win. Let’s not forget the steroid era would come to Chicago during these years. He benefitted from it and it eventually tore the team apart. I figure this is one team the Cubs match up well with and should be one of the more interesting series of the playoffs. They only have to win one more series to get back to the World Series. A rematch with the Indians perhaps.

The Cubs will get stronger as the playoffs go on. They will pitch like they did in 2016. Some of them won’t be back next year. Nothing to do but let it loose. Maddon will have some tricks up his sleeve for going back to back with this team. For Cubs fans a driving force is fourteen years later we’re still mad.