First off, I want to say that I can get just as sick of "100 years 100 years 100 years 100 years 100 years 100 years goat 100 years 100 years 100 years 100 years 100 years Bartman 100 years 100 years 100 years 100 years 100 years" as anyone else. I actually turned off SportsCenter tonight to avoid listening to Rick Reilly talk about it. Second, I'm not trying to be condescending or moralizing here, and I hope I'm not coming off that way. Mostly, I'd be interested in hearing everyone else's thoughts -- because I've seen some of the brief discussions about the topics in the game threads.

But as the Cubs embark on a journey that we hope will render moot all of those reminders of a century of ineptitude, bad luck and bad play, I think it's important not to forget who we are.

We are the team (and I use "team" to mean the players and the fan base) that hasn't won a World Series in 100 years. In a way, I think it's a compliment to the entire Cubs fan base and our love for the team that any of us still root for them, given the fact that nothing in our lifetimes gives us reason for optimism. And it is a part of our history.

We are the team that had a hex placed on us by the owner of a goat barred from Wrigley Field in 1945. Whether you think that had anything to do with the horrible stretch that followed that moment or not -- I tend to think "not" -- it is still a part of our history.

And we are the team that watched in horror in 2003 as Bartman reached for a foul ball and (maybe) kept Moises Alou from catching that ball, which would have avoided a disastrous inning that was the beginning of the end for the Cubs' World Series hopes. The "Bartman ball" not the reason the Cubs lost the NLCS that year -- there were many other opportunities to end the carnage that night. But all of them sprung from that moment, and it happened, and it is still part of our history.

As Al has pointed out before, we should not "celebrate" a century of losing. By no means. But we can't forget it either. It's part of who we are. That sense of wanting so badly to win, that tension in hoping that this is really the year, is part of what ties us together as Cubs fans. For me, it's kind of like being from the South. I'm proud of being a Southerner, I'm not particularly proud that we started the Civil War, but I don't want to forget it either. One our shining moments? No. Part of who we are? Absolutely.

As a writer, I'm particularly fond of the Goat, because it's such a great symbol. Something so bizarre and trifling, a wound self-inflicted by management -- just like many of the poor seasons of the last 100 years.

Yes, we will all hear about "everybody can have a bad century" and "if they'd just let the billy goat in" or "if they'd just kept Bartman out," and on and on and on. We'll get tired of watching a black cat circle around Ron Santo and seeing graphics about what a ticket cost in 1908 and hearing references to "When the Cubs last won a World Series..."

We'll all get frustrated, because we all know there's so much more to discuss fromt he last 100 years, and from this wonderful season in particular. But to not talk about it because of the media mentions is to allow them to take from us something that should be important to us: Our history.