Looking to the future! all is not lost

I realize this is about three weeks late but I still feel I need to get this off my chest.

I am a young Cubs fan. I have been living breathing, sleeping, and eating the Cubs for Twenty years. I cannot say that I am a veteran because in my life I have been fortunate enough to see some of the best baseball the cubs have played in decades. Up until the 1990’s we have only had two playoff appearances not including the 1945 season, which we know, ended in a game seven lose to the Detroit Tigers. Even then we had ten hits and only three runs. Seventy years ago we couldn’t capitalize with men in scoring Position. I have been blessed to see four playoff appearances with three division championships and one trip to NLCS. There are four decades of Chicagoans that went without ever seeing their team play in a playoff series. In those days we did not play good baseball. We were constantly below .500. In my lifetime, nine teams have gone above that mark. In the forty years after the 1945 season only 13 teams have done that. I cannot imagine the frustration and pain that those fans went through.  For years Cubs fans were embarrassed by their team, year after year, failure after failure. But that is the past! Right now, we have a team here that is good.  That does not get said much. We have an opportunity here to do something. I know this year was one of the biggest disappointments in our history but what is done is done. If our fathers and grandfathers have survived forty years of awful baseball on the north side then I think we can make it through this. If not for anything, for them.
I have been reading articles for the past two weeks suggesting the Cubs should just start over. Get rid of everyone and rebuild from scratch. That is ridiculous! Changing anything major about this ball club would be a sin. We won NINETY-SEVEN games this year. A Cubs team has only broken 90 wins 21 times in our 132-year history.  This is something to celebrate; as well as something to learn from. I hate to say this but next year we are going to be a force just like we were this year. And hopefully that will continue for the next few years. All we can do is continue to support our beloved Cubbies. Without us, the fans, the team that takes the field every April would be hopeless and unmotivated.
I know we are all having a hard time right now. I went through the same pain Saturday night. I sat on my couch with tears in my eyes, cause I truly believed that this was the year. I had tickets to game five of the World Series, which happened to be on my birthday by the way. All I know is that I will always love the Cubs through disasters and triumphs, rain-outs, and crisp September night games that remind us all what it means to love the game of baseball.
So as millions of us have said before me, I now say: “Just wait till next year” cause that’s all we can do.