First and foremost, congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals on winning the 2011 World Series.  It feels weird to say this, but Game 6 was one of the best baseball games I have ever seen.  I just thank goodness that it was the Rangers and not the Cubs, who were one strike away from winning the series TWICE only to give up a game tying hit. 

Secondly, since a man named Theo Epstein came along, does anyone else around here feel that feeling I feel? You know, that feeling that hasn't been around here since mid-way through the 2009 season? The feeling of hope? That is a nice feeling!  This particular feeling doesn't feel like it's going to be here and go away in a year or two.  This time, this feeling of hope feels like it's going to stay for a while and grow little by little, year after year.  It gets me amped up for Cubs baseball again, and I'm pretty sure it does the same for you as well.  Wait, what time of year is it?  Oh yeah, it's Christmas time, Thanksgiving time.  Sorry, I got confused.  It's the first weekend of November, but apparently all the shopping centers around town have gone from Halloween, to Christmas, and have skipped Thanksgiving completely.  Can we just skip Christmas too?  In fact, lets just skip the entire winter season and move right on into Spring 2012!

I tell you what, there are some Cubs youtube video's I've run into recently that I'd like to share.  If you don't have that feeling of hope yet, or if you're just bored and want to watch some cool Cubs video's, click on the links for a trip down memory lane.  This trip, is a happy trip, or at least that's what I intended it to be.  Now, these video's aren't just a compilation of pictures set to the song "Go Cubs Go".  These video's are archival footage of some happy moments in Cubs history.  Some video's are just clips of what we used to watch everyday until it changed. 

Also, since I've been so darn busy with my college school work.  Instead of turning this post into a "Holy Cow!" novel of a recap, I've decided to leave you with a link to Carrie Muskat's recap of the 2011 Chicago Cubs.  But I will say this: congratulations to Aramis Ramirez on achieving the Silver Slugger Award, and on that note, happy trails to Aramis, Quade, Zambrano, Reed, Wood, Pena, Grabow, Ortiz and Lopez.

Below is a list of the top 18 Cubs games that you guys voted for throughout the season in my monthly polls.  Plus, there's two "wild-card" selections I made.  I'm not indicating which two games are the "wild-card" games, but I picked the two games because personally, I think these games were good despite the low amount of votes they received in the monthly polls.

I know this season wasn't much fun to watch... at all.  But, there are some good games in this poll.  Thank you for your votes.  Heck on New Year's Eve we can celebrate with a "Worst Cubs Loss" poll just like we did last year.   Also, after you've voted, check out some of these Cubs archival youtube video's I've found.  They're pretty cool.