Chicago Cubs Baseball

The wait is over.  The wait has just begun.

With Saturday’s 5-4 win over St. Louis, the Chicago Cubs clinched the Central Division crown for the second consecutive year, and more importantly, earned a spot in the upcoming National League playoffs.

And we all know what that means: a shot at the missing World Series crown.

Not that anyone even remotely aware of Chicago Cubs baseball needs that reminder.  After all, what respectable fan in Cubdom, or of baseball for that matter, isn’t aware of the world title drought.  It’s one of the great national disasters of sports or otherwise.

But as elusive as the last World Series title has been is as close as this 2008 version of the Chicago Cubs seems to be.  While many of the same faces from remain from last year’s infamous NLDS Meltdown, the most notable changes haven’t been in the form of personnel, but in personality.

Unlike 2007 when the Chicago Cubs seemed surprised at their success, this season’s club anticipated a return to the NLDS - even before the season started.  At least if you believe Cubs’ closer Kerry Wood.

”It’s nice to get in, but we expected to be in this spot,” Wood said, following the division-clinching win. ”We’re going to enjoy it tonight and a little bit into the morning, probably for a few of us. But we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

It’s good of Wood to recognize that.  And from the sound of the mostly subdued post-game celebration, the message wasn’t lost on many of his teammates.

This is not your same ol’ Chicago Cubs baseball team.  By design or whether it’s simply a matter of manager Lou Piniella’s two-year personality makeover plan coming to fruition these Cubs are on a mission.

In two weeks Cubdom and the entire baseball world will watch if this Chicago Cub team walks the walk or if all of this season was merely another field of dreams.