It's here again. After waiting an agonizing 4 months or so, baseball is back.

Of course, yours truly is a Cub fan. Make your jokes now and get them out of the way, please, because we have a lot of ground to cover here. Ok? OK!

Being a Cub fan means that you've at least thought one time or another that it was never going to happen for you. The despair and gloom can come easy for us. But we roll on. We're Cubs fans! Next year is just around the corner. Go down ten games early in the season? Who cares! Wait 'til next year! We're great at having losing seasons. The Cubbies can lose 100 games and Wrigley's still going to be packed and cheering.

Last year hurt more than the others, though. The Cubs finished at a NL best 97-64. They were unstoppable during the regular season. They had home field advantage in what should have been an easy playoff run for them. I was making plans of watching the first world series since the 50's to feature the Cubs. It was not to be.

In the worst three game span of my life, the Cubs ruined all of the good will they had built up and completely blew it. The Dempster game was good until he gave up the grand slam. The Zambrano game was ok until the 34 errors. The Harden game was just a sigh of resignation. In three games the Cubs just about made me quit watching baseball forever. The losses were the hardest thing I've dealt with being a sports fan.

It was our year! Zambrano threw the no-hitter! We were dominant! We were 33 games over .500!!!! I watched all the games that were on national tv, starting from the season opener where old Slumpdog Millionaire Fukudome looked like he was going to be a baseball god to the end. I made the trek to Cooperstown, which seemed appropriate in the year that the Cubs were going to win it all. It was all over in three games.

Now it's 2009. Mark DeRosa is gone. My favorite player for the last two years was shipped off uncerimoniously to the Indians for three minor league scrubs. Our big free agent pickup was MILTON BRADLEY. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that losing DeRosa is going to cost the team 10 wins at least.

Oh, and I haven't even mentioned Kerry Wood. Kerry spent his whole career with the Cubbies. I watched in his rookie season when he struck out 20 in one game and freaking out because he was ours. We had a dominant rookie pitcher!!!! I then watched as Wood fought every injury known to man and made his miraculous comeback in '07. I watched in '08 as he regained his old form and became an amazing closer. I then watched as the Cubs kicked him to the curb. It was extremely hard to take.

I don't have the same excitement for the Cubbies this year, and I feel guilty about that. I think they aren't going to be the world beaters they were last year. The pieces are still there (I mean, we still have Lee, Ramirez, Soriano, Soto, Dempster, Zambrano, Harden, Lilly, and Marmol) but it all seems different somehow. I waited 'til next year. I guess we'll see how it goes.

*-I reserve the right to redact any and all of this should the Cubs win 100 games.