Cubs Clinch !
Cubs Beat Cardinal 5-4
The Cubs have learned to accept that playing on the North Side means having to deal with all the pressure surrounding the quest to end the longest championshipdrought in professional sports.
Now, after beating St. Louis 5-4 Saturday to earn their second straight National League Central title, they know theirnext two weeks will be filled with questions about overcoming curses, black cats and all the other supernatural obstacles some will say are in their way.
"You know it's coming," Derrek Lee said. "It's the nature of the beast here in Chicago. That'swhat makes it so exciting when you finally win one. You have to deal with the bad for the possibility of how good it can be."
On a warm late summer day with the shadows creeping over the ballpark and a crowd of 41,597 on its feet, Kerry Woodinduced Aaron Miles to loft a fly ball to center field with two outs in the ninth and the tying run on first. Jim Edmondsswallowed it up with ease, starting the party that would last all night in Wrigleyville.
The 2008 Cubs accomplished the first step of their long journey, but no one will be satisfied if it ends with a rerun of last year's finish, a three-gamesweep at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first round of the playoffs.
"It has been a really, really nice year and I'm proud of our team," manager Lou Piniella said. "Now wecan start planning for the postseason, and hopefully we can give the fans what they want.
"And we all know what that is."
Everyone knows what Chicago wants, and Piniella hopes the fans understand the players want it just as much as them. The Cubs cruised to the division title thisyear, leading the National League in runs scored and ranking second in pitching heading into the final week of the regular season.
"The difference between this year and last year is we did it playing ahead;, last year we came from behind," Piniella said. "And the differencethis year is we won it on the field in front of our fans. I thought the tribute-the fans staying around and the players going out to left field and right fieldand down these lines-it was special.
"It goes to show you how much our players and our organization appreciate the support our fans give us."
On a day the Cubs broke the franchise attendance record, Ted Lilly pitched seven strong innings to notch his career-high16th victory, while also coming through with a successful suicide squeeze in the fourth to bring home Mark DeRosa fromthird for a 5-0 lead.
Troy Glaus' three-run homer in the sixth pulled the Cardinals to within a run, but Lilly returned for a perfectseventh before Carlos Marmol and Wood closed it out.
Wood walked the leadoff man in the ninth, but Piniella said Wood told him he was only trying to "give me a heart attack."
During a tempered but noisy postgame celebration, Ryan Dempster pointed out the Cubs had many stars in the clubhouse, butno clear-cut MVPs. Its strength was in its togetherness, from the $136 million left fielder to back-up catcher HenryBlanco.
"We have a bunch of guys pulling together on this team," Dempster said. "We're all trying to accomplish the same goal and that's to wina World Series.
"When you look at it that way, we just pull for each other every day real hard, and everybody prepares that day to do what they need to do to help us win.If we do that, we believe we have enough talent in this room to beat anybody on any given night. We like our chances against anybody."