What an odd season.

Several milestones were passed or set, among them several sluggers surpassing the 500 HR mark and one closer passing the 500 save mark. Other “big” things happened, too, although I choose not to mention certain players who I feel have brought a black eye to a game I love very much.

But perhaps the oddest thing for this beaten-down, long-suffering Cubs fan is that my team made the playoffs. The Cubs, who have cost me no small amount of pain in the past, managed to pull it together and mess up less than everyone else in the NL Central.

Early on, it looked like a catastrophe in the making. In early June, we were way under .500 and no one — I mean no one — was happy. The players weren’t happy, the manager wasn’t happy, the fans weren’t happy. It was like so many other seasons. In years past, however, a bad Cubs team in June wasn’t something that brought so much anger to Cubbies near and far. To understand why there was so much anger, we have to go back in time …

2003. It was a good year. I passed my comprehensive exams in July, lots of good albums were released and the summer wasn’t too hot in Missouri. The Cubs were a pretty darn good team that year, under the guidance of Dusty Baker. Somehow the Cubs got by the Braves in the NLDS (mainly due to Kerry Wood and Mark Prior pitching themselves into oblivion for the rest of their careers) and then it was NLCS time against the Marlins. Don and I were actually there for game 2, October 8. It was amazing. The Cubs clobbered the Marlins 12-3 that night.

The Cubs would go on to win games 3 and 4 as well. They were up 3 games to 1. The World Series was within sight. Cubs v. Yankees for the World Series — who wouldn’t watch?

October 13, 2003. A chilly night in Chicago. The Cubs scrambled together 3 runs and blanked the Marlins for 7 innings. Then it happened. The wheels fell off in epic fashion. Game 7 was done before the game began. Wood looked like a scared cat, and his arm was throwing gas anyone could hit. The Marlins won. Then they went on to take down the Yankees for the WS title.

Ever since then, the Cubs universe has been different. Because we were so damn close! We got the worst thing we could have gotten — a taste of success. 2004 was another minor meltdown. The Cubs had the wildcard in hand and lost it in Mets-esque style in the last week of the season. Now Cubs fans were getting angry. There was a growing feeling of unease as 2003 loomed large in the rearview mirror.

The most visible signs of the lasting effect of 2003 are Wood and Prior. 2005 and 2006 were lost as we all kept waiting for the two aces to come back to full strength and bring the Cubs back to the playoffs. There were elbow problems, shoulder issues, surgeries and more surgeries. However, the unspoken problems were between their ears. The spectre of dreams unrealized still hangs over the heads of these two former stars.

Finally, 2007. Time to move on from the past. There was less and less mention of Prior and Wood. The Cubs went out and aggressively went after top-notch free agents like Ted Lilly, Alfonso Soriano and Mark DeRosa. Then they brought in Lou Pinella to helm this new line-up. Things looked promising.

June 1, 2007. The Cubs are falling apart. The team is looking bad, and there is aggression popping up all over the place. Carlos Zambrano and Michael Barrett break into a brawl, and it is suddenly apparent to everyone just how bad things have gotten.

June 2, 2007. In the 7th inning of an eventual loss to the Braves — the Cubs’ sixth-straight loss — Angel Pagan is thrown out trying to steal third base. Then it happened. All the frustration of the season and the last five years came bubbling out. Lou Pinella went berserk on third-base umpire Mark Wegner, resulting in one of the most watched YouTube segments of the summer.

From then on, the Cubs were a different team. On June 2nd, the Cubs were in fifth place, 22-31, 7.5 games out of first. By July 10th, the Cubs were 44-43, 4.5 games out of first in second place. They were winning, and they were having fun! The team was totally different. They were energized and playing like they were actually happy to be playing.

And now it’s October. (In about 45 minutes, anyway.) And the Cubs are two days away from a 5-game showdown with the Arizona Diamondbacks, the winner advancing onto the NLCS.

Maybe this is the year. Who knows. Honestly, for this fan, it’s just nice to care about what’s happening in October.

Go Cubbies! Let’s score some runs!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Mark who?