Hey, Cubs fans: What's to figure out?

There's still a lot of hand-wringing on Chicago's North Side about the Dodgers' three-game sweep of the Cubs.

Cubs fans are also faced with the indignity of being the only team swept after at least one team in each playoff series was down 0-2.

Not that Cubs fans aren't used to it.

Bryant Gumbel said, "When you're a Cub fan, this is how things happen. This is the way it works. Everything starts to go to hell.''

And he said that on HBO in 2006.

This is, by the way, the second consecutive year the Cubs have been swept out of the playoffs. The Chicago Tribune tells Lou Piniella and company what they can do to avoid the same fate next season.

As for this year, a good place to start asking questions is with the players.

Ryan Dempster said it best: "We just got outplayed.''

Chicago Tribune blogger Steve Rosenbloom says it might have helped if Alfonso Soriano had gotten more hits in the series than Dempster.

Meantime, Rick Telander over at the Sun-Times calls this the Cubs' worst collapse ever.

Telander's columns in recent days no doubt have left Cubs fans feeling like they've just been to an Ingmar Bergman film festival.

-- Randy Harvey

Photo: Cubs fan Chris Juarez reacts to the Chicago Cubs losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 3 of National League division series at Harry Caray's bar in Chicago on Saturday. Credit: Paul Beaty / Associated Press

Comments

[Bob Beamesderfer]

Wow, Randy! Thanks for homer blog post. Kinda like umpires calling a foul ball fair, a baserunner safe and a check-swing a strike. Not that any of those bad calls would have helped comatose pitching, batting and defense.

As for this:

"Cubs fans are also faced with the indignity of being the only team swept after at least one team in each playoff series was down 0-2."

That was 24 years ago. Who cares?