The Cubs won 19 more games in 2007 than they did last season, becoming only the fourth team to go from at least 95 losses to the postseason in one year.
But if they lose to Arizona in the National League Division Series and continue to hit as they have in the first two games, some will say the Cubs choked in the postseason and spoiled what had been a successful year.
Asked if the season would be a success no matter what happens in the playoffs, manager Lou Piniella turned the question back on the media.
“You all will judge that more than anything else,” he said.
But Piniella did say he already considers the season an unqualified success in light of 2006.
“Look, this team finished last in the division last year, the most losses in the National League, and here we are in the postseason in one year,” he said. “If that’s not a success, well, I really don’t know what it is. We probably have the biggest win differential in the league.
“So looking at it from that perspective, yes. Looking at it from the perspective that we’d like to go on in the postseason, well, probably not. But you look at where you came from, and these guys have played hard all year.
“I told them the other day, and I mean it, I’m proud of them. They’ve endured. We started off poorly and started to play better, and it was a long, long, tiring process, believe me. I think we all learned a lot from it.”
Piniella is by no means conceding the series, but he wants his players to relax and remember that in the long run, losing a postseason series is not the end of the world. As Gary Matthews said after the Cubs blew a 2-0 lead and lost the 1984 NLCS to San Diego: “Hey, no one died. We’ll all be OK.”
Piniella gave similar advice to Game 3 starter Rich Hill.
“The first thing is, remember … it’s only a game, it’s not life or death,” Piniella said. “It’s a game … where you take your skills and you match them up against your opponent. You relax, you have confidence in yourself and you go out and pitch and you have fun. That’s what it’s really about.”
