For all the die-hard Cub fans, seeing the Cubs in the playoffs brings more optimism than one knows how to grasp.

Could this be the year? Can they end that infamous drought that’s lasted 99 years (but really, who’s counting)?

I don’t know why, but something told me that this team had lots going for it and had the necessary tools to make some postseason noise.

The Cubs went into the postseason winning 13 of their last 19 games. They had the veteran players (Lee, Ramirez, Soriano) and a veteran manager to lead the talented youngsters (Theriot, Soto, Marmol). And they had an underdog element working for them, having the worst record of any playoff team.

All of this made me think it was possible for them to make a run similar to that of the St. Louis Cardinals a season ago.

So facing an 0-2 series deficit, I set out to enjoy Game 3 of the National League Division Series in the only place you can go by yourself and not be alone. The only place you can be without a friend in the world and come away with hundreds of new ones. A place where discrimination is not made against race, sex or religion, but rather against Cardinals, White Sox and Brewers.

Wrigleyville.

The scene around the ballpark leading up to Game 3 was like a rock concert. People crammed in wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder everywhere you went, decked out in the familiar Cubbie blue and red, all there to see nothing but a Cubs victory, and all going there to see it because it is the best place to see it.

As I waited to meet up with a friend who was still at work, I stepped off the Addison bus and headed south on Clark Street in search of a neighborhood bar with a short line (there wasn’t one). I aborted that plan and searched for the place with a line with fewer than 15 people (once again, there wasn’t one).

I decide to temporarily set up shop outside Uberstein, where there was a TV on the patio so I could see the game. To my demise, the Cubs were already losing 1-0 on a Chris Young leadoff home run (some fans to my right find joy in the fact that the 24-year old Young was member of the White Sox, acquired by Arizona in the Javier Vazquez trade. I don‘t think it’s funny. The Cubs are losing. And it’s very humid).

To my luck, a bar on Sheffield Avenue called The Yard was relatively empty and was letting people in. I jumped on it and found my nest for the remainder of the game. Although by this time is was 3-1 D-Backs in the fourth and the Cubs had grounded into like 37 double plays, so things weren’t looking too good. But the Cub faithful, as they always are, remained optimistic.

That optimism took a huge blow in the fifth inning. Arizona starter Livan Hernandez labored through most of the inning and faced a bases-loaded situation with one out. Mark DeRosa was at the plate and worked the count to 3-1. DeRosa swung at what everyone within a five block radius of Wrigley knew was ball four, rolling a groundball to the shortstop for an inning-ending double play.

Myself, my friend who finally showed up and a Marquette law student who we were conversing with all agreed that was the Cubs’ best chance to turn the game around. They let Hernandez off the hook. The momentum shifted back in favor of the “Baby Backs.” And after adding single tallies in the sixth and ninth, that optimism that was evident just innings earlier turned to silent thoughts of that horrible phrase known too well to Cub fans: “Wait ‘til next year.”

As the sun set on a Chicago autumn evening – as well as another World Series-less Cubs’ campaign – I was left to ponder what went wrong. As much as I wanted to give Arizona credit for a series sweep, I couldn’t help but wonder what we could have done differently to avoid this fate. Who could be the scapegoat for so many frustrated fans to place blame upon?

Could it be manager Lou Piniella, for controversially removing Carlos Zambrano from Game 1 after six innings and a miniscule 85 pitches? Could it be the Cubs’ big three of Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano, who combined to go 6-for-38 in the series? Or could it be the entire Cubs’ offense, which managed just six runs in three games?

For now, Cubs fans are left with visions of billygoats and black cats, Steve Garvey and Steve Bartman, until that one day when we can call ourselves World Series champs.

Who knows how long they’ll be waiting? We’ll find out in early April, when the Cubs set out on their 100th quest for that illustrious world title.