During the last few playoffs, Cubs fans have found themselves with rooting interests plenty of times. But rooting for the Mariners to beat the White Sox, or the Diamondbacks or Giants to beat the Cardinals just isn’t the same. Sure you’re mad if they lose, but nothing compares to what happens in your guts when your real team, not some club you’ve taken in like a foster parent, is playing in those midnight madness games.

The Cubs have put us through the ringer these last couple weeks.

But we wouldn’t have it any other way.

In the end last night it wasn’t about Kerry Wood or Sammy Sosa or Joe Borowski. The Cubs just had more Doug Glanville than the Marlins did.

Doug Glanville?

Seriously?

Right here at Desipio we mused on the GameCast that Dusty should just call Glanville back and use Troy O’Leary when Braden Looper came in to relieve awful little lefty Michael Tejera. How bad is Tejera? The Marlins would be better off with Felix Heredia or Mark Guthrie or Bob Patterson. Anyway, now that a righty was in the game, surely Dusty would bring Glanville back and use O’Leary. Troy’s not exactly Rusty Staub, but Glanville hasn’t had a hit since the first George Bush was president.

And all Glanville proceeded to do was rip a liner through the vacated shortstop spot and Kenny Lofton, whose attempted steal of second had pulled the shortstop out of position in the first place, flew around the bases and scored easily. Glanville pulled into third with a triple, the SECOND Cubs PINCH triple of the GAME!

The Cubs hadn’t had a pinch hit triple since just before the American Revolutionary War when John Jay got one off of crafty lefty Cesar Rodney. OK, I obviously have no idea. I think I read the Cubs hadn’t had a pinch triple in 18 years. They had two in one game last night.

The Cubs refused all night to make this one easy. They started the game by sending Lofton out to give an inadvertant Bob Fick to Marlins starter Mike Redman. Redman was face down in the dirt, but got back up and stayed in the game. Sammy drove him in and made it 1-0.

Kerry Wood’s sac fly RBI made it 2-0 and the Cubs knew if they’d just tack a run or two onto that lead they’d have a 2-1 lead in the series.

The Cubs had runners on repeatedly against Redman, a soft tossing little lefty whose “stuff” causes fights at every bat rack in the National League.

But in the seventh it was still only 2-1 Cubs. Eric Karros had left the bases loaded in the top of the inning and Marlins got two in the bottom to take the lead.

I was sickened. I began to hyperventilate. The Desipio medical crew put me on suicide watch.

Then, in the eighth, Goodwin got his pinch triple. Randall Simon followed with a pinch hit homer. These are the Cubs? The team with the worst pinch hitting corps in the majors this year? You’d have never known it last night. Simon’s blast made it 4-3 Cubs. The Farns was already in the game to pitch the eighth and blood began to flow to my brain again.

Then with a runner on second and two outs in the eighth, the Marlins sent up pinch hitter Todd Hollandsworth. Dusty came out and got The Farns. But he brought in Regular Joe. Why? If you’re going to use a righty against the lefty hitting Hollandsworth, just leave in The Farns.

Hollandsworth drove in the tying run.

Joe got into and out of a jam in the ninth. And, he inexplicably returned for the bottom of the tenth. But he zipped through that untouched. All in all, Joe pitched very well. He just pitched to a few more hitters than he needed to.

The eleventh showcased Glanville’s hitting heroics and a near re-inaction of the Red Sox end to Game Six of the 1986 World Series.

With one out, Mike Remlinger struck out Luis Castillo, but Paul Bako couldn’t block the pitch and it rolled to the backstop, allowing Castillo to advance. Not that we should be surprised the Cubs had TWICE the number of dropped third strikes than any other team in the majors this year (58–the next highest was 29. Fifty-eight?) including three in the final innings of playoff games this year. Guh.

That brought up Pudge Rodriguez, because, by law he has to be up in every key situation. Pudge tapped one back to Remlinger who looked like he was going to turn a double play, but he dropped the ball and had to go to first and just get Rodriguez. Two outs. Tying run at second and Derek Lee at the plate.

Lee hit a chopper to E-ramis Ramirez at third, the ball hit the lip of the grass (because we’re the Cubs and things like this always happen to us) and Ramirez booted it. Uh-oh. First and second, right? No! Luis Castillo, the man on second for the Marlins was running right at E-ramis. All E had to do was look up and start running Luis back to second. The Cubs got Castillo in a rundown and Ramirez tagged him out just as an umpire was calling Castillo out anyway for running out of the baseline.

Cubs win?

Cubs win.

Cubs win!

CUBS WIN!!!!!!!

In a game they had to have, the Cubs got it. They did it the new-fashioned way. They scratched and clawed, they used everybody on the roster and when the going got tough they didn’t crawl into their hole and start the hibernation.

Once again, the Anti-Cubs won the kind of game the Cubs never win. We’ve never seen this before.

But it’s hard not to love it.

Do the ’84 Cubs win this game?
Do the ’89 Cubs win this game?

All we know is that not only can the 2003 Cubs do it. They did it.

And they take a 2-1 lead in the series. There are still two to be played in Miami, and the Cubs have an excellent chance to win at least one of them. If they do, they come home in the driver’s seat. If you thought Wrigley was wild before, wait until Tuesday night. These Cubs might just do the most Anti-Cubs thing of them all. They might just fly home on Sunday night…with the trophy!

Don’t believe it? A caller to the Score today got laughed off the air for comparing the 2003 NLCS to the 1991 NBA Finals. But he’s not nuts.

So let’s compare.

Game one NBA Finals: The Bulls host their first ever NBA Finals against the Lakers. They lead early, chuck away the lead and use a frenzied comeback to take a one point lead late in the game. Sam Perkins hits a crowd numbing three and the Lakers win.

Game one NLCS: The Cubs send Wrigley into chaos with a four run first and then fall behind 5-4. Down 6-4 they tie it up. Down 8-6 they tie it up. Mike Lowell hits a crowd numbing homer and the Marlins win.

Game two NBA Finals: The Bulls score early and often in a blowout, which includes the number one visual of that Finals, the incredible hands-switching layup by Michael Jordan over Perkins. Series tied 1-1 off to LA for three games.

Game two NLCS: The Cubs score early and often in a blowout, which includes the number one visual of this series, the incredible 500 foot homer onto the center field camera shed by Sammy Sosa. Series tied 1-1 off to Miami for three games.

Game three NBA Finals: A back and forth game is destined for overtime and a length of the court driving layup by Michael Jordan fulfills that destiny. In the OT the Bulls pull ahead and hold off a late Lakers rally. A stunned crowd heads home with the Bulls up 2-1.

Game three NLCS: A back and forth game is destined for extra innings and a Randall Simon homer gives the Cubs the four runs they’d need to make that happen. The Marlins blow a chance to win it in the ninth after tying in the eighth and the extra inning destiny is fulfilled. The Cubs pull ahead in the 11th and hold off a late Marlins rally. A stunned crowd heads home with the Cubs up 2-1.

Games four and five NBA Finals: Having already achieved their goal of forcing the necessity of a return trip to Chicago, the Bulls do something no team had ever done in NBA history, they won the middle three games of the series on the road and win the series 4-1.

Games four and five NLCS: To be determined…

Eerie.

And cool.

See you tonight at 6:30 p.m.