The Chicago Cubs rewarded the success of General Manager Jim Hendry this week by signing him to a 4-year extension. That will keep him guiding Cubby blue through 2012.

I’ve always felt that Hendry is, at best, a mediocre GM. The albatross of a contract he gave Alfonso Soriano is already being regretted. His results are impressive, though: 3 post-season appearances in 6 years on the job. That’s good for any baseball team. For the Cubs, it’s unbelievable.

Still, extending Hendry immediately following the Cubs 9th straight loss in the playoffs is a move that brings its fair share of chuckles in the RHM household. Maybe Hendry will improve his post-season record before 2012. It wouldn’t take much.

Boxscore

I don’t usually recap games that happened over the weekend, but since these are the last ones, I’ll make an exception.

The Cubs were swept by the Dodgers over the weekend. If you heard a giant sucking sound from the Midwest or felt millions of souls crying out in anguish, now you know the source.

This game might have been the first time I’ve empathized with Cubs fans. Perhaps the perspective of following a team that hasn’t had a winning season for 8 years helps, but what Chicago put its fans through this year was brutal.

The Cubs team assembled this year was dominant, well-rounded, and perfectly poised to do well in the postseason. Which made the inexcusable disappearance of every single player not named Carlos Zambrano all the more heart-wrenching. Honestly, I was hoping they could pull out a miracle and win one game by the end of the 3rd game. But no. It was not to be.

But the Cubs achieved 100 years of futility. Somewhere, Monk is pleased. 100 is a much nicer number than 99, after all.

Boxscore

The Cubs played a baseball game against the Dodgers, although using the word “play” to describe their actions might be insulting to baseball teams everywhere.

Carlos Zambrano was about the only Cubs player who showed up to play; everyone else flat-out sucked. For example, the entire infield–yes, the entire infield–had an error. Derrek Lee, Mark DeRosa, Ryan Theriot, and Aramis Ramirez all booted or misthrew balls.

The pathetic excuse for baseball made me shake my head and laugh. It’s one thing to expect the Cubs not to win and achieve 100 years of failure, but to do it in such a terrific display of baseball incompetence was staggering.

The more Cubs baseball I see, the more I think that they don’t know how to win. Whenever they get close, they freak out and turn to blaming bizarre things: a fan in the stands, a goat that didn’t even attend the game, a “curse,” etc. The thing is, I never have seen any of those things flail away at bad pitches or bobble an easy double play ball. Until the Cubs look earnestly in the mirror at the only scapegoat that matters I’m afraid that they’re in for even more losing.

Oh, and for those Cubs fans with a computer, you can order your USB panic button here.

Boxscore

That didn’t take long. There’s been a lot of optimism and positive vibes for the Cubs this year. They decimated their competition and appeared to have assembled the best Chicago team in my lifetime, if not ever. So how would they do when they reached the playoffs? So far, it’s the same old story as the last 99 years. And this time they didn’t even need Dusty Baker’s mismanagement.

Ryan Dempster started game 1 for the Cubs and was the Dumpster Reds fans have come to know and love. Dempster was bad. He allowed 4 runs in 4 2/3 innings, walked 7 and struck out 2. 2 of those walks were to the pitcher. Not a good first game. (Incidentally, I blame the guy wearing a Dempster jersey at my wife’s office. If that’s not asking for some kind of baseball punishment, I don’t know what is.)

Like the Brewers, the Cubs find themselves in a hole, but also like the Brewers, they have a better pitcher starting their next game. Well, arguably better. Carlos Zambrano will try to right Chicago’s ship. Considering his often erratic, emotional behavior, I would be nervous were I a Cubs fan.

Cubs are down 6-2 in the top of the eighth. When we turned on the game and saw the score, I suddenly had a sick, sinking feeling that the Cubs are going to get swept in the first round. And with that feeling came another sudden realization.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I suspect there are Cubs fans at the end of their lives who–maybe they don’t even know this–are only hanging on right now by the strength of their desire to see the Cubs finally win the World Series. The sudden realization that I had at the end of the last paragraph was that some of these fans will die of disappointment if the Cubs don’t win.

Hopefully they can get Ryan Dempster to autograph the ball on top of the urn.