Tony Garcia: This time, it's the Cubs' time

This time, it's different.

The Chicago Cubs, champions of the worst division in baseball, begin their fifth playoff run in my lifetime tonight in Phoenix against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Logically, I shouldn't believe that this season should end any different than the past 98 campaigns.

You can rattle off all the stats, curses (real and imagined):

No World Series titles since Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House.

No World Series appearances since Harry S. Truman roamed 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Steve (expletive deleted) Garvey.

Will Clark.

Dusty Baker failing to calm down Mark Prior in 2003.

Scapegoat side note: I refuse to put Steve Bartman on this list. After he reached for the ball, the Cubs still had a 3-0 lead and a whole Game 7 to play, if necessary. He didn't boot the potential double play ball. He didn't use his child as a human shield at the postgame news conference. He should have thrown a ceremonial first pitch at Wrigley by now instead of getting parodied in "According to Jim" and "Law&Order."

But this trip to October feels different.

Not that the Cubs are the baseball version of the New England Patriots. Ace Carlos Zambrano is a lunatic. Closer Ryan Dempster scares more people than O.J. at a sports memorabilia show. And with the exception of shortstop Ryan Theriot, the lineup would rather swing from the heels than work a count.

No, the difference is all the Cubs' tormentors, past and present, got their comeuppance this season.

The Chicago White Sox, 2005 Series champs and longtime crosstown rivals, stumbled to a 72-90 mark.

The St. Louis Cardinals, the defending Series champ and longtime divisional foes, fell to 78-84.

The New York Mets, who caught the Cubs late in the 1969 season much to Ron Santo's everlasting dismay, blew a seven-game lead with 17 games to play, letting the Philadelphia Phillies into the playoffs.

The Florida Marlins, benefactors of the aforementioned Alex Gonzalez bobble and 2003 champs, finished dead last in the NL East.

The San Francisco Giants, who KO'd the Cubs in 1989, finished dead last in the NL West.

The San Diego Padres, who destroyed my will to live in 1984, blew their wild-card lead and lost the play-in game Monday to the Colorado Rockies.

Mind you, I am not gloating over other teams' misfortunes. Well, maybe just a little. OK, maybe a lot.

The path to the World Series crown is there for the Cubs. They have as many World Series titles as the other three teams in the NL playoffs combined and the American League champ might be too battered, bruised and complacent.

Like Michael Corleone to Carlo at the end of "The Godfather," it's time for the Cubs to square all the family accounts.

It's different for the Cubs, and it's time.

Tony Garcia is a news copy editor for the Rockford Register Star. He can be reached at tgarcia@rrstar.com.