World Series gone, Cubs, gone; and that's not good, man

On September 21st, when a Cubs lineup of backups and minor leaguers posted a methodical 5-1 win against the Cardinals in the last regular-season game at Wrigley Field, all 40,551 Cubs fans stuck around to the end just so we could sing, "Go, Cubs, Go."

Had we known it would be the last time we'd belt out Chicago songwriter Steve Goodman's feel-good anthem in 2008, we might have savored that "the Cubs are going to win today" moment.

Instead, the mighty Cubs finished just 192 outs short of the World Series, and fans, frustrated by a century of grief and anger, now are lashing out. Some even take shots at Goodman's "Go, Cubs, Go," or write scathing parody songs filled with words such as woe, blow and D'oh.

So, is "Go, Cubs, Go" tainted?

"No way," says Clay Eals, the author who wrote "Steve Goodman: Facing the Music," the definitive biography on the talented singer/songwriter. "It's a song of eternal optimism, like an ancient frieze painted on an urn. And we all need hope to survive."

If the song's upbeat nature makes it too painful during this mourning period, Cubs fans might turn to Pearl Jam frontman Eddie "We are one with the Cubs, with the Cubs we're in love" Vedder, who released a less-hopeful song with the chorus, "Someday we'll go all the way. Yeah, someday we'll go all the way."

It's good, catchy, with just enough melancholy and doubt to hold up after a loss.

But what Cubs fans really need today is Goodman's best Cubs song _ "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request." Goodman, who died of leukemia at age 36, wrote the song about an old fan who wanted his funeral at Wrigley Field.

This year, on the day the Cubs clinched the division, which happened to be the 24th anniversary of Goodman's death, Eals sent an e-mail noting that song's lyrics were in danger of becoming outdated. In the song, written in 1981, Goodman laments: "You know the law of averages says that anything will happen that can. But the last time the Cubs won a National League pennant was the year we dropped the bomb on Japan."

The Cubs collapse against the Los Angeles Dodgers means we don't have to rewrite Goodman's lyrics. And that might be the sole good news in the Cubs' latest collapse. Because Goodman's lonesome loser's tune is the one I like the best.

With always fresh lyrics such as, "When I was a boy, they were my pride and joy. But now they only bring fatigue," that song could have been written today.

When you hear the dying fan say, "You, the living, you're stuck here with the Cubs, so it's me that feels sorry for you," you know Goodman was a fan who knew what all Cubs fans are going through.

"I don't know if I could survive if the Cubs won," Goodman once said. "It'd be a coronary event, I tell ya."

His "Go, Cubs, Go" gives us hope, while his "Dying Cub Fan" gives us the truth.

"If you grew up in Chicago, you knew everything there was to know about pain by the time you were 10 years old," Goodman told a crowd during one of his last concerts, Eals writes. "That's why there aren't so many psychiatrists in Chicago, because we have the Cubs. If you can learn to forgive your parents and the Cubs, you can save yourself $25,000."

For all of us heartbroken, angry, frustrated fans, Goodman's "Dying Cub Fan" offers free comfort, or at least company for our misery. We can find a version of him singing it on YouTube.

Or, if you are lucky enough to actually have a vinyl record of that song, turn it over. On the flip side, Goodman sings "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," where his change in the lyrics also ring true today. Instead of

"If they don't win, it's a shame," Goodman sang, "If they don't win, what else is new?"

The guy's been dead for 24 years, and he still nails it year after year - after year, after year, after year, after year-