Lincicome: Should the Cubs faithful panic? If not now, when?

The race to dismiss the Cubs is on, as if recent contributions by the Cubs themselves are not reasons enough to give up on a team that just the other day had the best record in baseball.

The return of the Cubs to familiar surroundings — that is, among the afterthoughts, to their usual place as Miss Congeniality — comes as no real surprise to those among the faithful who were happily misled by early excellence.

Runs came in bunches, pitching was efficient, fielding had flair, rookies were all-stars. The Cubs were perched comfortably atop the standings. The faithful were shirtless and carefree. These novelties were mistaken for the way things are supposed to be.

And now, well, these are the Cubs, after all, and while not the White Sox, they have a distinguished legacy of surrender, easily dismissed at the first sign of futility.

With the Cubs it is never too early to panic, and there must be an over/under pro bet about it somewhere. Actually, August is a little late, for those taking the over.

Reminders that the Cubs can still fix things are feeble and meek, given with the same enthusiasm as a dieter for kale, but as slumping Kyle Tucker offered, referring to his own decline and to the Cubs, too, I suppose, “That’s just kind of how baseball goes sometimes.”

Tucker is a recent Cub, unaware possibly that this is just kind of how things always go for Cubs. The surprise is not that the Cubs are suddenly ordinary but that they were ever not.

“You kind of knew that wasn’t sustainable,” said Cubs president Jed Hoyer, wiser than competent.

Season predictions had the Cubs, at best, a wild-card contender, which they still are, a team winning more than they lost, which they have, but not a marquee (excuse me) group like the Dodgers or the Yankees, the Phillies or the Braves.

The Braves have turned into complete compost, of course, seen now for the Cubs as future softies that may get them back on track.

The rookie to watch was supposed to be Matt Shaw, not Pete Crow-Armstrong, and while Shaw can be a whiz in at third base, any production at the plate is as pleasant as it is unexpected. As for young PCA, the approval heaped on him early has calmed down, as has he.

Is that what happened? Too much, too early? Those not familiar with Cubs tradition could be swept up in self-admiration, unaware of curses and collapses and the like. And now that it is just baseball again, adjustments can be made.

The place to start is with Tucker, of course, the one-year gap filler who could see millions tomorrow if he could just be himself today. Some team, not likely the Cubs, is going to pay him to do there what he has not done here, but each grounder, each strikeout here is costing him big wherever.

And there is Seiya Suzuki, each at-bat assumed to be a strikeout or a homer, like Kyle Schwarber used to do, but all in all sporadically undependable.

Management, the aforementioned Hoyer, newly rewarded and ensconced, is tied to Tucker and to moves Hoyer did not make, except to shore up starting pitching with deadline arrival Mike Soroka, who lasted a full two innings before being injured and reserved.

And what of the lithe little field manager, Craig Counsell, whose chief job it seems is to wave to the bullpen when trouble comes and to provide amusement to his old team.

The inescapable irony is that Counsell, lured by the Cubs from Milwaukee, is still Milwaukee’s favorite manager, the guy who can’t beat the team he left. Those boos from Brewers fans for Counsell are really belly laughs.

The Cubs have five games left with the Brewers, but to matter, the Cubs will have to win at least four of them. And as for the rest of the schedule, according to whomever takes the trouble to figure these things out, the Brewers have a much easier task than the Cubs.

This is the Cubs team that was supposed to be, with what’s ahead uncertain and demanding. As always.

Time to panic? Couldn’t hurt. Never has.