Chicago Cubs: 5 Reasons To Be Hopeful For 2018 After NLCS Loss

CHICAGO, IL — As Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Charlie Culberson speared a Willson Contreras line drive to record the final out of Thursday's Game 5 of the National League Championship Series at Wrigley Field, even the most devout of the Chicago Cubs faithful couldn't be blamed for thinking the dream of a North Side dynasty had died before ever really getting off the ground. No back-to-back NL pennants. No consecutive World Series titles. No more distraction from the ongoing woes of the Bears and the Bulls.

But Thursday's season-ending loss might be more boon than bane for the Cubs. That's not simply the "glass is half-full even if it's half-full with warm turnip juice" rationalization of a blindly loyal fan. The last major league club associated with the word dynasty was the New York Yankees of the late '90s and early '00s. That team was the last to win consecutive World Series, capturing back-to-back-to-back titles from 1998 to 2000.

Those Yankees, however, didn't start their run in '98, a run that also included World Series appearances and losses in 2001 and 2003. It began with winning a title in 1996, followed by an early postseason exit in the American League Division Series in 1997. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Lake View and Chicago — or other neighborhoods. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

Sound familiar?

With that in mind, here are five reasons why Cubs fans can be hopeful for the 2018 season — and future seasons — despite Thursday's Game 5 loss.

1. They're Young and Talented

That's always been the biggest selling point of this current squad since 2015. Manager Joe Maddon said as much during a postgame interview, rattling off the names of his youthful lineup. Anthony Rizzo, Willson Contreras, Javier Baez, Kyle Schwarber. These guys make up a Cubs core that the 26 other MLB teams not still in the postseason would love to have. This team isn't just built for the present, but barring catastrophic injury or inexplicable talent drop-offs, it's also built for a long, prosperous future.

2. A Team Culture of Winning

The Cubs might not have made it to back-to-back World Series, but this was Chicago's third consecutive trip to the NLCS, an accomplishment in itself. Staying consistently competitive in pro sports is as much about maintaining a winning mindset as it is about talent and preparation (just ask this year's Cleveland Indians).

That starts at the top with Theo Epstein and it trickles down to the players and coaches. If you had asked any member of this franchise at the beginning of the postseason if they expected to be back in the World Series, they would've said yes if they were being honest (although probably only in private).

Cocky? Maybe. But it's the kind of confidence and — for lack of a better term — winning attitude that brings home championships. Has Michael Jordan been out of the NBA for so long that Chicagoans have forgotten that?

3. This Will Make Them Hungry

After losing Game 6 of the 2016 NLCS at Wrigley, the Dodgers returned to the scene of that defeat for the Cubs' home-opening series in 2017. That meant starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw and the rest of the Dodgers had to watch the Cubs receive their World Series rings and unfurl a championship banner. You can bet the experience gnawed at the Dodgers' collective craw throughout the regular season and stoked their competitive fire in the NLCS as much as the actual defeat did.

Anthony Rizzo took some heat in this year's NL Division Series for shouting, "Respect me!" toward the Washington Nationals dugout after he was pitched to instead of intentionally walked in Game 3. The show of bravado might have seemed a bit over the top at the time — especially given the lame-duck single it was celebrating — but seeing that kind of spirit on display should tell fans that this year's exit is going to give this team an appetite that won't be satisfied until it captures another title.

And if you don't think the scenes of the Dodgers uncorking champagne in the visitors' clubhouse after winning a pennant won't be motivation to bury them — and any other team — on the way to a World Series next year, you don't know pro athletes very well.

4. The Experience of the Postseason Grind

Before they prepare to take on the world again in 2018, Cubs players need to do one important thing: Rest. Physically, mentally and emotionally. Repeating is hard work, and bringing a World Series title to the North Side after more than a century in a thrilling seven-game series last year was exhausting in a way they never expected. Maddon might have said players were over the World Series hangover after the All-Star break, but the truth is that its lingering effects were still being felt in these playoffs.

However, just like losing to the New York Mets in the 2015 NLCS better prepared them to win it all in 2016, experiencing this season's struggles to repeat should show them what they'll need to do in subsequent years as they continue to make more postseason appearances with less offseason downtime in between.

5. The Fans

Were you at Game 3 of the NLDS? The electricity in and around the ballpark proved that fans aren't content with giving their team an "atta boy" simply for showing up, much the same way this squad isn't content with resting on its World Series-for-the-ages laurels. Wrigley Field is no longer the world's biggest open-air bar with the world's most overpriced cover. Sure, people still go there primarily to drink beer and hang out with their friends, but they're outnumbered by the fans who want to cheer on a fun, young, scrappy team win.

And if you don't think fan support can't make a difference, then you haven't been watching this year's American League playoffs that has seen an overachieving Yankees team become energized by the home crowd.

So feel bummed that November will pass without a Grant Park celebration. Start speculating on how the Cubs can retool their toothless bullpen. But don't think Thursday's loss means the end of the shortest winning era in sports history.

Yes, players' contracts are the only thing guarateed in pro baseball, and assembling a team that looks great on paper doesn't always translate to success on the diamond. But dynasties are built on a foundation of failures as much as accomplishments. The trick is to have more of one than the other.

YOUR TURN: What do you think the future holds for the Chicago Cubs? Are you optimistic about another World Series title? Or depressed that Thursday's loss will return the team back to "lovable losers" for another century? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section.

A Cubs fan at Wrigley Field following Chicago's Game 3 loss in the National League Championship Series on Oct. 17. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images)

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