It’s up to Cubs to provide our postseason-starved town with some playoff cheer

It’s called October baseball, something we haven’t seen or been a part of around these parts for a few years.

To call it a drought would be kind of understating it because that doesn’t get to how it actually feels to be a part of this seasonal absence — waiting until next year every year for any of the “Big Six” to give us a reason to embrace just the thought of what postseason/playoff life can be.

And here the Cubs have come to save us. (We think. We want to believe.)

Ending their five-year postseason no-show by securing a wild-card spot, the Cubs have become the city’s redeemers. The team that — even if you’re not a fan — is providing (some) salvage for a city that is cascading to the abyss of professional sports in America. And while this might not be bigger than baseball or bigger than their chase toward the World Series, it is bigger for us.

Even some White Sox fans are looking at the Cubs to save and resurrect the city. But will they?

Here’s the whole picture: The Bears have not been to the playoffs since 2020. Last season, they were, with five wins, the seventh-worst team in the NFL. The Bulls haven’t seen the playoffs since 2022 and seem at total peace with playing below-.500 basketball year after year. The Blackhawks haven’t reached the playoffs since 2020 and had the second-worst record in the NHL last season. The Sky — last playoff appearance: 2023 — are regressing fast after tying for the worst record in the WNBA in 2025. And the Sox, who haven’t made the postseason since 2021, just had a 100-loss-season three-peat.

The goal from the beginning of the run for the Cubs seemed to be 90 wins. That was the target. Could the Cubs get 90 wins this season? Now that they have, the blanketing question — with this wild-card spot — is: What does it all mean? It means the 0-0 record they begin Part 2 against the Padres with on Tuesday is only Part 1 of the rescue.

It will mean that if the Cubs find a way to beat the Padres, until their season is over, they for however long it lasts will be more important than the Bears. That’s something that hasn’t happened in our lives since the Cubs won their last playoff game in 2017.

Even so. Before this season-ending three-game series against the Cardinals, the Cubs had lost six of their last seven games. Not good. Their all-time postseason record is 47-75. Not great. They stole manager Craig Counsell from Milwaukee to one-up the Brewers, and the Brewers became the best team in baseball. Not gratifying.

The Cubs’ newfound ace, Cade Horton, just had an MRI exam, is dealing with back and rib-cage issues that have him “on target” for one of the possible three games against the Padres and is far from 100%. Their best player, Kyle Tucker, has missed almost the entire month with a calf injury. Before the injury, he hit .218 in July and .244 in August. Pete Crow-Armstrong and Seiya Suzuki, their next-best players (sorry, Michael Busch), devolved even further at the plate. PCA hit .160 in August and is hitting .197 in September; SS hit .220 in July and .236 in August and is batting .217 for September despite the two ‘‘yards’’ against the Mets on Thursday and the grand slam against the Cardinals on Friday.

Even in the midst of this return-to-earth “slump,” the Cubs are still seventh in team batting in the majors. But they’re 27th in team pitching, the only team ranked in the bottom 20 that’s guaranteed a Game 163. Not the most encouraging stat for postseason hope.

What’s the message we’re given before any flight? “Be sure to secure your own mask before assisting others.” In other words: Take care of yourself before you save others. So before we begin to look for the Cubs to save us from our sports misery and the sins of every other team representing the Chi, they need to first save themselves from the team they’ve become since they lifted that metaphoric monkey off the city’s allergic-to-the-postseason back.

The oxygen masks have dropped. Place the masks over our noses and mouths. This bag does need to inflate to show that oxygen is flowing. The Cubs need to pivot sooner than immediately.

It’s about them creating a new present. A new now. Owning the achievement of doing what their local counterparts didn’t, couldn’t, can’t and won’t any time soon. To paraphrase the wisdom Ben Zobrist, the city’s last World Series MVP, sent to the Cubs, “Be heroes now, humans later.”

While it’s too early to know if the Cubs will save us — something that might be too much to ask for them to do — the city needs “heroes in blue” to step to the plate and to step on the mound. We need them to give us another day. Then another one after that. That’s all we ask. Which is more than we can ask of any and every other team in this city.