Cubs' turnaround pure Bake-over

The sign said it all at Wrigley Field: "If this is a dream, I don't want to wake up."\nThe Cubs won the National League Central title Saturday, and it was one of those points where opportunity met clutch performance.\nWhen they woke up Saturday, the Cubs knew they could clinch it, but it required a doubleheader sweep -- something the Cubs had done only twice at home in the last 10 years -- and a Houston loss to last-place Milwaukee.\nWhen it all happened, for this Cubs fan, it was pure, blissful crunk.\nThe central figure in it all was manager Dusty Baker. Sure, his moves never made sense. Sure, he entrusted players who had no business in the majors. He gave the players confidence by making sure each and every one of them was at least 72 years old and had their health care paid for.\nDid Dave Veres or Mark Guthrie have any business on the mound in a remotely tight game? No, but Veres was out there in the ninth inning of the Game Two clincher Saturday night getting Jose Hernandez to ground into the game-ending double play.\nDid Shawn Estes deserve a start in a crucial September game against the Reds? About as much as Sean Combs. \nYet Estes pitched a four-hit shutout. As someone who made my way to Average American Ballpark for that one, the crowd of predominantly Cubs fans almost took a vow of silence during the middle of the game. One could almost hear the low rumble from the crowd: "Is that really Shawn Estes out there actually throwing pitches near the strike zone?"\nThe blue-clad fans in attendance, who didn't realize they had to check their common sense at the door when Baker got hired, rejoiced.\nBaker made an incomprehensible error in the fifth inning of Saturday's Game One. The Cubs, who had two men on, nobody out and a 3-1 lead, were about to line the path from the mound to the shower for tiring Pirates starter Josh Fogg. Instead of going for the kill, Baker had Mark Grudzielanek, his best hitter for average, bunt the runners over. \nWhy in the world give the flailing opposing pitcher a free out? He had just given up a home run to Damian Miller, one of the team's worst hitters, yet he didn't trust one of his best to swing away. The Cubs did get another run to go up 4-1, but the eventual 4-2 win was far more excruciating than it had to be.\nHaving said all that, it should be noted that it is not Baker's job to make me believe. It's his job to make his players believe. That he did well.\nTom Goodwin hit a game-winning home run in Pittsburgh earlier in the summer. Troy O'Leary had a four-RBI game in Milwaukee in September. Randall Simon's earthworm-to-stratosphere strike zone isn't that of an intelligent, winning player. None of them are good players, but when it came to winning or losing games, all had their moments.\nWhat was fascinating wasn't that the Cubs had great starting pitching. It was sort of expected actually. What was fascinating was that the Cubs had the same front four starters they did last year.\nThis time, though, they had Mark Prior for the whole year with nobody wondering how much minor league seasoning he might need. Carlos Zambrano, meanwhile, turned into a shockingly good pitcher, and watching him figure it out was perhaps the greatest pleasure of the season. For once, the Cubs had stuck with a young player and not given up after one bad slump. Imagine that.\nKerry Wood and Matt Clement were good, but they weren't so much better in 2003 than compared to the dreadful 67-95 team of 2002. Prior and Zambrano set the standard.\nIn the bullpen, the huge decision involved Baker making Joe Borowski the closer. Borowski doesn't have the classic stuff of a closer, but if Baker read Moneyball, he would know that Borowski comes from the Chad Bradford School of Relief Pitching. In other words, the best relievers allow few home runs and few walks. Borowski allowed only five homers and walked only 19 in 68.1 innings.\nMeanwhile, Kyle Farnsworth lowered his ERA from 7.33 to 3.30. If only Farnsworth were 47 and not 27, Baker would have trusted him more and Antonio Alfonseca less, but at least giving him the chance proved to be crucial to the Cubs' success.\nThe Cubs' chances against Atlanta will be slim, but their chances this season were slim. Thankfully, their dreams weren't merely half-baked.