IT'S OVER!

The Season that Jim Blew is finally over- and not a moment too soon.

Now maybe we can forget this entirely regrettable Cubs season- if Cubs' General Manager Jim Hendry gets his act together and undoes the damage he did last off season.

This off season, Hendry simply has to use his head. There is simply no excuse for the self-inflicted wounds which turned a 97 game winner and a two-time division champion into an also-ran this year. Not having Mark DeRosa to take over when Aramis Ramirez was injured probably cost the Cubs ten of the fourteen games they regressed from last season's record all by itself.

I have no idea what became of the taped ball and broken bat Hendry got for De Rosa. I'm all too aware that Milton Bradley, Aaron Miles, and Kevin Gregg are still Cubs. Hopefully that will change this off season. And if Hendry has any respect for the fans at all, DeRosa will be back in a Cub uniform next year.

For the moment, though, I'm just happy that one of the most painful seasons in a lifetime of painful seasons for this particular Cub fan is finally history. And yes, 2009 is right up there with 1969 and 1984 and 2003 and 2007 and 2008 because our wounds this year were largely- though not entirely- self-inflicted.

Yes, there were injuries and bad seasons. But there also Bradley, and Miles, and Gregg, and a profound shortage of Mark DeRosa.