I'm a die hard Cubs fan and have been since I was little. My heart has been broken many, many times. And this year, my Cubbies ran into the buzzsaw that is the 2015 New York Mets and got swept in dominating fashion.

This team reminds me of another Chicago sports team — the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls — who couldn't beat the Detroit Pistons for a number of years before winning six championships. In baseball and today's sports environment, the window to win is so small. There's a lot of pressure to win now because everyone else is getting better, too. But the Cubs will continue to improve with a ton of young talent. And that talent is only going to get better.

I enjoyed this season. It was fun to have my Cubs relevant again. And as much as I hate watching them swept out of the playoffs*, I'm confident that we are going to be good for years to come.

So, yes, I'll give you the traditional Cubs fan refrain is always "Wait 'til next year!" But this year, it's less lament and more warning. Next year, we'll be even better.

Go Cubs!

* This year, we did beat the Pirates in a one game playoff and the Cardinals in the NLDS. And those wins were a lot of fun.

In the early 1980's, we lived in a slightly mountainous area of North Carolina. And our community had an early version of cable. The cable box on our TV has 13 push buttons, each representing a different channel.

Among those 13 channels were WOR (New York), TBS (Atlanta) and WGN (Chicago). In the early 80's, all three channels had contracts to carry baseball games. WOR had the Mets, TBS showed the Braves and WGN aired the Cubs games. This is pre-ESPN, so your other option was to catch a random Game of the Week broadcast on one of the networks.

I loved baseball. I'd come home from school and turn on the TV and try to find a baseball game. And more often than not, there would be a Cubs game on. Why? Because Wrigley Field didn't get lights until 1988. All home games were day games. The Braves and Mets played a bunch of night games so even though I saw some of their games, I didn't develop the same connection that I did with the Cubs.

(Geographically, it would have made sense for me to be a Braves fan. We weren't too far from Atlanta. But at the time, they were in the NL West division and played a bunch of night games on the West coast. So those games started after my bed time.)

I fell in love with Wrigley Field, Harry Carey, Ryne Sandberg and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh inning stretch. And then we moved to Chicago and my die-hard-Cubs-fan status was cemented.

Wrigley Field turns 100 this week. And even though Harry Carey is no longer with us, Ryne Sandberg is the manager of the Phillies and Wrigley has lights, I still love my Cubbies.