Is it better to have never made the playoffs or to get swept in the first round of them?

That was the questioned posed by broadcasters' during the Notre Dame-UCLA halftime report. They were of course referring to the Chicago Cubs who were unceremoniously shown the playoff door by the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-1 at the Cubs' own house.

The Diamondbacks did it in style with three home runs, including a first-pitch-of-the-game shot by Chris Young, four double-plays, and a strong outing by Livan Hernandez who allowed five hits over six innings.

It's hard to imagine these Diamondbacks beating anyone at this level of competition; this is the team with the worst batting average in the league, hitting the quarter mark at .250. Hell, the best hitting player on the team, second sacker Orlando Hudson, doesn't even break the .300 mark, coming in at .294. (And he's injured.) But no matter, the team that quietly snuck into the playoffs is now loudly announcing their presence.

"Who would have thought that at the beginning of spring training or the season? I'm sure there were a lot of people thinking maybe .500 baseball," said left fielder Eric Byrnes. "We have guys who are ready to win. We've already exceeded expectations so far and we're going to continue to do so."

After the post-game celebration, the D-Backs will take a four day break as they prepare for the Rockies who knocked off the Phillies 2-1. The Rockies handled the Snakes in their final series of the season taking two out of three in Arizona to garner the last playoff spot.

For the Cubs, they'll have to "Wait until next year" as their World Series drought hits the century mark with the coming spring. But what would we do if we no longer had our lovable losers? I'm sure that's a moniker that every Cubs fan and player would give anything to shake.