Reverse Psychology

Say this for Lou Piniella, he's maintained his appetite despite having to watch his team play some ugly baseball. (By Jamie Squire -- Getty Images)

So, why not do it to the Dodgers, whose 84-78 record would have gotten them fifth place in the American League East and was only 15th best in baseball? Why not throw a couple of collars around Manny Ramírez, who had two homers in Chicago, and drape another garland of October misery around the neck of nice Joe Torre, who will always symbolize the anti-Cubs -- his champion Yankees.

How perfect. Beat Manny and Joe, emblems of the most glamorous teams of recent times. That flips the script.

Luckily, the Cubs have one of the few managers who intuits such things: racetrack-loving Lou Piniella. Forget the debate about whether he hooked Carlos Zambrano too early in Game 1 of last season's first-round defeat. Overlook the way, with weeks to plan, he messed up by starting Ryan Dempster (seven walks in Game 1) and stuck with powerless, overpaid (but popular) Kosuke Fukudome, who is hitless in eight postseason at-bats and will be benched for Game 3.

Please note this about Sweet Lou. After the loss on Thursday, he ate pizza throughout his news conference. Munch, grunt, mmmm-good, what was that second-guessing question again? Piniella claims his team has Cub Swagger. If you're 65, have a gut and are growing goat's horns, at least you can show your guys what a defiant bad attitude looks like by eating pizza in the electric chair.

Give the Dodgers some due. Their offense is much improved since Ramírez arrived. Los Angeles also has a fleet of fine youngsters: Game 2 winner Chad Billingsley, prototype catcher Russell Martin, Andre Ethier (.305) and James Loney (90 RBI). But they're not nearly as good, and far less experienced, than the Cubs. L.A. is on a run and needs to finish it fast.

Will the Dodgers close out the best Cubs team of my lifetime, deflate this entire postseason, erase the chance of a Cubs-Red Sox, a Cubs-White Sox or even a Cubs-Rays matchup in the World Series? Yes, probably.

But the Cubs need to remember that their task -- three sudden-death wins in a row in October -- has been done by teams far less talented. Once momentum changes dugouts, it tends to stay there for days. The Cubs don't have to match the four-in-a-row the Red Sox pulled off. That was the best series in baseball history. The Cubs just have to muster the best playoff series in their history.

Now the Cubs need to sacrifice a goat, slap a few pundits and wake their fans, who at this moment stand at the edge of the cliff, pondering the familiar view.

If the North Siders want to win the Series this year, not just reach one for the first time since '45, then lose with dignity to the better league, they need something special. They need a magic cloak, a powerful mojo, an event of their own creation that makes them feel calm, invincible and chosen. They need to beat, beat, beat on the Dodgers.