From all accounts, the Cubs made history last night. First, no previous Cubs team has reached first place for the first time this late in a season. Second, just over a month ago, with about a week remaining in June, the Cubs were 8.5 games out. I'm not saying it's historical that a team battled back from that great a depth in the standings in just over 5 weeks, but it has to be somewhat rare, and regardless of that, it's totally awesome.

Y'know. Like the Cubs.

The Cubs have one final game against the Phillies - a good team in their own right - which they will need to win in order to take this four-game series. After that, the Cubs trade with the Brewers, a regular feature this season. That is to say that the Cubs will play the Mets, who are currently playing the Brew-Crew, and the Brewers will play the Phillies. After that, the Cubs will play Houston while Milwaukee plays Colorado, and then they'll trade it up again.

It's like that for basically the rest of the month, right up until the time they play each other starting on August 28th. Look at it this way; with an evenly balanced schedule, whoever wins more games is clearly the best team. Does anybody doubt that it's the Cubs?

In September, the Cubs will have an easy road, for the most part. They'll open the month with Houston, and they'll play 15 games against lackluster teams like the Reds, Pirates, and Marlins. Oh, and they'll play four games against the Cardinals in the middle of the month, including a double header. I have a feeling that that will be an interesting series to watch.

But, to be fair, every series the Cubs play is interesting to watch. And, who knows? They very well might fall out of first place as soon as tonight. Hell, they may drop a few games back before their big surge, it's always possible. But they still made history last night, and I have a strong feeling that the advantage is theirs right now. In Chicago, August is only the beginning.

Now, if they could just rattle off a 10 or 12 game winning streak... that would be really cool.