The baseball playoffs are here, and with them the annual feelings of betrayal, loathing and utter disappointment felt toward the losers who are watching from the sidelines. I'm talking about the shoulda-beens, never-will-be's and the has-beens.

The shoulda-beens induce the most pain, which is problematic since almost every fan convinces themselves their team should be playing in the post-season. Realistically, there were only four teams this season I thought that should have made the playoffs but didn't: the Cubs, Phillies, Mets and Indians.

Indians fans can't be too mad though, because A) there were none until two months ago and B) with all their young talent, those guys will be good for a few more years. Or at least until it comes time to renew their contracts, after which management will wave bye-bye to the young studs and the insane contracts they'll desire.

Phillies fans can't be too sad either. They got where they were without slugger Jim Thome and can write off as fate the fact that they finished strong and on a winning note in their bid to grab the wild card, but fell short because the Astros didn't lose.

Cubs fans, however, will find no consolation. Finishing with a losing record of 79-83 that can only be described as abysmal, the Cubs managed again to take a team stacked with talent and turn it into a bumbling circus.

Again, Dusty Baker overworked and poorly managed the pitching staff, turning an ace staff full of guys with cannons into kids with water pistols. And again, Cubs fans, myself included, find themselves left in the cold wondering why, like battered spouses, we keep returning to our unreliable lover.

It's doubtful they'll be able to re-sign stud shortstop Nomar Garciaperra and who knows what injuries will befall pitchers Kerry Wood and Mark Prior next year. It's also improbable their lineup will be anywhere near as good, especially once Derrick Lee, a career .276 hitter, returns to Earth and isn't swatting 60 points better than his average.

Filed under the never-will-be-but-think-they-got-a-chance category are the A's, Orioles, Tigers and Mariners. Except for the A's, each of these teams picked up overpriced free agents during the off season in an attempt to bolster perpetually piss-poor teams. Collectively they finished 58 games under .500, which no doubt cost several people their cushy jobs and gigantic paychecks.

The A's, of course, spent their off-season unloading talented, but expensive, pitchers Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder, both of whom are on teams playing for division champs (the Braves and Cardinals respectively).

But really, who would have thought Adrian Beltre, Magglio Ordonez and Sammy Sosa would be such colossal busts and help mire their teams in such desperate straights? Certainly not the chumps who shelled out millions to see these guys flail around or get injured.

OK, so let's drop the facade and get to what I really want to gripe about: my fantasy baseball team. What happened, guys? Didn't you realize you were playing for the best manager in the game? Fourth place for the season and fifth place in the playoffs (out of 10)?

Things went downhill for my squad right from the start when insanely-good Dodgers closer Eric Gagne went down with an injury. Having drafted him early with a high pick, I suffered an immense blow, both to my team and my ego.

I also made the mistake of drafting White Sox outfielder Scott Podsednik early. His 59 steals won me that category almost every week, but with 25 RBIs, no homers and a .290 average, he wasn't exactly tearing it up.

So where does that leave me and this tear-stained, sob story I'm passing off as a column? Absolutely nowhere. Sitting at home, watching the Evil Empires of New York and St. Louis duke it out, wondering where it all went wrong.

Kind of like my Cubs.