ST. LOUIS – At least one Cubs fan below the age of 98 knows what a World Series celebration is like.

After a year of listening to White Sox fans – and there were a lot more of those people out there after last year’s World Series – it was going to be nice to have the trophy out of the South Side of Chicago.

The only thing that couldn’t make it that much better was if the Cardinals won it.

Well, in case you haven’t heard, it’s happened.

The Cardinals beat the Detroit Tigers in five games and clinched their World Series win on Friday.

But it was a strange feeling being in the city where a World Series victory was being celebrated.

Suddenly, the future demise of the print media was gone when I saw Cardinals’ fans paying $5 for a St. Louis Post Dispatch that just contained photos of the series.

Cubs fans normally wouldn’t be caught dead enjoying a celebration of a Cardinals World Series win. Much of the night was spent frantically avoiding television cameras to make sure that the guys from back home didn’t catch me in a celebration.

But there were things to feel good about.

You couldn’t help but feel good for the kid who drove with his father from Springfield, Mo., and hung out on the parking garage across the street because they couldn’t find tickets cheap enough to get into the stadium.

You couldn’t help but feel good when a middle-aged white man danced in the streets of St. Louis with black youths to Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’ (Dirty).”

You couldn’t help but feel good when the St. L. Fire Department’s Engine E-9 blared the horn and men and women leaned out of their car windows exchanging high-fives with random strangers.

Heck, even a Cubs fan found himself putting his hands up and high-fiving when a Cardinals fan walked by.

There was a definite disappointment in the back of a Cubs fan’s mind.

But while there, you realized how a win on the North Side of Chicago would go over.

Everybody keeps saying the baseball gods are setting it up for the Cubs.

The Red Sox and White Sox break long droughts in back-to-back years and then the Cardinals win it and keep it in the Midwest for the inevitable Cubs win next season.

But they are wrong.

The gods set the Cubs up for it in 2003 until Steve Gonzalez – or was it Alex Bartman? – cost them a chance to win it.

Side note: I will always insist Moises Alou could have caught that Bartman ball while understanding that Alex Gonzalez should have made the next play. But I digress.

If there ever is a day in my life when I can take part in a celebration of a Cubs’ World Series, at least I’ve been exposed to some of the good things that sports championships do.

They bring people together, create unforgettable memories and unite civilians with their local authorities. Hopefully, Clark and Addison will be the place to do that next year.

That is only if the gods allow us to take a mulligan on 2003.