When you go into the postseason with the third best record in the world and then proceed to eliminate the only two teams who finished higher than you in the standings you’d expect to make it into the World Series, right?

Chicago Cubs fans, your one-year-earlier-than-we-expected run to the Fall Classic has come to an end, but still what a fantastic season by the ballclub — just imagine what next year has in store for you. Should be fun!

If the Cubbies had managed to take the pennant instead of the New York Mets this week we’d be seeing the following items hitting the shelves all across the Windy City… we like to call this “phantom championship” merchandise, things produced in anticipation of a victory which never happened. These are all the actual images which would have been displayed on various on-line sports shops if Chicago had won the NLCS. Nothing you see here is available for sale, don’t bother asking… some of it is donated to third-world countries, some of it is destroyed.

And now, a look into the world of the “what could’ve been”… we’ll start with the commemorative ballcaps:

We’ll have a few more of these as the week goes on, whomever drops the ALCS followed by the phantom World Series matchups. Lots of pins, and pennants depicting a Cubs-Royals, Cubs-Blue Jays World Series in 2015. Fun stuff!