It’s been a great regular season for the Cubs. We had our ups and downs but we’ve clinched a berth in the playoffs, we had a no-hitter and we’ve become a mentally tough team heading into the postseason.

It was awesome to be a part of history when Carlos Zambrano threw his no-hitter. I was part of history in a negative way when I was with the Braves when Randy Johnson threw a perfect game against us at Turner Field, so to be on the right side of it was special.

It was really special for three reasons: One, being on the field while a guy is firing a no-hitter really gets your juices flowing. You get ready to dive for anything, try to get yourself in the perfect position in the field. Two, Z was just coming off shoulder tendinitis and you worry about a pitcher, especially your ace, when he gets hurt and you wonder if he’ll be ready when he comes back. That day Z was ready, he was throwing 95 with a dive-bomb split finger. And three, we were playing horrible at the time. For him to take over and allow us to win a game easily was huge.

If you get to be a part of one or two of those games in your entire career, you’re lucky.

We clinched Saturday with Ted Lilly on the hill. The game before, Z was on the mound but he had personal issues, he had flown to Venezuela for a funeral of someone close to him, then come back the night before the game and had to wake up and pitch against the Cards. The game was kind of over in the second inning, that gave Lou a chance to pull the starters and relax us a little bit.

In a long season like this you’re going to have ups and downs. We had a lot of good times early in the year, we won a lot of ballgames, then last month we caught a mini-slump, lost eight of nine, but it just so happens that the Brewers were playing as bad as we were at the time so we didn’t really lose any ground. That helped us relax a little bit and we moved forward and our pitching staff basically carried us.

I scored my 100th run Saturday when we clinched. That’s a milestone that’s not easy to do and it’s really a reflection on my teammates. I didn’t really notice until about two or three weeks ago that I had a legit shot. So many things have to go right to score 100 runs, guys behind you have to hit and you have to be on base quite a bit. I was usually batting sixth or seventh in the lineup, so that speaks volumes about the guys hitting behind me and up and down the order.

There are personal goals each year that you set out to attain, but whether you get them or not, ultimately it comes down to today, moving forward and helping your team get into the postseason.

I never sit down and pencil out goals as far as what numbers I want to achieve, but you always have ideas about what you would like to do. I always say you are who you are, if you’re a 30-homer guy, you’ll probably end the season with between 27 and 33 or 34 homers. If you’re a guy with a 3.00 ERA on the mound, you’ll probably be right around there at the end of the year.

This year has definitely been my best in certain regards and my worst in certain regards. I’ve set career highs in almost everything, good and bad. I’ll take it.

It helps to be on a team like this. This team is very mentally strong, there are very few young guys besides the catcher, who I think is well advanced beyond his years. There are not a lot of young guys on the field, we’ve got a lot of guys who have been in a lot of postseasons, been around the game a long time. We police ourselves. This is not an environment where the coaches have to say too much.

As far as our catcher, Soto, I don’t even see who could battle him for Rookie of the Year. He’s on the team with the best record in the NL, he’s caught every game for that team, he was the first rookie catcher to start an All-Star game in forever and he’s had big hit after big hit. He might win that thing unanimously and he should.

All I heard about Soto was that he was a .270 lifetime hitter in the minors. Then he started to get on a regimented diet, he dropped 20-something pounds and started to work out for the first time in his career. And he worked out hard, not just getting by. He changed his life and has become an absolute All-Star. I’m one of his biggest fans. It’s not just because of his numbers, but the way he has handled the pitching staff. He’s not intimidated, he trusts his ability to call a game and get into rhythm with the pitcher and he’s not afraid to go to the mound.

The pitchers love him. They don’t want a guy who just throws down fingers, they want a guy who sits in on all the meetings with the pitchers and goes over the game plan. He’s been able to do that all year and very few guys shake him off.

Mark DeRosa is the starting second baseman for the Chicago Cubs. His blog for playerpress.com runs regularly at www.markderosa7.com