TOWER GROVE — Around about the time the Los Angeles Dodgers took a lead Saturday night at Chavez Ravine, I received an email from the director of the Cubs documentary, “We Believe”. He wrote, in short, that his “Hollywood Happy Ending is in jeopardy!”

Well, at least the “happy” part was.

The Cubs trudged out to Tinseltown to complete their sudden collapse, and for a second consecutive October they’ve been swept out the postseason. Alfonso Soriano is 3-for-28 in those past six playoff games. The Cubs’ would-be MV3 — Soriano, Derrek Lee, and Aramis Ramirez — have not produced one RBI combined in the last two Cub Octobers. (Bernie Miklasz gave an excellent early morning rundown of the ineptitude over the weekend — Breakfast at Bernie’s.) The Cubs got their Hollywood Ending, alright.

Their season ended in Hollywood.

So, it’s at least 101 years since the Cubs won a World Series, which if you buy into the Goat, the Black Cat, the Holy Water and all of that, is also the summer the Cubs ventured to Big Inning, Iowa, and played a 2,614-inning game against All-Stars from The Iowa Baseball Confederacy. (One of the great books.) They must still be recovering.

But there are other 100th anniversaries afoot this season. Plenty to celebrate, even for Cubs fans.

A British web site offers a handy guide for how to celebrate milestone anniversaries. Tenth is aluminum and tin. The 25th is silver. The 60th or 75th is diamond. The web site offers little guidance when it comes a 100th anniversary, for obvious reasons, save to suggest a “10-karat diamond.” Don’t really have one of those laying around, but our blogs here at the P-D do have 10-karat new technology: A poll.

So, that will have to do.

Back in 1908, to celebrate the New Year a ball dropped in Time’s Square for the first time. Mother’s Day was observed for the first time. The Internazionale Football Club is founded in Italy, American Temperance University closes, and cartoonist Tex Avery and famous baseball writer Red Barber were born. The Army Reserve celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. The FBI was founded. The first Boy Scout Handbook is published, launching a movement that would reach the United States in 1910, make neckerchiefs a fashion statement and give us Philmont. The Olympics arrived in London. (So, maybe 2012 is the Cubs’ year …)

Hundredth anniversaries abound.

Many in baseball and many locally.

Here’s where the new tech comes in. Below (fingers crossed) is a poll of some things — locally, baseball-wise, etc. — that are celebrating their 100th anniversaries this year.

Which did you celebrate the most (select, at most, two)?

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Earlier in the season Major League Baseball ran a contest to commemorate the 100th anniversary of “Take Me Out to the Baseball Game” (either version, Katie Casey or Nelly Kelly), and there were celebrations around baseball this season. … A few weeks ago at Mizzou, the Mafia descended on campus to mark the 100th anniversary of the J-School. … Eureka High has a couple videos up on YouTube to celebrate its 100th anniversary. … You know the Cubs. … And, at Homecoming this soccer season, Saint Louis University honored their unique mascot, the Billiken, on its 100th birthday.

Of course, there are probably others I missed. Log them below.

This was mainly just a quick, goofy, frivolous entry to test-drive the new technology of inserting a poll. (Would have made those Decision 2008 entries much more user-friendly, eh?) But, also a history lesson of sorts. Back to baseball Tuesday.

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