It’s over.

You can put a fork in ‘em, stow away all that red and blue gear and hang up those caps with that little red “C” on the front.

The Cubs are finished for 2008.

Are you surprised that the Chicago National League Baseball Club is down 2-0 to the Dodgers — and will officially become extinct this evening?

You shouldn’t be.

They’re the Cubs, people.

Since the Boston Red Sox have long since broken the “Curse of the Bambino” at least one team in the bigs had to carry on the tradition of bad luck. Why not the Baby Bears?

You had to know it was coming. After having such a great regular season and getting props from supposedly smart baseball people — many who firmly predicted the Cubs would win it all this year — Sweet Lou and his boys from the Northside were bound to flop.

And flop they have. For the second consecutive season it’ll be three-and-out for Chicago’s “other” team, this time at the hands of the Dodgers.

I saw this one coming from a mile away.

While the Cubs are steeped in bad karma, Joe Torre has a wealth of the good kind.

He was hosed by the Yankees and landed at Chavez Ravine. After 162 games were in the books the Bronx Bummers were left sitting at home while Torre guided the Dodgers to the playoffs.

And since the playoff format had Los Angeles opening with Chicago, it was a forgone conclusion that there was no way, no how the Cubs could avoid hibernation.

So I was already prepared. While some of my friends and co-workers who are Cubs fans were getting in a lather about the team’s inevitable successful postseason run, I’d given up before the first pitch was thrown Thursday.

That’s the great thing about rooting for the Cubs — you not only learn to deal with disappointment, you expect it. Heck, you relish it.

And honestly, it makes you a much stronger person.

Anytime you see great expectations dashed, you develop another thick layer of skin.

So let me be the first to congratulate Mr. Torre and L.A., who will wrap up the NLDS tonight in the friendly confines of Dodger Stadium.

Soon they’ll be tangling with the Phillies for a chance to go to the World Series.

Cubs faithful, on the other hand, well, we’ll anxiously await next year.

We’ll just look at 2008 as a building block for the future and get ready for a thrilling 2009 campaign, one that will see our boys log the best record in the National League and have the Central Division crown all wrapped up by early September.

Fall Classic fever will grip Wrigley Field once again, and hopes will remain high that finally — finally — the last remaining curse in Major League Baseball will be lifted once and for all.

Then, of course, the Cubs will get swept by the Washington Nationals in the NLDS.