TELANDER: Hard to enjoy this Cubs season after winning it all in 2016

Now that the Dodgers have dismissed the Cubs, four games to one in the NLCS, do you say it’s been a great year? Because it has been, you know.

The Cubs finished first in their division, won a thrilling five-game series over the Nationals in the NLDS and made it to the league finals for the third straight season.

Or do you say it’s been a disappointing, lackluster year, pointing downward, a major bust? Because it has been that, too.

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The defending World Series champs lost Dexter Fowler and Aroldis Chapman from last year’s title winners. They picked up Jon Jay, Jose Quintana and Wade Davis.

Yet they won 11 fewer games than last year, never seemed to find that deep groove in the regular season and went out with their tails between their legs, in a rout that hinted at raising a white flag and saying, “It’s OK, we’re sleepy.”

What a scene in the finale. Fans flooded the Wrigley Field exits at the end of the eighth inning. There wasn’t much to wait for, but still. In olden days (like last season and before) Cubs fans didn’t do the Dodgers fans-leaving-Chavez-Ravine thing.

A lot of folks stayed, though, and they watched as the Dodgers celebrated on the field and the Wintrust video board in left field flashed “Congratulations — Los Angeles Dodgers On Advancing To The World Series.’’

Remember what that was like?

It’s hard to know what suddenly destroyed the Cubs’ bats in the postseason. It’s simply stunning that, if you throw out the outlier Game 5 of the NLDS, the Cubs averaged 1.67 runs for the nine other games.

Is it possible they’ve taken the hit-a-home-run-or-strike-out-trying mantra to an absurd level? It sure is.

For instance, what good was Anthony Rizzo, the clout-heavy homer hitter, in the NLCS? Not much. Rizz went 0-3, 0-3, 1-4, 0-3, 0-4 in the five games. That .059 average blended nicely with Ben Zobrist’s 0.00. And it dovetailed with all the other terrible Cubs batting averages.

If the Dodgers’ pitching staff is that good, then the Cubs fattened up on sad-sack pitchers all season long. Sure, sample size is important. But you don’t get 100 games in the postseason to get your bats up to speed.

And it could be the Cubs’ starting pitching and bullpen, especially, have a ways to go to become elite again.

But what about the good stuff from this season? It’s hard to say it’s meaningless and not worth something. The Cubs of yore would have dreamed of making it this far into the playoffs.

But there’s a hollowness to 2017. The bar has been raised for the Cubs, the expectations increased, the demands stiffened. It’s hard to accept pretty good when you’ve seen great.

The Braves won 14 straight division titles from 1991 to 2005, and fans got so used to it that the ballpark was seldom filled. When the Cubs went down to Atlanta for the NLDS in 2003, the stands were stuffed with at least as many Cubs fans as Braves fans.

That’s how human nature rolls.

The Cubs have holes to fill and new foes to overtake. They can’t be that far away from the peak. Sometimes bad luck plays a factor. But so do arrogance, nonchalance, lack of desire, diminished skills. Zobrist, for instance, is not the 2016 MVP these days; he’s a 36-year-old on the back nine.

But as manager Joe Maddon says of game decisions, and life, for that matter, “If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t mean it was wrong. It means it didn’t work.”

Yet sometimes big changes are needed to make things work.

Getting there is one thing. Getting back’s a bitch.

“Semantics are really important,” Maddon said. “The difference between the right word and the wrong word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. Mr. Twain said that.”

Thank you. Now catch that lightning again, Cubs sirs.

Follow me on Twitter @ricktelander.

Email: rtelander@suntimes.com