CHICAGO – For most of their first season under manager Lou Piniella, the Chicago Cubs reveled in the home atmosphere of Wrigley Field, where fans came in record numbers to join the party.

The fun run ended Saturday night. Instead, the old neighborhood ballpark was filled with loud boos, especially for Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano, as the Cubs were swept out of the first round of the NL playoffs by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Even though the Cubs went from worst-to-first by winning the NL Central, it still wasn’t good enough. The drought without a World Series title now stretches to 99 years and counting.

“Right now, you’re going to view it as a disappointment. There’s no other way to view it,” said second baseman Mark DeRosa, one of the major acquisitions in a $300 million spending spree last offseason.

“We’re shocked right now. I don’t think there’s a guy in here who expected this to happen. I think when we have a couple weeks to let it sink in, obviously, the moves we made in the offseason – with the guys that were already here – to take a team that lost 90-some odd games and turn it into a division title has got to be viewed as a success. But all in all, you don’t get the overall goal accomplished, it’s tough to look at any other way.”

And when the Cubs do reconvene in Mesa, Ariz., in February, the team will likely be under new ownership. The Tribune Co., which has owned the team since 1981, is expected to complete a sale during the offseason. The futures of president John McDonough and general manager Jim Hendry are uncertain.

As Tribune Co. officials, including Sam Zell, the man who is taking over the company, watched from the seats Saturday night, the Cubs floundered in a 5-1 loss.

Their bats simply went flat in the opening series of the postseason. Team RBIs leader Ramirez was 0-for-12 and Soriano, who had 14 homers in September, went 2-for-14.

The Cubs didn’t get an RBI from Ramirez, Soriano or Derrek Lee. Chicago scored six runs in the three games and was 2-for-23 with runners in scoring position. They hit into four double plays in Game 3.

All that overshadows what happened in the six previous months – how the Cubs rallied from a slow start and overcame an 8 1/2 game deficit in late June to overtake Milwaukee for the division title.

“We’re OK because we made the playoffs, but it did not go like it was supposed to go. We did not go to the World Series,” said Soriano, who reaped a $136 million contract. “You lose, so it’s not a good season. We lost in the first round of the playoffs; we’re supposed to go to the World Series and win the World Series.”

That’s what Cubs fans have been hoping would happen. Chicago hasn’t made the World Series since 1945 and hasn’t won it since 1908.

“This is just the start, fellas,” Piniella said. “We’re going to get better. It is disappointing but, you know, no matter how far you go up the ladder in baseball, you don’t win a World Series, you’re going to find disappointment somewhere along the way.”

“We gave ourselves a chance. Not one of us in here was just happy to get to the playoffs,” veteran outfielder Cliff Floyd said.