Buy Mark Grace a ticket to Chicago. He’s got some bragging to do and probably wouldn’t mind telling the team that deemed him expendable how winning a World Series feels.

In fact, buy Grace four tickets. As Luis Gonzalez noted in his post-game interview, there are four former Cubs on the Diamondbacks’ roster.

Gonzo’s series-winning single made the ex-Cub factor a non-factor. The theory, which was invented by late Chicago columnist Mike Royko, says that the team with the most former Cubs players will lose the World Series. The theory is based on the fact that Cubs haven’t won a championship since 1908.

Along with Gonzo and Grace, the Diamondbacks also have Miguel Batista, who the Cubs traded to Montreal for Henry Rodriguez.

The fourth and final ex-Cub, Mike Morgan, also happens to be an ex-Athletic, ex-Yankee, ex-Blue Jay, ex-Mariner, ex-Oriole, ex-Dodger, ex-Cardinal, ex-Red, ex-Twin and ex-Ranger, respectively.

Morgan was not a big factor in the series, but Batista pitched well in Game 5 before Byung Hyun Kim imploded for the second consecutive night. Grace had three hits in Game 7 and Gonzo delivered the series-winning RBI single.

So the ex-Cubbies did their part in bringing the first pro championship to the state of Arizona. It only took the Diamondbacks four years to give their fans a World Series title, but in Chicago, fans have been waiting for a championship for the better part of a century.

A drought of that proportion makes it hard to be a Cubs fan, but with his blue-collar, two-packs-of-Marlboros-a-day image, it was never hard to a be a Mark Grace fan. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not putting the Marlboro Man on a pedestal. I’m just saying Grace is a guy who’s very down-to-earth.

When he left, you could only hope for the best for him. When he signed with a team that happened to have Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, wishing Grace the best got a whole lot easier.

While praising the ex-Cub is both gratifying and fun, Johnson and Schilling secured the series. The co-MVPs, who both threw in three games, showed how important pitching is as they helped four ex-Cubs enhance their jewelry collections.

Maybe the Cubs, the team that also deemed Greg Maddux expendable, or at least claimed his services were too costly, could take a lesson from the Diamondbacks. Who knows – if the Cubs had kept Maddux, they may have won a World Series by now. Maddux is as good as Schilling or Johnson, but the Yankees proved that a team needs two aces to beat the Bronx Bombers.

Arizona knows the value of both pitching and experience, which is why they’ve been willing to sign old-timers like Gonzo, Morgan, Grace, Steve Finley, Matt Williams, Schilling and Johnson.

Youth movements have their upsides, but the Diamondbacks have their rings and the franchise is now the quickest expansion team to capture a title.

Thanks to the Arizona management, and especially Schilling and the Big Unit, Grace is sure to come back to the Windy City to do some bragging this winter.

Maybe he’ll let some of his old teammates see his new ring. After all, it’s been a while since anyone’s worn one in Chicago.