ST. LOUIS — As a great R&B band sang, sort of, not all that long ago: “Do you remember … being relevant in September?”

The Cubs of 2015 to 2020 knew what that was like, but since then? You’ve probably noticed, but they’ve fallen out of the business of contending for postseasons.

Ah, well. Entering a weekend series against the first-place Cardinals that began Friday at Busch Stadium, the Cubs at least had some life, if not much cachet. Their 15-15 record in August wasn’t exactly blistering, but it was the club’s best month since a 19-8 May in 2021, which came before losing set in and president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer waved the white flag at the trade deadline. That’s the 2021 deadline, to be clear, not to be confused with the Cubs’ continued flag waving at the 2022 deadline.

Hey, 15-15 isn’t bad. Nor is the Cubs’ above-.500 record since the All-Star break, a heck of a lot better than their utterly forgettable, 22-games-under first half. A collective 3.15 ERA by the team’s starting pitchers in August was — let’s not undersell it — seriously impressive.

What does it all mean?

“From the manager’s seat, you wish [we] would’ve been healthy early in the season when we had a fully loaded bullpen,” Ross said, making reference to the ‘pen that was decimated by trades one month ago. “It showed me what I believed about this team, that it’s probably better than we were early on. …

“Maybe we’re not quite as far away as some days it feels like.”

Is he right? And does it matter? Perhaps not so much in either case if the Cubs can’t dig in a little deeper and finish the season on a strong note.

In other words, as the aforementioned band sang, let’s see if the Cubs can “change the minds of pretenders … while chasin’ the clouds away.”

Feel free to boogie along as we discuss the final full month of the Cubs’ season.

Is a strong September really important?

“I think it does matter morale-wise,” shortstop Nico Hoerner said. “It sets a standard as far as energy and an opportunity to start creating culture that builds into next year — no matter who’s around or what’s on the roster — and starts establishing pieces that can be here a long time.”

All-Star catcher Willson Contreras probably won’t be around to try to see that through. All-Star outfielder Ian Happ might be. Hoerner and second baseman Nick Madrigal are two who should be.

“I think there’s still some meaningful games left for us,” Madrigal said. “As of late, we’ve been playing a lot better baseball, and I think this next month, if we can just keep that going, would say a lot for this team and moving forward into next year.

“And I’m not just saying that. There’s been so many games over the year that we’ve been right in and just haven’t been able to pull through in late innings. Our record doesn’t show how good this team could be if we just put it together on a nightly basis. So that’s what I want to see from us the rest of the way.”

Veteran starting pitcher Marcus Stroman predicted a successful September for the Cubs because of their “awesome vibes,” a phrase that, frankly, ought to be in song lyrics if it isn’t already.

“I think so,” Stroman said, “because this team shows up wanting to play baseball and win each and every day.”

Ross cited the series in Toronto earlier this week. Though the Blue Jays took two of three, Ross was left with the feeling the teams were almost equals.

“Winning is important, period,” he said.

Ba-dee-ya, that’s a fact.

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ST. LOUIS — First things first, Cubs manager David Ross wanted to communicate his best wishes to White Sox manager Tony La Russa, who is away from his team indefinitely while under the care of doctors, reportedly for an unspecified heart ailment.

“Any time you see that, a Hall of Famer, been great for a really long time, you send your love and prayers and hope he’s going to be all right,” Ross said before the opener of a weekend series against the division-leading Cardinals.

But Ross also knows what a rough season it has been overall for La Russa, who has been shredded by critics — many of them Sox supporters — from almost the very start of a hugely disappointing season. Just being in Chicago, even with a different team, there has been no way not to hear the invective directed at the South Siders and, especially, the 77-year-old icon in their dugout.

“When we’re not playing the White Sox, I kind of root for our city,” Ross said. “I hope they do well. I hope he does well. He’s done well for a long, long time. …

“I think in the manager’s seat, we’re all grown men and realize how tough it is to win on a daily basis, and all the pressure and things that come along with our jobs, which we’re really blessed to have. But only we know what we go through, and former managers know what the daily process is like, and so you root for other guys to have success.”

Ross chuckled, recalling that La Russa “hated” him when he was a player because he dared to lay down a few unexpected bunts against La Russa’s Cardinals. The elder skipper still gives the younger one grief about that — good-natured, of course — when they see each other.

This and that

Catcher Willson Contreras was out of the lineup again, as he has been since leaving Tuesday’s game in Toronto with nagging soreness in his left ankle. The All-Star could be back at it Saturday.

o Righthander Keegan Thompson, on the 15-day injured list since Aug. 20 with lower-back tightness, threw a bullpen session Friday that seemed to go well.

o Lefty Wade Miley, who made a second rehab start Wednesday at Single-A South Bend, is expected to ramp things up with a bullpen session at Busch Stadium. A shoulder strain sent Miley to the IL on June 11.

o Infielder Patrick Wisdom, out all week after spraining his left ring finger, hit off a tee Friday and is “healing nicely,” according to Ross.

o The Cubs and Cardinals, along with the umpires, wore yellow ribbons on their jerseys and yellow wristbands in recognition of Childhood Cancer Awareness Day across the major leagues.

o Retired umpire Joe West threw out a ceremonial first pitch before a tickled Busch crowd. Not many umps have elicited bigger or better reactions than West, 69, who was known for loving to be part of the show. This time, he fired from just in front of the mound and skipped the ball in the dirt in front of home plate. He still wanted the strike call, no doubt, but he wasn’t going to get it.

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During a wide-ranging interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Planning and Development Commissioner Maurice Cox was asked what, if any, portion of Lightfoot’s $2.2 billion plan to dome and renovate Soldier Field would proceed if the Bears choose to make the move to Arlington Heights.

“That’s largely why we took a broad look at how the museum campus could become a more attractive destination” as well as how “Soldier Field could be a year-round venue for arts and entertainment,” Cox said.

“That is independent of the question of the Bears. We can get 365 days a year activity out of a Soldier Field that has been renewed and capped. That idea is valid independent of what franchise occupies it.”

Even if the Bears leave Chicago, Cox said putting a dome over Soldier Field will remain “one of the options that extends its use for 365 days-a-year.”

“That has been one of the real benefits of having this potential challenge of retaining the Bears or not in Chicago. It’s really forced the city to look at utilization of that amazing event venue,” Cox told the Sun-Times earlier this week.

Cox was asked how the mayor’s $2.2 billion plan to expand, renovate and put a lid on Soldier Field would be financed and whether beleaguered Chicago taxpayers would tolerate being on the hook for renovating a stadium with only one major tenant: the Chicago Fire.

He would only say financing stadium renovations are “pretty complex” and there are “multiple scenarios for how it could be done.”

“We haven’t landed on any single one. But we know that, architecturally, it’s feasible and there are financial models for how it’s been done. The job will be to dig deep to look at that and then, when we have scenarios, to present them to the public for consideration,” the commissioner said.

Even without the Bears, the new vision to re-imagine the museum campus outlined by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s working group has enormous potential to reclaim parkland and make Northerly Island the nature preserve it was intended to be.

Friends of the Parks Executive Director Juanita Irizarry told the Sun-Times earlier this summer she was justifiably excited about at least beginning to honor the promise then-Mayor Richard M. Daley made years ago, when he created the Museum Campus: moving Soldier Field parking lots to the west side of DuSable Lake Shore Drive.

When Daley famously sent in a fleet of bulldozers to carve giant X’s into the only runway at Meigs Field, the goal supposedly was to turn Northerly Island into a nature park that would provide a genuine urban oasis.

Instead came Huntington Bank Pavilion, a 30,000-seat venue for outdoor concerts. It was supposed to be temporary but has been open for 17 years and counting.

The working group called the pavilion “incongruous” with Northerly Island and recommended removing it, and building a 9,000-seat venue for outdoor concerts between Soldier Field and the Field Museum. That recommendation was music to Irizarry’s ears.

“Friends of the Parks has, for a long time, been saying that the Huntington venue needed to go. It’s a bad place for a concert venue and Northerly Island is often blocked off to other uses when there is an event going on” there, she said.

“We are thrilled at talk of removing that. … It was not meant to be there permanently. The Park District used to tell us all the time that it was there to generate revenue to help pay off the costs associated with developing Northerly Island and once those costs were paid off, it would go. That has turned out not to be the case.”

Cox agreed getting rid of the concert pavilion on Northerly Island makes sense.

“We now know that there are options that could return Northerly Island to its original intent. We know a lot more now than we did before this museum campus framework,” he said.

“The whole intent was to expand our options and open up things that we had not previously seen. See it with a fresh set of eyes. And now, we can go from there. What we’re trying to do now is dig deep on what are some of the short-term, near-term and ultimately long-term outcomes from the study. The important thing is to show momentum and do some of the things that can be imageable and show progress, then take our time and thoughtfully study the implications of some of the ones that are more significant changes to the way the museum campus operates.”

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