Exactly 10 years ago today, an innocent fan was watching a baseball game. Just like everyone else at that stadium, he was cheering on his childhood team. They were winning and were about to make it to the World Series for the first time in almost 60 years.
That man was Steve Bartman. That team was the Chicago Cubs, playing the Florida Marlins in Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS.
The rest is history. In the top of the 8th, with 1 out and the Cubs up 3-0, a foul ball was hit along the left field line, right in the area where Bartman was sitting. The fan reached out to catch the ball, interfering with Moises Alou, who was trying to make the second out of the inning. Alou wasn’t able to, and immediately reacted angrily to Bartman’s interference.
Bartman never got to see the rest of the game because security feared trouble. They got him out of the stadium while fans yelled and cursed at him. He wouldn’t have liked what he saw anyway, because the Marlins went on to score 8 runs that inning. The Cubs lost the game 8-3, lost again in Game 7, and were eliminated from the playoffs. The curse of the Billy Goat persisted.
If you’ve gotten the chance to see ESPN’s documentary on this whole incident (and if you haven’t, you should), then you’ll know that Steve Bartman’s life has never been the same since that night. He released one statement to the media following the game to apologize for his actions, but has never done any interviews since. He’s received countless death threats from Cubs fans who, just like him, were hoping to see the “lovable losers” move on to the World Series on that faithful night.
When you sit down to think about it, you realize the insanity of all this. Sports can capture some of the best emotions that we as humans are capable of experiencing. That’s the beauty of sports – the ability to link strangers into one common ideal. When people talk about sports as a religion, you can’t help but seeing the link, because religion, at its foundation, is based on the oncept of connectinon. (Religion comes from the latin word “religare” which means “to bind”). This is not meant to be an essay on sports and religion, but it’s difficult to ignore some of the resemblances.
But just like they can connect us, sports (and religion) can tear us apart. On October 14th, 2003, thousands of fans turned on one human being whose innocent attempt to grab a foul ball became the representation of a century-long suffering. If you’ve ever been at a baseball game, you’ve surely tried to catch one too. But because he unfortunately picked the wrong time and the wrong situation, Steve Bartman became the scapegoat for a whole organization’s failure.
Just put yourself in his position for a few moments and try not feel bad for him. Bartman wasn’t the right scapegoat, as explained in this ESPN article, but he was the convenient scapegoat.
Don’t blame the Cubs for not being able to get refocused (as real professionals athletes should) and forget the incident, blame Steve Bartman. Don’t blame the Cubs for allowing 8 runs for the rest of inning, blame Steve Bartman. Don’t blame the Cubs for not being able to put a championship team on the field since 1908, blame Steve Bartman.
Seriously?
There’s a fine line between passion and pure stupidity, and this incident definitely reflected the latter. Professional sports don’t work without fans. There’s no doubt about it. But that doesn’t mean that fans are absolved from acting like human beings. Let’s not be animals.
I say this because we still see examples of this barbarism almost every day. Just yesterday, as Texans quarterback Matt Schaub was lying injured on the ground, Houston fans were cheering. Sure, Schaub hasn’t played well this season, but cheering for your home-team quarterback because he’s injured is terrible. In a way, it’s unfair to link the Schaub incident with the Bartman incident because those are two different fan-bases, and, consequently, not the same people. But the fact that we continue to see it means that we’re not really getting any better.
True fans support their teams not only when things go well, but also when things go bad. That doesn’t mean blindly accepting failure; it sometimes means being critical of your team with success as the endgame. But placing an entire century of failure on one man’s shoulders is a sad indictment of everything that can be bad with sports. Don’t be that fan. Don’t be an animal. Be the true fan that supports its team the right way. Cubs fans will say that the hate towards Bartman was just a product of the disappointment and frustration of years of losing, but that doesn’t excuse it.
Maybe change is too much to ask for. Just look at the Cubs themselves, who finished last in the NL Central this year and are coming off their 4th straight losing season. Some things never change. Even more sad is the fact that they haven’t won a playoff game since 2003.
Must be Steve Bartman’s fault.
FANTASTIC FORE 