Steve Bartman, Chicago’s Favorite Son Offered 25 Grand For His Autograph

It’s not even September yet and already the legend of Steve Bartman is making the rounds once again. This time he is being offered an insane amount of money (Twenty Five grand) simply to sign a picture of the very incident that has cemented his name not only the history of Baseball, but sports history all together. Once again, any dignity that he might have regained since that chilly night in October 2003 has been crushed. Personally, I think it’s time to let it go & leave the poor guy alone, it’s obvious that is all he wants.

I can’t help but to admire him in a way. face it, the worst moment of his life was splattered all across national television, radio, the internet (now I am guilty of that too… but I am trying to defend him here) and endlessly satired. The guy easily could have profited from his misfortune seven ways from Sunday, turning his misfortune into a goldmine. To be honest, if that happened to me, I would have done everything I could to make as much money as possible from it. If I were persecuted to the extent he has been, well, what have you got to lose at that point? Might as well take advantage of a bad situation and make it as good as you possibly can. Yet, he simply minds his own business and goes his own way… truly admirable I must say.

Also, I think it’s important to point out that during the entire Chicago Cubs playoff run that season, Steve was only part of one play that was taking place in foul territory, and who’s to say that Alou would have even caught the ball?.. his fielding skills are not that impressive. Plus, in case you didn’t notice, Steve wasn’t the only one going for the ball, he had help. Others around him were making a go of it too. He just happened to be the one lucky/unlucky enough to get his hands on it.

Not that we will ever forget his mishap, how can you after all that has been made of it? But the guy’s life has been forever altered to the point where he might want to consider entering the witness protection program. All for attempting to catch a foul ball during a playoff game that just happened to be headed right towards him… any fans dream!

In Steve’s defense, the Chicago Cubs blew the series, not Steve Bartman. Chicago had nine guys on the field who were being paid to win the game as well as the series. Instead the events that followed Steve’s attempt to catch the foul ball was your text book domino effect; Moises Alou threw a temper tantrum that was enough to rattle any athlete’s mental state making it hard to focus on the game and task at hand. Starting pitcher Mark Prior then complimented Alou’s tantrum with a wild pitch for ball 4, which advanced the runner (Juan Pierre) who was on 2nd over to 3rd while putting Luis Castillo on 1st. However, all was not lost, a double play ball could have easily ended the inning. Sure enough, a ground ball was hit directly towards Alex Gonzalez, a perfect situation for the sure handed Gonzalez and almost Heaven sent, except Alex had a hell of a time handling it and blew the play. From there, well, no need to relive the entire 8th & 9th inning.

Having Alou catch the infamous foul ball would have simply been one play and one out, essentially leaving 4 more outs for the Cubs to contend with. It was not even a game winning situation that Bartman interfered with, it merely would have been out number two in the eight inning, far from the guarantee of a win… as I have seen the Cubs blow bigger leads with two outs in the 9th, any of which I am positive that Steve had nothing to do with.

JT-