Steve Bartman is an American baseball fan who gained international attention on the evening of October 14, , for attempting to catch a foul ball in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Florida Marlins at Wrigley Field.

Biography

Bartman grew up in Northbrook, Illinois. His home was located right next to a baseball field, where his father used to hit balls for Bartman and his friends to field. Bartman attended Notre Dame High School for Boys in Niles, Illinois and played varsity baseball while also participating in theater and community service. He graduated high school in 1995, then went on to the University of Notre Dame. At the time of the incident, he was 26 years old and working at a human resources and consulting firm.

Outside of work, Bartman served as a part-time coach for the Renegades, a team for 13 and 14 year olds based in Niles, Illinois. Bartman had played for the Renegades in 1992, when the team went 47-10 and won the Palatine League championship. He was also an avid Cubs fan; in the past, he had traveled to Mesa, Arizona to view the Cubs' spring training.

Foul ball incident

At the time of the incident, Mark Prior was pitching a three-hit shutout for the Chicago Cubs in the eighth inning. For the Marlins, Luis Castillo was batting, with one out and Juan Pierre standing on second base. The Chicago Cubs were leading the game 3-0, leading the series three games to two, and were five outs away from reaching the World Series for the first time since 1945 and attempting to win it for the first time since 1908.

Bartman was sitting in the front row along the left field corner wall behind the bullpen when a pop foul off the bat of Castillo drifted toward his seat. Cubs left fielder Moisés Alou ran over to attempt a catch, reaching up into the seating area, but Bartman, who was watching the ball and not the fielder (like a few other fans next to him), got to the ball first and appeared to knock it away from Alou. Alou slammed his glove down in frustration and was seen shouting in Bartman's direction. The Cubs argued for an interference call, but umpire Mike Everitt ruled that there was no fan interference.

The aftermath

For the Chicago Cubs and Florida Marlins

Following the incident the Marlins scored eight runs, six of them unearned:

• Castillo, given new life, drew a walk. Ball four was a wild pitch from Cubs starter Mark Prior, which allowed Pierre to advance to third base.
• Iván Rodríguez singled to drive in the first run of the inning, making the score 3-1.
• Miguel Cabrera hit a ground ball to Alex S. Gonzalez, who misfielded the ball. Had Gonzalez fielded the ball properly, the Cubs could possibly have ended the half-inning with a double play. Instead all runners were safe and the bases were loaded.
• Derrek Lee doubled, tying the score and chasing Prior from the game.
• Relief pitcher Kyle Farnsworth issued an intentional walk, then gave up a sacrifice fly to give Florida a 4-3 lead. Another intentional walk again loaded the bases.
• A bases-clearing double from Mike Mordecai broke the game open, making the score 7-3.
• Pierre singled to put Florida ahead 8-3.
• Finally Luis Castillo, whose foul popup initiated the controversy, popped out to second to end the inning. In total, the Marlins had sent twelve batters to the plate and scored eight runs. Florida won the game 8-3.

The next night, Florida overcame Kerry Wood and a 5-3 deficit to win 9-6, and win the pennant. The Marlins would go on to win the 2003 World Series, beating the New York Yankees four games to two.

For Bartman

Bartman had to be led away from the park under escort for his own safety, as Cubs fans shouted profanities towards him and others threw debris onto the field and towards the exit tunnel from the field. News footage of the game showed him surrounded by security as passersby pelted him with drinks and other debris. Bartman's name, as well as personal information about him, appeared on Major League Baseball's online message boards minutes after the game ended. As many as six police cars gathered outside of his home after the incident occurred to protect Bartman and his family. Afterwards, Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich suggested that Bartman join a witness protection program, while Florida governor Jeb Bush offered Bartman asylum. Many fans associated the Bartman incident with the Curse of the Billy Goat, allegedly laid on the Cubs during the 1945 World Series after Billy Sianis and his pet goat were ejected from Wrigley Field. The Cubs lost that series, and have yet to return to the championship round. Bartman was also compared to the black cat which ran across Shea Stadium during a September 9, 1969 regular season game between the Cubs and the New York Mets. The Cubs were in first place at the time, but after the cat appeared, the Cubs lost the game and eventually fell eight games behind the Mets in the standings, missing that season's playoffs entirely.

Shortly after the incident, Bartman released a statement, saying he was "truly sorry". He added, "I had my eyes glued on the approaching ball the entire time and was so caught up in the moment that I did not even see Moisés Alou much less that he may have had a play." Trying to maintain a low profile, Bartman declined interviews, endorsement deals, and requests for public appearances, and his family changed their phone number to avoid harassing phone calls. He requested that any gifts sent to him by Florida Marlins fans be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

A parody of the Bartman incident later appeared in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.

Defense of Bartman

After the incident, the Chicago Cubs issued the following press release:

The Chicago Cubs would like to thank our fans for their tremendous outpouring of support this year. We are very grateful.

We would also like to remind everyone that games are decided by what happens on the playing field — not in the stands. It is inaccurate and unfair to suggest that an individual fan is responsible for the events that transpired in Game 6. He did what every fan who comes to the ballpark tries to do — catch a foul ball in the stands. That's one of the things that makes baseball the special sport that it is.

This was an exciting season and we're looking forward to working towards an extended run of October baseball at Wrigley Field.

Several Cubs players publicly absolved Bartman of blame. Mark Prior said, "We had chances to get out of that situation. I hung an 0-2 curveball to [Ivan] Rodriguez that he hit for a single. Alex Gonzalez, who's a sure thing almost at shortstop, the ball came up on him ... and things just snowballed. Everybody in the clubhouse and management knows that play is not the reason we lost the game." Former Cubs pitcher Rick Sutcliffe said that the crowd's reactions to Bartman "crushed [him]". "Right after I saw what happened with the fan, I woke up the next morning and told my wife that if the Cubs asked me to throw out the first pitch in the World Series, I was going to take that fan out to the mound with me," he said. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig also came to Bartman's defense, telling an interviewer, "[W]hile I understand that people felt so strongly and that their hearts were just breaking, to blame this young man, who is the most devoted Cub fan ... it's just unfair. When I read his statement, it broke my heart.... If you want to blame the Curse of the Bambino and the goat in Chicago or a series of other things, that's fine. But blaming Steve Bartman is just not right.

Several of Bartman's friends and family members spoke out in the days following the incident. His father told the Chicago Sun-Times, "He's a huge Cubs fan. I'm sure I taught him well. I taught him to catch foul balls when they come near him." A neighbor added, "He's a good kid, a wonderful son, never in any trouble. I don't think he should be blamed at all. People reach for balls. This just happened to be a little more critical. If Florida didn't score all the runs, you wouldn't be standing here." One of Bartman's high school friends wrote to the Chicago Tribune, saying, "He was the kind of person you wanted to be around–funny, yet sincere, and always looking out for his friends. It's been years since I've seen Steve, but I know that he never, ever would do anything to intentionally hurt anybody. Five days after the game, a group of 13- and 14-year-old baseball players whom Bartman had coached held a rally for Bartman in a park in Northbrook. One boy called him "a great coach, a great person and a great role model". Another remarked that "the foul ball had nothing to do with the rest of the game". The children described Bartman as an excellent hitting coach.

Sun-Times sports columnist Jay Mariotti wrote, "A fan in that situation should try his best to get out of the way, even if he isn't of the mind to see Alou approaching, as Bartman claims. Still, he's also a human being who was reacting in a tense, unusual moment. And the resulting verbal abuse and trash-hurling, followed by the Neanderthal threats and creepy reaction on the Internet, hasn't reflected well on Chicago's sports culture. As it is, everyone thinks the prototypical local fans are those mopes from the Superfans skits on Saturday Night Live."

Five years later: Moisés Alou

In April 2008, Moisés Alou was quoted as saying, "Everywhere I play, even now, people still yell, 'Bartman! Bartman!' I feel really bad for the kid....You know what the funny thing is? I wouldn't have caught it, anyway. He later claimed that he did not remember making that statement, and that he would indeed have caught the ball, but he added, "It's time to forgive the guy and move on.

Destruction of the Bartman ball

The loose ball was snatched up by a Chicago lawyer and sold at an auction in December. Grant DePorter purchased it for $113,824.16 on behalf of Harry Caray's Restaurant Group. On February 26, 2004, it was publicly exploded by Academy Award winning special effects expert Michael Lantieri.

In , the remains of the ball were used by the restaurant in a pasta sauce. While no part of the ball itself was in the sauce, the ball was boiled and the steam captured, distilled, and added to the final concoction.

The Bartman seat

In the intervening years since the incident, the Bartman seat (Aisle 4, Row 8, Seat 113) has become a tourist attraction at Wrigley Field. Fans often take pictures of each other sitting in it, and it is frequently covered with Cubs stickers.

See also

• Jeffrey Maier

References

External links

• Aisle 4, Row 8, Seat 113 on the 3rd base of Wrigley Field, known as the "Bartman Seat"