Bartman anniversary, where were you?

I was selling Bud and Bud light that day as a beer vendor by the 3rd base dugout. I heard the crowd roar and looked down the left field line to see the ball go into the seats and Alou throw a tantrum.
The fans by word of mouth told me what had just happened and they were all upset. But the real reason the Cubs blew that game was when shortly after that Alex Gonzalez misplayed a sure double play ground ball. Fans and the media made Bartman the scapegoat but it was Gonzalez who was the culprit.

I and my fellow vendors were deprived of working a World Series because of the the fielding incompetence, not a curse. The anniversary today comes on the night of a full moon. Beware!

Rich Harris

Roman,

Totally agree with your take on Bartman. He didn't lose the game. It is totally unfair how the media blew this way out of proportion. Many other fans in the same spot were going for the foul ball. Why did Bartman's life have to be ruined? Absolutely feel for him!

As for me, 5 years ago I was on the roof top with my daughter and brother hoping to be celebrating a Cubs victory. At the bottom of the 7th inning I went inside the rooftop to get something, and noticed the rooftop servers were getting out the champagne. BIG MISTAKE, I thought, you are going to jinx them. The next inning all hell broke loose. Blaming Bartman for the collapse is like me blaming the rooftop for getting the champagne out too early! Asinine!

The Cubs need to MAN UP and get it done! Here's hoping they do, sometime before I die!

I was watching the game at home and my 3year old son fell down the stairs at the same time. I was stunned and knew something bad just happened. My son was fine, but I was not.

I recall where I was...how could i forget---I had just set up some fireworks to be ready for blasting when the Cubs were sure to clinch this thing...came back in the house to watch the last 2 innings then saw the Bartman incident--fell to my knees from the couch saying to wife and kid "its over, and not going to happen, I just feel it". How so right I was---it was quite painful. The next day I couldnt speak of the incident it was so deep.

These days its no big deal and Bartman is not to blame---but that night he was. I wish him well, but do understand why he chooses to keep a low to no profile.

I never brought in the firework display I had created---a bunch of exploding bottle rockets to be lit the moment of the clinch. I believe some kids took them the next day as I never saw them again.

Seriously, let it go.

I remember watching the game in the basement of my house. Just thinking how pissed off I was at Bartman for sticking his hand out. I think I was just upset cause I really think Alou would have caught it. But I never blamed Bartman for them losing the game!! I Its a normal reaction at a baseball game to catch a foul ball!! That was just an incident but thats all it should have been!! What I was really pissed about was the play after that, when Gonzo screwed up!! And then they let the Marlins score 8 runs!! 8 runs!!! The Cubs always find a way to lose the game somehow!! When other teams find ways to win, they will ALWAYS find ways to lose it!! To be honest, that Game 6 against the Marlins in 2003, was the most DEVASTATING loss I have ever experienced/witnessed in all of Chicago sports!! I was completely DEVASTATED!! And I just knew after that loss, that they would lose Game 7, which they did!

As a Cardinals fan, I can remember where I was; Happily jumping for joy and elated that the Curse would live on. To this day, Steve Bartman, every Cardinal fan in America would glady buy a round or two of ice cold Budweiser for you, my friend.

For God sake - get over it! It's over. You lost! Stop blaming Bartman! Let that man rest. As it is he can never go to another game because of you silly North Side fans, so leave him alone.

***ATTENTION STEVE BARTMAN***ATTENTION***

Come to the South Side and hang with us! We will gladly accept you as a Sox fan and will applaud your resiliance to stand tall against these nutty Cub fans. We don't blame fans for our teams losses, brother! By the way - did I mention we've won a World Series within recent memory?

db

What I find so appalling about the "Bartman ball incident" is that this poor fan is blamed for the Cubs failure to win. This is a pro ball team in Game 5 of the Playoffs. Five outs away from heading to the World Series. Up 3 - zip in the 8th inning.

That Bartman was vilified by fans and players is symptomatic of the blame-game society we live in today.

Cubs should have won that game regardless. Or they should have won Game 7. In exuberantly reaching for a foul ball, Bartman did nothing wrong. Let the guy live in peace, as it seems this is what he'd like to do. There are other anniversaries more worthy of mention. Or at least phrase it as the Anniversary the Cubs Screwed up Yet Again.

I was at home watching the game, saying any swear word I could think of to vent my frustration. As soon as that happened, I knew the Cubs were in serious trouble as Prior was laboring and Dusty had no answer for the oncoming tidal wave. Alex Gonzalez followed Bartman with his famous DP blunder moment(Off topic a bit, but DeRosa's fumbling of the double play that cost the Cubs 5 runs reminded me of A-gon's) and it was over. The Cubs might have had a chance if they would have brought Wood in to try to stop the bleeding and close it out, but hind sight is 20/20.

The Cubs were meant to lose........they never had a chance.

After 5 years of discussion, everything's already been said. People know where they stand on the issue already without it having to brought up for discussion again.

Q. COULD the Cubs have won game 7 the next night?
A. yes

Q. COULD the Cubs have gotten out of that inning after the Bartman incident?
A. yes

Q. If Alou had caught the ball and there had been 2 outs when Gonzo booted the grounder, would the inning have ended?
A. No. He still would have needed to cleanly field the ball and throw to first.

Q. COULD the Cubs have won the WS that year even in spite of the Bartman incident?
A. yes

Q. WERE there other fans in that same area who reached for the ball?
A. yes

Q. OK, then. Based on the above answers, Did the Cubs lose the NLCS that year because Steve reached for that ball?
A. No

HOWEVER:

Q. Does Bartman become the latest in a series of "curses" that Cubs fans will blame for their playoff chokes until they finally win it all?
A. Yes.

Q. Why?
A. Because it makes just as much sense to blame 2003 on Bartman as it does to blame 1969 on the cat and 1945 on the goat. IT MAKES NO SENSE.

In summary, was the grounder that trickled by Leon Durham in 1984 a "curse" moment? No, he choked. Just like the Cubs choked in 1989, 1998, 2007 & 2008. There have been 3 seasons that people look to and say "Oh there's something that qualifies as a curse moment". The rest have been pure choke. Choke and nothing but the choke. Chokes on us. Cant you take a choke? Choke em if ya got em. Go get me a rum and Choke. Careful kid, you'll Choke your eye out. Chokity-choke-choke-frick-frackin Cubs CHOKE.

I don't think that Bartman should be blamed, but I recall vividly watching the game with friends in Atlanta where I live, who were only vaguely familiar with the "cursed" nature of the Cubs franchise. When Alou threw his tantrum, I told my friends that, not only were the Cubs going to blow the game (which was sealed by the blown dp ball), but that they would also lose tomorrow night, which of course they did. I've always thought it was Alou's becoming so emotional that put the hands around the neck. The Cubs had been cruising and the Alou outburst took away their Mojo. Kind of like this year's disasterous home stand after Labor Day. They stopped believing in themselves.

Do we really need to have a reminder about this? The 'Bartman' incident is rehashed over and over by the media. When my fellow Cubs fans and I talk about our team's many implosions we never bring up 'ol Stevie B. He didn't get paid to turn double plays, A.G. did, leave S.B. alone once and for all for goodness sakes. The game is played between the white lines, not outside and that's where the team has to win. They couldn't then and they couldn't this year. Same 'ol Cubs. It's just more pathetic drivel, makes me wonder why I remain loyal, I must be crazy. I'm going to take a page from the Atlanta Braves fans and not get interested till the 2nd round of the playoffs in the future. Too much time, energy and $$ that is equalling out to nothing but dissapointment. At least WGN radio will stop playing that awfull clip of Santo shouting 'this is the year'!! Why on earth would anyone in their right mind say that before the job is done??????????

Seriously, Scrub fans...get over it. 100 years of futility and still going strong!

I was at the "Bartman game" with my Dad. We were sitting along the 1st base line under the rafters. We couldn't quite see the play since our view was a bit obstructed. However, we heard the crowd, we heard the chanting, and it wasn't good for Bartman, that's for sure. We thought we would catch the replay on the monitors in Wrigley, but they didn't dare show the replay. We had to rely on what other people saw, and what the guy next to us was watching on his portable TV. It was at that instant that the "electricity" went out at Wrigley. You could hear a pin drop - except for the death threats against Bartman, of course. But after he was escorted out of the seats, the entire Wrigley Field atmosphere was gone. It's like someone had sucked out all the air and we were in a vacuum. No more high-fiving in the stands, across rows. No more screaming and clapping. No more smiles a thousand miles wide on everybody's faces. No more thinking and uttering, "FINALLY!! We are going to the World Series and we are here to witness it!" With the Bartman incident, and the rest of the Cubs' errors following, we were once again forced to "wait 'til next year" - which didn't happen.

I clearly remember exactly where i was, on waveland with a 3-inch t.v. while about 40 other people watched it over my shoulder as i held it up. We all heard the corwd inside the field roar and then saw the play on the t.v. it was very heartbreaking to see that go on, but now that I look back on it, i forgive him. And i understand the whole "curse" factor of it all but we need to all get over it. On the other hand, we need someone to blame until we win it all. GO CUBS GO!!!!

True story:

I was working a night job in Melrose Park (or maybe it was Morton Grove).

Anyway ... we were refinishing all of the woodwork at a LaSalle Bank outlet, putting a dark red mahogony glaze over all of the cherry stained panels in their lobby.

There was a coffee room in the back for employees, and the television set was tuned in to the game. There were electricians, ceiling tile installers, and carpenters on the job along with me and my partner; and the room was packed.

I was the only one not watching the game, as it went into the late innings. I got on my lift with my 4" brush, and continued glazing the panels.

My partner hollered to me, telling me to come down and watch the rest of the game.

I told him I didn't need to do that, because the Cubs were going to lose, and I'd seen that movie before.

I want you all to stop this. This man has suffered more than enough.

Can't you guys just mix together a newt's eye, rose oil, and some graveyard dust in a cauldron and chant "this is the year!" to get rid of the curse? Maybe burn a witch at the urinal? Nah, on second thought all the futility is too much fun to watch from the south side.

He is to blame. And as for the "anyone would do it." Not a good excuse. In fact look at the pictures of his evil act...most of those around him are leaning away from the ball.

Some people may think Bartman was an unwitting pawn manipulated by supernatural anti-Cub forces that are beyond any human being's comprehension. Others may believe that his act was pre-meditated with precise plans he alone constructed days or even weeks before the game.

And then there's the school of thought that points to a conspiracy....a web of deception and intrigue that reaches to Fidel Castro's Cuba (think of the proximity of Cuba to Miami, FL) and ricochets back north to the Chicago Mob. Wrigley Field may not have a grassy knoll, but there is ivy.......has anyone ever seen definitive film of the ivy at the exact moment of the Bartman Ball, hmmm?

Bartman may be a patsy.

Good blog today, Ro. I have always felt bad for the guy too. It could, and probably would have happened to anyone else sitting in that seat. He just has the kind of name that sticks, especially with the media, and for some reason the headphones, hat and green turtleneck just seemed a fitting get-up for the moment. I hope he does go to games anonymously and I'll betcha anything he doesn't believe in curses.

I was on a 3 way call with my sister in Indianapolis and my youngest son in NYC watching the game and I will admit when the play happened my sister blurted out a much lomger litany of swear words than either my son or i could even come up with. But the truth of the matter is Bartman did not cause the Cubs to lose that game, he was just the start of the comedy of errors that ended the Cubs 2003 season.

Does anyone else think that the Jeb Bush offer for a Florida vacation was at least as classles as anything the Cubs fans did or said? It is one thing to shout at a guy and blame him for a loss. It is quite another for a so called "authority figure" to ridicule the guy in publicfor what happened. Honestly, at this point, I think there are more opposing fans, like steve the cardinals fan, who keep this garbage alive than Cubs fans do. and hey, stevie, WHEN the Cubs win the WS, trust me when i tell you it will be sweeter than any win your mangy redbirds have ever had...mostly because we won't have to be in st. louis when it's over. THAT is your team's curse, and ours will end a lot sooner than yours will.

Do you remember where you were when Billy Sianis put the Goat curse on the Cubs?
Just asking because this is pretty much the same dumb thing.

Still wallowing in their self pity and misery. What other fans would actually remember this or still get all worked up and misty eyed over it?

Think Yankee fans will be reminiscing about blowing a 3-0 game lead and the AL pennant to the Red Sox next week?
I doubt it.

Where was I?

Laughing my ass off at the Cubs fans.

I mean, come on, you really (REALLY????) thought Moises Alou was going to catch that ball?

Moises Alou????????

HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA.

I will say this, though, the Bartman moment started Cubs fans down a slippery slop of incredibly boorish behavior that has not stopped.

They are rich, spoiled brats who have less baseball knowledge than common sense (so you know how little baseball sense they have!!!).

I mean booing Ryan Dempster in Game One of the post-season was inexcusable. That guy pitched his heart out for the team all year. Don't expect big things from him in 2009. This was his "career" year.

This is not the Bartman anniversary. This is the anniversary of Alex Gonzalez. The Anniversary where Gonzalez booted an easy slow roller that would have won the Pennant for the Cubs if he had just completed the play. It is sad that Bartman ending up taking the fall for him. I just wish it was Alex Gonzalez life instead that was ruined and that it was he who was living in seclusion every year. But the Cubs always do make plenty of errors in Playoff games. Look no further than this year. Losers.

Hey Steve,

I was at the game. You were not to blame. The tantrum thrown by Moises Alou was a big factor and Dusty Baker should have went out to the mound to calm the players down.

What is going to be the Cubs excuse for their playoff exits in 2007 and 2008? They just choked. As a matter of fact this city could now be called "Choke-cago."

You Peted !

You are an idiot and a loser at the same time !

Steve Bartman

Roman, what exactly is the point of this blog topic other than to give people one more opportunity to bash the Cubs and their fans now that the season is over? If you really feel sorry for the guy, why don't you do your part to let the memory die? We didn't get one thread on the Cubs during the playoff games until they were over (except the live chat which we got a whopping 84 mins notice about), but the Bartman anniversary you're all over. For the record, I never hear Cubs fans talk about Bartman...only Cubs haters & the media. I look forward to the anniversary of Ligue incident. I'm sure we'll get a blog topic on it.

I was at home with my wife & kids waiting for the collapse. I just had this feeling of Deja Vu come over me thinking of the collapse vs the Padres.

When Beckett completely shut them down days before in that series, if you ask any WSox fan they'll tell you the same thing: momentum had shifted big time. No lead would be safe for the Cubs in Wrigley after that.

It also reminded us WSox fans what the real curse is for Cubs: Wrigley Field. Yes, it's the world's greatest Beer shrine but it's a pitcher's nightmare. It has been since the era of the long ball, especially in Oct.

So Cub fans listen well:

You have ONE shot at winning a World Series.

You must put together the best defensive (pitching & fielding) team in MLB.

So until that year arrives fuhghedabutit!

We were outside, checking out the scene and taking pictures. We heard a roar from inside the park, and word made it around to Sheffield Avenue about what had happened. You could almost see the mood change in the air as the game unraveled.

When the series ended, I wondered aloud what kind of fan base would rather blame one of their own for only arguably interfering with one play than fault the team for botching the next eleven innings. Five years later, I'm still waiting for an answer.

I don't believe that this was written to give people one more opportunity to bash the Cubs.
It was written so the Cub fans can openly cry like little girls once again and then people could bash the weeping wimps of Wrigleyville.

This is what makes people like myself hate the Cubs. The never ending sobbing and spastic whining only to be followed by the delusional boosting of how great they think that they are as fans and the Cubs are as a team.

We love Sammy!
We hate Sammy!
We love Lou!
We hate Lou!
We love Soriano!
We hate Soriano!
We love Fukudome!
We hate Fukudome!

More flip-flops than the shoe department at Wal-Mart in July.

Poor Steve Bartman. Unfortunately for him, he did not create his legacy...A. Gonz. and Moises did. Seriously, if Moises had not thrown the temper tantrum that he did, I highly doubt as much attention would have been put on Bartman. Recently, I had read that Moises even admitted that he never had a chance to catch that ball anyway. Follow that up with A. Gonz. botching that double play, and that was the doom for that game. Also, notice I said Game. The Cubs still had a chance to come back and win, but they completely fell apart. In my opinion, the Cubs too believe that Bartman cost them the game, and Dusty let em believe it. A decent manager and a team of "professionals" would have forgotten about that and gone out there to put everything they had into winning.

The Cubs should have had a "Steve Bartman Appreciation Day" on the first day of the playoff series. Could have broke the Jinx. That poor guy was blamed for the loss, while the manager, Dusty Baker, sat on the bench spitting sunflower seeds while his team self- destructed. The Cubs and the fans owe the guy an apology.

There were several places up along Clark St. with big screen tvs outside that night. I was parked outside of Heaven on 7 with about 250 other people, watching. After the thing happened, I swear it was like I was in Transylvania and the villagers were gathering up their pitchforks and torches to go lynch the guy. I personally heard several people talking about how the wanted to go kill the poor guy. Steve, it is not, nor was it EVER, your fault. You actually coached my friend's little brother's little league team. But man did you get famous, and what a wild scene it was. Newspapers/radio stations broadcasting your personal information? Talk about a city whipped up into a frenzy. I've never seen anything like it.

I called my wife down stairs to watch the final innings saying she was about to see something historic - the Cubs going to a World Series. Then the foul ball, the botched double play and complete melt down. I guess I was right - it was historic.

This GAME should have never happend in the first place. Let's falsh back to game 1 of the series. Sammy just tied the game with a monster HR. Game tied... top of the 9th.(?) Marlins pitcher due up... time for a pinch hitter. Either LH Lenny Harris(auto-out) or RH Mike Lowell.(proven stud). Dusty goes to the pen... and brings out the LH pitcher. In comes the RH hitter... the proven stud.... BAM!!! Cubs lose. If we win game 1...we sweep the Marlins and reset the rotation for the overrated Yankees.

Roman

I was sitting in the Terrace Reserved on the 1st Base side about 1/2 way up and will never forget when it happened. I was upset but not overly mad at the time. Keep in mind we had a 3-0 lead and they had a runner on 1st and that pitch made it strike 2 to Luis Castillo. Prior should have been able to retire him for the second out. The play that really irks me to this day is the Alex Gonzalez blunder. I nearly put my fist through the seat i sat in when that happened.

The one thing i'll remember from that night is the L ride back to the Howard station after the game. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop which is saying alot after a night game at Wrigley. You could just feel leaving the park that night that we had no shot in Game 7.

To this day I still cannot watch highlights of that game because it is too painful.

Well at least the whiny cub fans couldn't blame him this year!They just plain choked!

Has anyone ever considered the fact that if Moises Alou doesn't go beserk and throw a tantrum, simply treats the play like the foul ball it was and goes back to his position, then maybe the game continues without interuption. Then perhaps Gonzalex makes the routine play on the grounder because there's been no long delay to cause a break in concentration and momentum. As soon as I saw alou's reaction I knew the Cubs were done. And to think, years later, Alou has the gall to say he couldn't even have caught the ball. So, Moises, WHY DID YOU GO NUTS? Don't blame Mr. Bartman, blame the real culprit: MOISES ALOU

Has anyone ever considered the fact that if Moises Alou doesn't go beserk and throw a tantrum, simply treats the play like the foul ball it was and goes back to his position, then maybe the game continues without interuption. Then perhaps Gonzalex makes the routine play on the grounder because there's been no long delay to cause a break in concentration and momentum. As soon as I saw alou's reaction I knew the Cubs were done. And to think, years later, Alou has the gall to say he couldn't even have caught the ball. So, Moises, WHY DID YOU GO NUTS? Don't blame Mr. Bartman, blame the real culprit: MOISES ALOU