Friday, June 16, 2006
Steve Bartman, Innocent
This Steve Bartman crap is really getting out of hand. I thought it was over with until I saw ESPN did a bit on a movie about this poor person starring the arrogant Vince Vaughan.
So I can finally put his innocent soul at rest, Steve Bartman did not cause the Cubs to lose the 2003 National League pennant, the Cubs had a series of unfortunate events that ruined it.
They had some routine fielding that they could not complete, and the pitcher at the time was allowing those players to get those hits, I highly doubt Bartman jinxed the pitching and fielding performances.
Back to Bartman. If you look at any replay angle, you would see Steve Bartman, along with the rest of the right field side of the park stand up with their arms high to catch the ball. It’s a foul ball, fans are paying attention to the ball hoping to capture a free souvenir, who cares about the leaping Moises Alou, grab the free ball, and sell it on eBay. Also, you would see that on certain angles, Moises Alou was in fact jumping at the wall with his arm extended into the fans to grab the ball for the out. However, some of you may have seen that he might have not had a playable out. The ball may have been too far out of reach. I do not know the exact distance between him and the ball since I was in Germany at the time, and not in the stands next to Bartman. It does appear to be out of reach for Alou, and in reach of Bartman, who happened to be the lucky person to grab the ball. One of the many mad fans attempting to grab the ball, he just got lucky enough to make Cubs history.
That’s another thing, with all the fans on their feet grabbing at the ball, why did one person take all the blame for the Cubs collapse? What if a different fan touched the ball, would Vaughan be playing the school janitor Steven McClellan? Or how about the son of former ball player Steve Lyons? Who knows. Cubs fans, sorry Chad, can’t accept the fact that their team just blew it and found the one thing that they figured caused the collapse, and that scapegoat happened to be your ordinary average Cubs fan innocently watching a game and happened to be part of the crowd grabbing a foul ball, and then so infamously, touching the ball causing a Cubs collapse.
Attention Cubs fans, foul balls do not cause horrible thing, giving breaks do. Next time, pitch the right pitch, field the ball cleaner, and be smart. Just because you failed to win the game, does not mean you can go ahead and blame the person who touched a foul ball, that is weak and makes you look pathetic.
This so-called curse that “plagues” the Cubs is also crap. It was started by a fan, and is continued by fans. Back in 1945, I believe, a fan with a ticket entered Wrigley Field with his pet goat. Officials told him that the goat had to go, or he would go. Angered by the rules, the man left with his goat and cursed the Cubs to never win a World Series, and since then, they have not. They have made the playoffs, but never won the World Series. But like I said, this curse is crap.
Steve Bartman is innocent. He, like many other fans around him, were on their feet, watching the ball come towards their outstretched hands, waiting for a free souvenir. Moises Alou, watching the ball drop towards his outstretched hand, waiting for an out. Steve Bartman, watching the ball come towards him, wanting a free souvenir, blamed for losing the game to the Florida Marlins, the eventual World Series champions.
In closing I want to say that Steve Bartman would not be blamed for the collapse if another fan had touched the ball, or if the Cubs defense never had those errors, or even if the Cubs won the NL pennant. Bartman is innocent; Cubs fans needed a scapegoat since they couldn’t accept the fact that the Marlins were a better team. And now a movie is being produced about him. This is sad and pathetic and Chicago needs to wisen up. There are losers and there are winners. In 2003, you were the loser.
Posted by Steve Kenul at 9:39 AM
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