Notorious fan will stay in hibernation
Steve Bartman has disappeared since fateful night 13 years ago
The movement to have disgraced Chicago Cubs fan Steve Bartman throw out the first pitch at a World Series game this year has been picking up steam ever since the North Siders clinched their first berth in the Fall Classic in 71 years on Saturday night. Yahoo’s Jeff Passan says it’s all about finally turning the page on one of the darkest moments of the Cubs’ star-crossed history, especially because Bartman has actively avoided the spotlight except for the apologetic statement he issued after the events of Oct. 14, 2003, when he got in the way of Moises Alou during Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.
“Chicago owes Steve Bartman an apology,” Passan writes. “And nothing would be quite as fitting as watching him throw the first pitch in the World Series he always hoped he’d get to see.”
It’s an opinion shared by the Chicago Tribune’s John Kass.
“He paid for it with all the hatred and anger poured on him that night when the Cubs blew a chance to get into the series in 2003. All he did was reach for a foul ball,” he writes. “What happened afterward wasn’t his fault. The Cubs blew the game, but Bartman was tossed into the maelstrom, and all the anxiety and fear of Cubs Nation rained down on him.”
Bartman has more or less disappeared since that fateful night, turning down numerous offers to cash in on his infamy. According to CNN, one hotel company offered him a sixweek Florida vacation; Bartman instead asked for gift certificates, which he donated to charity. And now it looks like he’ll be staying in the shadows as the Cubs shoot for their first World Series title since 1908.
“The likelihood that he would return to throw out a first ball or anything like that is probably slim, none and no chance,” Frank Murtha, his longtime friend and spokesman, told CNN. “Steve’s goal in all this has been to return to a normal life, and the fact that we’re still talking about it 13 years after the fact is nothing short of bizarre.”
And so we’re left only with Bartman’s apology from 13 years ago and the feeling that there’s probably no one cheering harder for the Cubs to end all these years of misery.
“Had I thought for one second that the ball was playable or had I seen Alou approaching I would have done whatever I could to get out of the way and give Alou a chance to make the catch,” Bartman wrote. “To Moises Alou, the Chicago Cubs organization, Ron Santo, Ernie Banks, and Cub fans everywhere I am so truly sorry from the bottom of this Cubs fan’s broken heart.”