Chicago Cub fan Steve Bartman’s attempted catch of a foul ball during in October of 2003 during the Cubs playoff game goes down as one of baseballs greatest, well, . . . . fan blunders.  Do you remember Steve Bartman?  I feel bad for Bartman because he got screwed by the City of Chicago, and the rest of the country for that matter, because he “got caught up in the excitement of the game”.  He tried to catch a foul ball that may or may not have been caught by Mois’es Alou which would have only been the second out of the 8th inning. The second out mind you.  The Cubs should have won the game but they screwed it up.  They were ahead 3-0 in the 8th inning and blew it after the Bartman incident.  They were five outs away from going to the World Series. Don’t blame Bartman.

However, the Bartman story goes down in Cub curse history right along with the “Curse of the Billy Goat” in 1945 and the Black Cat Incident of 1969 when a black cat ran across the filed when the cubs where playing the Mets in Shea Stadium.  In September of 1969 the Cubs were in 1st place ahead of the NY Mets in a regular season game but when the cat appeared and ran across the field.  The Cubs lost the game and then proceeded to fall eight games behind the Mets allowing the now “Miracle Mets” go on to win the World Series.  Cub fans blamed the cat!

After the foul ball incident of 2003, Bartman’s seat became a tourist attraction where fans had their picture taken sitting in it.  Fans even destroyed the Bartmen ball that Bartman never caught trying to break  “the Cub curse”.  The loose foul ball was picked up by another fan (a lawyer no less) and was sold at an auction for more than $113,000.  The ball was purchased by the Harry Carry Restaurant Group and then publicly detonated drawing a huge crowd.  The remains of the ball were boiled and then steamed where the steam was captured and then added to a pasta sauce.  OMG!  Great stuff!

After the Bartman incident, Florida Marlin fans sent Bartman gifts which he donated to charity and the governor of Illinois suggested that Bartman go into the witness protection program because of the hundreds of creepy threats Bartman received.  The governor of Florida offered Bartman asylum in Florida.  Bartman turned down many interview request, endorsement deals, guest appearances and even refused $25,000 for one autograph by a Sports Memorabilia Organization.  Bartman was also featured on the inspirational poster series as “Scapegoating” where it shows the above picture and the quote which states: Scapegoating: The secret of success is knowing who to blame for your failures.

Bartman got screwed.  Plain and simple.  But for me it’s great fun.  I tease my wife as my brother and I are Cub fans and we talk about Bartman to drive our wives crazy.  We always bring it up around this time of year and we use Bartman as an excuse when we do something stupid.  “Not Bartman, again, really”, they will scream and we just die laughing.

Jim

The post Ghosts, Myths and Superstitions appeared first on Arrowsmith Shoes.