This may be the Cubs year!!! Where's Bartman

[allstarsplus]

The Cubs were my pre-season pick although it didn't look good at the start of the season.

When the Cubs picked up Alfonso Soriano it gave them the jolt they needed for a run at it.

6384

Note to Rob S.----have Bartman stay away from the outfielders and keep the goats happy!!!

Good luck Cubbies!

Andrew

[Vintagedeputy]

Andrew - I'd still rather see Sori in a Nats uniform!

Jim

[allstarsplus]

Andrew - I'd still rather see Sori in a Nats uniform!

Jim Me too, but I am happy for AS that he got to a good team that he could impact! I don't see the Cubs going to the 2007 playoffs without AS on their team. He can do it all and has 19 outfield assists on top of everything he does on offense!!! Can you say 5 tool player!!!! Along with that, he is a great guy.

I wasn't happy that he didn't say in DC, but can understand the economics that he was essentially ours for 1 year and what a year it was!!! 40-40-40!!!!

[Vintagedeputy]

He could have put some more butts in the seat in Nats Park for sure, and maybe we'd have a championship banner hanging in the new park in '08!

[psmachetti]

Sorry but the difference this year was "Sweet Lou"! He is an "Old School" ball breaker and doesn't tolerate shitty baseball. Holds his players accountable for their performances.Just what the Cubbies needed this yr.When Soriano went down it looked like this might really kill the Cubs but they kept winning. That's on Piniella! If that happened any other yr I have no doubt Cubs would've collapsed.
Paul

[Vintagedeputy]

Paul - I agree with the Sweet Lou factor as well. These young ballplayers need old school guys like Pinella and Torre to show them the right way.

Jim

[allstarsplus]

Cubs Rise, but Where's Bartman?


By JOE LAPOINTE,
The New York Times
Posted: 2007-10-03 16:08:37

NORTHBROOK, Ill. - Without a World Series championship in 99 years, the Chicago Cubs are the most hexed and vexed team in American sports. And of all their tormented fans, not one is more stigmatized than Steve Bartman.




http://www.aolcdn.com/aolnews_photos/04/06/20071003121009990064
Amy Sancetta, AP


Steve Bartman's unsuccessful grab for a foul ball in 2003 is often blamed for the Cubs not going to the World Series that year. Although not the originator of the curse, many fans say Bartman's play is proof one exists in Wrigleyville.

As a spectator at Wrigley Field in 2003, Bartman deflected a foul ball during Game 6 of the National League Championship Series against Florida that probably cost the Cubs a precious out. This preceded a cascade of plays and misplays that squandered the team’s best chance to reach the World Series since 1945.

Since issuing a public apology the next day, Bartman has avoided the spotlight. His deed, his desire for privacy and his place in Chicago’s civic lore have made him an odd blend of Bill Buckner, Greta Garbo and Mrs. O’Leary’s cow.

But now - with the Cubs back in the playoffs and facing Arizona this week - will Bartman return to Wrigley Field?

John McDonough, the Cubs’ president, said he has had no contact with Bartman and that “what happened was unfortunate.”

But would the Cubs welcome Bartman back into Wrigley Field as they again attempt to win a World Series for the first time in almost a century?

“If he were to buy a ticket and come in,” McDonough said. “Sure.”

Will Bartman talk about his life since he reached out and steered that fly ball hit by Luis Castillo of the Marlins away from Moises Alou?

“Steve is not interested in talking,” his brother-in-law, John Zillmer, said in a brief telephone interview.

But is Bartman still a Cubs fan? Does he go to games? Does he believe “It’s Gonna Happen,” as signs proclaim in windows around Wrigley?

“He’s pretty much carrying on as before,” Zillmer said.

But does he still hold his old job and still live with his parents in this suburb northwest of Chicago, about 16 miles from Wrigley?

“I know the answer to that question,” Zillmer said.

Go on.

“Yes, I know the answer,” Zillmer repeated, volunteering nothing further.

Another phone call, to a neighbor of Bartman’s parents, resulted in a phone receiver being quickly hung up.

Two visits to the family home in a three-day period yielded no Bartman sightings and no answer to a knock on the door.

Why not call Frank Murtha, a lawyer and family friend, who screens Bartman’s inquiries from the news media?

“You’re one in a long line who would like to talk to him,” Murtha said.

His words were polite, his tone weary. As the Cubs clinched the N.L. Central, Murtha said, “the pulse of interest has picked up.”

Murtha said a reporter from The Sun-Times showed up at the family home and was shooed away last week.

“He’s fine,” Murtha said of Bartman. “He doesn’t have any comments on what’s going on in his life.”

Two years ago, a reporter for ESPN.com stalked Bartman’s car at his place of employment, Hewitt Associates, an international consulting firm in a nearby suburb. After taking issue with the writer’s sudden appearance in the lot, Bartman commented on how well the Cubs had played in a 14-6 victory over Boston. “They were hitting the ball all over the place,” he said.

Catherine Brandt, a spokeswoman for Hewitt Associates, confirmed that Bartman still works there but offered no more information. A message left on Bartman’s office voice mail brought no response.

A Google search of “Steve Bartman” called up more than 74,000 references but precious little new material. Nor did Bartman respond to two letters - one e-mailed, one handwritten and left with his lawyer.

Perhaps informants could be found near the well-groomed baseball field behind the two-story white house where Bartman grew up. It is part of a large park that also includes a building with hockey rinks.

Near the ice sat Wayne Arner, a local resident in a blue Cubs T-shirt who watched his son play goalie last Saturday, the day after Chicago clinched the division.

“You’ve got to feel for him,” Arner said of Bartman. “One thing that happens in your life defines your whole future.”

It happened with one out in the eighth inning of Game 6 in 2003, when the Cubs were leading by 3-0 in the game and three games to two in the series. The Cubs lost the game, 8-3, and then the series, four games to three.

Arner was asked whether fans had forgiven Bartman.

“Some of the most diehard Cubs fans have not,” Arner said. “The ones who look at it realistically know it was certainly not his fault.”

On that fateful night, Bartman, then 26, was escorted for his safety out of the park by security guards after he deflected the ball. He was wearing a Cubs cap, glasses and radio headphones - a look that became a Halloween fashion here that year.

Andy MacPhail, then the team president, and Commissioner Bud Selig phoned Bartman with messages of support. The ball itself was purchased by a restaurant owner and blown to bits. Bartman turned down an invitation to participate, a pattern he has maintained to this day.

Murtha said a subsequent episode of “Law and Order” involved a character called “the foul ball guy,” who was murdered in a bar. “It was gratuitous,” Murtha said.

Last week, in bars outside Wrigley, fans who were asked to discuss the Cubs mentioned Bartman without prompting.

Dan May, a law student watching on TV last week at Murphy’s Bleachers as the Cubs closed in on the division title, said: “If he came in right now, I wouldn’t shoot him. But I’d break his knees.”

May’s roommate, Peter Mers, rolled his eyes when he heard this. “I blame Bartman,” Mers said. “But I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing.”

Hearing this, May told Mers that every fan must know not to touch a ball when it might hurt the home team.

Nearby, in the Cubby Bear, Lynn Callister watched the Cubs game with her son, Todd. “It wasn’t just Bartman that night,” she said. “Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.”

Her son added: “Everyone blames Bartman, but Álex González muffed a double-play ball. It’s a blur after that.” Of Bartman, he added: “The guy was a good Cubs fan. That’s got to be the worst feeling of all.”


Copyright © 2007 The New York Times Company (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html)

2007-10-03 09:32:40

[ulwashingtonstoothpick]

Last week, in bars outside Wrigley, fans who were asked to discuss the Cubs mentioned Bartman without prompting.

Dan May, a law student watching on TV last week at Murphy’s Bleachers as the Cubs closed in on the division title, said: “If he came in right now, I wouldn’t shoot him. But I’d break his knees.”

May’s roommate, Peter Mers, rolled his eyes when he heard this. “I blame Bartman,” Mers said. “But I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing.”

2007-10-03 09:32:40

It's "fans" like those that have kept me from pulling for the Cubs since 2003. The guy did what just about anyone else would have ---which even that Mers guy admits --- yet they've still convinced themselves that Bartman single-handedly blew a three-run lead, gave up another five unanswered, plus an entire game the next day. I'm sure most Cubs fans are smart enough to leave Bartman out of the equation four years after the fact, but it's unreal that you still have idiots like Mers and May out there. That guy's life was ruined, not because he went for a foul ball, but because the Cubs choked to death on their own vomit and he got the blame for it. Go D-Backs.

-Jason

[godwulf]

At the DBacks-Cubs game last night, after they'd done the usual "Kiss-Cam" segment on the jumbotron - panning around to various couples in the stands, trying to get them to kiss - they showed a Bartman lookalike, dressed exactly like Bartman and everything, sitting all alone with a baseball, while they played "Mr. Lonely". It was great.