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Sports ExtraTuesday, September 30, 2008 6:36 PM CDT
Cubs curse: Forgiving the 'goat' of a playoff past
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CHICAGO -- Steve Bartman, I have a confession to make. I was one of those fools who dressed as you for Halloween. It was 2003. You'd just become infamous for deflecting that foul ball outfielder Moises Alou tried to catch in the National League championship series, the one that went so wrong for the Chicago Cubs. | Dempster gets shot to back up assertion | MLB page

My costume was a cross between you and the infamous Billy goat that supposedly started this whole Cubs curse thing back in 1945. I titled it "The Scapegoat."

Hee hee. Sure, it was a tiny poke at you. But really, it was a much bigger jab at all of us Cubs fans who were misdirecting our anguish after the Florida Marlins - trailing 3-0 - erupted for eight runs and won that Game 6. Then the Cubs blew Game 7, too.

But I miscalculated. As a new-ish Cubs fan, I discovered it was way too soon to make light of our team's latest meltdown.

A lot of people booed when I walked in a Halloween parade on Chicago's North Side, donning a Cubs cap and headphones, like the ones you wore that awful night, along with goat ears and a goat beard.

You weren't a very popular guy back then, Steve (like I have to tell you that).

But the past ... has passed. Five years later, the Cubs are again looking to claim that first World Series title since 1908. They start their playoff run Wednesday against the Los Angeles Dodgers. And guess what, Steve: Cubs fans are ready to forgive.

Really! I'm telling you. I checked with a lot of people - the kind who claim to "bleed Cubbie blue" - and they've moved on, some of them long ago.

"It was so easy to turn to that geeky looking kid and pin 95 years of frustration on him," Justin Rounds, a 30-year-old Chicagoan, says when asked about you. Rounds was working at a San Diego sushi restaurant in 2003 and, at the time, cursed your name to anyone who'd listen.

But now he says he's more mature - "and my emotions have calmed and my perspective has changed."

Paddy Stanton was so angry after the Game 6 loss that he hit his hand against a wall and fractured it.

"I broke my hand for the Cubs!" says Stanton, who's now a 29-year-old financial adviser in Chicago. "I have still not quite gotten over that night."

But he says he never really blamed you. Nope. He pinned his anger squarely on Alex Gonzalez, the Cubs shortstop who mishandled a potential double-play ball soon after your mishap.

Other Cubs fans point the finger (yes, probably that one) at former Cubs manager Dusty Baker, or pitcher Mark Prior, or even Alou. Some go as far as calling Alou a "brat" for jumping up and down in disgust after you deflected the ball away from his glove and into the stands.

I say maybe, just maybe, we should cut Alou a little slack, too. Isn't it possible he was just channeling decades worth of Cubs angst?

Take Kevin Johnson, for instance. He was at that Game 6 and, to this day, carries the ticket stub in his checkbook.

He recalls celebrating a little too early and thinking the Cubs were heading to the Series when they took a 3-0 lead into the eighth inning.

"I was ecstatic with the thought that I could tell folks for the rest of my life that I was at the game that put the Cubbies in the World Series for the first time in 58 years," says Johnson, a 50-year-old fan who lives in suburban Streamwood.

For fans like Johnson, this year - this World Series - is the focus. And Steve, several fans have told me in no uncertain terms that you are not.

"The media likes its heroes and its scapegoats, simple stories of good and evil rather than complex ones with shades of gray," says Bill Savage, a Northwestern University professor and Cubs season ticket-holder. He's also a a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and teaches a course called "Baseball in American Narrative."

"The Fox cameras focused on Bartman - who did what any fan near a foul ball does - and they kept running the clip over and over again," Savage says.

Columnists wrote about it immediately. One newspaper printed your home address.

And in 2004, the deflected ball was blown up in a ceremony at Harry Caray's restaurant in Chicago.

"So these multiple narratives coalesced to create a story, a meaningful narrative, with a single bad guy to blame for the Cubs' collapse."

But not anymore.

Most of us agree (you more than anyone, I'm sure): It's time to put this whole thing to rest.

"If the Cubs win the World Series, I will forgive each and any transgression against me by any human being, alive or dead, including Bartman, but excluding my second ex-wife," says Johnson, the guy with the ticket stub.

Pete Dunn attended a game last month at Wrigley Field and stopped to look at the "Bartman seat," after asking a few bystanders where it was. He was struck by just how close you were to the field.

"My heart has always gone out to him," says Dunn, a 47-year-old Chicago native who now lives in the Boston area. But having stood at that very seat, "I felt even more certainly that he was not the problem."

If the Cubs make it to the World Series, he hopes you get to throw the first pitch or sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"

"I'd raise my glass to him," Dunn says.

Annie Wilson, a 24-year-old fan in Washington, D.C., put it this way in her "Ode to Steve Bartman":

"Let's cut this poor Cubs fan some slack,

"Since, this year, our Cubbies have no lack.

"With Piniella and 'Big Z,'

"Soriano and Lee,

"After a century, our pennant's coming back."

So now, Steve Bartman, there's really just one question.

Do you forgive us?

Take a look
In this Oct. 14, 2003 file photo, Chicago Cubs left fielder Moises Alou's arm is seen reaching into the stands, at right, unsuccessfully for a foul ball along with a fan identified as Steve Bartman, left, wearing headphones, glasses and Cubs hat, during the eighth inning against the Florida Marlins in Game 6 of the National League Championship Seriesin Chicago. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
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Reader comments on this story - 12 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

KRAMER wrote on Sep 30, 2008 6:05 PM:

" Its not the goat or bartman It was Fred (Bonehead) Merkel and his 100 yrs. are over.. google it.. "

juan encarnacion's eye wrote on Sep 30, 2008 3:16 PM:

" The Cubbies will continue their on-slaught of every team in their path in the playoffs. They've dominated all season long and it will continue in the playoffs all the way to the World Series victory that Dempster predicted at the start of spring training. And carebear89, what is with the "Go Cards" statement...where exactly are they going? I'll tell you. They are going nowhere, except maybe to their vacation homes because their pathetic season is OVER. SMOKED by the Cubbies who are now in the playoffs and you can only watch in horror as the Cubbies clean house. STOP CRYING AND DEAL WITH IT! "

Carebear89 wrote on Sep 30, 2008 1:58 PM:

" Oh cubbie fans...they are going to choke anyway, just like they did five years ago and who are you going to blame it on then? Go Cards!!! "

Poster Boy wrote on Sep 30, 2008 9:30 AM:

" I'm confused. Why is there a picture of a crowd in a story about the Bart-man. I always though the Bart Man was a routine by Bart Simpson where he does a little dance while mooning people and singing "Hey, hey, everybody to the Bart man." "

realist wrote on Sep 30, 2008 6:58 AM:

" To Cats: My point wasn't to turn the discussion to politics, my point was to slam AP. I just find it funny how many garbage articles they publish to sway public opinion. This article is just one more example. I've been a Cubs fan a long time, seems to me the reason they've been so bad over the years is in the 70's (probably longer) they used to sell off all their talent just to make a buck. It's taken a long time to overcome that and build up the minor league system. But look at them now! But just like in the political race, the press is the one trying to distract things away from the issues that matter. "

The Cats wrote on Sep 29, 2008 9:44 PM:

" To realist...there is no "digging up dirt on the republican candidates"...they heap it on themselves. Leave it to a radical republican to turn a conversation about baseball into a factually challenged rant about politics. Go Cubs...and LOL in Novmebr qas the Democrats sweep into power. "

MWA wrote on Sep 29, 2008 9:18 PM:

" Isn't it great to live in the past...all one hundred years of it losing...stay tuned, LA will end your hopes and fears...by the way, Sam's goat's name was Murphy and the telegram that he sent to Bill Wrigley merely stated: Who stinks now?" The Andy Frain ushers caused your problem when they wouldn't let old Murphy sit in a box seat next to his owner...get ready to blame something else this year....maybe Steinbrenner when he fired old Joe Torre, or maybe Manny...you will need something out there to blame! "

Realist wrote on Sep 29, 2008 8:52 PM:

" I think the real curse is the press continuing to write these annoying stories. It's from the AP, so I'm assuming it must be a slow night digging up trash on the Republican candidates, so we get to read this instead. "

Jay G wrote on Sep 29, 2008 8:09 PM:

" Let it go! "

workingclasshero wrote on Sep 29, 2008 7:12 PM:

" the curse was made in 1945. curses are to last 100 years. being a life long fan, i hope im wrong, but i fear we have a long road ahead. "

newshound wrote on Sep 29, 2008 5:26 PM:

" I've always said anyone in that position would try to catch a playoff ball. All it amounts to it was a foul ball. Doesnt matter if it was an arms lenght in the stands or 30 rows. It was unfortunate the events that FOLLOWED all went downhill for the Cubs. Was is Steves fault? No. The Cubs were still there to complete game 6. Couldnt. And couldnt rebound in game 7. "

michelle24 wrote on Sep 29, 2008 3:02 PM:

" This true-blue Cubbie fan was upset as well at Bartman--that is until Alou said himself that there was no way he could have caught it. Anyway--that was then, this is now. GO CUBS!!! GET YOUR RINGS!! "

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