As Brinson told you about yesterday, the unfairly vilified Steve Bartman was offered $25,000 by an online sports memorabilia site to sign a picture of him interfering with a foul ball in the 2003 NLCS at Wrigley Field. All Steve would have had to do was show up at a sports collectible convention in Rosemont, Illinois, sign the picture, and cash the check.Unfortunately there's one factor that Sportsbuy.com didn't take into consideration before making this offer, and that's that Steve Bartman cannot be bought! He doesn't need your stinking money.
Bartman friend Frank Murtha says that Bartman won't accept an offer of $25,000. For the money, all Bartman would have to do is attend the National Sports Collectors Convention in Rosemont and autograph a photograph taken of when he tipped a foul ball that seemed destined for Cubs' outfielder Moises Alou's glove during a 2003 playoff game with the Florida Marlins.I don't know if I'd call it a brush with fame as much as a brush with infamy, but to each his own I suppose. Can't we just leave this guy alone, though? It's been five years since it happened, and the Cubs kind of have other more important things going on at the moment. Considering that Bartman completely dropped off the face of the earth after that fateful night in October 2003, and has done a very good job of staying there, I think it's pretty obvious he doesn't want to be pigeonholed with this the rest of his life. It wasn't even his fault the Cubs lost that NLCS anyway.
Bartman has declined all offers to appear or make money off his brush with fame.
So let's just leave him be, okay?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-24-2008 @ 12:37PM
900 W Addison Resident said...
No. We cant leave this guy alone. Simpletons who write stories years after the fact blush over what truly transpired during the Marlins series. In the previous game during a routine foul ball, a Wrigley fan interfered along the first base line. A general announcement was made explaining the significance of fan interference. Bartman knew he was interfering the whole time. The play-by-play he was listening to on his vintage headphones was ALOU HAS A PLAY, ALOU HAS A PLAY! -yet Bartman a grown man had to go for a $3 baseball.
The play echoed through the next plays Prior (who up to the inteference was pitching a 3-hit shutout) threw a wild pitch walk putting Cast on base and advancing a runner to 3rd (and forcing Gonz. to turn a double play to makeup for Bartmans retardation.) Had Bartman not done what he did, the runners would have never advanced or gotten on base, the Cubs would have had 1 out remaining in the 8th -4 from the World Series.
The Cubs took the Marlins to 7 games. The Yankees barely took them to 6 games before losing.
So no. So long as we keep records of teams wins and losses, there will always be stories. Jordan's flu during the NBA finals is another story -shall we forget about that as well since it's not in the stats. What other revisionisms would you like to request while you're at it?
We will continue to insult. We have memories hence, Wrigley, Goats and everything that makes the Cubs great. And to your weak point "the Cubs kind of have more important things" -this isn't the Cubs this is a publicity stunt for sportsbuy.com. I have serious doubts the anyone in the Cubs office has anything to do with or had any knowledge of this publicity stunt.
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7-24-2008 @ 1:20PM
Odie said...
900 W Addison, I weep for you. As a fellow Chicagoan and as just a sports fan, it is truly sad that you can feel that way. I wasn't aware your crystal ball allowed you to see what would have happened had Bartman, not to mention 2 other fans, not reached for a ball that was clearly in the stands. Of course in the minds of all blue-blooded Cub fans, Alou catches that ball, the Cubs end that inning and the series, and everyone wobbles drunk out on to Waveland to celebrate.
Of course we can not put the blame on star athletes like Mark Prior who failed to get himself out the inning and threw a pitch to the backstop, Alex Gonzalez who boots a routine ground ball, or Kerry Wood and all the Cubs who failed to use the 27 outs they still had in Game 7 to beat the Marlins.
Yes the play will never be forgotten, but your angst against a man who never actually played on the field and was involved in one play whose outcome would still be undetermined had he not been there, just goes to show why this moment overshadows the true game.
Please just get over with it, maybe if you do you can even enjoy what the Cubs have done this year.
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7-24-2008 @ 1:48PM
Dave said...
Ya know what I find funny, is that everyone always brings up Steve Bartman, yet, nobody points the finger at all the people around him who also had thier hand out wanting to catch the ball.
I mean if Alou was so certain he was going to catch the ball, why didnt he Jump/climb the wall to have a better chance to get the ball?
Why is it, the punk kid who back in 96 reached over the fence at yankee stadium to steal a fly ball away from the Orioles, gets treaded like royalty?? what if that had happend at Camden Yards?
Why not just blame the Cub cuz they blew the lead??? it's because they are a bunch of spoiled premaddonna punks who cant just admit they blew the lead and lost to the Marlins. they need to have a Goat, to blame it on. Which basically ended up ruining this young guys life.
Now, what if it was a 70yr old guy who went for this ball??? would you go out and basically want to lynch this guy? Cuz thats basically what people wanted to do, to Steve.
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7-24-2008 @ 9:03PM
lefty said...
Bartman didn't make a dime on the baseball. Let it be.
It should really be called the SunTimes ball since they were the ones to benefit from naming Bartman in their stories.
There were lots of hands in that picture that were going after the ball that day. Why don't they come forward and why aren't their names released? Was it too covenient and lazy to focus on the one guy that happened to be in most photos taken from that angle that day?
The guy to mention is the guy that actually got the ball and sold it to Harry Carays, remember it was not Bartman. His name should replace the Bartman name in all stories. At one time he owned the ball. I also blame the Sun Times for releasing the name information when they did not need to do so.
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