Bartman, gets his ring!

By Paul Anthony

On October 14^th,2003 an event occurred that changed the lives of so many people, sure this wasn’t a world changing event but it was an event nonetheless, I am talking about the Steve Bartman foul ball incident. Now in case you don’t know the story or even forgot I’ll remind you. The Chicago Cubs were playing against the Florida Marlins in game six of the National League championship series, the Cubs had a 3-2 series advantage and were leading in the game 3-0, Luis Castillo of the Marlins hit a foul ball which appeared to be a catch able ball for Moises Alou who was running towards it on the third base side of the field, the ball from replay appeared to be slightly in crowd, some fans moved realizing this ball could be caught, others though still went for it and of those fans the made contact with one hand, the hand of Steve Bartman, whose hand slightly disrupted the ball path and ruining Alou chance at catching it, Bartman did what any fan would do in that moment, no doubt it was a simply mistake. Bartman was a lifelong Cub fan and to this day he still is.

The Cubs would have had a second out in that inning but after that, the floodgates open and would give up 8 runs and lose the game 8-3. The loss forced a game seven which they lost also and Marlins would end up heading to the World Series and winning it.

Bartman, was safe for a short time since there were no jumbotrons at Wrigley field at the time no one knew what exactly happen, but Fox couldn’t let it go, which many people at home saw and began calling their friends and family at the game, the word spread quickly and people began to point at him and throwing stuff at him and chanting at him forcing security to get him out of there for his own safety, at one point the threats were so bad many thought he would go into witness protection because of this.

Bartman will disappear from the public turning down endorsements and everything that would have made him a very rich guy, but his love and loyalty and heart break for what happen, he didn’t take a single dime. The funny thing is Alou would later come out and say he didn’t thing he could catch that ball though he would later say he doesn’t remember saying that.

As we know the Cubs would win it all in 2016, with fans even trying to get Bartman to throw the first pitch in one of those games. But in good spirit the Cubs did something special, they gave him his own championship ring to show good faith and settle this for good. Though Bartman didn’t he was worthy of it he felt honored to receive it and it will be something he will cherish forever. Maybe one day Bartman will return to Wrigley but we will just have to wait and see.

I am glad this is over to be honest, I thought the fans blew this out of the water, to want to cause harm to someone because of a game is just down right sad, but I am glad they are over it.