KRAMER VS.
Steve "Foul Ball" Bartman

By IRWIN KRAMER
The Daily Record
October 20, 2003

The Windy City has faced its share of villains. Al “Scarface” Capone, John Dillinger, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, and, now the most notorious of its citizens, Steve “Foul Ball” Bartman.

While some Chicagoans take perverse pride in their city’s history as home to infamous gangsters, the locals have readily disowned an excited spectator who may have cost them nothing more than a baseball game. Replacing Capone as Chicago’s Public Enemy No. 1, Steve Bartman won’t make it to the “Ten Most Wanted” list, but many diehard Cubs fans denounce his actions in the sixth game of the National League Championship Series as the “crime of the century.”

Only five outs from their first trip to the World Series since World War II, Cubs’ outfielder Moises Alou chased a fly ball into foul territory for what appeared to be the second out of the eighth inning. As Alou reached into the stands to make the catch, Bartman tried to grab a piece of baseball history. The botched play helped the rival Florida Marlins rally for an 8-3 victory, force a decisive seventh game, and ultimately place the Cubs’ season into baseball history.

Bartman didn’t catch the ball, but he won’t need a souvenir to remember this game. While he was instantly exonerated by umpires who ruled that Bartman did not commit the heinous crime of “fan interference,” his fellow fans and Cubs’ players have been much less forgiving.

Blamed by thousands for dashing their dreams of the first World Series trophy since 1908, Bartman has borne the brunt of 95 years of collective frustration. As screaming spectators pelted him with debris, security guards placed a jacket over Bartman’s face and escorted him from the stadium. After this 26-year-old received threatening phone calls, the police posted a guard outside the house where Bartman lives with his parents. Florida’s governor even offered him asylum.

Finding “few words to describe how awful I feel,” this disheartened fan apologized for “the relationship between my actions and the outcome of the game.” Though Major League rules permit fans to catch balls hit into the stands, Bartman regretted that he got “caught up in the moment.” With his “eyes glued on the approaching ball the entire time,” Bartman confessed that he “did not even see Moises Alou, much less that he may have had a play.”

Unable to make the catch, Alou slammed his glove in anger at Bartman. Having “jumped perfectly,” Alou was “almost 100 percent [sure] that I had a clean shot to catch the ball... All of a sudden, there’s a hand on my glove. Hopefully, he won’t have to regret it for the rest of his life.”

How will Steve Bartman ever forgive himself for getting “caught up in the moment,” reaching for a souvenir, and interfering with the championship aspirations of a major league ballplayer?

If fans can’t take the game seriously and control their enthusiasm, Major League Baseball must protect its players by banning all spectators from the stands. Without unnecessary fans at the ballpark, players like Moises Alou will never again see their hopes and dreams dashed by irresponsible spectators who fail to resist their childish penchant for baseballs. Nor will these players have to worry about the hazards posed by outstretched arms, the distracting noise created by the cheers of those who failed to make it to the majors themselves, or the enormous tax bills generated by multimillion dollar salaries.