Imagine Steve Bartman turning on “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Christmas Eve. Can he possibly watch the holiday classic without putting himself in Jimmy Stewart’s shoes? Can Bartman even imagine how different life would be had he not touched that foul ball on Oct. 14, the night he morphed from anonymous suburbanite into a living symbol of Cubs futility?
Bartman’s solitary act of unsuccessfully trying to catch a foul ball, witnessed by some 40,000 fans at Wrigley Field and an estimated 19.4 million U.S. television viewers, became an instant classic. Writing of the incident in The New Yorker, Roger Angell said Bartman’s name “became inextricably woven into the 128-year history of the franchise.”
And Bartman’s name is back in the news again, and just in time for the holidays.
The infamous ball he may or may not have prevented Moises Alou from catching in the eighth inning of Game 6 of the National League Championship Series sold at auction Friday for $106,000, apparently as part of a publicity stunt for Harry Caray’s restaurants. The buyer plans to destroy the ball Feb. 26 in an effort to achieve “closure” of the episode.
What all this means is an attorney who refuses to divulge his name gets the fortune, and Bartman gets more fame he doesn’t want and all the celebrity headaches that go with it.
While Bartman has remained out of sight in the two months since Game 6, he seldom has been out of mind. Manager Dusty Baker mentioned him during the winter meetings. When Alou made a trip to Kentucky in November to purchase some mares for his stable, he was asked how many times he’d been asked about the foul ball. “About 25 times a day,” Alou told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “I think it’s going to go on the rest of my life.”
Bartman spent Halloween knowing he had inadvertently spawned one of the year’s most popular costumes–the “headphones-over-Cubs cap” look. Come Thanksgiving, Bartman was named “Turkey of the Year” by ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption.”
December started slowly. But just when Bartman probably thought the coast was clear, he came home one day a few weeks ago to find a TV crew from Japan camped outside. The crew was there to do an update on Bartman’s life since the incident, but left without an interview.
Yes, it’s a wonderful life being Steve Bartman, the newly christened scapegoat for a franchise’s storied history of ineptitude. Now, how much do we bid for Alex Gonzalez’s mitt?
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Edited by Michael Kellams (mkellams@tribune.com)
