By all accounts, Steve Bartman is one of the biggest and most passionate Cubs fans around and has been for most of his life. Yet when asked recently by a neighbor if he thought the Cubs might offer to let him throw out the first pitch at Wrigley Field for the home opener, Bartman apparently didn’t hesitate.
“I sure hope not,” Bartman, 26, told Ron Cohen. “I don’t want to be there.”
Bartman may be out of sight, but Thursday night’s destruction of the Bartman ball has ensured he’s not out of mind.
While Billy Corgan, Harold Ramis and revelers at Harry Caray’s restaurant are having a ball Thursday night, don’t expect any Bartman sightings. Bartman was the first to touch the infamous foul ball and has no desire to be among the last to handle it, according to Frank Murtha, a Bartman family spokesman.
“We have no plans for a statement and we have no immediate plans for any response to whatever’s going to happen [with the ball],” Murtha said.
Seeking to regain his anonymity, Bartman has adamantly refused to prolong his stunning rise to fame. He has turned down interview requests, endorsements and appearances of any kind, including one to attend the Super Bowl, according to Cohen, who has known and lived next to the Bartman family for 25 years.
Interviews with friends and neighbors reveal that Bartman’s day-to-day life has returned somewhat to normal since that October night.
Reporters and curiosity seekers no longer mill around the Bartman family home in Northbrook or Bartman’s suburban office, although the ball’s destruction has reignited interest. The family had its telephone number changed, but they still receive occasional harassing calls, Cohen said.
In the immediate aftermath of the game, Bartman, who lives at his parents’ house in Northbrook, took a couple of days off from his job at Hewitt Associates, a Lincolnshire consulting firm. Soon after, he spent a week in Wisconsin with friends, Cohen said.
Bartman received telephone calls from Cubs President Andy MacPhail as well one from Commissioner Bud Selig that lasted around 45 minutes, Cohen said.
“[Selig] just wanted to talk with him to make sure he was OK,” said MLB spokesman Patrick Courtney.
The baseball cap and headphones Bartman was wearing when TV cameras caught him reaching for the ball were distinctive enough that his image became a popular Halloween costume, but it also may have helped him maintain some anonymity.
Bartman hasn’t done anything to change his appearance, Cohen added, and when he took Bartman and his mother out to dinner in Lincolnshire a few weeks ago, nobody seemed to recognize the famous Cubs fan.
Bartman’s mother, meanwhile, was curt when approached this week:
“Put it to sleep,” she said. “We’ve had enough.”
Bartman ball’s full day
– The baseball will appear at about 6.35 a.m. on NBC’s “Today Show,” which is broadcasting Thursday from the local NBC 5 studio. The destruction method will be revealed on air.
– The ball will sit in the display case from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Harry Caray’s restaurant, 33 W. Kinzie St., watched by two security guards.
– The destruction at 7:32 p.m.will be broadcast live on MSNBC, and at bars around the city, the nation and in 50 countries. Go to www.toast.citysearch.com for locations.
