Six seconds, three pops, a couple of “zzztttzzz” and the folks gathered at Kinzie and Dearborn Streets figured they had witnessed the undoing of 58 years of misfortune.
They weren’t the only ones watching the infamous Bartman Ball’s last moments Thursday night.
MSNBC, CNN and ESPN thought it important enough to broadcast the obliteration of the baseball blamed
for derailing the Cubs’ run to the World Series.
Earlier, NBC’s “Today” show highlighted the publicity stunt-turned-charity windfall for juvenile diabetes research.
A combination of heat, pressure and explosives ended the mystery as to how the baseball would be destroyed, as well as ending its existence as so many of us were forced to know it.
Oscar-winning special effects coordinator Michael Lantieri and fellow effects specialist Scott Fisher experimented on about 40 balls in California before unveiling the clear, bullet-proof tank into which the condemned was placed.
A hole was drilled into the ball; explosives capable of launching it 8,000 feet per second were inserted into it; and a “shock tube” applied the pressure that, electrically ignited, blew it up.
The shards that remained were collected and will be on display in the various Harry Caray’s restaurants.
A United Services Security team of 13 guards kept the ball under constant guard Wednesday and Thursday.
Asked if this was the strangest and only assignment he has had protecting an inanimate object, guard Junodi Norfleet, 28, said, “I’d have to say yes. I usually do residential security.”
Before the final deed was done, David Anderson, a 28-year-old Chicagoan and server for Harry Caray’s, “served” the ball’s last meal of surf-and-turf and a Bud in a suite at the Amalfi Hotel across the street Wednesday night.
“I’ve been on the news all day,” he said breathlessly. “I was really nervous, but they just told me to do what I normally do. I asked where it wanted the meal served, and I said, ‘Will there be anything else?’ “
There wasn’t.
