Moments after the Bartman Ball ceased to exist, master of ceremonies Harold Ramis turned into the master of the obvious.
“You’re now looking at $113,000 worth of string,” Ramis quipped.
That may have been true for people watching on television, but few of the several hundred people packed into the tent set up on Kinzie Street outside of Harry Caray’s could see a thing.
While Billy Corgan stood on the makeshift stage snapping keepsake photos of the blasted ball, Lincoln Park resident Mike DiBenedetto stood far in the back sipping a beer.
“I heard some electric shocks, but I really didn’t see much at all,” DiBenedetto said.
The atmosphere was that of a summer street festival, with hot dog vendors open for business and Porta Pottis, well, also open for business.
About an hour before the ball blew up, Corgan was on stage for less than 10 minutes and sang a mere two songs. The first was a ditty about the Cubs he wrote last summer, and the second was the Cheap Trick classic “I Want You to Want Me,” both accompanied by Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Neilsen.
“It was terrible,” Corgan said. “This is not an environment for that.”
Corgan, like Ramis, didn’t take the event too seriously.
“I think it shows a lot of courage and humor to destroy the ball,” Corgan said. “What other city would do this? We’ve turned this into something that’s very Chicago-like, and that’s what I like about it. I’m a Chicagoan. I love my city.”
