Do the Bartman

Issue: Are we talking The Simpsons here?

Short Answer: Unfortunately for Steve Bartman, no.

Reasoning: For those of you who didn't catch last week's 30 for 30 episode on ESPN, do yourself a favor, and watch it.  The documentary was compelling, revealing, and more than riveting.  It dealt with the foul ball, hit in game 6 of the 2003 NLCS, that Steve Bartman, innocent fan, interfered with, causing Moises Alou, Chicago Cubs left fielder, to be unable to make the catch.  That, in itself, was not a big deal, as it happens all the time at Major League Baseball games.  The Cubs collapse later that inning (they were leading 3-0 at the time) became the big deal.  That collapse began to be blamed on Steve Bartman right then and there.  The Cubs fans started chanting "asshole, asshole" all while pointing at Bartman.  Never mind that Mark Prior started throwing batting practice, or that Alex Gonzalez booted a sure double play ball.  It was Bartman's fault, plain and simple.  They Cubs lost game 7 the following day, keeping in tact their World Series draught (the longest in history), and, who better to blame for losing that game too, than Steve Bartman.  Here are a few things I took away from the documentary:

• Chicago Cubs fans are the worst people on the planet.  For those of you who root for a team in the NL Central (i.e., the Reds) you already know this.  For those of you who don't, take it from me...and Steve Bartman.  When fans discovered Bartman was the one who interfered with the ball, they showered him with pizza, hot dogs, and beer.  One guy actually was interviewed for the documentary and admitted to screaming profanities at him and dousing him with beer.  He was thrown out of the stadium for "maybe the second or third time in my life."  You're a winner dude.  Way to make yourself look like a complete ass on TV, when you probably thought you looked cool.  Typical Cubs fan.
• Fox Sports should be ashamed.  There was always a question in my mind: how did people in Wrigley Field find out Bartman was the interfering party?  Wrigley Field has no jumbo tron replay board, so people inside NEVER saw a replay of the foul ball.  However, Cubs fans outside the stadium (on Waveland Avenue) had televisions with them so they could actually see what was going on inside the stadium.  Fox, who televised the game, showed the replay exactly 12,378,904 times (ok, maybe not that many, but it was close).  People outside started calling their friends inside telling them it was the guy in the green turtle neck (this is the reason I think Bartman took so much crap - I mean, even in 2003, what are you doing wearing a green turtle neck?).  And that is how and when Steve Bartman's life changed forever.  Remember, the Cubs are still winning 3-0 at this point!  But, Cubs fans, like Red Sox fans of the past, looked for omens, and, this, in their (stupid) opinions, was an omen, i.e., "now there is no way we are going to win!  Thanks asshole."  All because the producers at Fox wanted to show the fan interference so many times.  It wasn't a big play at the time, and it should have been treated as such.  But, it wasn't.
• Moises Alou carries the most blame.  This is true because of how he reacted.  He threw a temper tantrum.  And guess what that did to the fans inside Wrigley Field?  They started throwing temper tantrums too.  Even though they were up 3-0.  If Moises Alou reacts like any other fielder would have - by turning to the umpire in an attempt to have "fan interference" called (by the way, it should have been), the fans could have then taken their contempt out on the umpire (who should have been used to it by then), rather than Steve Bartman.  Instead, Alou threw a tantrum, spitting and cursing in Steve Bartman's direction.  In the documentary, Alou complains that the play is the only thing people ask him about to this day.  Well, Moises, that is mostly your own fault, and I don't feel sorry for you.
• The documentary was great, but the premise for it was not.  The documentary started with, and dealt with Bill Buckner, throughout.  And I'm still trying to figure out why.  The premise was basically this: people are remembered throughout history for one thing and one thing only, whether that is fair or foul.  Buckner was a fantastic player in his career, yet people only remember him (justifiably) for one thing.  Kind of like Bartman.  Oh, other than the fact that Bartman was not a professional baseball player.  The similarities between Buckner and Bartman end with the similarities of the teams (Cubs and Red Sox) and their plight through decades without a World Series title, the curses (of the Bambino and of the Billy Goat), and all the near misses that made fans sick.  The similarities are actually quite eerie.  The curses and the near misses explain, possibly, why Cubs fans reacted the way they did, but the director missed the biggest difference between Buckner and Bartman.  Buckner chose to live his life in the limelight by being a professional baseball player.  He knew very well that a ball going through his legs could be a very real possibility (he even gave an interview to that effect just before the World Series started), and that he might have to deal with the rest of his life.  It's called an occupational hazard.  Steve Bartman never chose to live his life in the limelight, he simply was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  There is a huge difference.  I think Bill Buckner got one of the rawest deals in history.  The ground ball through his legs was the ending to an entire team crapping down their legs.  He didn't lose them that game, nor was he the reason they lost game 7, but he was an easy scapegoat.  Steve Bartman wasn't even close to a reason why the Cubs lost, not even close.  And he wasn't even present at game 7, yet he was blamed for it all.  An innocent fan had his life ruined because of Fox Sports, Cubs fans, and Moises Alou.  I don't see how that relates to Bill Buckner AT ALL.

And that's it.  Steve Bartman got screwed worse than any person in the history of the world.  I'm not even sure there is a close second.