Once the media does.

Had Alou caught the ball, we’d still be 4 outs away. And apparently it wasn’t meant to be and Cubs would have found another way to blow the game, AKA Alex Gonzalez.

     Over the years, since the event, I have joked often about Bartman as if he really was the cause of the Cubs collapse. I have argued with people time and time again about wheather Bartman actually reached out into the field of play and interfered with Alou’s ability to catch the ball. To this day there are some people who think the ball would have landed in the stands, which is not true, because I still have a photo clearly showing Bartman reaching out into the field of play. The umpires blew this call! This should have been fan interference and the batter should have been called out. It doesn’t matter or should not have mattered that Bartman was a Cub fan. Interference is interference, plain and simple. Even if the call that should have been made was not, the Cubs still failed to close it out. You can blame Gonzalez. You can blame any number of people. What about the next game? Did the Cubs not have another game to put it away? We focus too much on one incident, when a game consists of nine innings. The end of a game is no more or less relevant than the beginning of the game. The Cubs failed to make the playoffs this year not because of what they did in September, but what they didn’t do in April or May or June or July or August. Blaming Bartman is nonsense and I agree the Cubs should extend an apology to him and put this behind us, otherwise he just might put a “hex” on the Cubs like the Billy Goat and then the Cubs will not win the the World Series for another 100 years.

There can be no denying this. He quite literally lent a hand in changing the game, if only in tempers, slowing the game, and general sense of anger and dread that swept through the stadium faster than a deflating balloon. But it is the team who blew it (the game, not the balloon). Besides, even without a Bartman-incident they still had plenty of time to blow it in the 9th. This is the Cubs we are talking about.

For him to have his life threatened, have to go through all the hoopla, negative press, and post like this from jerks like myself splattered all over the internet, he should be given life-long season tickets by the Ricketts (just put him behind the screen so he can’t make the same natural reaction/mistake again). Maybe help reverse the curse, just on the wee bit o’ chance there is one. Gotta be karma points in there at the very least.

Free season tickets for life and onto the new era, GiT ’ER DONE, RICKETTS.

should hold a press conference and say:

“I am going to sell my hat, earphones, shirt, underwear and ticket stub on e-bay. I am going to hold autograph sessions. I will participate in reenactments of the play in every dirtbag community theater that pays me $10 and a Subway sandwich. I will offer to fight Moises Alou in Celebrity Boxing and pee on his feet.

“You idiots stole my life and I’m getting some back. Kill yourself if you don’t like it.”

That loss was Dusty’s fault. Prior came out in the 8th with nothing – his slider had been breaking down before that but in the 8th it was absolutlely flat. If he had gotten ouit of that inning, it would have been pure dumb luck. Any manager with living brain cells comes out to get him as soon as one runner gets on – hit, walk, or passed ball on a swinging strike 3.

Leave him out and the Marlins were going to realize he had lost it, leading to BP. Which was why the Cubs really lost that game.