Steve Bartman gets a World Series ring? Now that’s Cub.
Leave it to the Cubs to revisit one of their darkest moments in history while still taking a rare World Series victory lap. Might as well give one to Dusty Baker and Alex Gonzalez because they had more to do with botching that ill-fated Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series than Bartman ever did.
It has been no secret that Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts has long wanted to right the wrong that has been done against Bartman, the over-eager fan who tried to catch a foul ball that left fielder Moises Alou never would have gloved had he been given 100 tries.
The wrath aimed at Bartman was wrong that October night in 2003 and it’s wrong to revisit the moment now. The best thing the Cubs could have done was leave Bartman alone. Winning the 2016 World Series took the poor guy off the hook for good anyway.
Now they are shoving him back into the limelight in a way he never really wanted.
“My hope is that we all can learn from my experience to view sports as entertainment and prevent harsh scapegoating, and to challenge the media and opportunistic profiteers to conduct business ethically by respecting personal privacy rights and not exploit any individual to advance their own self-interest or economic gain,” Bartman said in a statement.
Yet exploiting that self-interest is exactly what the Cubs are doing here.
Bartman didn’t do anything wrong.
Mark Prior became unraveled during that ill-fated eight-run eighth inning against the Marlins because he was still maturing as a pitcher. His manager — Baker — did nothing to help him through that inning after Gonzalez booted a likely double-play grounder and Bartman tried to catch a ball that was out of Alou’s reach.
Bartman became a scapegoat because Alou and Baker fed into that thinking. He’s not the reason the Cubs lost that game, and ultimately that NLCS that they once controlled. Yet awarding him a World Series ring feeds into the notion this fan did something wrong.
Who else gets a ring? How about Baker? He’s managing the Nationals, a team the Cubs could very well meet in the postseason. Let’s give him a ring for mismanaging that 2003 NLCS. How about Alou? His temper tantrum certainly helped shift the Cubs’ — and Prior’s — focus away from finishing that inning.
Heck, let’s give one to Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano, who failed to hit during the 2007 and 2008 playoffs. Leon Durham gets one for that error in the 1984 NLCS. How about Billy Sianis, the tavern owner who famously brought his goat to Wrigley Field in 1945 and was turned away, supposedly cursing the team. How about Lee Elia, whose famous meltdown probably derailed the Cubs in 1983 — the season before they went to the playoffs.
Let’s give one to Crane Kenney, the controversial team president of business operations whose signature moment of buffoonery was having a priest bless the Cubs’ dugout in 2008 — just as manager Lou Piniella was instructing his team not to believe in ghosts or curses.
Wait, Crane Kenney got his ring this year.
Seems like they’re giving these things away like candy.
