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Tomorrow, seven years ago in Wrigley Field in Chicago,... a fall-guy was born. In the 8th inning of the National League Championship Series, with the Cubs leading 3-0 over the Florida Marlins, and leading the seven game series 3-2, with 1 out, a Marlin foul-ball down the left field line was touched by one of several fans who attempted to catch it after the ball had entered the stands thereby 'theoretically' preventing the Cub outfielder from making the second out. Following this incident the Cubs allowed the following to happen: a walk; a single; an error; a double; an intentional...

Many teams blow up their rosters after failing to win a World Series. Frustrated Chicago Cubs fans are blowing up a baseball. In the final chapter of one of the most bizarre sagas in baseball history, Harry Caray's Restaurant Group in Chicago is staging a "Destroy the Ball, Find a Cure, Be a Part of History" event beginning Wednesday and culminating in Thursday evening's nationally televised demolition of the infamous ball. The condemned ball was deflected by diehard Cubs fan Steve Bartman from the reach of left fielder Moises Alou during Game 6 of the National League Championship Series against...

CHICAGO - Harry Caray's restaurant paid $106,600 for the infamous baseball deflected by a fan, and the owners want to destroy the ball and close an agonizing chapter in Cubs history. AP Photo AP Photo Slideshow: MLB: Cubs "Destroying it hopefully will have kind of a cathartic effect for the fans," said winning bidder Grant DePorter, a friend of the late broadcaster and managing partner of his restaurant. DePorter bought the ball in an Internet auction and said he plans to destroy it Feb. 26, when the restaurant organizes a worldwide toast to Caray, who died in 1998. He said...

<p>OAK BROOK, Ill. (AP) -- The owners of Harry Caray's restaurant paid $106,600 for the ball that was deflected by a fan during a playoff loss, a purchase aimed at closing an agonizing chapter in Cubs history.</p> <p>The ball was sold at auction early Friday, with the winning bid by Grant DePorter, managing partner of Harry Caray's Restaurant group, named for the late Cubs broadcaster.</p>

In Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series between the Florida Marlins and the Chicago Cubs Wednesday night, five outs Marlins second baseman Luis Castillo stood in against right-hander Mark Prior of the Cubs, who’d been painting a three-hit shutout until that point. With one out, a 3-2 count, and the Marlins speedy Juan Pierre on second with a double, the switch-hitting Castillo sliced a Prior pitch down the left field foul line. As the pop-up tailed for the grandstands. Cubs leftfielder Moises Alou circled under it, braced his right hand against the wall of the Wrigley Field...

Do you think the media acted responsibly when they released the name of the man who grabbed the foul ball during the Cubs game?

Another Bone-Headed Play The Cubs owe their last World Series victory to a fluke. Friday, October 17, 2003 12:01 a.m. EDT We doubt that it will be any consolation to Steve Bartman, the hapless Chicago man who did what any fan would do when a ball was hit his way: try to catch it. But for the embittered Cubs fans who chanted profanities at him during Game 6 and are now blaming him for blowing their chance for a World Series berth, we've got some news: You wouldn't even have been in the 1908 World Series--the last time you won--without...

MIAMI - If he's interested, the 26-year-old Chicago fan who deflected a foul ball away from a Cubs outfielder in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series can find solace in Florida. Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday an offer of asylum might be a good idea, and an oceanfront retreat in Pompano Beach is offering the man a free three-month stay, should he deem it necessary to get out of Chicago until the hubbub over the popup cools down. The fan, whom The Associated Press was holding off naming for fears of his safety, would also receive free airfare and...

Unlucky Cubs fan says he's brokenhearted after deflecting ball Oct. 15, 2003 SportsLine.com wire reports CHICAGO -- The fan who played in a key role in the Chicago Cubs ' collapse in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series apologized Wednesday, saying he was brokenhearted. With the Cubs five outs from advancing to the World Series for the first time since 1945, Steve Bartman tried to grab a foul ball, preventing outfielder Moises Alou from catching it. That helped the Florida Marlins rally for an 8-3 victory to tie the NL Championship Series Tuesday night. COMMENTARY Fan didn't lose Game...

CHICAGO -- We don't know his name. We don't want to know his name. We hope no one in Chicago ever learns his name. We hope he already has joined the witness-protection program. We hope he can start a new life somewhere, rooting for a team thousands of miles from the North Side of Chicago. We hope he forgets. We hope the people of Chicago forget about him. But that will never happen. No way. Because the Cubs lost a playoff game they couldn't lose Tuesday night. And one reason they lost it is because a 26-year-old guy in a...

CHICAGO - They were down to their final five outs. Five more outs and their season would be over. Five more outs and they would go home, kick back for the winter, and daydream about the glorious summer that was. And then, as a stunned Wrigley Field crowd of 39,577 sat in dumbfounded silence, it happened. The Marlins found their magic. They whipped out their wand in the waning, desperate moments Tuesday and produced one of their most dramatic victories in a summer full of them. Down 3-0 and facing elimination with a loss to the Chicago Cubs in Game...

CHICAGO (AP) - A howling mob demanded answers, a name to go with the face. Instead, haunted members of Cub Nation should ask themselves a few questions. What kind of kid grows up rooting for a team whose motto is, "Wait 'til next year?" What kid learns about curses by the time he's old enough to walk and hears testimonials about suffering from grandparents, parents, siblings, cousins, neighbors and friends and then decides, "That's for me?" Very likely the kid who was parked in Seat 116, Row 9 on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field. A Cubs fan. One of their...

Chicago -- Last seen, the fan who tried to catch the ball was wearing a jacket on his head and being led into the underbelly of Wrigley Field for his own protection. He may forever be referred to as "that fan" or any number of other names after he reached for a pop foul that Cubs left fielder Moises Alou was about to catch for the second out in the eighth inning of Game 6 of the NLCS Series, with the Cubs leading 3-0 and five outs away from the World Series. But the ball struck the fan's hand and...

CHICAGO (AP) — Add a meddling fan and a rare error by a sure-handed shortstop to the Chicago Cubs' long history of misery and dashed hopes. The Cubs were five outs from their first World Series in 58 years Tuesday night when one of their own fans got in the way. It started a series of ugly plays that resulted in Florida's eight-run inning and an 8-3 victory for the Marlins in Game 6 of the NL championship series. "It has nothing to do with a curse," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. "It has to do with fan interference and...

<p>CHICAGO — Chicago Cubs (search) supporters showed up for a night-long party at Wrigley Field (search) on Tuesday, only to have their raucous celebration snuffed by a stunning late-inning rally that left them cursing one fellow fan.</p> <p>In a stunning eighth-inning turnaround, the Florida Marlins (search) took advantage of left fielder Moises Alou's run-in with a fan on a foul fly and an error by shortstop Alex Gonzalez to score eight runs in an 8-3 victory Tuesday night, forcing the NL championship series to a Game 7.</p>

Play Ball!

OAK BROOKE, Illinois -- The foul ball that may have saved the Florida Marlins' post season could be yours -- the biding will start at $5,000. An Internet auction house near Chicago claims to have the baseball at the center of one of the most infamous plays in Chicago Cubs history -- the foul fly from Game Six of this year's National League championship series. MastroNet Incorporated said it will auction the ball on behalf of a 33-year-old Chicago attorney identified only as "Jim". The company says Jim was sitting near Cubs fan Steve Bartman, who deflected a foul pop...

Crushed Chicago Cubs fans are dressing up for Halloween like Steve Bartman, the unlucky fan who may have cost the team a chance at the World Series. Juan Monreal Jr., who dressed up as Mr. Bartman last Saturday night for a house party, was greeted by five more Bartmans when he walked in. "I thought there was going to be another guy dressed up as Steve Bartman, but five guys, I didn't expect that," said the 15-year-old sophomore who lives in Brookfield, Ill., about 23 kilometres west of Chicago. The costume is simple. Just look like Mr. Bartman, whose image...

NOTE: I have not been a baseball fan for some time, although I was an absolute fanatic in my youth and part of my adulthood. I really rooted for the hapless Cubs, hoping they would finally break the jinx. It was not to be, once again. Diehard Cub fans, please don't be insulted by this. It is not meant to do that. Have a few brewskis and wait until next year. For years, I felt the pain of the Dodgers and Lakers. I know what it was like. MIDI - IT'S A HEARTACHE It is a heartache...Cubbie fans, a heartache...

Man in stands described as diehard fan Chicago Sun-Times, October 15, 2003 BY ANNIE SWEENEY, FRANK MAIN AND CHRIS FUSCO The man some fans blame for Tuesday night's Cubs loss because he reached out and touched a foul ball that Moises Alou was trying to catch is a diehard Cubs fan who coaches youth baseball in the north suburbs. Steve Bartman, 26, works at Hewitt Associates, an international consulting firm in Lincolnshire. "He is an associate at Hewitt, and he is not coming to work today because of the incident," Suzanne Zagata-Meraz, a spokeswoman for Hewitt, said this morning. "That...