We have become a weird mesh of tribalism when it comes to our professional sports. As soon as there’s a reason to question anything we all fall in line and pounce. This was never more evident than when Steve Bartman interfered with a foul ball which many attributed to causing the Chicago Cubs to lose their mojo and lose to the then Florida Marlins in the NLCS.
Because of this, it appeared that Cubs fans wanted a good ole fashion public hanging in town’s square with the Bartman situation.
Over the past few seasons we’ve had a bit of revisionist’s history of the situation, and maybe it was the World Series or time or just realizing fans nearly ruined (if they didn’t at least for a short time) a man’s life because he happened to touch a baseball. It appeared we learned our lesson, well most of us did. We realized that this guy may have made a mistake, we realized we are better than that, we realized the players were ultimately responsible for the play and results of the game.
It appeared we grew.
But Wednesday night, in the ninth inning of a 6-4 ballgame. Francisco Cervelli of the Pittsburgh Pirates (and official team mascot for the Cubs thorns in their side) popped a foul ball along the first base side. As the ball drifted towards the stands, first baseman Anthony Rizzo rushed the bricks to make an attempt at the ball. Reaching beyond the safety netting, which was just extended this season to cover more sensitive areas within the stands, to attempt to catch the ball. It was nearly impossible for Anthony to even touch the ball, let alone nearly make the play.
But there was a fan, virtually that last fan at the edge of the safety netting. Head up, watching the ball (and probably thinking OH MY GOD ITS COMING AT ME). Oblivious to the fact that Tony was standing and reaching over next to him, the ball comes down and he and Rizzo reach for the ball. The ball lands, it is foul, Cervelli goes on to drive a ball down the right field line scoring two runs to tie the game.
That’s when the outrage started up again. Fans all over social media screaming Steve Bartman 2.0. Erasing the past 15 years where we should have gotten smarter. Right back to our tribal, moronic, and simplistic selves. We didn’t learn, we’ve just moved onto a new target.
It is moments like this that allow my dark mind to slip to areas and admit that a large portion of the Cubs fanbase doesn’t deserve this golden era of baseball. They didn’t deserve the World Series. They don’t deserve the four playoff runs. They don’t deserve what happens next. Once something outside the realm of expected outcome (realistic or not) happens this portion of fans looks to tar and feather the fellow fan. Maybe writing this is no better than their behavior, but Cubs fans nearly ruined a man’s life, there were several documentaries on how we ruined his life, and yet there’s a group of fans out there looking to ruin another man’s life for touching a baseball that would have knocked him in the head had he not moved.
Maybe we should actually learn our lesson, or maybe because we’ve proven to not learn all of this should be taken away. Maybe Bill Burr was right.
