There's Something About Game 6's

One of Reggie Jackson's Three Game 6 Homers

Look at all the famous Game 6's. Not just in the World Series, but in any seven game series. 5 of the 6 Jordan-era Bulls championships were won in Game 6 (MJ's first championship over the Lakers was in 5). Reggie Jackson's three home run performance in 1977, Game 6. The Buckner game, Game 6. The Bartman game, Game 6. Curt Shillings ALCS Bloody Sock Game, Game 6. Tonight's extra innings heart attack extravaganza, Game 6.

Poor Bill

One of the causes of all this excitement in Game 6s is that one team is playing to win the whole tomato. One team is playing to keep their season alive and force a game seven. Reggie Jackson's three homer Game 6? Championship. Buckner, Bartman, the Bloody Sock, and tonight? Forcing a Game 7.

Tonight's heart attack extravaganza is special. It is special because it was eleven friggin innings. It is special because it took the better part of five hours. It is special because it is one of the few games I've spent cheering with a band of friends in the pool hall across the street. Normally I watch my big games at home with maybe my fiancee.

As a Yankees fan, I will forever hate this sock.

This one was different. Four tables at the bar were cheering for St. Louis. One person, at our table no less, was cheering for Texas. I am generally opposed to just about anything that comes from Texas. My fiancee has family in St. Louis. Tony La Russa is my second favorite manager behind Joe Torre. La Russa looked old tonight. He looked old explaining what the hell happened in game 5. But he looked older as his team hung 3 errors on the board tonight. I imagine I look a little old after those three errors, and I was just watching in a pool hall.

St. Louis had three errors. Texas had two. St. Louis became the first team in MLB history to score runs in the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh innings of a World Series game. They were barely fending off Texas with scores in the eighth, ninth, and tenth, playing catch up as the Rangers continued to jump ahead. Finally, in the bottom of the eleventh, David Freese hit a home run to straightaway deep center. Before the ball had cleared the fence, fans were clamoring over the railing to get into the grass for the ball. Everyone but the Ranger Girl at our table (who is really a San Francisco fan, go fig) is screaming, clapping and high-fiving.

Just at our table alone, this game took its toll. The Sports Fiancee, who is now fast asleep, felt like her spine was being wrung out. She kept holding her pink scarf over her mouth and nose. She'd sniff for a bit, almost praying to the Baseball Gods. Then would rock back and forth like Rainman. it turns out she wasn't going through some ritual for the Cardinals to win. She had to pee so badly, but couldn't stand to leave the game long enough to get to the bathroom. She and Ranger Girl both had to be cajoled during a Ranger pitching change in the 9th to finally go. I have never seen two women get into the bathroom and back so quickly.

The only other guy at our table and I decided to do tequila shots around the 7th inning. Just as we got our shots, Beltre hit his home run. We joked about needing the alcohol to make it through that and downed the Tarantula. We ordered another shot just in time to see Cruz hit his home run. We decided, in perfectly logical fashion, that our shots were causing the Rangers to hit home runs and stopped drinking.

At five different times during the night someone at our table was laughing so hard they were either crying, curled up in the fetal position in their chair, or trying not to wet themselves.

At five different times during the night, we vocalized our disgust with the errors in something that could never be classified as intelligent language, let alone English.

Have you ridden the S.L.U.T.?

At at least five different times during the night we joked with the table in front of us about the Seattle Transit System deciding to name one of their light rail systems the South Lake Union Trolley and that name actually getting approved by the mayor's office.

This was followed by at least five different references to "Riding the S.L.U.T."

We laughed, we cringed, we screamed ourselves hoarse. Baseball can do this. Other sports can't. Basketball is too fast paced. There isn't time for the conversations there are in baseball. The Sports Fiancee was able to look at an advertisement on the wall and name all 32 NFL teams during the game. Football is slower, but there is still enough going on that you can't keep conversations going during a game.

One of the main complaint about baseball is that the games are so slow--that there isn't enough action. Baseball, especially baseball in the World Series, is a game of tension. I kept reaching over to massage the Sports Fiancee's back,  knowing she was in agony watching her team drop routine flies like the Bad News Bears. She was in even more agony after the platter of fried food, the Irish Coffee, and however many glasses of water, even before St. Louis had to claw back in the eighth, and ninth, and tenth innings. Baseball builds that tension. The game is slow, but so is the build up to a really good horror movie. Suddenly, a fly ball that has a chance to be a home run is flying toward the outfield. You find yourself holding your breath. You are clenching your fists. You are clenching your bladder because you drank too many Sam Adams during the early innings. The ball is caught and you can relax...except your bladder. Then the next hitter comes up and it starts all over again. Baseball is an emotional roller coaster wrapped into a sport. Enjoying it with a group of friends makes it all the more enjoyable. Making it a do or die for one team at game six makes the roller coaster that much more of a wild ride.

What baseball fan doesn't dream of this?

On to Game 7.

The Ethics of Sucking for a Shot at a Franchise Player

This is the year of Suck for Luck. It all started last year when Stanford junior QB Andrew Luck, who was in the heart of the Heisman race late in the season, decided to return to school for his senior year.  Now, Andrew Luck has the college play ability and reputation of possibly being the best QB heading to the NFL since Peyton Manning. This guy could be more Manning than Manning (Peyton than Eli).

As soon as Luck decided to go back to Stanford for his senior season, fan bases for bad NFL teams started hoping for L's more than W's. Look what happened to the Colts from 97 to 98 and then into the Manning Era. In 1997, the Indianapolis Cots finished with a 3-13 record, the worst in the NFL. This ensured them the first pick in the draft. Two college QB's were vying for the honor at the time, Manning, and Ryan Leaf. Looking back, now the Manning/Leaf debate seems as stupid as Coca-Cola Classic/New Coke. The Colts took Manning. Their next season, 1998, they also finished 3-13. However, with another first pick in the draft, the Colts took RB Edgerrin James. Now that the young QB, Manning, had an offense that wasn't one dimensional, the Colts took off. They finished the 1999 season 13-3 with a first round bye in the playoffs. They didn't look back, making the playoffs every year until now, where they sit 0-7. For those of you living under rocks (at least in the sports world), Manning had two off-season surgeries and has not played. It doesn't look like he will play this season, possibly in his career, depending on the rate of recovery from the surgeries.

Manning has been thought of as one of the best quarterbacks ever to play in the NFL. His intelligence and ability to read opposing defenses has led Indy to more complex offenses, the ability to adapt to different teams, and to be at least evenly matched against any other team in the league. They are the only team to really give the Bill Belichick Era Patriots fits. It looked like Indy would set a record this season for most consecutive playoff appearances before Manning had to bow out. All of this because they sucked in the late 90s and were able to get a franchise quarterback with the first pick.

Now it's happening again. Luck is the quarterback this time around who can be the next Manning. There are three teams who have yet to win this year. Indy is among them. The other two are Miami and St. Louis. St. Louis used a high draft pick two years ago for Sam Bradford, another good college QB. The problem has been, like Manning's first year, Bradford has no other options. His offensive line is atrocious and his running back is way past his prime. Bradford has been hit so often he sat out this past Sunday's game with a high ankle sprain. If your young quarterback gets pounded, he's not going to become an old quarterback.

Getting back to the Luck Question: should we as fans hope for our teams to tank for one year for the chance at future greatness? Part of me says yes. I would love to see Andrew Luck call plays for the Chiefs, who were early season contenders in the Suck for Luck contest. They have since won three in a row. I swear, every time I think that Matt Cassel should be traded, benched, or run out of town on a rail, he has a great game, or series of games, and pulls the Chiefs out of suckitude. Would I take Andrew Luck even though Cassel shows signs of greatness? Yes. Would I want my team to tank this year for the chance to be the next 2000s Colts? That's harder to answer. Like I said earlier, part of me says yes. But I also want my team to do their very best every year.

As a general manager, coach, or even owner, this question is easier to answer. No. You never tell your team to tank in order to get a star player next year. Look at the NBA right now. There might not be a "next year."

Let's look at some of the past teams who have had a franchise player land in their laps via suckage, intentional or not.

First up, Cleveland and the LeBron James Contest.  Cleveland absolutely sucked in the early 2000s. They finished the 02-03 season with a record of 17 wins and 65 losses. They finished tied with the Denver Nuggets for the worst record in the league.

Where the NFL goes by straight team standings for their draft selection, the NBA goes with a lottery system. The teams that don't make the playoffs are entered in a lottery. The NBA draws ping-pong balls with team logos out of a lottery machine to determine draft order. The worse the record, the greater the number of ping-pong balls the team has in the machine.

With their matching suckitude records, the Nuggets and the Cavaliers had equal chances to land James. Cleveland won the opportunity and snatched the high school player with the first pick. It didn't work out too well for them. Yes, Cleveland started selling out home games. They started making the playoffs (eventually). They made it to the NBA finals (but lost). Then the inevitable happened. James left. Not only did he leave, he kept the city on a yo-yo while he "tried to make up his mind." Read here: milked the publicity. James knew where he was going to go. He had known since he and Chris Bosh had played with Dwayne Wade on the 2008 Olympic team. They had all decided they wanted to play together and see how many rings they could get. Were they all going to play in a mid-market team in a depressed city like Cleveland? Were they all going to travel to the frozen north to Toronto, where Bosh was playing? Or would they travel to South Beach, Miami? A major market team in a comfortable climate in a big city. Hmmm. And everyone wound up playing for the Heat.

A player as savior is not a sure thing, especially in football. Early draft picks have a hard time making the transition from college stud to NFL savior. It took Manning two years to have a winning season. Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford, and Matt Leinart have yet to come to fruition. Leinart isn't even a starter, backing up Matt Schaub in Houston.

So, what do you do? Is it ethical to write off a season and try to get someone who will put butts in the seats and lead the franchise to the playoffs for nearly a decade? If you do try to win games and fight and claw your way up to the middle of the pack in the NFL, then what? You don't make the playoffs, and you're in the middle for the draft. Chances are, you don't get a big college savior, and you're doing what you've been doing for the last however many years; drafting to fill the needs you have and just hoping you find a diamond in the rough.

That is unless you're Bill Belichick. The guy is a genius when it comes to finding draft picks that pan out. You know Tom Brady? Superstud at the pro level? Setting records for most games without throwing a pick? Until recently had never thrown an interception in the red zone? That Tom Brady? Yeah, 199th pick in the 2000 draft. Sixth round. There was no risk in taking him at that point. Why not? Getting into those late round picks, you're getting kickers, punters, and a special teamer or two. Well, here's a quarterback who our quarterbacks coach says looks pretty good. Eh, whadaya gonna do? If he doesn't pan out, we cut him with the other late round picks. It took Brady two years to get into the starting role. It took an injury that caused internal bleeding to then starter Drew Bledsoe, but he got there. Three Super Bowl champion rings later, he's still one of the top tier quarterbacks, if not the top QB in the NFL. The Patriots didn't suck the year before in order to draft their quarterback of the future. They didn't need to.

I'll admit it. When Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles went down with a season ending injury in the second week of the season, joining tight end Tony Moeaki on the injured-reserve list, I started thinking "hey, maybe we can lose all of them this year and get Luck." I had that thought. I'm betting Dolphins fans are having that thought. I'm betting Rams fans are having that thought. I'm wondering if Colts fans are having that thought. The Dolphins and Rams have long term woes. Luck, even if he turns into the next coming of Peyton Manning, won't be able to right those ships. But neither was Manning. The Colts, I don't know. If they wind up going oh-fer, do they take Luck, knowing that Manning might be back next year? Do they expect Manning to train his replacement? Will Indy wind up with a Favre-o-rama in a couple of years with a current quarterback hanging on too long while they have the next great one in the wings?

And what if Luck is the next coming of Ryan Leaf? What if the real genius of the Stanford offense was really Jim Harbaugh, now the head coach for the 49ers? There are too many variables. If one of the oh-fer teams right now winds up that way, and joins the 2008 Detroit Lions with the record for suckitude, and drafts Luck, will this season be seen as a blessing in disguise? Or will it be a taste of things to come?

The Sheer Joy of Sport

How awesome is it to be a sports fan who doesn't live in Indianapolis or Miami right now? For the love of pure sport, it is a great time.

The Detroit Lions are 5-0 heading into a matchup against the San Francisco 49ers who are 4-1. Detroit is 5-0 for the first time since Dwight D. Eisenhower was in office (1956 for those of you playing the home game). The last time they had been 4-0 was before Reagan was elected to office (1980).

We are enjoying some record setting passing numbers. Some sportswriters (Bill Simmons) think it is because of rules changes to prevent concussions. If you can't ram a receiver's head up into the fourth row of the stands, then you can't effectively cover them. Other sportswriters (Gregg Easterbrook) link the "passing stat-o-rama" to the fact that the NFL had a lockout during the off season and canceled training camps. Secondaries, especially those with new coaches or new free agents/draft picks/trades, didn't have training camp to gel. These guys don't know each other as well as secondaries in the past. We're seeing blown coverages, not guys pulling back from coverage because they don't want to be fined for knocking Chad Ochocinco into next Tuesday.

Fines never really worked in the first place. A linebacker would lay a slobber-knocker on a defenseless receiver and then empty his own pockets and with the pocket change he found pay his fine. Fining multimillionaires $25,000 for helmet to helmet hits is asinine. Fine them a few million and put it toward helmet design research to protect against concussions, then make the new helmets mandatory. Better yet, show that the NFL really cares and take all the fine money and invest it in revitalization projects for inner cities for the communities in which the NFL has teams. Put it to education. Put it to "high risk" kids.

After the final night of the regular season, the single greatest night in baseball history, the MLB has not disappointed. Three of the four first round match ups went the distance, going to five games each. The heavily favored teams, Philadelphia in the NL and the Yankees in the AL were knocked out. Who says there is not parity in baseball? We are guaranteed to have the fourth different World Series champ in as many years. Philly won in 2008, Yankees in 2009, Giants in 2010. None of these teams are left in the playoffs. Who won in 2007, how far back can we go before we get to someone who might have two wins. 2007..Red Sox? Yeah, Red Sox. 2006 Cardinals. Okay, the Cardinals are still in it. If they survive the Brewers (and given that the Brew Crew has woken up Albert Pujols, arguably one of the top 25 ballplayers ever..EVER..E.V.E.R, I'd say the Cards have a good chance.

Seriously, who is going to tweet something calling the greatest player on the other team "Alberta?" Did you ever see what Michael Jordan would do to teams who said something against him? Or just New York in general? A fan trash talks Jordan. He drops 50 on the home team. Jeff Van Gundy claims that Jordan exploited friendships on the court. MJ drops 55 in Madison Square Garden. Nyjer Morgan, an outfielder on the Brewers, tweets and calls Albert "Alberta?" Hey, how ya doin? Oh, and I just tied the record for extra base hits in a playoff game. And we just beat you 12-3. In your house. Seriously, why the hell would you tweet that? Are you mental? The Cardinals stole one at your house. They are now the favorites in the NLDS. Congratulations on that tweet, genius.

But you don't have to look to post season baseball or the multimillionaires in the NFL if you want to watch great athletes. Go down to your local high school and pick up a fall sports schedule. Pay your five bucks and go to a volleyball game, or soccer, or football. You will see as good of plays there as you will in the pros. You may not know everyone by name, but it will be entertaining. I've been sportswriting for a local news paper and covering girls volleyball for two towns in our area. There is an outside hitter on a team I regularly cover who hits as hard as I've ever seen. I played a bit on men's club. I was a middle hitter. I love blocking, it is my favorite part of the game. I would not want to be across the net from her. She's going to continue playing at the next level. She'll go to Gonzaga or WSU, no problem.

These kids are everywhere. Go watch your local sports teams. Be supportive. Don't be one of those psycho fans who ruins it for everyone around you while you are chewing out the ref for something that happened so quickly that it was almost a coin flip as to what happened. But go down and watch some great local sports. You'll be glad you did. These kids need the support. They need someone to go out there and watch what they do. Make an evening of it, or a Saturday afternoon. If it's friggin cold, bring coffee or hot chocolate (in the case of soccer or football). If it's friggin cold, and you're watching volleyball, then you don't have anything to worry about. Have you ever been in a cold gym while an event is going on? No. These things are great to watch. Going in and watching one team develop over the span of a season is one of the greatest sporting experiences you can have. It's why we watch sports on TV. It's why we choose our favorite teams. We can invest in these players. But with high school sports, you're favorite player isn't going to get traded in the middle of the season. Granted, there are possibilities of their families moving somewhere else, but it doesn't happen often. Watch these kids develop. Invest in them. Yes, they do move on in four years or less (four year varsity players are rare), but then you get to see then next crop of talent.

You don't have to go far to realize that it is a great time to be a sports fan.

We Interrupt This Sports Blog For an Angry Rant

Angry Rant Time, folks!
Sports will resume Wednesday.

I've decided to share my angry thoughts.
First up, and this could actually be a sport of sorts, the Westboro Baptist Assholes.

Who made these stupid bigoted fuckers spokespeople for God or Christianity? Do us a favor, you yapping ass hats, strap a dynamite corset on and go blow your idiotic self up like the other religious extremists, and since you don't want to be lumped in with the terrorists (when that's exactly what you are), do it in an area where you won't hurt anyone else. Do it now. Do it all together, your whole bigoted family. It will be a new take on the family fireworks show. The fact that you picket any and every possible funeral is just a cry for attention for yourself. The fact that you use the Bible as an excuse shows that you are only into religion for the power over others. You don't have any power over anything. You are sad, pathetic, little people who are so impotent that you have to take out your frustrations on the misery of others. You are even hypocrites using iPhones to tweet that you are going to picket Steve Jobs' funeral. Then claiming that God invented the iPhone. Jobs did more to better humanity than you fuckermentalists will ever do to improve any aspect of society, at least until you die. Then society will improve, we'll have at least one less loud-mouthed, hate-spewing, self-righteous-but-really-morally-bankrupt, walking groin pull. And then we can picket your funerals. I fully intend to piss on your graves. All of them. Repeatedly. After eating nothing but asparagus for weeks. Here's your sport of sorts: Westboro Baptist Skeet Shooting. Honestly, it is only a matter of time until someone decides enough is enough and turns these Bible-sniffing fuck monkeys into a shooting range. If I had better eyesight and any sense of depth perception, I'd be on my way to Kansas right now.

Next up, greedy billionaires claiming that we are somehow in class warfare right now. Let's prove them right! Someone dust off the guillotines, light the torches, and sharpen the pitchforks. Let's storm the modern day Bastilles! Pull these rich pork fuckers out of their million dollar townhouses and execute them one by one. We can put them in the same room as the Westboro Fireworks Show and let them all go up in one big cablooey! Then we can roast pork products over the fat pork ashes. Let's get the bankers who gave themselves bonuses with our tax money. Let's get the Wall Street assholes who made money off misery. Let's get CEO and major shareholders who bemoan only having six-figure incomes after taxes (not including all the shit under the table) while their employees are skimping and deciding whether they should put food on the table or pay for little Jenny's braces so she can actually eat the food they can afford. Let's get all the politicians. I don't care if they're red, blue, or neon pink. Set them all on fire and see if it burns purple. They want to call this class warfare, let's give them class warfare. Massive overhauls for the entire government and capitalist system. Politicians claim that we shouldn't have to make the wealthiest contribute more. They say that they will do it on their own. In the first part, they are absolutely correct. We shouldn't have to. The problem is that in the second part they are wrong. They won't do it on their own. Exhibit A: Enron, the greedy fuckers who fucked clients, and then their own employees and investors. Exhibit B: Bernie Madoff. Let's hang him by his own shriveled scrotum from the flagpole of his Park Avenue penthouse where he's "serving his sentence." What bullshit. You did a bad thing, Bernie, go to your two story multi-million dollar (bought with someone else's money, of course) room and think about what you did. This is a punishment? Let's get a bunch of the Mexican  drug lords and let them gang bang him with their shotguns. All at once. Let's put it on pay-per-view. Stimulate the economy a bit.

Next up (and this actually ties into the execution of clueless billionaires) pro sports team owners who claim that they can't make money with their current collective bargaining agreements.

"If you can't manage a pro team at a modest profit in the United States of America in the early years of the 21st century, you shouldn't be allowed to vote or operate a motor vehicle. You shouldn't be allowed near the stove." -Jeff MacGregor


You essentially have monopolies on pro sports entertainment. The cities in which you have teams pay for your multi-million, possibly billion, dollar stadiums. You charge $14 for a urine-sample-sized cup of beer. You charge $3 for a hot dog that we could go to the supermarket and buy in a pack of ten..for $1.49. You charge more and more for seats where you need binoculars to see what the players look like. And you complain that you're losing money? You are obviously too stupid to own a sports team. Or, you know, have a pet. Don't breed. Dear God, don't reproduce. Your offspring might be so stupid that they pay $100 million for a player who hasn't even stepped on a U.S. hardwood court (lookin at you, Timberwolves). For the love of God, don't look t us to bail your stupid asses out after you sign a player for a ridiculous contract and he blows out a knee before his rookie season even starts ('sup, Portland?). If you want to limit player salaries, here's a solution. OFFER THEM LESS MONEY! If you all do it, then they have to take someone's offer. "But, but, but then whoever is willing to offer them a ton of money will get all the talent." Yeah, how'd that work out for Miami last season. Or Portland in the late 90s? Hmmmm, nope, no rings.  It.Doesn't.Matter. Look at the Yankees of the last decade. Number one, they pay their players a lot and they have choked on a lot of pitchers who didn't pan out, but still got their money. Yankees still make a huge profit. And still have seats for $18. Good seats. "I can see what Mariano Rivera looks like from these seats" seats. Most of Major League Baseball turns a profit. Despite having 13-14 starters (8-9 regular starters and a 5 man pitcher rotation). The Yankees pay a lot and get a lot of talent. They are contenders every year. But with all that talent, where are they today? They'll be watching the ALCS tonight...on their TVs...at home. Texas is still in it. Detroit is still in it. And how great is it that Detroit, one of the most economically depressed cities in the country is having a revitalization in its sports teams? Seriously, the Lions are going into tonight's matchup with the Bears with a 4-0 record. When was the last time the Lions were 4-0 in the regular season? Was Clinton in office? Shit, was it  BEFORE Clinton? The Tigers are playing for a shot at the World Series. Screw it, I don't care that Detroit just put my beloved Yanks out of contention. Fuckin GO TIGERS. GO LIONS. GO PISTO-oh, right they're locked out because the greedy horsefuckers who run the NBA can't run the NBA. All that aside, how cool would it be for Detroit, of all places, to win the World Series AND the Superbowl? I think I'll order a Verlander Jersey. And a retro Barry Sanders jersey. I'm a Detroit fan now.


Hmm, talking of sports seems to have calmed the ranting beast. That's a nice effect. I feel better now. I think I'll go out and do some skeet shooting. Crap, don't own a gun. Left 4 Dead 2 it is. And then some NCAA on XBox

The Irrationality of Sport

Tonight ESPN is showing a documentary on Steve Bartman. If you don't know who Bartman is, you live nowhere near Chicago. Steve Bartman didn't play sports at all. He was a fan in the stands. He was in the stands at Wrigley Stadium in 2003. There was a foul ball to left field. Bartman sitting in the front row in the right field stands. Like everyone when there is a foul ball going into the stands, Bartman reached for it. Moises Alou had a bead on it and thought like he could have caught it. Looking at all the replay and the replay of the replay and the replay of the replay of the replay and the angle and that angle and this angle, you can't tell if Alou is reaching into the stands or if Bartman is reaching into the field of play. Looking at aaaall the replays, he's not nearly the only guy who reaches for the ball.

It doesn't matter.

Irrationally it is Bartman's fault. That's the way that sports work. It isn't the fact that the Cubs then went through one of the most famous meltdowns in a single game in the postseason history. Up the that fateful foul ball, the Cubs were up 3-0 with momentum. Then Bartman. Then sure handed Alex Gonzalez, who led the league in fielding during the regular season, bobbled a perfect double play ball. The pitching then dropped off. By the end of the inning, the Florida Marlins were up 8-3. It wasn't a simple little collapse on the field. It was a disaster. It didn't even matter that there was a game 7 the next night.

Cubs fans started abusing Bartman. They started yelling at him. Threatening him. Then people started throwing beer. Throwing anything, everything.

The vitriol with which the fans treated Bartman is amazing. I can understand that it was the closest the Cubs could have been to going to or winning the World Series. Alex Gonzalez should thank Bartman for all time. It was Gonzalez who bobbled the ball that would have ended the inning. It was that play that truly started the unraveling. After the reaction of the Cubs fans turning on this poor guy, they should be ashamed of themselves. To a point, some of them are. Mike Wilbon, famous for being on ESPN and half of the PTI star team on the network has said that he feels bad about not feeling bad. In the day afterward, Wilbon has admitted to hating Bartman. Now, however, he doesn't. Now he feels bad for not feeling bad. Watching some of the interviews with some of the fans that were at that game, it doesn't seem like they feel bad for Bartman. I mean, a few of them who were sitting near him did feel bad for him. They got to see the effects of their fellow man. They also felt some of the effects. Cubs fans, like the team they root for, aren't the most accurate with their throwing.

Bartman became yet another part of sports that has nothing to do with sports that has everything to do with sports. Sports are notoriously superstitious. That is why Michael Jordan wore his North Carolina uniform under his Bulls uniform every game. That is why Nomar Garciaparra went through his ritual with his batting gloves between not just every at bat, but between every pitch.

Bartman is not why Chicago now has a new curse. Cubs fans earned the bad karma for a new curse. The Cubs will not win a World Series any time soon. The curse, now, is on the fans. Since that night, the Cubs have won the NL Central twice, in 2007 and 2008. They were swept in three games in the first round of the 2007 postseason by the Diamondbacks. They had the best record in the NL in 2008. They choked in the playoffs. They went in with the best record in the NL and were swept in the first round by the Dodgers.

The Cubs have not won a postseason game since the fans' reactions and treatment of Bartman. Their punishment is to root for the Cubs in futility for the rest of their lives. Again, nothing that has to do with baseball that has everything to do with baseball.