Aug 3, 2017 3 min read

Chicago is famous partly for the infamous who have lived there. They include Al Capone, Frank Nitti and John Dillinger, all 1920s gangsters, and John Wayne Gacy, who was convicted of sexually assaulting, torturing and killing 33 teenage boys and young men in the 1970s.

For 14 years, Steve Bartman has been just as notorious in the eyes of many Chicagoans. Bartman is the Cubs fan who, during the 2003 baseball playoffs, reached for a foul ball heading toward him and deflected it, denying Cubs left fielder Moises Alou an opportunity to make the catch. Chicago was ahead, 3-0, in the eighth inning and an Alou catch would have put the team within four outs of its first World Series appearance in 58 years.

The Florida Marlins proceeded to score eight runs that inning and win, then rallied to eliminate Chicago in game seven the next day.

Bartman, bespectacled and donning a Cubs cap that fateful night, looked nothing like a mobster or calculated killer following the incident. Video shows this lifelong Cubbies fan sinking as far in his seat as possible, mortified at first, then fearful as the home crowd’s mood changed along with the course of the game.

Bartman left Wrigley Field that night escorted by security guards, and later was placed under protection when his name and address became public. He has not been spotted in Wrigley since, and has been mostly vilified in the Windy City.

A measure of redemption came Monday morning, when the team extended a remarkable and remarkably expensive olive branch. Cubs owner Tom Ricketts presented a 2016 World Series championship ring to Bartman, a bejeweled gift bearing his name. The Cubs had ended an agonizing 71-year title drought, and Ricketts decided it was time to ease the beleaguered fan’s pain.

“We hope this provides closure on an unfortunate chapter of the story that has perpetuated throughout our quest to win a long-awaited World Series,” the Cubs said in a statement to WGN-TV in Chicago. “While no gesture can fully lift the public burden he has endured for more than a decade, we felt it was important Steve knows he has been and continues to be fully embraced by this organization.”

This was a classy gesture by the organization, reaching out to a man who reached out for a ball along with more than a half-dozen fans surrounding him, but was the unfortunate one who touched it – and has paid a 14-year price for it. Video shows that fan interference probably should have been called, that a leaping Alou would not have had to reach into the stands to make the catch. But he may not have completed the play, and who is to say the Marlins would not have pulled off that rally with two outs instead of one.

Bartman expressed appreciation following the presentation in Ricketts’ office. He said in a statement: “Most meaningful is the genuine outreach from the Ricketts family, on behalf of the Cubs organization and fans, signifying that I am welcomed back into the Cubs family and have their support going forward.”

He should now feel free to walk into Wrigley Field, watch a game – and chase down a foul ball.