Not this again

June 3rd, 2008 at 03:03pm Gareth Sleger

 

It’s June 3, 2008. The 37-21 Cubs are on an eight-game winning streak, are three and a half games ahead of second place St. Louis and have the best record in baseball. Yet, what happened on Oct. 14, 2003 is still being discussed as if it has some sort of relevance. Or at least the wrong sort of detail is still the center of attention.

In April, Moises Alou was reported by the Associated Press to have stated:

“Everywhere I play, even now, people still yell, ‘Bartman! Bartman!’ I feel really bad. You know what the funny thing is? I wouldn’t have caught it anyway.”

Now, the statement is being retracted. But, it shouldn’t even matter. The reason the Cubs blew game 6 of the 2003 NLCS, wasn’t because a fan was doing what any other fan would have done; it had everything to do with Alex Gonzalez tricking off the would-be double-play to end the eighth inning with Cubs still winning 3-1.

And it’s not like Gonzalez has ever avoided what happened. He immediately took blame following the loss.

Maybe it’s time for Gonzalez to step forward once again to finally squelch all this nonsense. But even that might not matter when there’s the Chicago Tribune’s Mike Downey playing instigator.

Entry Filed under: Alex Gonzalez, Moises Alou, Steve Bartman