ACCORDING to an online urban dictionary, a scapegoat is “[in the Bible] a goat sent into the wilderness after the Jewish chief priest had symbolically laid the sins of the people upon it [Lev. 16]. Another is, “A person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency.”
History and the entire spectrum of human activity, including sports, is replete with examples of scapegoats. A scapegoat becomes the whipping boy for committing a mistake that was unintentional. We look at two of several scapegoats in sports history who have been unjustly vilified and demonized (and in, one case, murdered) for unintentionally interfering with history. One of them is Steve Bartman.
Over the weekend we watched an ESPN documentary Catching Hell. The movie web site, IMDb describes how Bartman became one of sports’ most famous scapegoats, “When Chicagoan Steve Bartman fatefully deflected a foul ball in Game Six of the 2003 National League Championship Series [NLCS], the city’s long-suffering Cubs fans found someone new to blame for their cursed century without a World Series title. Director Alex Gibney explores the psychology of die-hard sports fans, the frightening phenomenon of scapegoating, and the hysteria that turned mild-mannered Bartman into the most hated man in Chicago.”
Gibney continues, “After the Chicago Cubs blow an opportunity to reach the World Series in 2003, Cubs fans blame the team’s misfortune on fellow fan Steve Bartman, who interfered with a foul ball and prevented Moises Alou from making a catch.”
October 14, 2003, was a date that changed Steve Bartman’s life forever.
According to the article, “Baseball fan feels Chicago’s fury” of the BBC News, “The Steve Bartman incident occurred during a Major League Baseball playoff game between the Chicago Cubs and the Florida Marlins on October 14, 2003, at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
“In the eighth inning of Game Six of the NLCS, with Chicago ahead 3-0 and holding a three games to two lead in the best of seven series, several spectators attempted to catch a foul ball off the bat of Marlins’ second baseman Luis Castillo. One of the fans, Bartman, reached for the ball, deflecting it and [disrupting] a potential catch by the Cubs outfielder. Had Alou caught the ball, it would have been the second out in the inning, and the Cubs would have been just four outs away from winning their first National League pennant since 1945.
“Instead, the Cubs ended up surrendering eight runs in the inning and shortly afterward lost the game, 8-3. When they were eliminated in the seventh game the next day, the “Steve Bartman incident” was seen as the “first domino” in the turning point of the series.”
Bartman, who was described as “a lifelong Cubs fan, had to be escorted from the stadium by security guards and placed under police protection for a time when his name and address were made public on Major League Baseball message boards.”
To this day Bartman has declined over 200 interviews, endorsement deals and public appearances. His family changed its home phone number to block harassing phone calls. Florida Marlins fans sent gifts to his home as a “thank you” but he requested that the presents be sent instead to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, according to Michael Sneed of the Chicago Sun Times.
Bartman was once offered $25,000 to sign a picture of himself at a sports convention and he was offered six figures to appear in a super bowl commercial. Almost a decade after the incident, Bartman was invited to appear as a VIP guest at Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs but this, too, he declined. The infamous Aisle 4, Row 8, Seat 113, where Bartman sat is now a tourist attraction at Wrigley Field.
When asked to comment, Alou reportedly told ESPN.com, “It’s time to forgive the guy and move on.” Where’s Bartman? Now 38 years old, he lives quietly in Chicago and works for a financial consulting firm. He had, shortly after the incident, made a statement saying he was “truly sorry” for his act.
Another scapegoat in sports history did not, however, just quietly fade into the background. One ended in the tragic murder of the athlete.
Andres Escobar was a defender and team captain of the Colombian national football team and played for the squad for six years, from 1988 to 1994. He scored his only goal in his international career against England in the 1988 Rous Cup. Colombia battled England to a one-all draw.
Escobar had the misfortune of scoring a goal for the opponent, the United States on June 22, in a match in the 1994 World Cup. He had attempted to intercept a pass from America’s John Harkes but he accidentally tapped the ball into his own goal. The US won, 2-1, and the defeat contributed to Colombia’s elimination from the tournament.
Less than two weeks later, on July 1, Escobar, then only 27, was gunned down in a parking lot in El Poblado in Medellin, a known hotbed of the drug trade in Colombia. One of four men who accosted Escobar shot the young man six times. Escobar was engaged to be married to his girl friend-dentist in August at the time of his death.
The assailant, Humberto Castro Munoz, was arrested on the evening of July 2 and confessed the next day to the killing. Some say that Munoz killed Escobar after losing a big bet on the outcome of the game.