The top 5 reasons Steve Bartman shouldn't be blamed for the Chicago Cubs' meltdown during the 2003 National League Championship Series.
Spoiler text
Best of the Rest:
- Bartman did nothing wrong: All the fans around him reached for the ball too; it's a natural fan reaction, especially for a ball that would be a souvenir from a presumed historic pennant-clinching game.
Top Five:
5. Moises Alou: His reaction incited the fans against Bartman. Plus, his unsanitary pregame rituals he later admitted to might have deterred fans from getting in his way.
4. Dusty Baker: He criticized Bartman in a postgame press conference, but Baker failed to go to the mound to settle his team down, until it was too late.
3. Alex Gonzalez's error: The Gold Glove-winning shortstop botched a double play ball that would have ended the inning.
Interlude: The Cubs probability of winning was only slightly decreased after the foul ball; it plummeted later in the inning.
2. Game 7: The Cubs had another chance, with ace Kerry Wood on the mound.
1. The Marlins were better: The slugging Marlins also slayed the Giants and Yankees that year; their firepower and sense of destiny were not to be denied.