For the first time in 13 years, Steve Bartman can sleep peacefully. No fan deserves it more. The poor victim of countless amounts of misguided abuse because he wanted to catch a foul ball in 2003. What happened to Steve is sports fandom at it’s lowest and most vile. Shamelessly ruining someone’s life because a team lost and angry people wanted someone to blame. This went beyond Bill Buckner, who was a player paid to make a play and was then met with disproportionate hate. This was even beyond Jeffrey Maier, the 12 year old who more blatantly interfered with a ball against the Orioles and then who the stupid ass Yankees paraded around as a hero for it (Fuck the Yankees). Orioles fans still hate Maier, but I think most of us realize that it was more the ump’s fault for not calling it what it was at the time. Steve Bartman had it far worse. He reached for a foul ball that was headed into the stands, that might have been caught for an out. Instead of an out, we had a foul ball, and the Cubs collapsed soon after. Bartman had to be hidden and escorted out by security and has become a hermit. His outfit (The cubs hat, headphones, green turtleneck and black sweatshirt) has become iconic. He deserved none of this. Whatever happens to him now, whether he stays a hermit (understandable) or whips out his dick and tells everyone to shove it while throwing out the first pitch next year, he’s earned it.

Congrats Cubs. No living person was alive for the last Cubs WS victory. At least I’m pretty sure of that, there might be some potato in a corner of the world who was alive in 1908. I’m sorry it had to come against another city with a similar drought, but that’s part of what made the series so memorable. I’ve long drifted from baseball fandom. The length of the season, the slump of my preferred team (Orioles), and my rise in football interest has left me rather dismissive of baseball as a whole now. The only games I watch anymore are in the playoffs and usually just the elimination games. I watched 3 whole games this year, the final 3 games of this series. Game 7 might very well be the best baseball game I’ve ever seen. It had everything. Great pitching. Great hitting. Dingers. Old guy dingers. A comeback. A wild pitch. Extra innings. A goddamn Rain Delay just adding to the tension. It was the whole package and we are going to talk about this one forever. Congrats Cubs. My Grandfather missed your celebration by a couple years, but I know he would have loved it.

Sorry Cleveland. The 3-1 curse struck you this time. Even worse, it gives Warriors unfair ammo to disperse the best sports meme of 2016. You know. That the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA finals. They still did that (please remember it still happened), but now it hurts a little bit less.