It was no “kidding” matter when Cubs’ fan Steve Bartman attempted to make the catch of his life Tuesday night at Wrigley Field.

As Marlins’ second baseman Luis Castillo hit a delivery from Cubs’ pitcher Mark Prior, Bartman was sitting in his seat down the left-field line, donning a Renegades little-league shirt and a blue Cubs hat and listening to the Cubs’ radio broadcast through his headphones.

As the ball came closer, Bartman had his chance to walk away with a souvenir that 40,000 people would have loved to get their hands on.

“I had my eyes glued on the approaching ball the entire time and was so caught up in the moment that I did not even see Moises Alou, much less that he may have had a play,” Bartman said in a statement released Wednesday. “Had I thought for one second that the ball was playable or had I seen Alou approaching, I would have done whatever I could to get out of the way and give Alou a chance to make the catch.”

When Chicago blew its 3-0 lead in the eighth inning, there was no mention of a goat or the great Bambino, but instead a curse would be born that a young, 26-year-old man is meant to bear for the rest of his life.

Bartman left Wrigley Field unlike many who came that evening, but the truth is he came into the not-so-friendly confines in much the same manner. In his mid-20’s, Bartman is a recent graduate of Notre Dame and is a coach for the elite youth baseball team whose logo he proudly wore. Depicted as an avid Cubs’ fan and great guy by neighbors, Bartman should not be used as the Cubs’ most recent excuse for failure.

As finely brewed Budweiser rained alongside the death threats and obscenities, Bartman was escorted out of the stadium with his face hidden and his pride damaged.

Anyone who watches baseball is aware that when a foul ball comes your way there are two reactions. Either cower behind the nearest fan with a glove or make an attempt to catch the ball yourself. In fact, Bartman wasn’t the only fan reaching to get his hands on that particular baseball, he just happened to be the one who had an opportunity to make the play.

The truth is that Moises Alou, Mark Prior, the rest of the Cubs and their fans have no right to put the weight of Tuesday’s loss on any one man’s shoulders, let alone a fan who did nothing wrong.

In a city known for heckling fans that don’t throw back opposing teams’ home-run balls, the events that occurred after the “interference” play were shameful to say the least. It wasn’t the eight runs that shocked me, though. It was the fans’ treatment of one of their own and the media’s portrayal of him as a villain.

I can’t deny the fact that Bartman clearly obstructed Alou’s opportunity to catch the ball, but the offense did not begin the Chicago meltdown.

Even assuming an out would have been recorded, the inning would have ended at best with the game tied 3-3. After Juan Pierre hit a one-out double I will assume that Alou makes the play for the second out of the inning. Pierre would still score on the Ivan Rodriguez single, and Miguel Cabrera’s shot to Alex Gonzalez, who made an error, would have put runners on first and second base. On Carlos Lee’s double, two runs would have scored, and with Kyle Farnsworth pitching to Mike Lowell, the game would have hung in the balance.

Instead of realizing the fact that Bartman didn’t radically alter the game or that Gonzalez was just as much to blame for the catastrophe, Cubs’ fans have made life a living hell for one man. Bartman didn’t attend work Wednesday and likely spent most of the day fearing to show his face in public, not because he had done anything wrong, but because the media had labeled him as the bad guy.

The fact that an atrocity 10 times worse occurred in the 1996 ALCS was never even mentioned by Fox. Instead, the focus was on one fan that had apparently altered history. In a game between New York and Baltimore, Derek Jeter was credited with a home run he didn’t hit when 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier reached over the outfield wall and guided the ball away from outfielder Tony Tarasco. In that instance, the Yankees went on to win the game, the ALCS and the World Series, but when it was all said and done, umpire Rich Garcia admitted that he made the wrong call. I hope that Cubs’ fans realize they’ve made the wrong call sooner rather that later.

These sorts of things happen in professional sports, especially to the Cubs. They haven’t made a World Series appearance since 1945, so why should their fans expect to walk into one now? Things happen, you get over them and you move on.

Steve Bartman didn’t lose the game for the Cubs Tuesday night; they did that all by themselves. Don’t blame one guy for what an entire team managed to do.