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October 15, 2003
BY ANNIE SWEENEY, FRANK MAIN AND CHRIS FUSCO
The man some fans blame for Tuesday night's Cubs loss because he reached out and touched a foul ball that Moises Alou was trying to catch is a diehard Cubs fan who coaches youth baseball in the north suburbs.
Steve Bartman, 26, works at Hewitt Associates, an international consulting firm in Lincolnshire.
"He is an associate at Hewitt, and he is not coming to work today because of the incident," Suzanne Zagata-Meraz, a spokeswoman for Hewitt, said this morning. "That was a decision that Steve and [Human Resources] made together. We have been in contact with Steve."
A man who answered the door at the Northbrook home where friends and a neighbor said Bartman grew up defended him, saying he only did what came naturally when a foul ball came his way.
"He's a huge Cubs fan," said the man, who responded to "Mr. Bartman." "I'm sure I taught him well. I taught him to catch foul balls when they come near him."
He declined to say any more and would not confirm what relation he is to Steve Bartman.
A neighbor, Ron Cohen, said he has known the Bartman family for 20 years. He and others said Bartman was a graduate of the University of Notre Dame who played for and is now a coach for the Renegades, an elite youth baseball club in Niles.
Cohen said he saw Bartman on Sunday and that Bartman told him then that he had tickets to Tuesday's game.
"He felt great he got tickets to the game," said Cohen, 63.
Cohen was watching the game on TV with his son, who grew up with "Stevie," when they recognized the man in the Renegades shirt.
"I really was just surprised," said Cohen, who called Bartman's mother. "I think it's just a natural tendency. Everybody reaches. I'm not trying to defend him, but I think it's just a natural tendency. He may not have seen Alou coming."
He described Bartman as a baseball fanatic.
"He's a good kid, a wonderful son, never in any trouble," Cohen told a Sun-Times reporter. "I don't think he should be blamed at all. People reach for balls. This just happened to be a little more critical. If Florida didn't score all the runs, you wouldn't be standing here."
A parent whose son played baseball for the Renegades last year echoed Cohen's description of Bartman.
"He was a fine guy. He was a good baseball coach to my son," said Roger Shimanovsky, 41. "Believe me, I'm sure nobody feels worse about this than him."
Bartman is listed as a coach of the Renegades' 13-year-old team this year, according to the organization's Web site.
He also was a player on a 1992 Renegades team that finished with 47 wins and 10 losses. The team was the Palatine League champion and the Pekin Fourth of July tournament champion.
The home where Bartman grew up backs up to a baseball field where his dad would hit pop-ups for him and his friends to catch, said Ron Cohen's son, Gary Cohen, 34. He said Bartman's favorite player growing up was Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg.
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2003-10-15, 03:46 PM
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