Steve Bartman remains secluded during Cubs' WS run

The city of Chicago hasn't forgotten about him, even though it's been 13 years since his mental lapse rewrote baseball history.

Steve Bartman, the man who many feel cost the Cubs a chance at a World Series in 2003, has stayed out of the spotlight for some time, though fans still talk about his infamous mistake in the NLCS, which led to one of the biggest postseason collapses in baseball history.

"There's only been really positive stuff (toward Bartman) for a long time," Harry Caray's Restaurant Group president Grant DePorter, who purchased and later detonated the ball from the play, told Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. "I've sent him multiple offers from multiple famous people saying, 'I'll take him to a Cubs game.'"

However, as with the other sources Davidoff spoke to, DePorter's seen no sign of the notorious fan.

"He is going to continue to cheer for the Cubs as he always has," Bartman's spokesperson, Frank Murtha, told Davidoff. "He has remained a Cubs fan, as he was before the incident. Nothing has changed that."

With the Cubs one win shy of advancing to the World Series against the Florida Marlins in 2003, the team was ahead 3-0 in the eighth inning, only five outs away from ending the game. Marlins second baseman Luis Castillo hit a fly ball to right field, which was tracked by Cubs outfielder Moises Alou, before Bartman interfered and deflected the ball away from Alou's glove. Castillo ended up getting on base, leading to the Marlins scoring an unprecedented eight runs in the inning, and then winning the final two games of the series.

Since offering a public apology after the game in 2003, Bartman hasn't appeared in the media and has refused to answer any questions, though it's rumored he's attended Cubs games.

Thirteen years later, the Cubs have made the Fall Classic without any fan interruptions, and have an opportunity to win a championship for the first time since 1908. As both a fan and subject of relentless ridicule, Bartman is surely hoping this is the year it happens.