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Cubs fans launch GoFundMe campaign to send Steve Bartman to Wild Card game

10/02/2015 12:28 PM ET

By A.J. Herrmann

Steve Bartman reaches out for a foul ball as Cubs left fielder Moises Alou attempts to make the catch in the 2003 NLCS.(AP)

The Chicago Cubs are headed to the NL Wild Card play-in game next Wednesday, but one notorious fan, namely Steve Bartman, will not be in attendance to witness it.

That is, unless Cubs fans can coax him out of hiding.

One of Chicago's faithful has launched a GoFundMe campaign to lure Bartman out of hiding to try and pay for his Wild Card game ticket, as well as room and board for the excommunicated Bartman, who many blamed for the continued curse of the Cubs' postseason failures.

"Lifelong Cubs fan wants to make amends for 2003, lets make it happen," the page's founder Keque Escobedo writes. "First we need to find him to get him to the big game. If anyone knows where he is at, tell him we are looking for him. The money would pay for his expenses including his ticket, hotel room, flights and a little spending money."

If, however, this year, Escobedo's campaign is unable to locate and entice Bartman into attending the game Wednesday, the money raised will go toward a worthy cause.

"If he cannot be found by time of the big game," Escobedo writes, "all the proceeds raised will be donated to the Alzheimer's Association."

On October 14, 2003, Bartman was seated along the left field foul line as the Cubs battled the Marlins in Game 6 of the NLCS, when a foul ball sailed toward him in the eighth inning.

As any typical fan would do, Bartman reached out to catch the playoff souvenir, failing to see Cubs left fielder Moises Alou also making his way to the wall to try and make the catch.

The Cubs led the series 3-2 at that point, and were leading the game 3-0, with one out recorded in the inning, leaving them four outs away from returning to the World Series for the first time since 1945.

Instead, Bartman and Alou knocked hands reaching for the ball, which bounced away from them both, extending Luis Castillo's at-bat. What happened next was hard to believe.

The Marlins scored eight runs, and won the deciding seventh game of the series the next day, sending Cubs fans home after another year of sky-high hopes for playoff success.

Bartman has not been to a Cubs game since, and has declined all interviews, endorsement deals and even six-figure commercial offers, as well as declining to appear in ESPN's 30-for-30 documentary about the incident.

This year, the Cubs have enjoyed one of their best seasons in years, with loads of young talent littering the roster, complementing their Cy Young candidate ace in Jake Arrieta. If they win Wednesday's Wild Card game, they would play in their first NLDS since 2008.