CHICAGO, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- The all-day rain must have washed away the rest of Dusty Baker's mojo powder before the start of Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.
There's a new goat at Wrigley Field ... the curse lives.
Jeering fans threatened to kill a young man who interfered with a pop foul in the eighth inning Tuesday night, costing the Cubs a crucial second out, and opening the way for a Florida Marlins' rally and a 8-3 victory that tied their National League Championship series.
The surreal inning set up a climatic Game 7 Wednesday night as the Cubs blew their second chance to advance to the World Series against either the Boston Red Sox or the New York Yankees.
Cubs left fielder Moises Alou had timed his leap perfectly.
The ball was arcing down toward his outstretched glove when a 26-year-old man in a Cubs cap and headphones hit the baseball with his hand knocking it away.
A key out was lost.
There was shock and dismay both on and off the field.
The normally cool Alou slammed the outfield wall with his glove angrily.
Unflappable Cubs ace Mark Prior, who was pitching a 3-0 shutout, pointed and shouted "Fan, Fan" pleading with the umpire to rule fan interference. The ump said the ball had crossed into the stands where fans have as much right to a $7 souvenir as players.
Prior walked Luis Castillo on the next pitch. Normally sure-handed Alex Gonzalez booted a possible double-play ball for an error and the Marlins scored and scored and scored again.
The crowd turned ugly.
Insults, beer and peanuts were hurled at the man who had obstructed the foul ball. The Marlins batted around for a team record eight-run comeback.
Stunned Cubs fans turned their backs to the nightmare.
The baseball Gods were laughing.
Security personnel took the fan away as spectators from other sections of the park made their way toward his front-row seat with malice aforethought.
Under the stands, one snatched a jacket away from the man's face bellowing that the man "should be exposed."
The young man looked like a deer caught in headlights.
"It's a good thing they got him out of there," said Matt Gries, a fan who had also gone for the foul ball. "They were going to beat the hell out of the guy. He was going to die."
Yes, the inebriated idiots really would have hurt him.
He was scared to death.
"Let me say this. If someone ever convicts that guy of a crime he'll never get a pardon out of this governor," said Cubs fan Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The foul may have been the catalyst but blame the loss on a collapse by the Cubs' bullpen. Relief pitchers were rocked.
"It had nothing to do with the curse," said Baker.
The manager may not believe in hexes but if he has any of that mysterious voodoo dust left that he sprinkled on the field during the regular season he better use it now.
Just five outs from their first trip to the Fall Classic in 58 years the team has "reverted to Cubdom" -- local parlance for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Fans can see a repeat of 1984, when the Cubs took a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five playoffs series, then lost three straight to the San Diego Padres missing the World Series.
The pressure will be on hard-throwing Kerry Wood in Game 7 in front of a rabid home crowd. If Wood is tough the Cubs will win, and the foul ball incident will go down as another bizarre entry in Cubs history.
That fan may have been within his rights to go for the ball but if they lose Game 7 he goes down in infamy.
He may as well leave town. His life will be hell.
A television sportscaster joked that the guy was headed for a witness protection program. More likely, he'll get a book deal and be invited on "The David Letterman Show" or "Oprah."
Baker said he'll never understand why a fan would interfere with a ball that might be caught by their team, especially with the World Series at stake.
"If it's an opponents' foul ball you've got to give your player every chance to catch it," he said.
He predicted the Cubs would not fold and begged the most loyal fans in all of sports for help.
"Fans don't go to school to see what balls to touch and what balls not to touch," said Alou. "Everybody who goes to the ball park, they want a baseball. The guy saw a clean shot to having a baseball and he went for it. Hopefully, he won't have to regret it for the rest of his life, if he's a Cub fan.
"Maybe we can take the load off that guy tomorrow by winning the game."
