What if Steve Bartman story had different ending for Cubs?

5:22 PM ET

You think Steve Bartman ever asks: “What if?????”

You think he has spent the past 13 years watching dozens, hundreds, thousands of other foul balls go drifting toward the seats in short left field and thinking about what might have been?

You think he has ever asked himself: “What if we’d had replay back in 2003?”

Hey, I don’t know what he thinks or what he asks. So let’s ask it for him: What if?????

We ask because of what happened Wednesday at Citi Field. We ask because there was such an incredible déjà vu Bartman moment in that game.

We ask because all these years later, another foul ball went floating down the left-field line … and another fan in another front row did what Bartman did, what anyone would do … and reached over the railing to get in the way of another Chicago left fielder (in this case, Melky Cabrera of that other team in Chicago) … and then …

You know what happened? Technology happened. A 2-minute, 40-second replay review happened. And we were reminded that we now live in an immensely different universe than Bartman and the 39,576 other occupants of Wrigley Field lived in back on Oct. 14, 2003.

In Game 6 in 2003, the umpires ruled no fan interference, no catch by Moises Alou.

On June 1, 2016, the umpires ruled no fan interference, no catch by the Melk Man.

In 2003, the earth shook and everything changed.

In 2016, the umpires put on their headsets, the replay machines whirred and the only thing that changed was the call on the field. A “no-play” call became an “out” call. Game went on. Life went on.

Wow. What if?????

AP Photo/Morry Gash

What if what happened Wednesday in Queens had happened in 2003 at Wrigley? What if THAT set of umpires could have asked for a replay review? What if THAT call had been overturned, and Luis Castillo was ruled out because those replay officials thought that Moises Alou would have caught his foul ball if Bartman hadn’t gotten in his way?

What if????? What if????? What if?????

Um, I regret to inform you that I can’t answer those questions. My Ouija board is in the shop. My friend the psychic is on vacation. My crystal ball is out of batteries. So what I am about to throw out there is spewing strictly out of my vivid imagination. But here it goes anyway.

If Luis Castillo’s foul ball had just been an out …

STEVE BARTMAN: Gets led out of Wrigley, because he’d just perpetrated the crime of fan interference. But his exit is clean and neat. No guilt. No shame. No beer shower. He walks off into the night, watches the triumphant ninth inning from Murphy’s Bleachers, sits in the same seats during the Cubs-Yankees …

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