| abstract | - Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times attempted to liken an event during a Seattle Mariners baseball game to the infamous Steve Bartman incident. The former, which occurred on July 6th, 2010 in a game between the Mariners and Kansas City Royals, involved two teams with poor records and long shots to make the playoffs. Ichiro Suzuki was rounding second base on a ball hit by Russell Branyan down the right field line and into the corner. A fan reached over the low railing and scooped up the ball as it bounced his way. This led to the play becoming dead, and Ichiro not allowed to advance past third base. Had he scored, it would have tied the game in the eight inning. The latter took place during a game with much more importance, on October 14, 2003 during Game 6 of the National League Championship Series between the Chicago Cubs and Florida Marlins in Chicago. The Cubs, nearing the 100 year mark since their last World Series win, fell victim to one of their own fans touching the ball after it had crossed into the stands, perhaps disrupting the ability of outfielder Moises Alou to reach over and catch it. The Marlins went on to come from behind to win the game and the series. Sensationalizing an essentially meaningless game between two teams eight and fifteen games back in the standings respectively, mid-season, to an NLCS game involving a team with a fabled curse is lazy journalism.
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