and i thought I took sports too seriously!!

[ggrtrhhrtgg]

CHICAGO -- If a curse can somehow live in the intricate windings of cork, rubber, yarn and cowhide that make up a baseball, then the Chicago Cubs can look forward to a luckier future.

The team's catastrophic playoff meltdown last October began when Steve Bartman batted a seemingly catchable foul ball away from a Chicago outfielder, capping decades of Cubs ineptitude -- much of it blamed on an unshakable jinx.

Chicago fans the world over are hoping a massive measure of modern-day voodoo will put an end to all that.

The ball will be obliterated by a special-effects expert on live television Thursday night to lift the "curse" afflicting the Chicago Cubs and bring some closure to one of the most painful losses in the team's doleful history.

Grant DePorter, who helped buy the ball at a December auction for $113,824 on behalf of Harry Caray's Restaurant Group, has lined up three hours of music, comedy and celebrity appearances leading up to the climactic event -- everything short of Bartman, the fan who deflected the ball during Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.

The ball will be sent into oblivion by Michael Lantieri, an Oscar winner who wrecks things for a living and has worked on such movies as Jurassic Park and Back to the Future. Lantieri, a Cubs die-hard himself, would not reveal his exact demolition plans but admitted he has been blowing up a dozen balls a day in his California lab in preparation.

"That ball's gotta go," said DePorter, managing partner of the restaurant group, which organized the event as part of its annual tribute to Caray, the beloved Cubs broadcaster who died six years ago Thursday. "It's like the ring from The Lord of the Rings and we're kind of like Frodo, trying to get it over with."

The ball figured in one of sports' biggest collapses. With the Cubs leading the Florida Marlins 3-0 on Oct. 14 and just five outs from their first World Series appearance since 1945, Bartman reached for the ball hit toward his front-row seat at Wrigley Field, knocking it out of reach of left fielder Moises Alou. The Cubs then allowed a staggering eight-run rally by the Marlins, and squandered another lead in Game 7 the next night.

The loose ball was snatched up by a Chicago lawyer and sold at auction.

Amid public misgivings about the way he was vilified for the wrenching loss, Bartman was invited to participate in the charity event in front of the downtown Harry Caray's restaurant. But the 26-year-old fan, who has refused all requests for interviews since issuing an apology in October, has no plans to attend.

"He issued a final statement, and that's pretty much the last thing he intended to say about it," said family friend Frank Murtha. "His whole intention was to return to his normal life."

The ball will get VIP treatment in its last hours, from a farewell trip to Wrigley and a last night on public display in a hotel suite to a final "dinner" of prime steak and lobster and even a massage.

Then comes the final reckoning. Among thousands of fan suggestions for the act: having NASA put the ball into orbit, dropping it off the Sears Tower and having Chicago native Bill Murray, in Ghostbusters gear, obliterate it.

DePorter promises only that "it will be destroyed in a way that there is a mess."

Practicing for the big moment, Lantieri has tortured baseballs in various ways, concluding that "they're harder than you'd expect to blow up."

As for Alou, he is tired of the whole business.

"I don't care about the ball," the ballplayer said. "That wasn't the reason why we lost." He added: "I should put my glove on eBay. The glove that was supposed to catch the ball."

AP NEWS

The Associated Press News Service

---I like having Nasa send it into space!! or dropping it off the Sears tower-- wonder what would happen to it???--hehehehe