CHICAGO — Steve Bartman, I have a confession to make. I was one of those fools who dressed as you for Halloween.

It was 2003. You'd just become infamous for deflecting that foul ball outfielder Moises Alou tried to catch in the National League championship series, the one that went so wrong for the Chicago Cubs.

My costume was a cross between you and the infamous Billy goat that supposedly started this whole Cubs curse thing back in 1945. I titled it "The Scapegoat."

Hee hee. Sure, it was a tiny poke at you. But really, it was a much bigger jab at all of us Cubs fans who were misdirecting our anguish after the Florida Marlins — trailing 3-0 — erupted for eight runs and won that Game 6. Then the Cubs blew Game 7, too.

But I miscalculated. As a new-ish Cubs fan, I discovered it was way too soon to make light of our team's latest meltdown.

A lot of people booed when I walked in a Halloween parade on Chicago's North Side, donning a Cubs cap and headphones, like the ones you wore that awful night, along with goat ears and a goat beard.

You weren't a very popular guy back then, Steve (like I have to tell you that).

But the past ... has passed. Five years later, the Cubs are again looking to claim that first World Series title since 1908. They start their playoff run Wednesday against the Los Angeles Dodgers. And guess what, Steve: Cubs fans are ready to forgive.

Really! I'm telling you. I checked with a lot of people — the kind who claim to "bleed Cubbie blue" — and they've moved on, some of them long ago.

"It was so easy to turn to that geeky looking kid and pin 95 years of frustration on him," Justin Rounds, a 30-year-old Chicagoan, says when asked about you. Rounds was working at a San Diego sushi restaurant in 2003 and, at the time, cursed your name to anyone who'd listen.

But now he says he's more mature — "and my emotions have calmed and my perspective has changed."

Paddy Stanton was so angry after the Game 6 loss that he hit his hand against a wall and fractured it.

"I broke my hand for the Cubs!" says Stanton, who's now a 29-year-old financial adviser in Chicago. "I have still not quite gotten over that night."

But he says he never really blamed you. Nope. He pinned his anger squarely on Alex Gonzalez, the Cubs shortstop who mishandled a potential double-play ball soon after your mishap.

Other Cubs fans point the finger (yes, probably that one) at former Cubs manager Dusty Baker, or pitcher Mark Prior, or even Alou. Some go as far as calling Alou a "brat" for jumping up and down in disgust after you deflected the ball away from his glove and into the stands.