LOOK: Comparing the Jason Heyward catch to the Moises Alou-Steve Bartman incident

The fans at Wrigley learned from the mistakes of the past

With one out in the third inning of World Series Game 5 on Sunday night, Indians starting pitcher Trevor Bauer lifted a pop foul down the first base line. Cubs right fielder Jason Heyward gave chase and wound up making a highlight snare ...

Yes, Heyward remains one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball. Anyhow, you can see Bauer's popup straddled that disputed boundary between fan and field for a time before tailing back over to Heyward's side of things. So we have a pop foul down the line, a corner outfielder giving chase, and the fans making at least an initial effort to catch the ball -- all of it unfolding during a high-stakes playoff game at Wrigley Field. At this point, the comparisons are inevitable. So let's go back to Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS at Wrigley ...

Yes, that's the third-base side of things, but otherwise we have some eerie similarities. But we also have a key difference. Take a look at the fans in the 2003 game at the moment Moises Alou is reaching for the ball ...

As you can see, a lot of fans are going for the ball, not just the one who unjustly shouldered the blame. Now take a look at the fans from Sunday night just before Heyward secured the ball off Bauer's bat ...

Pretty much, you're seeing fans stay out of Heyward's way while still being in "ready position" in the event of a last-second change in trajectory. For instance ...

Most polite fan trying to make a catch ever. pic.twitter.com/hAVk2fPkkE

— Mighoul Clair (@michaelsclair) October 31, 2016

That's a fan who's not unaware of the history of the playoff foul balls at Wrigley Field. However, the natural instinct to catch anything coming in your direction was indeed on display Sunday night, at least for an instant or two.

A lateral view of things, though, shows that the Heyward ball, thanks to that late tail, probably wasn't within the grasp of the fans down the first-base line in Game 5 ...

That doesn't look like a "playable ball" from the fans' standpoint, at least according to this angle. That late recognition is probably why you saw the fans Sunday night retract those outstretched arms at the last moment ...

That natural instinct noted above subsides when the ball starts angling back toward the field, which is what happened Sunday night. Absent that momentary crosswind or that bit of spin on the ball off the bat, we might be talking about another fan at Wrigley who got in the way of a potential out. Given Heyward's deft scaling of the wall, it's possible his glove would've been higher than the hands of any paying customers had the ball stayed on its initial course.

Let us now indulge in myth-making and say that the sentient baseball decided of its own will and volition to tail away at the last minute so as to avoid subjecting another Cubs rooter from misplaced and out-of-scale outrage. That's definitely what happened. Thanks, you merciful cowhide orb.