Sports have made the Lycos 50. Athletes have made the Lycos 50. Teams have made the Lycos 50. This week, for the first time, a fan makes the Lycos 50. And boy, does he wish he wasn't here.

Steve Bartman (#17) is the now-infamous fan whose interference on a foul ball to left field was followed by the collapse of the Chicago Cubs (#19) in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series. We know his name now, but that's not how the searches started. First, as in the case of Kobe Bryant's accuser (#21), the queries wanted to find out his name, so we were getting lots of searches like Cubs fan interference and Who was Cubs fan? Once Bartman's name became public, the searches switched to mention his name specifically.

Of course, the Cubs were not the only team involved in the playoffs to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The Boston Red Sox (#45) also blew a lead, to the New York Yankees (#36), and both teams were getting tons of searches all week long. So were the various personalities involved in the two playoff series, including the stars (Derek Jeter, Pedro Martinez), the goats (Sox manager Grady Little, Cubs shortstop Alex Gonzalez), and the feisty (venerable pugilist Don Zimmer). The top ten are on a bonus list to the right.

Some call this excitement. Others -- perhaps a certain Internet trend columnist who has loyally followed the Cubs since the days of Chuck Rainey and Keith Moreland, and on top of that lives in Boston -- would call this horrifying, searing pain. Either way, baseball searches haven't been this high since the 2000 Subway Series, moving up to #12 on the Lycos 50.

The playoffs also boosted searches for Chicago and Boston-area newspapers last week; searches for the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times tripled -- many of these searches were probably from people seeking Bartman's identity -- while searches for the Boston Globe were up 150 percent.

But will it last? Well, the television ratings for the league championship series were among the highest ever, but so far the ratings for the World Series are among the lowest ever. As I have heard it said, this year's Series presents "the team everyone's sick of against the team nobody cares about." I'm guessing that the higher-than-usual number of baseball searches will also collapse next week.

HOT HORROR: Speaking of horrifying, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre moves all the way up to #6 this week after topping the weekend box office. Interest in this film is huge, with lots of searches for the true story that inspired it as well as the stars of the current picture. Actual mass-murderer Ed Gein is a few searches from making our list (he's #51) and searches are also high for film actress Jessica Biel.

By the way, that other killing flick, Kill Bill, enters the Lycos 50 at #34 this week.

CONTINED CONTROVERSY: We thought it might be a brief one-week story, but the controversial game Ghettopoly garners even more interest this week, breaking into the Lycos 50 at #41. The NAACP is threatening to boycott sellers of the game, which it criticizes for promoting racial stereotypes. The game presents blacks as murderous, thieving, dope-dealing pimps. Actually, that sounds pretty much like a 50 Cent (#47) album, but with dice.

ELECTION WATCH: For the first time since Wesley Clark officially entered the race, Howard Dean regains the top spot in searches, 31 percent to 24 percent. Other candidates get 45 percent of primary-related queries.

OTHER ELECTION WATCH: With the California recall now in the rear-view mirror, Arnold Schwarzenegger searches fall by two-thirds, and Mary Carey falls from #8 to #33. Next week she will likely fall off the Lycos 50 altogether.

SHORT SUBJECTS: Jessica Simpson (#49), ditzy star of MTV's Newlyweds, makes the Lycos 50 for the first time... Eminem (#50) comes very close to falling out of the Lycos 50 after a year and a half... The release of Clay Aiken's album moves him back up to #8.

NEW THIS WEEK: Steve Bartman, Kill Bill, New York Yankees, Ghettopoly, haunted houses, Powerball, Boss's Day, Jessica Simpson.

DROPOUTS: Beyonce (after 18 weeks), Neopets, Esquire Magazine, Federal do Not Call List, Rush Limbaugh, Miss America, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Recall.

ONE YEAR AGO: Remember The Ketchup Song? One year ago this novelty hit showed up on the Lycos 50 at #48.