(AP photo)By Paul Sullivan
While no one in Wrigleyville will be celebrating, Thursday marks the seventh anniversary of Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series, commonly referred to as the "Bartman" game.
The foul ball down the left-field line off the bat of Florida's Luis Castillo started in motion a sequence of events at Wrigley Field that ultimately led to an eight-run, eighth-inning rally that doomed the Cubs' best chance in 48 years of going to a World Series.
Former manager Dusty Baker said the next day the Cubs would invite Steve Bartman to the victory parade if they won the World Series. But they lost Game 7 as well, and have not won a postseason game since. The Cub were 0-6 in their two playoff appearances in 2007 and '08.
Bartman never has spoken publicly about his infamous moment in Cubs' history, though he apologized the next day and the Cubs issued a statement absolving him. Cubs fans, for the most part, have forgiven Bartman, directing the blame toward shortstop Alex Gonzalez, who made a crucial error, or starter Mark Prior, who became unraveled.
But fair or not, Bartman's legacy remains intact, perpetuated by the national media. Fox Sports aired a promo for the 2010 NLCS that featured a freeze-frame shot of Bartman going for the ball. ESPN had scheduled Academy Award winning filmmaker Alex Gibney's documentary on Bartman for their "30-30" series to coincide with the start of the World Series.
But the film, entitled "Catching Hell," was recently pushed back from Oct. 26 to some time in 2011 at the request of Gibney. No air date has been scheduled, an ESPN spokesman said.
"When Alex Gibney asks for more time, you give it to him," she said.
Gibney told filmcritic.com recently that the film was about both Bill Buckner, the goat of Boston's 1986 World Series collapse, and Bartman,
"I'm a Red Sox fan, and I became interested in this topic as a result of the Bartman incident, where he interfered with a foul ball during an important Cubs playoff game," Gibney said. "It seemed like it was an eerie replay of what happened to Buckner in 1986. There was a horrible collapse on the doorstep of victory. I don't know if Buckner's life was ruined, but it was kind of a living hell for him for some time. And it was something he could not escape. I mean, he had a Hall of Fame career. He won a batting title. He had more hits than Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. And yet he's only remembered for one thing.
"That was a bitter blow. And Steve Bartman is just a fan. But somehow he took all the blame, even though there are many other people to more rightly blame for the Cubs' collapse. What's interesting to me about it is that the enthusiasm of the fan turns into a very dark place, particularly for these two cities that had gone so long -- well, the Red Sox have since won a World Series, but the Cubs are still there -- without winning. It eats away at people. In the good times, it makes for wonderful enthusiasm, but in the bad times it really leads to a pretty dark place."
When the documentary was announced in the summer of 2009, two of the game's participants, Derrek Lee (then with Florida) and Aramis Ramirez, told the Tribune it was a bad idea.
"They should probably let it go," Lee said. "It's a non-issue. It didn't change the game, no matter what anyone says. He did what any fan would've done, and there were five other people trying to do the same thing. He just happened to get his hand on it. At the time, we saw Moises (Alou) get upset, but it's a play that happens quite a bit. It's not like it was some crazy, random thing. It happened. Now let it go."
Ramirez agreed, saying Gonzalez's error began the downfall.
"Mo had a chance to make that play, but the ball was in the stands," he said. "Otherwise, they would've called the batter out (for fan interference). After that (Alex) Gonzalez made an error and they scored five more runs, so it wasn't Bartman's fault. We just didn't get it done."
