'Catching hell' ESPN 30 for 30

I tuned in about 7:55 and couldn't stop watching. Grew up a Cubs fan and remember the moment well. This was my first time seeing the footage of them escorting Bartman out of the stands and in the back corridors. Some of the things said by fans were just sickening. Didn't realize how out of control it got.

 

Gonzalez deserves a lot of blame, but Dusty Baker let Prior throw 119 pitches and give up five runs (three earned) in the inning.

Baker ruined Prior and Wood and deserves the blame for that loss.

 

If Alou hadn't thrown a fit it would have been no big deal. There's no guarantee he would have caught that ball.

 

this. made the grandstands virulent. both he and dusty (for the press conference) look like assholes in retrospect.

 

If you watched the film they edited out everyone except for Alou and the ball and it was pretty likely that he would have caught it, probably 90% at least.

 

I watched it, and I think there is less than a 50% chance he catches that ball. How Alex Gonzalez doesn't take the vast majority of the blame is beyond me. Alex Gonzalez had an easy double play ball to end the inning, and muffed it.

The guy certainly didn't deserve what happened to him. He could have made a lot of money off of the incident, but has always declined.

 

This. His glove would have been right there and Alou had a right to throw a fit so close to going to the world series. It was a bone headed play by Bartman who wasn't even drunk and obviously knew what the situation was.

He didn't deserve the treatment that he got, but if I was a Cubs fan I would have been very pissed off too. Instead I thought it was hilarious.

 

Unlike the guy who actually ended up with the ball, just a sad story all around.

Poor guy is going to have to live with that stigma for the rest of his life or at least untill the Cubs win it all and everybody forgets about what happened, like with Buckner in Boston.

 

I tried to watch it, but I changed the channel after the first 30 minutes seemed to be devoted to the Red Sox and Bill Buckner. It's like self-centered Boston a**holes can't let other people have their moment, even if it is a moment of agony.

 

I didn't see it, but with the way the frat-party atmosphere at Wrigley has been amped up starting around the mid-90's; not surprising at all. People need to get lives, and I say that with 30,000 posts on a BB message board.

 

See, that's the problem with cubs fans. They think its the fault of everything but the team. It's not the goat's fault. It's not Steve Barman's fault. Your team sucks and always will. The only reason I hope for a cubs World Series win is so that people will stop feeling sorry for you and stop making that piece of s*** stadium out to be some kind of shrine.

 

I also nearly put my foot through my tv after seeing all the BS they did to/for the ball.

I mean really, a 5 star hotel room, a "last meal", then blowing it up, vaporizing the remains to cook a pasta sauce, really?

Superstitious idiots deserve to suffer. Especially when they waste that kind of money.

Go help the homeless instead of giving a baseball a damned pedicure as part of its "last rites".

 

Meh. From wiki:

 

Unbelievable that people can get so worked up about something as ultimately meaningless as baseball.



I mean football I can understand.....

 

you really think you could have processed everything within a few seconds to determine that it was not wise to go after a foul ball in a NLCS game because your player might catch it? everyone within the vicinity of Bartman reached for that ball. they were just LUCKY they didn't touch it first.

 

He didn't obviously know what the situation was. He didn't even know Alou had a play on the ball. And it isn't like if Alou caught it, they would have been in the WS. There would have still been 4 outs remaining. Even with that out, the game is tied 3-3 before they get the next out. If Alex Gonzalez catches a ground ball hit right at him, there is a 99% chance they go into the bottom half of the 8th, leading 3-0.

 

Its called momentum. Once the bartman play happened everyone in the stadium including the players knew it wasn't going to happen, and they were going to lose. This happens in every sport where a single play or two gets the other team energized,, and all the sudden the momentum swings the other way.

I don't think bartman is responsible for all wars, but he was responsible for a single play that changed the momentum and mood of the whole game.

 

Cubs fans are very superstitious. It's easy to go and blame something and use a scapegoat. If you're as superstitious with curses as some teams fanbases are in baseball (because I don't see it existing much in any other pro sport), it's just typical to expect something like this to happen. Not trying to defend Cubs fans in any way... but the fact is, if there is a scapegoat which both the media and the fans blow up, everyone will resort to that rather than the team. There were many plays in that game that you could've blamed. Not catching a foul ball didn't cause 8 home runs.

 

how does Bartman's actions affect the shortstop from making a routine double play that should have ended the inning?