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Why the fan known for costing the Cubs the 2003 ALCS with his interference is not to blame
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Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
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00:25Hi everybody, I'm Brian Kenney, and welcome to ESPN Classics Top 5 Reasons You Can't
00:29Blame, a series that takes a fresh look at sports personalities who are remembered largely
00:34for their mistakes, controversial moments, or questionable decisions. Our mission is
00:39not to further vilify these individuals, but instead to challenge conventional wisdom and
00:43re-examine what has been accepted as fact. The stories may be old, but the views taken
00:48by this series will be new. You will see new evidence and hear new testimony. All you need
00:53is an open mind. In this show, we'll revisit the case of one hometown devotee who interfered
00:58with a foul ball and is blamed for changing the course of a National League Championship
01:02series. We'll count down the reasons why you can't blame Steve Bartman for the Cubs' 2003
01:08playoff collapse. But first, let's understand how decades of Cubs' futility led to a fan frenzy
01:13in the fall of 2003.
01:24The Chicago Cubs. They depend on all of us hopeless losers going to the ballpark every
01:31year and saying, this is the year they put it all together. The fact that they lose and
01:36lose so dramatically in so many defining moments in our lives as fans, interestingly enough,
01:41makes us love them even more.
01:45...more than Cubs' fans. No one is hurt worse than Cubs' fans. For years, the Cubs s***ed.
01:53They haven't won the World Championship since 1908.
02:00But in 2003, it appeared the Cubs would get another chance. Despite being shut out in
02:05game five of the NLCS, they led the Marlins three games to two. Behind Mark Pryor, winner
02:11of 12 of his last 13 starts, they had a 3-0 lead and were five outs away from winning
02:16their
02:16first pennant in 58 years. As Pryor faced Luis Castillo, Wrigley vibrated with emotion.
02:23You're in the stands with total strangers and you're just hugging each other.
02:28How many times have you heard that phrase? Until next year. Has next year finally arrived?
02:35We're in the tunnel between the Cubs dugout and the Cubs clubhouse and the workers are bringing in
02:40the stages, bringing in the champagne, bringing in the National League Championship trophy.
02:443-2 pitch. Fly ball to left. The ball looks like it's coming as far as 10 rows into the
02:50stands.
02:51But obviously, at the last second, it shifted and went a little bit closer to left field.
02:56Heading over near the wall and foul territory is Alou. He jumps and a fan took it away from him.
03:02One guy stuck his wheezy little hand out.
03:06The fan reached up and took it right out of his glove.
03:10And he had a radio on. You'd think he's listening. Hey, there's a foul ball on the left field line.
03:15The Cubs left fielder is going to catch it. If you're an idiot, please stick your hand out now.
03:19I was camping under that ball. I had to jump, but I had to open it.
03:24And Alou is living.
03:26At that moment, I thought that we probably would be in trouble.
03:31What a potentially huge break for the Marlins.
03:35In the dugout, we saw, you know, obviously the Baltimore thing. I remember Mark Redman,
03:39one of our pitchers, said, let's make him famous.
03:43Curve ball line drive into left field. That's a phase dip.
03:46One minute, it seemed like the Cubs were going to the World Series.
03:50They knew they were in big trouble.
03:52Ground ball scored short. Gonzalez has it. Bobbles it. And everybody is safe.
03:57From then on, it just kind of snowballed. And they were regaining momentum as we were
04:01definitely losing it.
04:02The pitch rocketed to left field. That's a base hit. And there goes the Chicago Cub lead.
04:08We just put up run after run after run. And we were shaking hands every time somebody came in.
04:14And we turned around. There's another hit. And somebody else scored.
04:16What a guy drives one into left center field. That ball is off the vine.
04:21Three runs they're going to score.
04:25The Marlins rallied for eight runs. And with each run scored, the focus at Wrigley
04:31increasingly shifted away from the field to the scene of a crime many believe
04:35quickly ascended to the level of infamy of the Valentine's Day Massacre.
04:39People were more concerned about blaming and beating up Steve Bartman than they were watching
04:44the game.
04:45Then the more the Marlins are scoring, the more everybody's looking down there.
04:48And they're like, well, you know, let's go get him. Let's lynch him.
04:54We were four rows behind them and we were getting pelted with peanuts and popcorn and beer.
04:59He had to actually leave the ballpark at that point because they were just getting so angry.
05:04They threw a coat over his head and escorted him out. And people were yelling, it's your fault.
05:10It's your fault.
05:13And there will be a game tomorrow night.
05:17After the game, there were guys on the street with handmade posters searching for Bartman.
05:24There was a whole running fever sentiment that we have to get this guy.
05:34If someone ever convicts that guy's crime, he'll never get a pardon out of this governor.
05:39Just hours before game seven, Steve Bartman released an apology through his brother-in-law.
05:44But when the Cubs lost 9-6, the 26-year-old financial consultant became the target of a city's
05:51pent-up frustration after nearly a century of failure.
05:54People are calling up his work and leaving threatening messages.
05:59That fan who went for that pop foul in the...
06:01The Cubs were still up 3-2 in that series.
06:05He had one more game.
06:07One more game, one more game.
06:10He ate last night.
06:11Well, he's in hiding tonight.
06:12This guy's life has been ruined because it was easy to pick out one who had headphones on and a
06:18cub hat and this sort of goofy look on his face.
06:22He was just an easy target.
06:24Everyone's wearing this guy's face for a Halloween costume.
06:27There was the dunk tank in Boise.
06:30There was the Second City skin.
06:32Hi, Mom.
06:32Hi, Dad.
06:33I'm home from the Cubs team.
06:37Yeah, Steve, buddy.
06:38We were watching it on TV.
06:40Oh.
06:40Man, that was crazy, huh?
06:41Yeah.
06:42And me and your mom were wondering,
06:43WHAT THE F*** YOU WERE THINKING?
06:45Everything that was happening that was bad,
06:47people were blaming him for.
06:49You'd see him blowing up the hint.
06:50Reminder, there was another fan that was there,
06:53who reached out and got another piece of the ball,
06:57and nobody knows who he is.
06:59Hindenburg.
07:00Him climbing out of Saddam Hussein's hole.
07:02Please help my b**** fire my babies.
07:05It's all right, man.
07:06Just throw me your baby.
07:09I've got it.
07:10I've got it.
07:11I've got it.
07:11I've got it.
07:12While the city's anger raged like the famous fire reputedly started by Mrs. O'Leary's cow,
07:17Bartman, who had been granted leave from his job, remained under police protection in his parents' suburban home.
07:23Over time, this young man, as he grows into a mature, older man,
07:27he is going to be blamed for time immemorial for the Cubs not making it to the World Series.
07:32If I see Steve Bartman walking down LaSalle Street today in Chicago,
07:36I would probably try to strangle him if I recognized him today.
07:42Now you have the evidence that the F*** won't believe Bartman as guilty in the court of public opinion,
07:47especially among the championship-starved Cub fans.
07:49But before we tell you the top five reasons you can't blame Bartman for the Cubs' failure,
07:53here are contributing factors that missed our list.
07:56We call them the best of the rest.
07:59The Cubs are cursed.
08:01All this thing does is confirm what Cubdom has thought all of.
08:05There is a curse out there.
08:07For the seventh game of the Cubs' last World Series appearance in 1945,
08:12loyal fan Billy Ciannis bought tickets for himself and his Billy Goat.
08:16The Goat was denied admission to Wrigley Field.
08:19After Chicago's loss to Detroit, Ciannis declared the Cubs would never play in another World Series.
08:26Every couple of years, some joker brings a Billy Goat to Wrigley Field and says,
08:30I'm removing the curtain.
08:31Or they try to Billy Goat around the ballpark.
08:34We brought the Goat in five times, and all five times the Cubs have won.
08:40So we tried to do it again in game six in 2003, and the Cubs wouldn't do their part.
08:45So they lost.
08:47It would seem that at least one other member of the animal kingdom has supported Ciannis' curse.
08:5369, they had a big lead over the New York Mets.
08:56A black cat runs onto the field at Shea Stadium right in front of the Cubs' dugout.
09:01The Mets just zoomed past them and won the National League East.
09:06Some Cubs fans feel the curse reared its ugly head again in game six of the 2003 NLCS,
09:12when, 26 minutes before the Bartman incident, comedian Bernie Mac
09:17ad-libbed the words to take me out to the ballgame.
09:20He uses the word champs or champions instead of cubbies, which is how everybody sings it.
09:29Cubs fans are very sensitive to jinxes, curses.
09:32He's putting the goat before the cart.
09:34You don't say champs until they're champs.
09:37Any Cub fan will tell you that.
09:40Steve Bartman did nothing wrong.
09:43There is no question the fan did not reach into the field of play.
09:47Nobody argued.
09:48Nobody said it should have been ruled it out.
09:50Mike Everett, the umpire, was right there.
09:51It wasn't fan interference. The ball was in the .
09:54Your natural inclination as a fan is to go after a souvenir.
09:59There were plenty of people besides Bartman that said,
10:01I'd take a ball, I'd take a souvenir from this game.
10:04Are you kidding?
10:04It goes, this is the year.
10:07No one was thinking, let me hold back all the people in the front row
10:11who might be grabbing for it.
10:13There's like seven people trying to catch that ball.
10:16And they got their arms raised off.
10:17There's the fireman from Chicago that was right next to him and who also leaped.
10:22And I went for the ball.
10:24I mean, I really, I went for it probably more than anybody that was there.
10:27I definitely went for the ball more than Bartman.
10:29If not for a matter of a few inches, we'd all be saying loony now instead of Bartman.
10:37Reason number five, Moises Alou.
10:40And leaping up, Alou cannot make the play.
10:44And Moises is unhappy with the fans.
10:47What put the blame on Steve Bartman was Moises Alou stomps his feet and looks up and says something to
10:54Bartman.
10:54Moises Alou would like to go up there in the seats and wring his back.
10:57I was so upset with what happened because I knew he couldn't give the Marlins any break.
11:03And that led to the chain reaction, which ultimately resulted in the Cubs falling apart that night.
11:09If I wasn't sitting here watching it myself, I would not believe what's happened here with this half inning.
11:18Another mitigating factor in the case against Steve Bartman stemmed from a rather curious pregame ritual by Alou,
11:24which at the time of the foul ball incident was unknown to the public.
11:28Moises Alou the next year said that he toughens his hands by urinating on them in the shower.
11:35Now, imagine if people had known that at game six.
11:38Maybe everybody would have got out of the way.
11:40Maybe they'd have smelled them coming.
11:42I think people would have backed away, including Steve Bartman,
11:46and gotten as far away from Moises Alou's hands as they possibly could.
11:51Even if public knowledge of the condition of Alou's hands had resulted in an unobstructed space
11:57in which to make the play, nothing is certain.
12:00You can't assume that he's going to make that play.
12:02He's diving in with his glove extended over, banging his elbow with fans jumping all over the place.
12:17Did that reason grab you?
12:18If not, we've got four more to go.
12:20Here's reason number four.
12:23Where was Dusty Baker?
12:27After the game, three times, Dusty Baker said it should have been fan interference,
12:31and that's the reason we lost the game.
12:33Before your team, you gotta like, you know, give your player every opportunity, a chance to catch that ball.
12:38Dusty Baker should have calmed these guys down.
12:41You got Moises a little stomping his feet and left.
12:43You got Pryor ready to have a baby.
12:45Dusty Baker should have come to the mound to say to Mark Pryor,
12:48hey look, it's only one play, it's a foul ball.
12:51We are still in command here.
12:53Dusty Baker was brought in to be a stabilizing influence on this team.
12:57He stabilized nothing.
12:59Indeed, the situation worsens for the Cubs on Mark Pryor's next pitch.
13:03Here's a 3-2, and the pitch is low and outside, and it gets to the backstop.
13:07Where was Dusty Baker after Mark Pryor walked Castile?
13:10He sends Larry Rothschild out there.
13:12The pitching coach.
13:13You don't send the pitching coach out there at that point.
13:15I can tell him certain things, but you know, Larry's...
13:19...the ball to pipe.
13:20Here's the pitch.
13:21Pudge swings, fly, fly, base hit, left field.
13:25Where was Dusty Baker after the botched double play ball?
13:28In and out of the glove of Alex Gonzalez, there's no play to be made.
13:32We don't see Dusty Baker until after Derrick Lee doubled.
13:35The Marlins have tied the game, and here comes Dusty Baker.
13:39By then, the barn door is open, the horses run six furlongs,
13:42and the series is basically on the brink.
13:44Where was Dusty Baker?
13:45I can't blame a fan when the manager didn't manage the inning the way he was supposed to.
13:53Alex Gonzalez's error.
13:56And the pitch, a breaking ball, grounded out to short, backhanded by Gonzalez!
14:00He drops the ball, and everybody's safe!
14:04Alex Gonzalez, maybe he ought to send a Christmas card to Steve Bartman every year,
14:08because if not for that Bartman play, everybody would have remembered the high hopper to hit him in the glove.
14:13After leading National League shortstops in fielding percentage in the regular season,
14:17Gonzalez had played flawlessly in the postseason, until the eighth inning of game six.
14:22With one out and two on, Miguel Cabrera hit a bouncer toward the hole.
14:27What a huge mistake by Alex Gonzalez!
14:30The Cubs looked like a team on the field at that point, but the wheels were coming off, and they
14:36were unraveling.
14:37On the next pitch, Derrick Lee tied it.
14:41Fourteen pitches later, the Cubs trailed 8-3.
14:44Steve Bartman didn't lose that game for the Cubs.
14:47That game was right in the palm of their hand for them to just take it, grab it, and get
14:51to the World Series.
14:52And they gave it away.
14:53Not Steve Bartman.
14:58Before presenting reason two, let's examine the chances of the Cubs winning game six before and after the Bartman incident.
15:06Yale professor Ben Polak, who devised a formula to determine a team's likelihood of victory at any point in a
15:11game,
15:11calculates the Cubs had a 91% chance before the infamous foul ball.
15:17Now what would have happened if Lelew had caught the ball? This is when the fan incident took place.
15:22The probability of their winning the game would go up to about 94%.
15:27In fact, he didn't catch the ball. How much difference does that make?
15:31The count hadn't changed. The probability of their winning the game is still at 91%.
15:353% difference. But 3% is small potatoes in relation to what happened next.
15:40And the Florida Marlins, incredibly, have come all the way back.
15:45At the end of this eight-run inning, the Cubs' chance of coming back and winning the game is down
15:50to 3%.
15:51And that was only in game six.
15:53Which leads us to our number two reason why you can't blame Steve Bartman.
15:58There was still a game seven.
16:01If you really want to look at it rationally, the Cubs blew the series in game seven, not game six.
16:07You can't really blame Steve Bartman. I mean, he didn't even get to go to game seven. He didn't have
16:12a ticket.
16:13In game seven, the Cubs had league strikeout king Kerry Wood on the mound.
16:17Not since June of 2002 had they lost back-to-back games in which Mark Pryor and Wood started.
16:24After giving up three runs in the first inning, Wood provided significant pop with his bat in the second.
16:30And the pitch swung on and well hit! This ball's hit a ton and it is gone!
16:36Kerry Wood hits one out to deep left center. And we're tied at three here at Wrigley.
16:42In that instant, you say, we've fallen behind and the pitcher has dragged us back.
16:47That's going to be the thing that turns this all around.
16:50The 1-0 to Alou. A swing and a fly ball. He might have gotten this one. High and deep
16:55to left field. And gone! It's 5-3 Chicago.
17:00Moises Alou, the center of attention in game six, puts them ahead with another home run.
17:05At that point, the feeling of, this is finally it, was back.
17:08I thought we had him again. I thought we were going to get some momentum going on and we were
17:13going to score eight runs.
17:14And the chant of Alou is shaking this ballpark right now.
17:19Oh yes, this is our, this is our time. This is our day. Bartman means nothing.
17:24Cup fans thought, yeah, that's it. And then, of course, that was not it.
17:29A base hit! And the Marlins have taken the lead!
17:33As soon as the Marlins stuck their noses back in front, it's like that depression comes back over you like
17:38a wave.
17:39And you say, oh, I remember, we have to lose, don't we?
17:42That's the game, and the Florida Marlins are going to the World Series.
17:46We actually believed we could win. God, we're so stupid sometimes.
17:51Last I checked in game seven, I didn't see anybody reaching, grabbing foul balls or getting in the way of
17:56anybody, and they lost the game.
17:57As much as Chicago fans want to blame Steve Bartman, Steve Bartman didn't throw any of those pitches to those
18:03Marlins hitters.
18:04And the Marlins pounded the Cubs in game seven.
18:08Coming up.
18:10The Marlins were better.
18:15It was ridiculous to blame Bartman when a team of the caliber of the Marlins came back and won.
18:25On May 11th, the youthful Marlins were mired in fourth place when 72-year-old Jack McKeon, who had been
18:31away from the game since 2000, took over the club.
18:35I thought the only way you could win was to have all these guys doing the little things and playing
18:39as a team.
18:39We reached the point where, like, whatever Jack does, it's going to work.
18:43And that's a wild card clincher for the Marlins!
18:50From May 23rd on, McKeon, who would be voted the National League's Manager of the Year, led his team to
18:55the best record in baseball.
18:57In the divisional series against the Giants, Florida lost the opener before winning three straight to take the series.
19:03Here comes the winning run!
19:07Pudge Rodriguez was the glue to the Marlins in that postseason.
19:12His RBIs in those first two rounds were unbelievable.
19:15You know, I mean, he basically carried us.
19:18Here's the throw to the plate. Pudge is waiting.
19:22He ties and gets blocked over. Oh, good! And the Marlins win the game!
19:29Lined over the head of Ramirez, it's an RBI double for Rodriguez.
19:33Not only did they beat the Cubs in three straight games, but they beat a very powerful New York Yankees
19:37team.
19:38Down to the Yankees two games to one, the Marlins won the next three.
19:42The last in the Bronx on a brilliant performance by their 23-year-old fireballer.
19:47Josh Beckett took it on his young shoulders and in that brilliant young arm of his to just dominate the
19:54New York Yankees.
19:55It's all over, and it's the world championship for the Florida Marlins!
20:01The 2003 playoffs, that wasn't a Cup failure. That wasn't a Steve Bartman misplay.
20:08That was an achievement of a team with a lot of determination.
20:12The better team won the series, and you start blaming...
20:15Frankly, it's disrespectful to the Marlins to blame them, to blame a fan for why they won.
20:24They were better than that.
20:27Steve Bartman for one play out of a seven-game series.
20:31Don't blame Bartman. It's not his fault.
20:34Ultimately, did we lose the NLCS because of him? No.
20:37I mean, and that's preposterous to even think that.
20:46Well, that's our best attempt at convincing you why a loyal, if grabby fan,
20:50shouldn't be blamed for the Cubs' loss to the Marlins after leading the series three games to one.
20:54We hope you've gained a new perspective, and perhaps even someday,
20:58Bartman will get to watch his favorite team in peace once again.
21:00I'm Brian Kenney. Thanks for watching.
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