Steve Bartman

[usc1]

Watched this 30 for 30 for the first time today. I knew it was bad at the time but didn't know it was that bad for poor Steve. He's been in seclusion ever since. I can't imagine having to stay out of the public eye for the rest of my life for something like that. One of the more interesting stories in sports.




I don't know if there are any Cubs fans on here but I'd love to hear their opinion on the whole Bartman situation.

[tkousc]

Cubs fan here (Born in Chicago burbs). This was as gutwrenching as I had ever felt from a sporting event. I truly believe Alou would have caught that ball. Bartman could have certainly handled the situation better but I don't feel any real animosity toward him. He unfortunately looked almost to a tee of someone that is easy to despise. (the turtleneck, the nerdy glasses, the headphones) Especially to sports jocks. Now its sad but I feel almost indifferent to the Cubs and baseball in general because nothing ever changes. You have to have that hope and right now cubs fans have none and that all started with Bartman.

[markp_vip]

Originally Posted by usc1

Watched this 30 for 30 for the first time today. I knew it was bad at the time but didn't know it was that bad for poor Steve. He's been in seclusion ever since. I can't imagine having to stay out of the public eye for the rest of my life for something like that. One of the more interesting stories in sports.

I don't know if there are any Cubs fans on here but I'd love to hear their opinion on the whole Bartman situation.

Yeah that would be pretty bad. I think I would just leave the Chicago area or become a big White Sox fan or something if I were him. To make it a little more personal. Imagine if he were a Gamecock fan it he had cost us winning our first CWS.

[spareparts]

To be honest I'm surprised the guy hasn't gotten racked. Cubs fans usually aren't the most homicidal, but in this case I could see someone snapping

[M.C.]

I guess his instinct was to go for the ball

[SwampFox]

It was easy to blame Bartman, but he did not do anything any fan at any game with a chance to catch a ball is ALWAYS going to do.

The real villain was and always will be Dusty (The Clown) Baker. That idiot violated just about every critical rule of managing that night. He is the real reason the Cubs did not get into the World Series that year. Dusty just stood there with his thumb up his ass while his team fell apart on the field because he did not yank the pitcher until long after it was too late.

I'll always despise Baker for that because 2003 turned out to be the last year my dad, a Cubs fan since his boyhood in northwestern Indiana, was alive to see a playoff and a World Series.

Here is a link to an excellent article about that game. It reminds us that Alex Gonzalez blew an easy double play that would have ended the Marlins at bat with the Cubs up 3-1.

http://mlb.si.com/2013/10/14/steve-b...ins-2003-nlcs/

[robgusc76]

Its awlays easy for the fans to pick out one specific play, but Im 100% positive if you go back and watch that game, there were other instances where the Cubs failed to score a runner on base, or the pitcher left a hanger over the plate that led to a run scoring base hit.

And the best part about this is, those people blaming him would have done the same thing. And even better is that the people next to him that are probably blaming him now, had their arms stretched out and were inches from being the headline of this story.

[OldPat]

Originally Posted by M.C.

I guess his instinct was to go for the ball

Poor fellow gotta hide in the crapper
'cause his gut done him wrong.
Feelin' a little sad?? No, not really.
A real Cubbie woulda known better.

[trapper82]

Alou would have had a very tough time catching the ball. I doubt it would have happened. I think he will be like Buckner, when they finally win, he will be brought back.

[yazoo]

A lot of it had to do with the curse of the billy goat. There was a feeling at the time among Cubs fans that the Cubs were cursed and could not win. Bartman was just another event in the negative mindset reinforcing the myth. Now even more people believe it.

In 2003 (incidentally, the Chinese zodiac's Year of the Goat), a group of Cubs fans headed to Houston with a billy goat named "Virgil Homer" and attempted to gain entrance to Minute Maid Park, home of the Astros, division rivals of the Cubs at the time.[5] After they were denied entrance, they unfurled a scroll, read a verse and proclaimed they were "reversing the curse." The Cubs won the division that year and then came within five outs of playing in the World Series, but were undone by the Florida Marlins' eight-run rally immediately following the Steve Bartman incident. The Cubs then lost the following game and with it the series. (The Marlins went on to win the World Series against the New York Yankees). Further salting the wound, the Astros earned their first World Series berth two years later (they would be swept by the Cubs' crosstown rivals, the Chicago White Sox).

LINK

Younger Gamecock fans may not recall, but there was once a belief amongst Gamecock fans that we were cursed by the notorious racist, Pitchfork Ben Tillman, a man who has a tower erected at Clemson in his honor. The curse ended when Brad Scott took it with him to Clemson. Now they have the Tillman curse.

[SwampFox]

[M.C.]

Originally Posted by OldPat

Poor fellow gotta hide in the crapper
'cause his gut done him wrong.
Feelin' a little sad?? No, not really.
A real Cubbie woulda known better.

To give a guy hell for the rest of his life because he went for a ball in the stands is ridiculous .. I guess that shows you how bad the cubs are and always have been

[markymark550]

I agree with those that said Bartman did what any other fan would do. To think that one play cost the Cubs that series is just crazy.

I could maybe understand it if that would have been the last out in an elimination game and the Marlins then got a walk off hit. Even then it's still a stretch because they would have had the rest of the game to score enough to prevent that from happening.

All that coming from a Braves fan who is still bitter about the incorrect infield fly rule from the wild card game a couple of years ago.

That was a good 30 for 30 show. I've got 3 of the newer ones on the DVR that I still need to watch. Love that series.

[Gyle41386]

Just finished it. Could've cut the thing in half by leaving all of the Red Sox shit out.

[carolinafan53186]

One thing that the video pointed out that never gets talked about is that he had headphones on listening to the game. The broadcast was 5-10 seconds behind the game so he would have never known alou was there to catch the ball until it was too late.

But as a previous poster said. That whole series is on dusty Baker. He blew it harder than Sasha grey

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[Gyle41386]

That Florida Marlins team was stacked.

[Spur's Addiction]

Man I would move to a different city. People are crazy.

[JaxcockFL]

This is a symptom of a fanbase that has a loser mentality. Complete and utter BS to blame it on this guy when Alex Gonzalez booted a double play that would have ended that inning. No one remembers that. Winners would have not acted like a baby in the outfield, and would have turned the double play.

The cubs fell apart because they are losers. no other way to put it. Alou starts slamming his glove acting like a baby, the blow a double play and lose.

Let me put it this way. Imagine this. Carolina is in the college world series. They face the bases loaded and bring the infield in. They get out of it due to incredible infield play and win the series.

oh. no need to imagine it, it's the way it happened. Win anyway is our motto. Lose anyway is theirs.

[yazoo]

I disagree with those that say any fan would do the same thing. That is not true. Most home team fans would not do this because they know it hurts their own team. Probably a few would, yeah. I would hope that Carolina fans would also know better than to interfere with a popup play at the edge of the field, particularly when it would hurt the Gamecocks in a crucial situation.

[bigdog2003]

I was at church camp watching the game on tv, the entire situation sucked. Dusty Baker is a moron, I never liked Alex Gonzalez, and then the Bartman situation. I said things during that game that should never be said at a church camp. I don't blame Bartman, I blame Alex Gonzalez for not fielding a routine ground ball. Still a Cubs fan, have been since I was a kid and Ryno was playing 2nd for them. I remember getting home from school and watching them on WGN. I actually was in ATL when they beat the Braves two summers ago, which was good because the Cubs don't win much. It's the craziest thing, minor league teams always do great, then they trade the talent for old ass players that suck.