The Bartman Game, 10 Years Later

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 14, 2013 10:00PM

Ten years ago today the Cubs came closest to a World Series than they’ve been in our lifetimes only to piss it away in the most Cubs way possible. Game 6 of the National League Championship Series will be known as the game where a comedy of errors turned a 3-0 Cubs lead into an 8-3 Florida Marlins victory. But there was one moment that stands out that gave the game its name: “the Bartman incident.”

Sun-Times columnist Rick Morrissey wrote in today’s paper the rebuilding Cubs are as far away from a World Series as they’ve ever been. Pitcher Mark Prior told Jack Silverstein, “95 percent of anybody in that same situation as well as the three or four other people surrounding him would have probably—and they did—reach out and try to get that foul ball.”

But it’s Bartman, with his sweatshirt, glasses, headphones and Cub hat, who took the brunt of the blame back then, instead of Prior and Moises Alou overreacting, Paul Bako’s passed ball which moved Juan Pierre to third base or Alex Gonzalez’s muffed double play ball. This clip from the ESPN “30 for 30” documentary Catching Hell encapsulates the danger Bartman found himself in that night once the Wrigley Faithful searched for a scapegoat and found him.

Bartman, as he's done in the decade since the incident, has shunned the spotlight and turned down repeated requests for interviews, including one for the New York Times. Bartman's friend Frank Murtha told the Times, "He’s happy and healthy and he’s still a Cubs fan."