This scene was great, Cicero is one of the best characters in the show
Whenever Bartman gets brought up and blamed, I always bring up this story. I feel seen
Truth.
I’m glad the Cubs gave Bartman a World Series ring. Dude deserved it for having to be a scapegoat for that loss.
Only inaccurate part here is that a guy who would know enough ball to arrive at this (correct) conclusion would definitely know that the last pennant was 58 years prior to this, not “like 45”
Love The Bear
When my wife and I first watched this episode, as soon as he said “have you ever heard of a guy named Alex Gonzalez?” I scowled and nodded knowingly. She isn’t as much of a baseball person so she thought she’d missed something she was supposed to have understood. We all know this feeling.
Alou doesn’t get enough of the blame for how badly his temper tantrum escalated things. But real fans know it wasn’t Bartman’s fault. It wasn’t Prior’s fault. It wasn’t even on Dusty for leaving Prior out there. The inning collapsed because of the error at shortstop.
Don’t be fucking Alex Gonzalez.
Too soon.
I was in the park for that game.
The FOX broadcast team, Joe Buck, Tim McCarver, the director, are the ones most responsible for ruining his life. Someone in the control room kept saying “cut to the fan” as the inning was unraveling. A camera man kept him in the shot and they scapegoated him. To my knowledge they’ve never accepted responsibility of apologized for it.
That actor is perfect to play JB Pritzker, never seen the show but I assume that’s not who he’s supposed to be portraying there
What Cubs fan would think it’s only been 45 years? That’s nonsense
I remember Alex Gonzalez’s fuck up.
There’s also a joke in season 1 I think where Richie asks Sugar’s husband who the Cubs 1st baseman is. Richie doesn’t like him and thinks he’s a poser. But he correctly answers “Alfonso Rivas”. Great joke and character building that I think went over a lot of heads.
I feel like at this point everyone should be ready to forgive everyone from that night. Alou lost his composure and pointed blame to Bartman, which was wrong. But clearly the pressure of the game got the best of him. Years have gone by, nobody is feeling the stress of that night right now, it’s easy to say how he acted was wrong now, we’re not stressed out right now. In the moment he lost his cool. Same for Alex Gonzalez, he booted the play, it happens. It was a real shit timing for that to happen but clearly these guys were pretty puckered up out there, squeezing. Shit, they allowed 8 runs that inning. He probably makes that play 90 times out of 100.
Bartman really never should have been in a position to need to be forgiven but it feels like that part at least has been universally agreed on.
At any rate that wasn’t an elimination game, they still had another game to clinch and they didn’t. We’d barely even be talking about it now if they went out and won game 7.
Multiple things can be true at the same time. Gonzalez fucked up that routine play. Prior lost his control. Alou lost his cool. Dusty left Prior in too long. And Bartman interfered on that foul ball.
Multiple angles and replays show that the ball was going to land directly into Alou’s glove, notching a valuable out. Just because most people would reach for a foul ball doesn’t make it right or excuse the bad decision to interfere on that play. Everyone in the stadium knew the situation and the high stakes, especially Bartman… the guy actually had headphones on listening to the game live. I know it’s a lot to ask, but the right move was to have some situational awareness and not reach into an area where a play could potentially be made, especially by a player on your home team. But Bartman didn’t have the situational awareness or the foresight on that play. He fucked up… and it’s okay, we all fuck up. And it’s okay to feel pissed off about his fuck up, or Gonzalez’s fuck up, or anyone else’s fuck up. What wasn’t okay was all the bullshit Bartman dealt with afterwards… people harassing him, throwing shit at him, etc.
It wasn’t one play, one person or one game that cost the ‘03 Cubs a trip to the WS. It was a combination of failures and bad moves on the Cubs side and a combination of successes and coming through in the clutch on the Marlins side.
The Bartman game wasn’t even the final game of that series… the Cubs had another opportunity in Game 7 with their other ace, Kerry Wood, on the mound. They simply couldn’t get the job done. It obviously wasn’t meant to be that year, but it felt all the sweeter when they finally did win it in ‘16.
Yeah it’s great that this is the common fans’ analysis of the situation
Bartman did nothing wrong.
This is really well done and 1000% correct.
Man that was painful to watch and absolutely true. I was there with my dad. Section 205 row 6 so pretty close to “that play”. Brutal.
Still feels like yesterday.
I love this show, but I am firmly in the, “Ok we have tormented Bartman enough now” camp.
The guy has been harassed to the point he has lost jobs. Not cool.
22 comments
This scene was great, Cicero is one of the best characters in the show
Whenever Bartman gets brought up and blamed, I always bring up this story. I feel seen
Truth.
I’m glad the Cubs gave Bartman a World Series ring. Dude deserved it for having to be a scapegoat for that loss.
Only inaccurate part here is that a guy who would know enough ball to arrive at this (correct) conclusion would definitely know that the last pennant was 58 years prior to this, not “like 45”
Love The Bear
When my wife and I first watched this episode, as soon as he said “have you ever heard of a guy named Alex Gonzalez?” I scowled and nodded knowingly. She isn’t as much of a baseball person so she thought she’d missed something she was supposed to have understood. We all know this feeling.
Alou doesn’t get enough of the blame for how badly his temper tantrum escalated things. But real fans know it wasn’t Bartman’s fault. It wasn’t Prior’s fault. It wasn’t even on Dusty for leaving Prior out there. The inning collapsed because of the error at shortstop.
Don’t be fucking Alex Gonzalez.
Too soon.
I was in the park for that game.
The FOX broadcast team, Joe Buck, Tim McCarver, the director, are the ones most responsible for ruining his life. Someone in the control room kept saying “cut to the fan” as the inning was unraveling. A camera man kept him in the shot and they scapegoated him. To my knowledge they’ve never accepted responsibility of apologized for it.
That actor is perfect to play JB Pritzker, never seen the show but I assume that’s not who he’s supposed to be portraying there
What Cubs fan would think it’s only been 45 years? That’s nonsense
I remember Alex Gonzalez’s fuck up.
There’s also a joke in season 1 I think where Richie asks Sugar’s husband who the Cubs 1st baseman is. Richie doesn’t like him and thinks he’s a poser. But he correctly answers “Alfonso Rivas”. Great joke and character building that I think went over a lot of heads.
I feel like at this point everyone should be ready to forgive everyone from that night. Alou lost his composure and pointed blame to Bartman, which was wrong. But clearly the pressure of the game got the best of him. Years have gone by, nobody is feeling the stress of that night right now, it’s easy to say how he acted was wrong now, we’re not stressed out right now. In the moment he lost his cool. Same for Alex Gonzalez, he booted the play, it happens. It was a real shit timing for that to happen but clearly these guys were pretty puckered up out there, squeezing. Shit, they allowed 8 runs that inning. He probably makes that play 90 times out of 100.
Bartman really never should have been in a position to need to be forgiven but it feels like that part at least has been universally agreed on.
At any rate that wasn’t an elimination game, they still had another game to clinch and they didn’t. We’d barely even be talking about it now if they went out and won game 7.
Multiple things can be true at the same time. Gonzalez fucked up that routine play. Prior lost his control. Alou lost his cool. Dusty left Prior in too long. And Bartman interfered on that foul ball.
Multiple angles and replays show that the ball was going to land directly into Alou’s glove, notching a valuable out. Just because most people would reach for a foul ball doesn’t make it right or excuse the bad decision to interfere on that play. Everyone in the stadium knew the situation and the high stakes, especially Bartman… the guy actually had headphones on listening to the game live. I know it’s a lot to ask, but the right move was to have some situational awareness and not reach into an area where a play could potentially be made, especially by a player on your home team. But Bartman didn’t have the situational awareness or the foresight on that play. He fucked up… and it’s okay, we all fuck up. And it’s okay to feel pissed off about his fuck up, or Gonzalez’s fuck up, or anyone else’s fuck up. What wasn’t okay was all the bullshit Bartman dealt with afterwards… people harassing him, throwing shit at him, etc.
It wasn’t one play, one person or one game that cost the ‘03 Cubs a trip to the WS. It was a combination of failures and bad moves on the Cubs side and a combination of successes and coming through in the clutch on the Marlins side.
The Bartman game wasn’t even the final game of that series… the Cubs had another opportunity in Game 7 with their other ace, Kerry Wood, on the mound. They simply couldn’t get the job done. It obviously wasn’t meant to be that year, but it felt all the sweeter when they finally did win it in ‘16.
Yeah it’s great that this is the common fans’ analysis of the situation
Bartman did nothing wrong.
This is really well done and 1000% correct.
Man that was painful to watch and absolutely true. I was there with my dad. Section 205 row 6 so pretty close to “that play”. Brutal.
Still feels like yesterday.
I love this show, but I am firmly in the, “Ok we have tormented Bartman enough now” camp.
The guy has been harassed to the point he has lost jobs. Not cool.