ESPN doing a great job of piling on

[TruffleShuffle]

i haven't seen it but i do hope there is a point to it other than "wow, poor steve." not that it'll stop me, but i feel a little guilty watching a film based on someone who clearly does not want any of this attention, especially years after the fact when it hasn't been a big story for a while and the average person would not otherwise recognize him. if someone made a documentary about the worst humiliation of my life, i'd probably be unhappy even if there was serious money involved (and i don't think he has ever accepted any).

 

props for taking the high road, tree

[imb]

Daaaaaaaaamn

[treebird]

http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z408/majere616/GIFs/tumblr_lk5tyfa6nw1qcz1gq.gif

[Sammy Sofa]

Zam.

[USSoccer]

That was unexpected.

[EhDubya]

This was a great documentary. The parts about the aftermath with the other fans and the Cubs perrsonnel was awesone. The replays showing when Bartman looked back and asked the other fans if he did anything wrong and their recollection of it was really interesting.

 

Someone was mentioning earlier in the thread that "many fans will avoid interfering with the home team", as if Bartman should have done the same.

 

How astute of a fan would you have to be to look at your seat, look down at the field, think to yourself "Ok...I'm well above the field, but I'm only about 9.5 feet above the field of play, and if the ball comes right to my seat, the left fielder might have a play." Then, when the ball is coming straight toward him, in a packed house with nowhere to go, he realizes that there might be a play on it, and hits the deck?

 

There was no conscious decision made by Bartman or anyone else to try to catch the ball at the expense of Alou trying to catch it. It never would have occurred to 99.9% of fans in that seat. If it happened at field level down the 1st or 3rd base line, maybe, but not in those seats. He didn't even reach into the field of play.

 

Every meathead jackass that yelled "a-hole" or threw beer on him or took a swipe at him as he left the stadium would have done the exact same thing, and there would have been nothing selfish or malicious about it, just a reaction.

 

Also, if Alou just had a mild reaction to the play and returned to his position, it would have been an afterthought. People might have talked about it the next day, but there certainly would not have been the ugly scene at the ballpark that night. Not that I'm blaming Alou, just pointing out that his reaction was what incited the whole thing. Many fans at the park mentioned that they didn't even notice there was interference until Alou reacted.

 

I agree with your opinion on Bartman; he did what most anyone would have done. But I'm curious, why don't you have the same feeling in regards to Alou? I'd be willing to argue that 99.9% of left fielders in that same situation would have reacted similarly, too.

 

I'm sympathetic pretty much all around: If I were Bartman, I could see myself doing what he did. If I were Alou, I could see myself screaming like he did. If I were an over-served fan, I could see myself chanting "[expletive]". The heathens that threw beer and threats, they are the worst.

[Derwood]

the most tragic thing about that game was that someone was actually paying Steve Lyons to announce a baseball game

[Old Style]

and seriously, you guys really are that upset over a baseball game from 8 years ago that you can't even bear to watch this?

 

Yes.

 

i don't know if you're just trying to be the fanningest fan that ever fanned, or if you truly have so little going on in your life that you allow baseball games involving strangers from a decade ago to devastate you. either way, pretty sad.

I ended up watching it, but it was very painful to relive those events. It's more than just one game. It's more than a series. It's more than a season. It's a [expletive] lifetime. Some of my greatest memories of childhood are of going to Wrigley with my dad. It was (and still is) a great bonding experience for us. He's been a die hard Cub fan all his life and I want the Cubs to win more for him than I do myself because I know how happy it would make him. The celebrations in Chicago would be legendary. My life wasn't devastated by that game, but it still hurts and it will until the Cubs do win it all. And if my dad dies before that happens, then 2003 will probably forever haunt me much like 1984 does when we actually had World Series tickets in our hands until the collapse in San Diego.

[abuck1220]

that's just weird. you guys must like sports a lot more than me or something.

[Little Slide Rooter]

i haven't seen it but i do hope there is a point to it other than "wow, poor steve." not that it'll stop me, but i feel a little guilty watching a film based on someone who clearly does not want any of this attention, especially years after the fact when it hasn't been a big story for a while and the average person would not otherwise recognize him. if someone made a documentary about the worst humiliation of my life, i'd probably be unhappy even if there was serious money involved (and i don't think he has ever accepted any).

 

props for taking the high road, tree

 

[expletive] that, the guy has been made a pariah for going after a foul ball that other people had their hands out to catch as well with his team up big and an outfielder that probably wouldn't have caught it anyway. Its high time the kid cashes in. I say on opening day, let him ride onto the field on a goat and throw out the first pitch.

[17 Seconds]

whats all the fuss about this bart man

[Benchwarmer]

I felt it was poorly done and full of factual errors. I felt I was watching the Zapruder film with all this isolation photography.

 

One such error is the assertion there is a 7 second delay between the action and the WGN Radio broadcast. There's not. Besides, Steve Bartman reacted real time, not any sort of delayed broadcast. What was that all about?

 

Spoiler alert: Far too much David Kaplan and his balding head.

[Sammy Sofa]

One such error is the assertion there is a 7 second delay between the action and the WGN Radio broadcast. There's not.

 

There's not now or there wasn't then?

 

Besides, Steve Bartman reacted real time, not any sort of delayed broadcast. What was that all about?

 

It was saying that his reaction time to the play might have been a bit slower if he was focusing on the radio broadcast he was listening to, if there was a delay.

 

What are some of the other errors it was "full" of?

[Soul]

I think they were just looking for some kind of reason why he might have sat still for awhile afterwards, while it seemed like everyone else was reacting immediately.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

I felt it was poorly done and full of factual errors. I felt I was watching the Zapruder film with all this isolation photography.

 

One such error is the assertion there is a 7 second delay between the action and the WGN Radio broadcast. There's not. Besides, Steve Bartman reacted real time, not any sort of delayed broadcast. What was that all about?

Oh my.

[Old Style]

Also, the clips where they took all the other fans including Bartman out of the clip was neat. Alou definitely was going to catch that ball.

agreed

[rocket]

benchwarmer = steve bartman?

 

brb calling espn

[javy knows my name]

benchwarmer = steve bartman?

 

brb calling espn

 

Now you insult the guy's baseball acumen?! Too far, Rocket.

[bcl412]

I felt it was poorly done and full of factual errors. I felt I was watching the Zapruder film with all this isolation photography.

 

One such error is the assertion there is a 7 second delay between the action and the WGN Radio broadcast. There's not. Besides, Steve Bartman reacted real time, not any sort of delayed broadcast. What was that all about?

 

Spoiler alert: Far too much David Kaplan and his balding head.

 

I don't know about now but back then national broadcasts had a delay. I used to watch a lot of sports with the radio on but not the national broadcasts and it was because of this.

[javy knows my name]

I felt it was poorly done and full of factual errors. I felt I was watching the Zapruder film with all this isolation photography.

 

One such error is the assertion there is a 7 second delay between the action and the WGN Radio broadcast. There's not. Besides, Steve Bartman reacted real time, not any sort of delayed broadcast. What was that all about?

 

Spoiler alert: Far too much David Kaplan and his balding head.

 

I don't know about now but back then national broadcasts had a delay. I used to watch a lot of sports with the radio on but not the national broadcasts and it was because of this.

 

That game absolutely, 100% had a radio delay. We gave up on Steve Lyons after about 3 outs and let Ronnie give us 5 second spoilers for the remainder of the game.

[Mark Priors Calves]

The Fox broadcasters were so terrible that many people complained to the WGN Radio and they worked to sync their radio broadcast with what was airing on tv. People (my dad, I remember for one) watched the broadcast with the Pat Hughes and Steve Stone's call.

[OleMissCub]

The WGN radio delay was so long because it was televised on FOX. Probably wasn't that long during regular season WGN telecasts.

[KingKongvs.Godzilla]

I knew ESPN would find a way to get a focus on the Red Sox. Almost half of the documentary went in their direction with Buckner. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck ESPN.

[Garwilly]

What are some of the other errors it was "full" of?

 

I'm not coming in on the side of "full of factual errors", but two minor things I saw:

 

1. In one of the very opening sequences, they show a CGI version of Wrigley's scoreboard, with the yellow team names and numbers from the center of the scoreboard as 3-0, clearly to represent the score of the game prior to the Bartman play. But on the Wrigley scoreboard, that tracks the number of hits for each team, not the score.

 

2. When talking about Game 7, Lyons said something to the effect that the winner of this game had to focus on winning, to go play the Yankees. NLCS game 7 was played the same day as ALCS game 6, with their game 7 the following day.

 

While I don't really count it, as it was simply dramatic effect, but they showed a shot of the back of the scoreboard (the neon) as if it would be viewable on the way to the security guards apartment, but she lived in the opposite direction (they said on Eddy).

[ConstableRabbit]

i haven't seen it but i do hope there is a point to it other than "wow, poor steve." not that it'll stop me, but i feel a little guilty watching a film based on someone who clearly does not want any of this attention, especially years after the fact when it hasn't been a big story for a while and the average person would not otherwise recognize him. if someone made a documentary about the worst humiliation of my life, i'd probably be unhappy even if there was serious money involved (and i don't think he has ever accepted any).

 

props for taking the high road, tree

 

[expletive] that, the guy has been made a pariah for going after a foul ball that other people had their hands out to catch as well with his team up big and an outfielder that probably wouldn't have caught it anyway. Its high time the kid cashes in. I say on opening day, let him ride onto the field on a goat and throw out the first pitch.

You do know he's a grown man, and was a grown man in 2003, right?