By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
CHICAGO -- We don't know his name. We don't want to know his name. We hope no one in Chicago ever learns his name.
We hope he already has joined the witness-protection program. We hope he can start a new life somewhere, rooting for a team thousands of miles from the North Side of Chicago. We hope he forgets. We hope the people of Chicago forget about him.
But that will never happen. No way. Because the Cubs lost a playoff game they couldn't lose Tuesday night. And one reason they lost it is because a 26-year-old guy in a Cubs cap saw a baseball coming his way and decided to try to catch it.
“ Everybody comes to the ballpark and wants a ball. It's unfortunate it happened. I was very upset. I was there. I got there in time. I jumped. I had my eyes on the ball. But everybody who goes to the ballpark wants a baseball. Hopefully, he doesn't have to regret it for the rest of his life. ”
— Moises Alou, Cubs left fielder
If he'd just seen Cubs left fielder Moises Alou, no more than a yard away, leaping toward the seats in foul territory, glove outstretched, he undoubtedly would have pulled his hands away. But this was a guy stuck in his own little tunnel. And once he flicked that ball away from Alou's glove, it became a tunnel with no light on either end.
Asked if he would have caught that ball if The Fan hadn't gotten in his path, Alou replied: "I think so -- almost 100 percent. At the same time, I kind of feel bad for the guy now.
"Everybody comes to the ballpark and wants a ball," Alou went on, after the play which kept alive an eighth inning that turned into an eight-run debacle, which turned into an 8-3 loss in Game 6 of the NLCS. "It's unfortunate it happened. I was very upset. I was there. I got there in time. I jumped. I had my eyes on the ball. But everybody who goes to the ballpark wants a baseball. Hopefully, he doesn't have to regret it for the rest of his life."
But with all the national air time The Fan got, how can he not regret it? Only if the Cubs win Game 7, we suppose, and it becomes just another surreal October memory. But how do we know it can ever be that simple?
Asked if he was worried about The Fan's safety after the way he was berated, cursed and abused by his fellow Wrigley-ites, Florida's Jeff Conine said: "Yeah. I am. We're all concerned about that fan. Seriously.
"I couldn't believe, in a game this huge, that a Cubs fan would do something like that," Conine said.
But then, players almost never understand the way fans think, just the way fans almost never understand how players think.
"I see what people do for a baseball," Conine said. "They fall on their face. They drop their kids. They spill their beer. They'd do anything for a $10 baseball."
But amazingly, Alou was more understanding of the basic instinct that causes people like this to reach for baseballs when there should be a voice in their heads telling them, "NOOOOOOO."
"They don't go to school," Alou said, "to be taught what balls not to touch."
Still, this fan touched a baseball he shouldn't have touched. And now the team he roots for might never recover.
"From that point on," said Cubs shortstop Alex Gonzalez, "it seemed like everything changed in the game."
And by everything, he didn't mean just the outcome. The entire mood of the park changed.
"As a player," said Florida's Mike Mordecai, "your concentration level is so high that most of the time, you really don't hear the fans. You're concentrating on the moment, and you don't hear what's going on around you. But once that fan interfered with the ball, it seemed like it took some of their attention away from us and put it on that guy."
And as that eighth inning careened onward, things got so ugly that security went from trying to protect The Fan to trying to persuade him to leave. Eventually, after resisting, he agreed to be escorted to a holding area inside the stadium. And he didn't even wind up with the ball.
"We'll be talking about that guy for a long time," Mordecai said. "We need to send that guy a box of chocolates."
No, they need to send him a beard and a wig and a new set of clothes. We hope he slipped out of Wrigley Field unrecognized and went off into the night in safety. We hope he can live the rest of his life without being known as The Fan Who Cost The Cubs The Pennant.
But that isn't how life works in this world of tabloids and talk shows and cameras that see everything. The Fan didn't wind up with the baseball. But he'll never get rid of the scars. Now the question is: Can the Cubs?
ESPN.com
CHICAGO -- We don't know his name. We don't want to know his name. We hope no one in Chicago ever learns his name.
We hope he already has joined the witness-protection program. We hope he can start a new life somewhere, rooting for a team thousands of miles from the North Side of Chicago. We hope he forgets. We hope the people of Chicago forget about him.
But that will never happen. No way. Because the Cubs lost a playoff game they couldn't lose Tuesday night. And one reason they lost it is because a 26-year-old guy in a Cubs cap saw a baseball coming his way and decided to try to catch it.
“ Everybody comes to the ballpark and wants a ball. It's unfortunate it happened. I was very upset. I was there. I got there in time. I jumped. I had my eyes on the ball. But everybody who goes to the ballpark wants a baseball. Hopefully, he doesn't have to regret it for the rest of his life. ”
— Moises Alou, Cubs left fielder
If he'd just seen Cubs left fielder Moises Alou, no more than a yard away, leaping toward the seats in foul territory, glove outstretched, he undoubtedly would have pulled his hands away. But this was a guy stuck in his own little tunnel. And once he flicked that ball away from Alou's glove, it became a tunnel with no light on either end.
Asked if he would have caught that ball if The Fan hadn't gotten in his path, Alou replied: "I think so -- almost 100 percent. At the same time, I kind of feel bad for the guy now.
"Everybody comes to the ballpark and wants a ball," Alou went on, after the play which kept alive an eighth inning that turned into an eight-run debacle, which turned into an 8-3 loss in Game 6 of the NLCS. "It's unfortunate it happened. I was very upset. I was there. I got there in time. I jumped. I had my eyes on the ball. But everybody who goes to the ballpark wants a baseball. Hopefully, he doesn't have to regret it for the rest of his life."
But with all the national air time The Fan got, how can he not regret it? Only if the Cubs win Game 7, we suppose, and it becomes just another surreal October memory. But how do we know it can ever be that simple?
Asked if he was worried about The Fan's safety after the way he was berated, cursed and abused by his fellow Wrigley-ites, Florida's Jeff Conine said: "Yeah. I am. We're all concerned about that fan. Seriously.
"I couldn't believe, in a game this huge, that a Cubs fan would do something like that," Conine said.
But then, players almost never understand the way fans think, just the way fans almost never understand how players think.
"I see what people do for a baseball," Conine said. "They fall on their face. They drop their kids. They spill their beer. They'd do anything for a $10 baseball."
But amazingly, Alou was more understanding of the basic instinct that causes people like this to reach for baseballs when there should be a voice in their heads telling them, "NOOOOOOO."
"They don't go to school," Alou said, "to be taught what balls not to touch."
Still, this fan touched a baseball he shouldn't have touched. And now the team he roots for might never recover.
"From that point on," said Cubs shortstop Alex Gonzalez, "it seemed like everything changed in the game."
And by everything, he didn't mean just the outcome. The entire mood of the park changed.
"As a player," said Florida's Mike Mordecai, "your concentration level is so high that most of the time, you really don't hear the fans. You're concentrating on the moment, and you don't hear what's going on around you. But once that fan interfered with the ball, it seemed like it took some of their attention away from us and put it on that guy."
And as that eighth inning careened onward, things got so ugly that security went from trying to protect The Fan to trying to persuade him to leave. Eventually, after resisting, he agreed to be escorted to a holding area inside the stadium. And he didn't even wind up with the ball.
"We'll be talking about that guy for a long time," Mordecai said. "We need to send that guy a box of chocolates."
No, they need to send him a beard and a wig and a new set of clothes. We hope he slipped out of Wrigley Field unrecognized and went off into the night in safety. We hope he can live the rest of his life without being known as The Fan Who Cost The Cubs The Pennant.
But that isn't how life works in this world of tabloids and talk shows and cameras that see everything. The Fan didn't wind up with the baseball. But he'll never get rid of the scars. Now the question is: Can the Cubs?
CHICAGO -- We all know in sports that things happen that can't possibly happen. We all know that any time the Cubs are playing baseball in October, the impossible becomes all too possible.
But how do we explain this? How do we explain what happened in Wrigley Field on a Tuesday night when the Cubs were five outs away from the World Series -- and wound up in a twilight zone of despair and disbelief?
Five outs away. A 3-0 lead. Mark Prior pitching a ferocious, give-me-the-ball-and-get-outta-the-way three-hit shutout. Cubs fans standing, roaring, basking in the moment wherever you looked -- even on the rooftops across Waveland Avenue.
Moises Alou tried to make the catch ... but was foiled in his attempt by a fan.
This was not the look of a baseball game about to veer in a whole new historic direction. This was not the sound of a group of people that would soon find itself filing off into the night in shock and confusion.
This was not a recipe even the Florida Marlins would have drawn up for the most remarkable win in the history of their franchise.
But this is the power of sports that makes watching these games so relentlessly addictive. This is the awesome tug of the amazing sport of baseball. And sadly, these are the Cubs. Just when you think they've run out of tragic scripts for their never-ending archives, they even top themselves.
Marlins 8, Cubs 3. Courtesy of an eight-run eighth inning by a team that hadn't gotten a hit with a man in scoring position in three days. Couldn't happen. Impossible. Absurd. Inexplicable.
But it happened. Didn't it? Just to make sure, can we watch it again? Maybe if we watch it again, six or 10 or a thousand times, we'll believe we saw it. And maybe if the Florida Marlins watch it again, they'll finally believe they did what they did.
"Brian Banks and I came in here," said left fielder Jeff Conine, in one of the most raucous clubhouses in postseason history, "and looked at each other, and we said, 'What just happened out there?' "
"Honestly," said first baseman Derrek Lee, "I'm in shock. I know we've done this a lot this season. But at some point, you have to say it's gotta run out. I mean, how many times can you do that?"
"We were like, 'When you figure out what happened, fill me in,' " Banks laughed. "Guys came in here and looked at each other, and there was just a sense of shock that what just happened had happened. It was an amazing thing. Whether you were a fan or a player, it was just a shocking situation."
Well, if they were in shock after winning, you can only imagine the scene down the concourse in the locker room of the team that lost.
There was silence in that room for a long, long time. A half-dozen players sat in the middle of the room, eating. The rest were nowhere to be found, thinking thoughts we'll never know.
For most, this was not a moment in their lives they felt like recreating or dissecting. It was a moment to forget. A moment to shove into a dark corner of their brain where they store the memories they wish would disappear.
"If I go home thinking about this one," said Sammy Sosa, "I'm not going to get any sleep."
The first inclination is to talk about where this game fits in Cubs history, in the ghoulish portion of that Cubs museum -- the wing where the baseball is still hopping through Leon Durham's legs 19 years later, where Mule Haas' fly ball is still hiding behind the sun 74 years later, where a goat still roams the halls 58 years later.
But that would be way too small a way to think. We need to set this game in its place in baseball history, because the only games even remotely like it are among the most talked about baseball games ever played.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, just four other teams have ever come back to win postseason games in which they've been at least three runs behind and no more than six outs from calling it a year:
One was the 1960 Pirates, in Game 7 of the World Series, in what we now know as The Bill Mazeroski Game.
The next was the 1975 Red Sox, in Game 6 of the World Series, in what we now know as The Carlton Fisk Game (co-starring Bernie Carbo, who hit a game-tying three-run pinch-hit homer off Reds closer Rawly Eastwick in the eighth).
Then came the 1980 Phillies, in the fifth game of a best-of-five NLCS, in what we now know as The Nolan Ryan Game (because it was Ryan who couldn't hold a three-run lead in the eighth).
And finally, there were the 1986 Red Sox, in Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS, in what we now know as either the Dave Henderson Game or The Donnie Moore Game (because it was Henderson who hit the home run off Moore with two outs in the ninth that kept the Angels from heading to their first World Series).
But that's it. Those aren't just baseball games. Those are epic baseball games. They're games you are liable to stumble across on ESPN Classic at 2 in the afternoon or 3 in the morning, any month of any year.
And now there's this one.
We'll never forget the sound in Wrigley Field in the bottom of the seventh inning, after Mark Grudzielanek singled in the run that put the Cubs three runs ahead. It was a sound you could feel in your rib cage, because it carried a rumble, a clap of thunder, an electric current rippling through every body in the park.
It was the sound of people who were finally certain this was what it felt like to watch the Cubs -- the Cubs -- go to the World Series. It was the sound of people who knew this game was over, because Mark Prior was not going to let them lose.
Even the Marlins heard that sound. They're a team that specializes in the miracle victory, the improbable comeback. But even they were just about resigned to their fate.
They had three hits off Prior. All three were singles. One of them was an infield hit that wound up conking Cubs first baseman Randall Simon on the head. "He hadn't given up anything," Lee said, with the utmost admiration.
Prior was 12-1 in his last 13 starts. He was the most dominating pitcher left in the playoffs. This was his time, his night, his way of announcing to the world he had that aura only the best pitchers on earth ever have.
"The way he was dominating the game," Conine admitted, "I thought, 'Well, hell, we gave it a great
run.' "
Then there was one out in the eighth. Prior had Juan Pierre buried, 2-and-2. Pierre fought off one 94-mph smoke ball. Prior reached back and launched the next one, his 104th pitch of the night, at 96. Pierre flicked it inside the left-field line for a double.
But it felt like just an intermission in the Mark Prior Show. Prior burst ahead of Luis Castillo, 1-and-2. Then 2-2. And 3-2. Castillo fouled off one 94-mph fastball. Then another. And then it happened.
“ Mike Redmond turned to me and said, 'OK, let's make that kid famous.' ”
— Derrek Lee, Marlins 1B, on the play in which a fan interfered with Cubs LF Moises Alou
This was a moment no Cubs fan will ever forget. They will always see this foul ball twisting toward the brick wall that juts out toward the left-field foul line. They will always see Moises Alou angling over, setting himself, leaping, reaching. And they will always see the fan in the blue Cubs hat and the headphones over his ears, cupping his hands, deflecting this baseball away from Alou, keeping this at-bat alive.
Alou spun away in anger, spitting out words we can't repeat. Fans around this anti-Jeffrey Maier began berating him, abusing him, showering him with guilt and beer -- but not quite in that order.
Three hundred feet away, in the visitors' dugout, Marlins players looked at each other, wondering if they'd just seen what they'd seen, hoping it meant what they thought it meant.
"Mike Redmond turned to me," Lee said, "and said, 'OK, let's make that kid famous.' "
And after that, everything seemed to change. Prior's next pitch was ball four -- but worse. It skipped past Paul Bako, and there were runners on first and third. Then Prior had an 0-2 count on Pudge Rodriguez and tried to strike him out with a curve ball. But he hung it on the inner half of the plate, and Rodriguez roped it into left. 3-1.
Still, Prior had a two-run lead. And Miguel Cabrera chopped his next pitch toward short, where Alex Gonzalez -- the guy who had the highest fielding percentage of any shortstop in the league -- was surely going to turn it into an inning-ending, game-saving double-play ball.
But these are the Cubs, masters of the unthinkable. Gonzalez hadn't committed an error in more than two months, since Aug. 13. But he chose this time, this unfathomable moment to have a double-play ball clank off his glove.
"For whatever reason, I didn't catch the ball," Gonzalez said later. "The spin on the ball ate me up."
And after that, the spin on this game ate the Cubs up, eating their World Series dreams alive. Lee doubled. Tie game. Prior exited, after 119 pitches Kyle Farnsworth entered to try to keep it close. Nope. Intentional walk. Sacrifice fly. 4-3, Marlins. Then another intentional walk. And then the final dagger ...
Mike Mordecai, a bench guy who had made the first out of the inning, a man who had only entered this game because of a double-switch the inning before, scorched a three-run double off the ivy in left-center. Three RBI -- equaling Mordecai's RBI total for the previous two months. Of course. And this game was history.
The sounds were different now. Except for the angry mob descending on the fan in left who had gotten in the way of Alou, there were more tears in this park than words.
"I don't think I've ever heard that many people get that quiet that fast," Mordecai said.
Only once all year had the Marlins scored eight runs in an inning. And only three times in history had a team scored at least eight times in an inning in a postseason game in which losing would have meant elimination. But all of those were early-inning eruptions, by the '68 Tigers (10-run third), the '92 Pirates (eight-run second) and 2001 Diamondbacks (eight-run third).
So no team as close to the end of the road as the Marlins had ever had an inning like this. And no team as close to the World Series as the Cubs had ever given up an inning like this.
So in the Cubs locker room, the ghosts were everywhere -- the ghosts of 1984, and 1969, and 1945. The ghosts were riding the wave of every question. Someone asked Alou whether, if he were a Cubs fan, he would find it hard not to think about curses.
"I'm not a Cubs fan," Alou said. "I'm a Cubs player. And I don't believe that crap."
But others were more philosophical. There were, after all, two teams playing.
"That was crazy," said Doug Glanville. "But so what? Tomorrow's Game 7. A lot of things had to fall our way for us to get this far. But everybody's got to have a story. Every story we have, they have a story. They think they're ordained. We think we're ordained."
But only one of them can come out of this series clinging to their ordination. And it all comes down to one final ball game -- Kerry Wood versus Mark Redman.
"It's Game 7," said Kenny Lofton. "There are no other words. Game 7. I've got nothing else to say. You've got to win. Game 7. You've got to win. Whatever all that stuff was that happened, it doesn't matter. Got to win tomorrow."
They've got to win Game 7, all right. They have Kerry Wood on their side, throwing the baseballs. He has never lost to the Marlins. He has already won one sudden-death ball game this October, beating the Braves in Game 5 of the NLDS. He needs to lift this team out of the dark clouds and carry them home.
Or else ...
Over the last two seasons, Wood and Prior have started back-to-back games 17 different times. Only once have the Cubs lost both of those games. If they lose two in a row in this setting, then what? Uhhhhh, don't ask.
Stuff happens in sports. If that stuff happens to the Cubs, it's a tragic tale, all right. But there's another team, with another story. And the two of them were just mixed up in one of the most mind-boggling games ever to appear in front of our eyeballs.
So very late on a night of a baseball game that will always keep on playing, a group of Marlins -- Andy Fox, Brian Banks, Jeff Conine -- found themselves looking at each other one more time and shaking their heads. They needed to see this one again, just to believe it. Fortunately, they'll get that chance.
"You can bet that game will be on ESPN Classic," Banks said.
"Yeah," Fox laughed. "I think it's on at midnight."
But how do we explain this? How do we explain what happened in Wrigley Field on a Tuesday night when the Cubs were five outs away from the World Series -- and wound up in a twilight zone of despair and disbelief?
Five outs away. A 3-0 lead. Mark Prior pitching a ferocious, give-me-the-ball-and-get-outta-the-way three-hit shutout. Cubs fans standing, roaring, basking in the moment wherever you looked -- even on the rooftops across Waveland Avenue.
Moises Alou tried to make the catch ... but was foiled in his attempt by a fan.
This was not the look of a baseball game about to veer in a whole new historic direction. This was not the sound of a group of people that would soon find itself filing off into the night in shock and confusion.
This was not a recipe even the Florida Marlins would have drawn up for the most remarkable win in the history of their franchise.
But this is the power of sports that makes watching these games so relentlessly addictive. This is the awesome tug of the amazing sport of baseball. And sadly, these are the Cubs. Just when you think they've run out of tragic scripts for their never-ending archives, they even top themselves.
Marlins 8, Cubs 3. Courtesy of an eight-run eighth inning by a team that hadn't gotten a hit with a man in scoring position in three days. Couldn't happen. Impossible. Absurd. Inexplicable.
But it happened. Didn't it? Just to make sure, can we watch it again? Maybe if we watch it again, six or 10 or a thousand times, we'll believe we saw it. And maybe if the Florida Marlins watch it again, they'll finally believe they did what they did.
"Brian Banks and I came in here," said left fielder Jeff Conine, in one of the most raucous clubhouses in postseason history, "and looked at each other, and we said, 'What just happened out there?' "
"Honestly," said first baseman Derrek Lee, "I'm in shock. I know we've done this a lot this season. But at some point, you have to say it's gotta run out. I mean, how many times can you do that?"
"We were like, 'When you figure out what happened, fill me in,' " Banks laughed. "Guys came in here and looked at each other, and there was just a sense of shock that what just happened had happened. It was an amazing thing. Whether you were a fan or a player, it was just a shocking situation."
Well, if they were in shock after winning, you can only imagine the scene down the concourse in the locker room of the team that lost.
There was silence in that room for a long, long time. A half-dozen players sat in the middle of the room, eating. The rest were nowhere to be found, thinking thoughts we'll never know.
For most, this was not a moment in their lives they felt like recreating or dissecting. It was a moment to forget. A moment to shove into a dark corner of their brain where they store the memories they wish would disappear.
"If I go home thinking about this one," said Sammy Sosa, "I'm not going to get any sleep."
The first inclination is to talk about where this game fits in Cubs history, in the ghoulish portion of that Cubs museum -- the wing where the baseball is still hopping through Leon Durham's legs 19 years later, where Mule Haas' fly ball is still hiding behind the sun 74 years later, where a goat still roams the halls 58 years later.
But that would be way too small a way to think. We need to set this game in its place in baseball history, because the only games even remotely like it are among the most talked about baseball games ever played.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, just four other teams have ever come back to win postseason games in which they've been at least three runs behind and no more than six outs from calling it a year:
One was the 1960 Pirates, in Game 7 of the World Series, in what we now know as The Bill Mazeroski Game.
The next was the 1975 Red Sox, in Game 6 of the World Series, in what we now know as The Carlton Fisk Game (co-starring Bernie Carbo, who hit a game-tying three-run pinch-hit homer off Reds closer Rawly Eastwick in the eighth).
Then came the 1980 Phillies, in the fifth game of a best-of-five NLCS, in what we now know as The Nolan Ryan Game (because it was Ryan who couldn't hold a three-run lead in the eighth).
And finally, there were the 1986 Red Sox, in Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS, in what we now know as either the Dave Henderson Game or The Donnie Moore Game (because it was Henderson who hit the home run off Moore with two outs in the ninth that kept the Angels from heading to their first World Series).
But that's it. Those aren't just baseball games. Those are epic baseball games. They're games you are liable to stumble across on ESPN Classic at 2 in the afternoon or 3 in the morning, any month of any year.
And now there's this one.
We'll never forget the sound in Wrigley Field in the bottom of the seventh inning, after Mark Grudzielanek singled in the run that put the Cubs three runs ahead. It was a sound you could feel in your rib cage, because it carried a rumble, a clap of thunder, an electric current rippling through every body in the park.
It was the sound of people who were finally certain this was what it felt like to watch the Cubs -- the Cubs -- go to the World Series. It was the sound of people who knew this game was over, because Mark Prior was not going to let them lose.
Even the Marlins heard that sound. They're a team that specializes in the miracle victory, the improbable comeback. But even they were just about resigned to their fate.
They had three hits off Prior. All three were singles. One of them was an infield hit that wound up conking Cubs first baseman Randall Simon on the head. "He hadn't given up anything," Lee said, with the utmost admiration.
Prior was 12-1 in his last 13 starts. He was the most dominating pitcher left in the playoffs. This was his time, his night, his way of announcing to the world he had that aura only the best pitchers on earth ever have.
"The way he was dominating the game," Conine admitted, "I thought, 'Well, hell, we gave it a great
run.' "
Then there was one out in the eighth. Prior had Juan Pierre buried, 2-and-2. Pierre fought off one 94-mph smoke ball. Prior reached back and launched the next one, his 104th pitch of the night, at 96. Pierre flicked it inside the left-field line for a double.
But it felt like just an intermission in the Mark Prior Show. Prior burst ahead of Luis Castillo, 1-and-2. Then 2-2. And 3-2. Castillo fouled off one 94-mph fastball. Then another. And then it happened.
“ Mike Redmond turned to me and said, 'OK, let's make that kid famous.' ”
— Derrek Lee, Marlins 1B, on the play in which a fan interfered with Cubs LF Moises Alou
This was a moment no Cubs fan will ever forget. They will always see this foul ball twisting toward the brick wall that juts out toward the left-field foul line. They will always see Moises Alou angling over, setting himself, leaping, reaching. And they will always see the fan in the blue Cubs hat and the headphones over his ears, cupping his hands, deflecting this baseball away from Alou, keeping this at-bat alive.
Alou spun away in anger, spitting out words we can't repeat. Fans around this anti-Jeffrey Maier began berating him, abusing him, showering him with guilt and beer -- but not quite in that order.
Three hundred feet away, in the visitors' dugout, Marlins players looked at each other, wondering if they'd just seen what they'd seen, hoping it meant what they thought it meant.
"Mike Redmond turned to me," Lee said, "and said, 'OK, let's make that kid famous.' "
And after that, everything seemed to change. Prior's next pitch was ball four -- but worse. It skipped past Paul Bako, and there were runners on first and third. Then Prior had an 0-2 count on Pudge Rodriguez and tried to strike him out with a curve ball. But he hung it on the inner half of the plate, and Rodriguez roped it into left. 3-1.
Still, Prior had a two-run lead. And Miguel Cabrera chopped his next pitch toward short, where Alex Gonzalez -- the guy who had the highest fielding percentage of any shortstop in the league -- was surely going to turn it into an inning-ending, game-saving double-play ball.
But these are the Cubs, masters of the unthinkable. Gonzalez hadn't committed an error in more than two months, since Aug. 13. But he chose this time, this unfathomable moment to have a double-play ball clank off his glove.
"For whatever reason, I didn't catch the ball," Gonzalez said later. "The spin on the ball ate me up."
And after that, the spin on this game ate the Cubs up, eating their World Series dreams alive. Lee doubled. Tie game. Prior exited, after 119 pitches Kyle Farnsworth entered to try to keep it close. Nope. Intentional walk. Sacrifice fly. 4-3, Marlins. Then another intentional walk. And then the final dagger ...
Mike Mordecai, a bench guy who had made the first out of the inning, a man who had only entered this game because of a double-switch the inning before, scorched a three-run double off the ivy in left-center. Three RBI -- equaling Mordecai's RBI total for the previous two months. Of course. And this game was history.
The sounds were different now. Except for the angry mob descending on the fan in left who had gotten in the way of Alou, there were more tears in this park than words.
"I don't think I've ever heard that many people get that quiet that fast," Mordecai said.
Only once all year had the Marlins scored eight runs in an inning. And only three times in history had a team scored at least eight times in an inning in a postseason game in which losing would have meant elimination. But all of those were early-inning eruptions, by the '68 Tigers (10-run third), the '92 Pirates (eight-run second) and 2001 Diamondbacks (eight-run third).
So no team as close to the end of the road as the Marlins had ever had an inning like this. And no team as close to the World Series as the Cubs had ever given up an inning like this.
So in the Cubs locker room, the ghosts were everywhere -- the ghosts of 1984, and 1969, and 1945. The ghosts were riding the wave of every question. Someone asked Alou whether, if he were a Cubs fan, he would find it hard not to think about curses.
"I'm not a Cubs fan," Alou said. "I'm a Cubs player. And I don't believe that crap."
But others were more philosophical. There were, after all, two teams playing.
"That was crazy," said Doug Glanville. "But so what? Tomorrow's Game 7. A lot of things had to fall our way for us to get this far. But everybody's got to have a story. Every story we have, they have a story. They think they're ordained. We think we're ordained."
But only one of them can come out of this series clinging to their ordination. And it all comes down to one final ball game -- Kerry Wood versus Mark Redman.
"It's Game 7," said Kenny Lofton. "There are no other words. Game 7. I've got nothing else to say. You've got to win. Game 7. You've got to win. Whatever all that stuff was that happened, it doesn't matter. Got to win tomorrow."
They've got to win Game 7, all right. They have Kerry Wood on their side, throwing the baseballs. He has never lost to the Marlins. He has already won one sudden-death ball game this October, beating the Braves in Game 5 of the NLDS. He needs to lift this team out of the dark clouds and carry them home.
Or else ...
Over the last two seasons, Wood and Prior have started back-to-back games 17 different times. Only once have the Cubs lost both of those games. If they lose two in a row in this setting, then what? Uhhhhh, don't ask.
Stuff happens in sports. If that stuff happens to the Cubs, it's a tragic tale, all right. But there's another team, with another story. And the two of them were just mixed up in one of the most mind-boggling games ever to appear in front of our eyeballs.
So very late on a night of a baseball game that will always keep on playing, a group of Marlins -- Andy Fox, Brian Banks, Jeff Conine -- found themselves looking at each other one more time and shaking their heads. They needed to see this one again, just to believe it. Fortunately, they'll get that chance.
"You can bet that game will be on ESPN Classic," Banks said.
"Yeah," Fox laughed. "I think it's on at midnight."
>>>The guy in the hat and walkman cost me 3 dimes<<<
Alex Gonzos ERROR cost the cubs the gm. Had he fielded that easy grounder - HOW THE HELL DID HE MISSED IT? IT WAS A SHOULDER HIGH SOFTY - the cubbies would have left that inning tied 3-3. His error led the way to 5 unearned runs!
Also, Prior walked Castillo. He also had an 0-2 count on Pudge... The JINX was in boys. The Cubbies were going to find a way to LOSE yesterday. And they're going to do it again tonight
Alex Gonzos ERROR cost the cubs the gm. Had he fielded that easy grounder - HOW THE HELL DID HE MISSED IT? IT WAS A SHOULDER HIGH SOFTY - the cubbies would have left that inning tied 3-3. His error led the way to 5 unearned runs!
Also, Prior walked Castillo. He also had an 0-2 count on Pudge... The JINX was in boys. The Cubbies were going to find a way to LOSE yesterday. And they're going to do it again tonight
LET ME COUNT THE EXCUSE'S
1. HOW ABOUT DUSTY LEAVING PRIOR IN AFTER GETTING HIT HARD IN THE 7TH
2. HOW ABOUT PRIOR'S WILD PITCH MOVING THE RUNNERS
3. HOW ABOUT GONZALES ERROR
4. HOW ABOUT THE FOX BRODCAST TEAM SAYING AS MORDECAI COMES TO BAT THAT HE IS A "DEAD FAST BALL HITTER" AND WHAT DOES HE GET THROWN TO HIM. A DEAD FAST BALL...GOOD SCOUTING REPORT CUBS............LOL............
1. HOW ABOUT DUSTY LEAVING PRIOR IN AFTER GETTING HIT HARD IN THE 7TH
2. HOW ABOUT PRIOR'S WILD PITCH MOVING THE RUNNERS
3. HOW ABOUT GONZALES ERROR
4. HOW ABOUT THE FOX BRODCAST TEAM SAYING AS MORDECAI COMES TO BAT THAT HE IS A "DEAD FAST BALL HITTER" AND WHAT DOES HE GET THROWN TO HIM. A DEAD FAST BALL...GOOD SCOUTING REPORT CUBS............LOL............
Pop-foul fan draws hostility —and sympathy
Escorted away for protection
E-mail this story
Printer-friendly format
Search archives
More Headlines
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Sullivan on the Cubs
By Chris Malcolm and Melissa Isaacson
Tribune staff reporters
October 15, 2003, 11:26 AM CDT
Last seen, the fan who tried to catch the ball was wearing a jacket on his head and being led into the underbelly of Wrigley Field for his own protection.
He may forever be referred to as "that fan" or any number of other names after he reached for a pop foul that Cubs left fielder Moises Alou was about to catch for the second out in the eighth inning of Game 6 of the National League Championship Series, with the Cubs leading 3-0 and five outs away from the World Series.
But the ball struck the fan's hand and bounced free, opening the door to an eight-run Marlins rally and an eventual Cubs loss.
Within moments, the fans down the left-field line began booing and chanting, "Get him out." The object of their scorn still sat in his front-row seat, wearing headphones and a Cubs cap, as the Marlins began to pile up runs.
"It cost us the game, pal," shouted one fan. Another fan tossed a beer cup toward the man's seat, but it fell short.
Three security guards ejected one fan after throwing beer. "I hope you're happy," the man screamed. "You cost us a [expletive] World Series."
Another fan yelled, "You could tell we're better than Boston or he'd be dead already."
Within a few minutes, Cubs security closed access to the lower levels of the stands and kept reporters out of the area. Moments later, another fan who said his name was Jim Cuthbert was escorted shouting from the area. Cuthbert said ushers took him out of the park because had gone to confront the fan who had touched the ball and refused to return to his seat.
"I said, 'What the hell is wrong with you?'" said Cuthbert, who added he caught the man's eye and challenged him to come outside. Cuthbert said the man wouldn't answer.
Cuthbert said he wanted to know why he had been kicked out while the fan who touched the ball was allowed to remain.
"The [usher] said, 'Sir, take your seat,' and I said, 'I ain't taking my seat. Why is he still sitting there?' So then they said, 'Get out of here.'"
Pat Looney, 34, was seated nearby and was in a more forgiving mood. "Hey, it looked like it was out of play," Looney said in an interview after the game. "I don't blame the guy. He was looking up at the ball, not down on the field."
Looney said nobody in that part of the stands saw Alou coming, especially the fan in Seat 11, Row 9.
"If I had seen Alou coming, I would have pushed [the other fan] out of the way," Looney said.
Looney, who said he was a Chicago firefighter, said he already received numerous calls on his cell phone from friends and co-workers watching TV. "I said, 'I didn't touch it.'" Looney said.
At the end of the eighth, team security escorted the fan away from the stands. Officials said he had asked to stay at the stadium until it cleared before he made his way home. A man who was with him was taken out of Wrigley and hastily put into a taxi.
"We're not giving away any names," said a Wrigley Field official. "We're protecting our patrons."
Some fans were actually sympathetic. "Ninety-nine percent of these fans would have done the same thing," said one spectator as the insults rained down. "They're all hypocrites."
The incident recalled memories of Jeffrey Maier, a 12-year-old Yankees fan, who reached into the field of play over Baltimore right fielder Tony Tarasco in Game 1 of the 1996 American League Championship Series, to catch a ball hit by the Yankees' Derek Jeter.
The ball was ultimately ruled to be a game-tying home run, and the Yankees went on to win.
Copyright © 2003, The Chicago Tribune
Escorted away for protection
E-mail this story
Printer-friendly format
Search archives
More Headlines
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Sullivan on the Cubs
By Chris Malcolm and Melissa Isaacson
Tribune staff reporters
October 15, 2003, 11:26 AM CDT
Last seen, the fan who tried to catch the ball was wearing a jacket on his head and being led into the underbelly of Wrigley Field for his own protection.
He may forever be referred to as "that fan" or any number of other names after he reached for a pop foul that Cubs left fielder Moises Alou was about to catch for the second out in the eighth inning of Game 6 of the National League Championship Series, with the Cubs leading 3-0 and five outs away from the World Series.
But the ball struck the fan's hand and bounced free, opening the door to an eight-run Marlins rally and an eventual Cubs loss.
Within moments, the fans down the left-field line began booing and chanting, "Get him out." The object of their scorn still sat in his front-row seat, wearing headphones and a Cubs cap, as the Marlins began to pile up runs.
"It cost us the game, pal," shouted one fan. Another fan tossed a beer cup toward the man's seat, but it fell short.
Three security guards ejected one fan after throwing beer. "I hope you're happy," the man screamed. "You cost us a [expletive] World Series."
Another fan yelled, "You could tell we're better than Boston or he'd be dead already."
Within a few minutes, Cubs security closed access to the lower levels of the stands and kept reporters out of the area. Moments later, another fan who said his name was Jim Cuthbert was escorted shouting from the area. Cuthbert said ushers took him out of the park because had gone to confront the fan who had touched the ball and refused to return to his seat.
"I said, 'What the hell is wrong with you?'" said Cuthbert, who added he caught the man's eye and challenged him to come outside. Cuthbert said the man wouldn't answer.
Cuthbert said he wanted to know why he had been kicked out while the fan who touched the ball was allowed to remain.
"The [usher] said, 'Sir, take your seat,' and I said, 'I ain't taking my seat. Why is he still sitting there?' So then they said, 'Get out of here.'"
Pat Looney, 34, was seated nearby and was in a more forgiving mood. "Hey, it looked like it was out of play," Looney said in an interview after the game. "I don't blame the guy. He was looking up at the ball, not down on the field."
Looney said nobody in that part of the stands saw Alou coming, especially the fan in Seat 11, Row 9.
"If I had seen Alou coming, I would have pushed [the other fan] out of the way," Looney said.
Looney, who said he was a Chicago firefighter, said he already received numerous calls on his cell phone from friends and co-workers watching TV. "I said, 'I didn't touch it.'" Looney said.
At the end of the eighth, team security escorted the fan away from the stands. Officials said he had asked to stay at the stadium until it cleared before he made his way home. A man who was with him was taken out of Wrigley and hastily put into a taxi.
"We're not giving away any names," said a Wrigley Field official. "We're protecting our patrons."
Some fans were actually sympathetic. "Ninety-nine percent of these fans would have done the same thing," said one spectator as the insults rained down. "They're all hypocrites."
The incident recalled memories of Jeffrey Maier, a 12-year-old Yankees fan, who reached into the field of play over Baltimore right fielder Tony Tarasco in Game 1 of the 1996 American League Championship Series, to catch a ball hit by the Yankees' Derek Jeter.
The ball was ultimately ruled to be a game-tying home run, and the Yankees went on to win.
Copyright © 2003, The Chicago Tribune
Man in stands described as diehard fan
October 15, 2003
BY ANNIE SWEENEY, FRANK MAIN AND CHRIS FUSCO
The man some fans blame for Tuesday night's Cubs loss because he reached out and touched a foul ball that Moises Alou was trying to catch is a diehard Cubs fan who coaches youth baseball in the north suburbs.
Steve Bartman, 26, works at Hewitt Associates, an international consulting firm in Lincolnshire.
"He is an associate at Hewitt, and he is not coming to work today because of the incident," Suzanne Zagata-Meraz, a spokeswoman for Hewitt, said this morning. "That was a decision that Steve and [Human Resources] made together. We have been in contact with Steve."
A man who answered the door at the Northbrook home where friends and a neighbor said Bartman grew up defended him, saying he only did what came naturally when a foul ball came his way.
"He's a huge Cubs fan," said the man, who responded to "Mr. Bartman." "I'm sure I taught him well. I taught him to catch foul balls when they come near him."
He declined to say any more and would not confirm what relation he is to Steve Bartman.
A neighbor, Ron Cohen, said he has known the Bartman family for 20 years. He and others said Bartman was a graduate of the University of Notre Dame who played for and is now a coach for the Renegades, an elite youth baseball club in Niles.
Cohen said he saw Bartman on Sunday and that Bartman told him then that he had tickets to Tuesday's game.
"He felt great he got tickets to the game," said Cohen, 63.
Cohen was watching the game on TV with his son, who grew up with "Stevie," when they recognized the man in the Renegades shirt.
"I really was just surprised," said Cohen, who called Bartman's mother. "I think it's just a natural tendency. Everybody reaches. I'm not trying to defend him, but I think it's just a natural tendency. He may not have seen Alou coming."
He described Bartman as a baseball fanatic.
"He's a good kid, a wonderful son, never in any trouble," Cohen told a Sun-Times reporter. "I don't think he should be blamed at all. People reach for balls. This just happened to be a little more critical. If Florida didn't score all the runs, you wouldn't be standing here."
A parent whose son played baseball for the Renegades last year echoed Cohen's description of Bartman.
"He was a fine guy. He was a good baseball coach to my son," said Roger Shimanovsky, 41. "Believe me, I'm sure nobody feels worse about this than him."
Bartman is listed as a coach of the Renegades' 13-year-old team this year, according to the organization's Web site.
He also was a player on a 1992 Renegades team that finished with 47 wins and 10 losses. The team was the Palatine League champion and the Pekin Fourth of July tournament champion.
The home where Bartman grew up backs up to a baseball field where his dad would hit pop-ups for him and his friends to catch, said Ron Cohen's son, Gary Cohen, 34. He said Bartman's favorite player growing up was Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg.
October 15, 2003
BY ANNIE SWEENEY, FRANK MAIN AND CHRIS FUSCO
The man some fans blame for Tuesday night's Cubs loss because he reached out and touched a foul ball that Moises Alou was trying to catch is a diehard Cubs fan who coaches youth baseball in the north suburbs.
Steve Bartman, 26, works at Hewitt Associates, an international consulting firm in Lincolnshire.
"He is an associate at Hewitt, and he is not coming to work today because of the incident," Suzanne Zagata-Meraz, a spokeswoman for Hewitt, said this morning. "That was a decision that Steve and [Human Resources] made together. We have been in contact with Steve."
A man who answered the door at the Northbrook home where friends and a neighbor said Bartman grew up defended him, saying he only did what came naturally when a foul ball came his way.
"He's a huge Cubs fan," said the man, who responded to "Mr. Bartman." "I'm sure I taught him well. I taught him to catch foul balls when they come near him."
He declined to say any more and would not confirm what relation he is to Steve Bartman.
A neighbor, Ron Cohen, said he has known the Bartman family for 20 years. He and others said Bartman was a graduate of the University of Notre Dame who played for and is now a coach for the Renegades, an elite youth baseball club in Niles.
Cohen said he saw Bartman on Sunday and that Bartman told him then that he had tickets to Tuesday's game.
"He felt great he got tickets to the game," said Cohen, 63.
Cohen was watching the game on TV with his son, who grew up with "Stevie," when they recognized the man in the Renegades shirt.
"I really was just surprised," said Cohen, who called Bartman's mother. "I think it's just a natural tendency. Everybody reaches. I'm not trying to defend him, but I think it's just a natural tendency. He may not have seen Alou coming."
He described Bartman as a baseball fanatic.
"He's a good kid, a wonderful son, never in any trouble," Cohen told a Sun-Times reporter. "I don't think he should be blamed at all. People reach for balls. This just happened to be a little more critical. If Florida didn't score all the runs, you wouldn't be standing here."
A parent whose son played baseball for the Renegades last year echoed Cohen's description of Bartman.
"He was a fine guy. He was a good baseball coach to my son," said Roger Shimanovsky, 41. "Believe me, I'm sure nobody feels worse about this than him."
Bartman is listed as a coach of the Renegades' 13-year-old team this year, according to the organization's Web site.
He also was a player on a 1992 Renegades team that finished with 47 wins and 10 losses. The team was the Palatine League champion and the Pekin Fourth of July tournament champion.
The home where Bartman grew up backs up to a baseball field where his dad would hit pop-ups for him and his friends to catch, said Ron Cohen's son, Gary Cohen, 34. He said Bartman's favorite player growing up was Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg.
That fan didn't cost the Cubs the ballgame. The error on the shortstop that cost them the ballgame. Fans pay to try to get a ball, Gonalez is getting paid to make that double play and he couln't even get 1 out. He's the one to blame!! Not the fan. Foul ball, pitch again. You daon't make an easy doubleplay, you're not worth to go to the WS. Only the best play on that level!!! Stop blaming fans! They pay those error making suckers on the field.
