"Catching Hell" 30 for 30

[owbc]

Lots of good comments here! I thought it was also funny how they portrayed their attempts to contact Bartman. They all acted like they were stalking a celebrity--their quest to find Bartman bordered on an obsession, fueled by the pressure to get the big interview. Wayne Drehs finally finds him and stalks him out, leading up to this innocent scene where he kindly asks for an interview, gets turned down, and sits there shell-shocked while Bartman leaves. Notice how they never say whether Bartman's "legal team" ever contacts the filmmakers. They just drop the subject. My interpretation is that there was definitely additional contact, but Bartman absolutely refused to talk no matter how much money they offered. Consequently, the filmmakers become ever more enthralled with their mystery subject, as they are amazed that he could turn down all that money and continue his life. So the 15-minute segment where the interview was supposed to go was replaced by more love and praise for Bartman from his admirers...he's so classy for having moved on, etc. etc.

 

Bartman is really the only one who got what he wanted from this, it appears that he has resumed living a regular life. He probably changed his appearance and maybe his name, and it was nice of Drehs to not describe on camera what he looks like now. All the interviews from his baseball team suggest that he is a really nice guy and just loves the game of baseball. And it appears he has been largely successful, since the story has gone away except for when these documentaries pop up.

 

It does make the city of Chicago and sports culture as a whole look really bad, which I thought was a very accurate representation. Especially the notion that fans couldn't possibly blame their "beloved Cubs" for collapsing. While Buckner and Bartman are the two most obvious examples of scapegoating, it happens on a smaller scale all the time in the sporting world. Milwaukee Brewers fans have been known to lash out at a few select players over the years, booing them specifically even when the whole team was in the midst of collapse. So hopefully we all can just be more civil and let it go when bad things inevitably happen.

[patrickgpe]

tried to watch it last night but sat through 30 minutes of red sox stuff and was tired so i will try to catch it off of the dvr tonight.

[homer]

Anyone ever see the article about the guy that was sitting next to Bartman? Pretty interesting stuff:

 

http://sports.espn.go.com...ry?page=110927/PatLooney

[TooLiveBrew]

Every time I see that play I don't see how Alou could have caught that ball. It looks as though Alou was short on his jump and he jumped way to early to even be able to catch that ball. The ball would have hit the railing just to the left of Bartman so I still can not see how Alou would have caught that ball.

One thing I was surprised by in watching this was how obvious it looked from all camera angles that the interference occurred directly over Alou's glove. I definitely remembered the incident like you described here, and even recall Alou commenting years later that he wouldn't have caught the ball anyway. But no shot of the play that was showed in "Catching Hell" depicted that. Was I just remembering this play incorrectly, or did the director intentionally frame the events that way?

 

I swear I'm not crazy, but honestly in every replay it looked like Bartman's hand was basically in Alou's glove right as the ball arrived.

 

 

EDIT:

http://bp1.blogger.com/_2cyKC8lumRQ/SIdGZadHJQI/AAAAAAAAAY4/xF-qOkcHjWw/s400/Bartman.jpg

 

For example, in this relatively famous still shot, the action is captured just after the ball was deflected. When the ball was actually deflected, it looked like there was no way Alou wouldn't have caught it. ESPN also had a "Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame..." episode about this play, & iirc one of their 'you can't blame Bartman' points was that Alou wouldn't have caught the ball anyway.

[BrewCrewForever]

Finally seen this Friday night. Loved it. Thought it was very detailed and interesting with all the people they brought in to interview about what happened. All the home footage people shot at the game was also pretty neat. The beginning of the film with the Buckner stuff was also well done. I feel bad for Bartman, that dude can never have a complete normal life and will always be haunted by that night. Even though it was not his fault. Alex Gonzalez screwed that game up as well as Dusty and the Cubs pitching. As for Alou, I have no doubt if he does not react with that tantrum no one even knows or cares that Bartman caused Alou to not catch that ball.

[Patrick425]

Finally saw this the other night. Until now, I never saw the Buckner interview that happened before the 86 World Series where he talks about wanting the be the guy that gets the hit to win the World Series and not wanting to be the guy that lets a ball go between his legs to blow it. A little eerie.

 

By the way, I noticed Wayne Drehs in the 2nd row of the press box at yesterdays game.

[BrewCrewForever]

Finally saw this the other night. Until now, I never saw the Buckner interview that happened before the 86 World Series where he talks about wanting the be the guy that gets the hit to win the World Series and not wanting to be the guy that lets a ball go between his legs to blow it. A little eerie.

 

By the way, I noticed Wayne Drehs in the 2nd row of the press box at yesterdays game.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that Buckner interview. That was quite spooky. Drehs wrote a piece that is now up on espn.com about Braun and the Brewers. It is pretty good.

[nsimps]

What I liked about it was the interviews with all the people that were sitting right around Bartman. I had never really heard from those people. I also thought it is fascinating that the guy that gathered the ball after it deflected off of Bartman was paid $100,000 (or whatever it was) for the ball and nobody knows who that guy is.

[brettac1]

No question he would have caught that ball. It was really not even that spectacular of a play had he made it. In the doc they even do some video trickery to take all of the fans out of the shot and show where the ball was in relation to Alou's glove.

 

Regardless, if he doesn't act like a jerk and throw a tantrum, it's not such a big story. It's a pretty common thing.

 

The thing that always also gets glossed over is that this wasn't game 7, and that the Cubs had the lead in that game and blew it as well.

[FoxyFoxes]

Interested......who watched that play LIVE? What was your reaction LIVE and not after hearing how awful this Bartman fella is? I honestly remember the play and just knowing right away the guy was gonna be screwed just because of the curse.

[owbc]

Saw it live. Definitely thought Alou would have caught it--and with his reaction, who wouldn't think that? Of course we thought that the fan was an idiot for reaching over. It was only later that I realized how difficult it was to judge where the ball/fielder were from the funny angle of that seat.

 

As the documentary clearly showed, you didn't think much of it at the time. It wasn't until later in the inning, as Fox kept showing the play over and over. They weren't showing Gonzalez' missed play 100 times, they were showing the Bartman play.

 

I honestly thought the Cubs would win Game 7. But I knew that guy would be in trouble if they didn't--but I thought the blame would be more evenly shared between him, Gonzalez, Cubs' pitching, etc. It was a surprise to see 95% of the blame focused on Bartman