Column: Reliving the “Not-so-friendly Confines”

Oct. 14, 2003.

Most people probably don’t remember where they were, but I could tell you exactly where I was: 14 years old, sitting in aisle 33 row 11 at Wrigley Field with my dad and my sign that read, “Prior Reservations Needed for our Tuesday Night Fish Fry.”

By now, Cubs fans know what day I’m talking about. The day the Chicago Cubs were five outs away from their first World Series since 1945.

My dad had been counting down the outs starting after the fourth inning. I can still hear him saying, “Twelve outs, 11 outs ... five outs.” He never got any lower than that, and thanks to ESPN’s “Catching Hell,” we all remember why.

It took a lot to decide to watch the documentary. I thought I’d remember all the bad things about the game. I’d remember doing a tomahawk chop and chanting, “Asshole, asshole,” in the direction of the then-unnamed Steve Bartman.

I remembered those things, but for the first time, felt guilty for being part of it. As a Cubs fan, I felt terrible for turning on our own. As a media member, I was distraught about the way journalists portrayed Bartman.

“Catching Hell” did not show Bartman as a villain. It showed Cubs fans everywhere as the ones who should be ashamed.

The “Friendly Confines” were not friendly that night. I was 300 yards away. All I saw was a fan get in the way of Moises Alou’s attempt to catch a ball.

I was mad. My dad was mad. Everyone around was mad, so we all started yelling together.

After almost 100 years we had some pent-up anger. What most people didn’t see until this documentary was the level that anger reached, like a news reporter leaning over and asking Bartman, “Do you have any idea what you have done?”

When Bartman left the stadium, the threats and hatred did not stop.

It continues today for a lot of people. As an ESPN reporter said in “Catching Hell,” he was still given assignments to track down Bartman years after the incident occurred.

It has been almost eight years since the Bartman ball in game six of the National League Championship Series. The Cubs have still not been to a World Series. So how is it that we, as Chicago Cubs fans, still put blame on Bartman?

“Catching Hell” opened my eyes to just how wrong we were to think it was Bartman’s fault. The fact that Bartman was one of many that reached out for the ball is just the beginning. Cubs’ fans are not the people who turn on one of our own.

I am ready to jump in line with the others to ask the question, not can we forgive Bartman, but can Bartman forgive Chicago?