‘5 Outs …’ Goes Back, Back, Back to 2003 Cubs

October 14, 2013 @ admin → No Comments

Funny how time flies — regardless of whether you’re having fun or not (and hopefully you are). It seems like only yesterday when we all were young. OK, maybe the day before yesterday for some of us. Whatever. It certainly doesn’t seem that it has been 10 years since Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.

Pretty sure she is not in ‘5 Outs …” But that won’t stop us from running her photo.

That would be the game in which the Chicago Cubs. who had a 3-2 series lead against the Florida Marlins, were leading 3-0 in the eighth inning at Wrigley Field. A victory and the Cubs would be playing in the World Series for the first time since 1945 (when they lost to the Detroit Tigers) and hoping for their first championship since 1908 (when they beat the Tigers).

I can recall being in the media lunchroom in the Wrigley pressbox. It had been converted to accommodate media from near and far who would not fit into the main pressbox. I remember walking into the hallway behind the radio and television booths to hear the crowd and inhale the atmosphere with five outs to go. Unreal. Surreal. For real the Cubs would be in the World Series and Chicago — as well as other parts of the sports world — would be in an unfathomable state.

I accepted the reality for the first time in my life that the Cubs conceivably could make history that folks had not witnessed in for close to a century.

And then the inconceivable (or the predictable, if you happen to be a fatalist, as some Cubs fans can be) happened. A foul ball headed into the stands in left field, Moises Alou tried to make a play on the ball but was unable to catch it (a fan later identified as Steve Bartman tried to catch it, too, and he didn’t come up with the ball). Subsequent to all that, shortstop Alex Gonzalez botched a double-play grounder. When the Marlins inning was over, they led 5-3. Which turned out to be the final score.

The crowd departing the ballpark was beyond funereal. Never have so many people been so quiet in one place at one time. The Cubs lost Game 7, and a legacy of losing continued.

All that and more is to be chronicled by Comcast SportsNet Chicago at 9 p.m. Central time in the 90-minute production “5 Outs …” on Tuesday (Oct. 15, the date of Game 7). That means Monday, Oct. 14, is the date of Game 6.

Among those featured on the documentary are former Cubs manager Dusty Baker, Alou, Mark Prior (the Game 6 Cubs starting pitcher), Kerry Wood (Game 7 Cubs starting pitcher), Sammy Sosa (Cubs outfielder), Aramis Ramirez (Cubs third baseman), Juan Pierre (Marlins outfielder), Derrek Lee (Marlins first baseman), Miguel Cabrera (Marlins outfielder), Todd Hollandsworth (Marlins outfielder) and Ozzie Guillen (Marlins third base coach)

Actor William Petersen narrates. CSN will repeat “5 Outs …” on Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. and Oct. 30 at 7 p.m.

Among the notable quotes from the show:

* Alou, on the Bartman play: “I remember Luis Castillo hitting the fly ball. I remember not being very good at jumping and robbing a home run. That wasn’t a home run, but it was the same jump and the same play. I go into foul territory and I remember my eyes on the ball and my glove was right there and I had the ball. He [Bartman] interfered with me, and I didn’t catch the ball, but that wasn’t the reason why we didn’t make it — because then we had another shot. Ground ball double play … right there and we couldn’t stop them.”

* Prior on the Bartman play: “I have heard all the theories and whatever you want to call them. I looked at the tapes. I thought it was fan interference, and that is an honest opinion. I don’t think he [Bartman] changed the course of the game, history, or all the other things that have been blamed on this person. In my mind, Moises would have 100 percent got it, but that play doesn’t define the series or what happened after the fact.”

* Baker on Gonzalez’s error: “I felt bad for Alex because he was a guy that could pick it. He was one of our clutch players that was big-time on the team. It just shows you it could happen to anyone. When the ball was hit, we were like ‘Yea!’ and then, all of a sudden, you are like ‘Uhhh!’ I think that … that would have been an inning-ending double play … and then who knows what could have happened from there.”

* Guillen: “I walked out of Game 7 and I never saw so many long faces and disappointed faces and sad faces in my entire life. The Chicago fire destroyed the city and obviously people died at that particular time, but it was kind of like that.”

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From our department of shameless self-promotion (not to be confused with our department of regular self-promotion or our department of shameful self-promotion), may we offer this: “Sports & Torts” — co-hosted by David Spada and Elliott Harris on Thursdays at noon Central time on Talkzone.com — is urging you and everyone else to vote at podcast.com for the Peoples Choice, Best Produced, Best Video Podcast and Best Sports Podcast. Go to podcastawards.com and type in our show name and URL. Here is the URL: http://www.talkzone.com/shows/155/1660.html. And, yes, we will continue to run this mention until the nomination process closes on Oct. 15.

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