- [Narrator] The Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series victory
broke a century long spell of hexes, blunders,
let downs, and just regular old losing.
Cubs fans suffered quite a while waiting for this moment.
Their freshest scar came from 2003 when a division winner
lost the NLCS in a collapse best known
for this iconic moment.
The so-called Steve Bartman Incident.
And in the scope of Cubs disasters,
that '03 nightmare stands out as the absolute worst,
but not because of that moment.
This is the worst Cubs playoff inning ever.
October 14, 2003 - Wrigley Field - Chicago, Illinois
The Cubs led the Marlins three games to two
in the National League Championship series.
They were up three runs to nothing in Game Six.
The Marlins had opened the eighth inning with a fly out,
but had a man on second after Juan Pierre doubled.
Five more outs and the Cubs would go to the World Series.
If you remember one thing from this game,
it's this next moment.
Mark Prior, who started the game, was still pitching.
Luis Castillo was at bat and the two of them
had battled to a full count.
Castillo then hit a foul ball down the line
that left fielder Moises Alou may have been able
to catch over the wall for the second out of the inning,
if fans, including the deeply unfortunate Steve Bartman,
didn't get in the way.
Bartman became the scapegoat for everything
that followed, and there's a 30 for 30 documentary,
Alex Gibney's Catching Hell, that does a great job
investigating the reasons why.
Alou's demonstrative reaction, excessive TV replays,
and other spectators harassing Bartman,
all contributed to his infamy.
- [Game Announcer] Walking a fine line now
of fans getting out of control and doing something
that they shouldn't do.
- All of this must be understood within the context
of Cubs fans believing they were cursed.
Chicago had last won a World Series in 1908.
Their most recent World Series appearance
was in 1945, a loss frequently referenced
because of the incident in which a tavern owner
and his pet goat, who had a ticket by the way,
were denied entry into Wrigley Field.
The tavern owner angrily put a hex on the team.
And indeed, since the curse of the billy goat,
the Cubs had not returned to the Fall Classic.
They'd hardly achieved any post season success at all.
Before this '03 run, Chicago's only recent
playoff appearance was 1998 when NL MVP
Sammy Sosa and rookie of the year ace Kerry Wood
were just enough to earn Chicago a wild card birth
and an NLDS sweep at the hands of the Braves.
So in 2003, the Cubs winning Game Five in Atlanta
to upset the Braves in the NLDS
and snatching two NLCS wins in Florida
to make Game Six a potential series clincher,
and scoring three runs in Game Six while Prior
held the Marlins scoreless,
this was all pretty new and exciting.
Chicago's first World Series birth since '45
was well within reach and Cubs fans
felt different, good, confident even.
So with all that context, and with everything that followed,
you can see why this weird unfortunate moment
gets out sized attention.
But it wasn't the first bad thing to happen that inning.
We've already mentioned that Pierre hit a one out double.
And while many bad things were to come,
it's not like they directly resulted from
an uncaught foul ball.
Yes, two outs would have been better than one,
but Alou might not have made this tough play,
even unobstructed.
Curses and hypotheticals aside, the situation
following the Bartman Incident, remained as it was before.
Castillo at the plate, one out, full count.
Nothing was worse, but everything was about to get worse
because of, you know, the Cubs.
The first mistake was Prior's.
The announcers had recently pointed out
that the Cubs didn't need to call in their bullpen,
even after well over 100 pitches,
the starter was still dealing.
- [Game Announcer] He hasn't shown any reason
to have any activity; his stuff's the same.
- But once again facing three balls and two strikes,
the all star pitcher's next offering was in the dirt.
The wild pitch ball four put Castillo on first
and let Juan Pierre advance to third.
Here was a red flag, and here was another.
Prior served Ivan Rodriquez an absolute meatball
that Pudge fouled off and then Prior gave up
an RBI single, 3-1, one out, man on first and second.
Now what? Now would Cubs manager Dusty Baker
pull his starter who's showed signs of wearing down?
- [Game Announcer] And decision time now for Dusty Baker.
Does he give the ball the Kyle Farnsworth in the bullpen,
or does he leave Prior out there on the mound?
- [Narrator] No, Prior stayed out there.
Two important things about this decision:
One, for a manager of some very good teams,
Dusty Baker presided over more than his fair share
of meltdowns in closeout games.
His teams repeatedly fell apart
on the cusp of series victory.
After this in 2012, Baker's Cincinnati Reds
would blow a 2-0 series lead in the NLDS against the Giants.
In 2016, Baker's Washington Nationals would blow
a 2-1 series lead in the NLDS against the Dodgers.
But in this moment, there could only have been
one collapse on Dusty Baker's mind.
Baker managed the San Francisco Giants the previous year
and led them to a 3-2 lead in the 2002 World Series.
In Game Six, with an opportunity to close out the Angels
and win it all, Baker pulled starting pitcher Russ Ortiz
in the seventh inning of a 5-0 shut out.
The Giants squandered their lead, then the game,
then the whole World Series.
So perhaps with that in the back of his head,
Baker left Prior out there and here's where I have to
point out thing number two.
For a split second, Baker's decision
looked like the right one.
On his first pitch to star rookie Miguel Cabrera,
Prior induced a ground ball that had a decent chance
to become a double play and end the inning until, s***.
- [Game Announcer] And bobbled by Gonzalez
and everybody's safe.
- [Narrator] Chicago's Alex Gonzalez, an extremely reliable
veteran short stop had just ten errors all year.
He picked a devastating moment to commit one more.
So, still one out.
Bases loaded now, but not because
of anything Prior did wrong.
The starter stayed out there to face Derrick Lee,
who doubled on the first pitch, tie game.
Finally time for Prior to come out.
Kyle Farnsworth entered hoping to stanch the bleeding.
He pitched around All-Star Mike Lowell
to load the bases, then gave up a sac fly to Jeff Conine.
A pretty tolerable outcome considering the alternatives.
The Marlins now led, but only by one run, two outs.
So Baker had Farnsworth do it again.
An intentional walk of Todd Hollandsworth to load the bases.
Just needed one more out against Mike Mordecai,
a guy off the bench who was having
a pretty mediocre seas...ah s***, 7-3 Marlins.
After another Cubs pitching change,
Mordecai would eventually come around to score.
And then, at last, after eight runs surrendered
the most devastating inning in Cubs history
finally came to an end.
That, I mean I don't believe in curses,
but that inning made it pretty hard to argue
with someone who does.
Especially because some previous Cubs playoff
disaster innings also hinged on simple boners.
The best example, after the Cubs blew
a 2-0 series lead in their 1984 NLCS versus the Padres,
the decisive Game Five turned because
of one bad inning, which itself turned on one weird error.
Chicago was leading and in pretty good shape,
but would should have been an easy second out
of the seventh inning, squirted under Leon Durham's glove
and through his legs, opening a cascade
of San Diego runs that drowned Chicago's World Series hopes.
That moment had a direct parallel in the '03 meltdown,
but the broadcast of course, left the inning more focused
on the scene off the field than all the screw ups
that had just taken place on it.
And it's a shame, this chapter of the Cubs'
century long tragedy is full of culprits.
But Steve Bartman's name always gets top billing.
Whether you believe in curses or not,
that moment wasn't what made this top of the eighth
the worst inning in Cubs' history.
It was the error, it was the delayed pitching change,
it was the failure of a worn out arm,
and the onslaught that ensued.
And the eventual knife twisting when the Marlins
went on the beat the Yankees in the World Series.
It was all of that.
It was an avalanche of failure, somehow overshadowed
by the snowball that preceded it.