The Chicago Cubs have not won a World Series title since 1908. Some blame the curse of the Billy Goat, others blame notorious Cubs fan Steve Bartman. In the critically acclaimed ESPN Films documentary CATCHING HELL, Academy Award-winning documentarian Alex Gibney examines Bartman’s story and scapegoating in sports. CATCHING HELLdebuts in Canada on Thursday, Oct. 6 at 8 p.m. ET on TSN (encore at 12 midnight ET/9 p.m. PT on TSN2)
CATCHING HELL revisits the fateful Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series that forever changed Bartman’s life. With the Cubs five outs from advancing to the World Series, Bartman reached for a foul pop fly, tipping the ball away from the outstretched glove of Cubs left fielder Moises Alou. Using multiple points of view, CATCHING HELL goes back to Wrigley Field that night as thousands of fans screamed at Bartman in rage. After the Cubs’ historic collapse, Bartman had to be escorted out of the stadium and has remained in hiding ever since.
The two-hour documentary also tells the story of former Boston Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner’s similarly fateful moment, when he let a ground ball go through his legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.
The following are excerpts from reviews of CATCHING HELL:
• “Using television footage, videos shot by fans and eyewitness interviews, Mr. Gibney repeatedly drops us into the cauldron of rage and vituperation that boiled around Mr. Bartman until he was escorted out of the stadium, his life forever changed. Seen in this detail, the ugliness of the behavior of the fans — not 5 or 10 of them, but thousands — is both sickening and mesmerizing.”
– Mike Hale, The New York Times
• “Erika Amundsen, a security guard assigned to the Bartman detail, weeps on camera as she describes the “lynch-mob mentality” that took over the ballpark and left Bartman petrified. “He was so sad. He kept asking me, ‘Did I really ruin the game?’ I tried to tell him he hadn’t done anything wrong.”
– Dan McGrath, Chicago News Co-operative
