Top 6 Most Shocking MLB Events of All-Time: The Games - #2 2003 NLCS Game 6 "Bartman"

Bartman.  Could be the name of a superhero, maybe animated from The Simpsons.  Could be a guy who runs San Francisco train service.  It could be a guy you know named Bart who just fixed the copy machine, saving the staff 2 days of having to wait for a repair guy to come and not fix it.  But if you live in Chicago, you know what Bartman is; or rather, who Bartman is.

Chicago Cubs fans blame a nerdy fan with headphones and glasses for interfering with left fielder Moises Alou in Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS, ruining his chance to catch a ball falling into foul territory.  Steve Bartman is still one of baseball's all-time most famous fans.  The error in judgment - let's face it, if you were in his shoes, what would you have done with 1-second to think? - led to a series of catastrophic events for a Cubs team cruising on its way to a World Series berth. 

But what fans forget is shortstop Alex Gonzalez booting a sure double-play ball later in the inning, opening the floodgates for a Florida Marlins team to eventually steal their 2nd World Series title in 6 years.  And fans also forget Kerry Wood's game-tying home run in Game 7, as well as a short-lived 5-3 lead.  The Cubs had other chances.  Maybe it wasn't poor Steve's fault after all.

Take a second to put yourself in Steve Bartman's shoes.  You love your team.  No.  You L-O-V-E them.  And millions of other fans blame you for single-handedly blowing your team's chance to get to the World Series.  Even if you know it isn't really 100% your fault and that loads of other people would have done exactly what you did - just look at the picture - it's still a burden you probably carry around with you every day.

A similar Circumstance of Blame took place in the 1912 world's series (no capital letters yet and an apostrophe before the now non-existent S).  New York Giants centerfielder Fred Snodgrass failed to catch an easy fly ball in the bottom of the 10th of Game 8 against the Red Sox.  The Giants had a 2 to 1 lead with ace Christy Mathewson on the mound.  His failure to catch a routine pop up led to an inning in which the Sox would ultimately score 2 runs and win the series.  Snodgrass was blamed for the Giants losing for the rest of his life.  "Hardly a day in my life, hardly an hour, that in some mannor or other the dropping of that fly doesn't come up, even after thirty years," Snodgrass would eventually say.

But...

It wasn't completely his fault.  One pitch later, Snodgrass "made one of the most extraordinary catches in baseball history" author Mike Vaccaro writes in his recent (and excellent) book, The First Fall Classic.  "I say thousands of game," Hall of Famer Tris Speaker said in 1949, "and I never, ever saw a catch like that before or after.  It was like a magic trick."

One out.  Man on second.  After a walk, Speaker himself came to the plate.  On the first pitch, he popped up, straight up over the right side of the field.  It was first baseman Fred Merkle's ball.  It was obvious that it was his ball.  But 4 years earlier, Merkle had failed to touch 2nd base in a key game that the Giants ultimately lost, a game in which the Cubs secured the National League pennant with the victory.  So pitcher Mathewson, remembering "The Merkle Boner," yelled for catcher Chief Meyers to catch it.  Merkle backed away and Meyers was too far from the play to make it.  The ball fell in foul territory,giving Speaker life.  On the next pitch, the Red Sox centerfielder laced a single to right, scoring the tying run.

Yet it was Fred Snodgrass who was blamed, much like Steve Bartman.  While Mathewson should have kept his mouth shut and Merkle should have made the catch - and Snodgrass had made a subsequent incredible play, just like Alex Gonzalez should have turned the double-play in 2003, those parts of the sequence are forgotten.  Giants fans forever blamed Fred Snodgrass.

Just like Cubs fans blame Steve Bartman.  And probably will forever.

To read the Most Shocking MLB Events of All-Time: The Games #1, click HERE.