Story of the Year: 2003

5 Outs Away

FOX upper management had to be orgasming at the sight of the Cubs and Red Sox in the respective Championship Series. These were two teams that represented the second and third largest followings in the sport (plus, FOX had the consolation prize of the largest following also in the Championship Series). These were the two most mythologized teams in baseball, the two teams who were connected to their communities for one simple reason: futility, and in most cases infamous futitlity. The futility had crossed over to mainstream. Everyone knew that the Cubs and the Red Sox were both "cursed", woebegone teams in a game dominated by gotham New York. FOX could see it in front of their eyes, a Red-Sox/Cubs world series. The ratings would be huge, the money coming in even bigger. It was perfect, too perfect. There was no way the baseball Gods would bestow upon FOX this perfect match, this match made in baseball heaven. Instead, they gave FOX the Yankees (whose winning had become dull and boring by then) and the Marlins (whose winning is always dull and boring, then and now), but before leaving FOX to pick up the pieces of what could have been, the gave a glimpse into the true agony of defeat, and put together the three most dramatic and accursed days in baseball history.

Part I - The Play that Ruined a Life

The story begins in the North side of Chicago, between the hallowed ivy in Wrigley Field. Mark Prior was cruising along, throwing zero after zero on the scoreboard and warming the crowd with 98 mph heat on the cold, Chicago night. The Marlins had only four hits, and just five outs left when Luis Castillo came up to the plate, with Juan Pierre on second base, and Cubs fans on cloud nine. Luis Castillo battled from 0-2 down, to 3-2, facing the eighth pitch of the at bat, when Steve Bartman sat back in his seat and put his hands together, praying that the dominant Prior would gas one more pitch by him. Little did Steve Bartman know that in a matter of seconds his name would become known country-wide, and people would legitimately threaten his life.

Prior reared back and threw one more fastball. Prior, who had pitched 126 pitches four days earlier, threw a pitch that had it been one tenth of a mph faster, Castillo never would have touched it, the Cubs would have been down to four outs away, and the South Side may not be a depressing place today. However, Prior's overworked fastball got wood. Castillo floated the ball near the left-field side wall in foul territory. Notorious lothario and weirdo (he pisses on his hands to harden them before games) Moises Alou drifted over. Steve Bartman, seeing an opportunity to actually catch a foul ball, everyman's dream, rose from his seat and reached up. Everyone knows the rest. Bartman nudged the ball away from a then furious Alou. Prior threw a wild pitch, then allowed a single. Alex Gonzalez, the best fielding shortstop in the National League, misplayed what would have been as easy double play, botching it into an error. Then there was a double, followed by Prior being pulled. One intentional walk, double, single and triple later, it was 7-3 Marlins, and 1-0 Angry Cubs fans over Steve Bartman.

The Cubs would go on to lose the game, and crash and burn the next night in Game 7. The Cubs still have not won a World Series, in fact they have not even won a playoff game since Game 6. The particulars in the game are all gone, as Moises Alou is off getting angry at other random people, and Mark Prior is off getting his umpteenth Tommy John surgery. Alex Gonzalez has in fact joined the preisthood, as he felt God saved him by making Bartman the goat of the game, and not him. The real villain became Bartman, who was essentially thrown out of the ballpark for trying to catch a fly ball that went into the stands, much like the other ten people around him who similarly reached up hoping the ball would fall into their hands. Bartman's address was criminally given out by the Chicago Sun-Times (thankfully, no one reads the paper, so that didn't pose a huge problem). Bartman had to move into exile, in fear for his life. Sadly, that is not a joke. Bartman was used as the scapegoat by most Cubs fans, but other smarter fans decided it was fate, that the baseball Gods just were against them again. The events of two days later did nothing to assuage the Cubs fans of these fears.

Part II - Grady in Gotham

The Red Sox had the advantage of seeing the ills of leaving a starter in too long. They had seen the problems caused from a tiring starter who lost a couple tenths of mph. They were given the cautionary tale of the Cubs. One man chose to ignore it. Pity him, Grady Little, for the simple man had no idea the strength of the baseball Gods.

It was almost a carbon copy situation. Pedro Martinez stood on top of the Yankee Stadium mound. His own effectiveness and his record-setting offense effectively muted the big cathedral of baseball. Derek Jeter came up to the plate with one out in the eighth, but even he, "Captain Clutch" had a look of dismay upon his face. "Could this really be happening? Are the Red Sox about to beat us in our own house?" Jeter seemed to think. Jeter managed to hammer out a double, but really it seemed like useless stat fodder. Pedro was in control, with no obvious sign of tiring on the litmus sign that is the radar gun, but inside he knew that he was tiring. The movement that had defined Pedro's fastball was gone. Up came Bernie Williams, a man Pedro had battled time and time again, mostly to excellent results. Pedro reached back and threw a laser, one that was a tad slower than normal. Bernie punched a single, moving Jeter to third. Martinez was stunned and gassed. His best was no longer good enough, and to his satifaction Grady Little seemed to know as he came out to greet him. This is where the Gods intervened and decided to change the course of Grady Little's managerial life.

No one will ever know what prompted Grady Little to make a blunder so big it would cost him his job. No one will ever have an answer to the question "Why did Grady leave Pedro in?" All they know is that it is a move right next to leaving the bad fielding Bill Buckner in the game in the Red Sox hall of shame. Grady Little left the mound with Pedro retained on it. A totally gassed Pedro, one who let his guard down thinking he was about to leave the game, was no match for the Yankees and a suddenly rejuvanated, unmuted crowd. Hedeki Matsui hit a ground rule double, followed by Jorge Posada squeezing a double into the field's Bermuda Triangle between the shortstop, second baseman and center fielder. The game, one that was 5-2 zero outs ago, was now 5-5, destined for extra innings, and destined for mystique and destiny (Yankee Stadium's two angels that preside over the Yankee Stadium games) to make their appearance. Aaron Boone's home run was not so much as inevitable, but expected, as the Yankees would win, as they always do, and the Red Sox would die a slow, terrible death, as they always do.

Pedro Martinez sat in the dug out, watching the Yankees celebrating after Boone's home run. He covered his head with a hoodie hiding what might have been tears of agony. Pedro is a prideful man, and he felt responsible for the Red Sox second most dreadful defeat. Luckily for him, Red Sox nation felt otherwise, as Grady Little, who had just managed the team to 95 wins, would never take the dugout in a Red Sox uniform again. He knew as much, as he reportedly wished Pedro goodbye and goodluck. He knew well, that people who had the gall to add to the treacherous litany of Red Sox disasters would exiled out of town. Like Bartman, Grady Little's life was ruined. Little rebounded, and has had managerial jobs after that, but he lost his best chance of winning a world series, because he chose to challenge the Baseball Gods.

Part III - Curses Can Exist

Immediately people started claiming that the teams were cursed. The claim was old hat for the Red Sox, who have long been victims to the alleged Curse of the Bambino, a total misnomer as it makes no sense for a man whose career would never have been as mythologized had he not been dealth to New York to curse the Red Sox. This was, to most curse-supporters, just another example of the dark magic that surrounded the Red Sox franchise, another haunting in Red Sox nation. However, it was the start of something new for the Cubs. They had long been the lovable losers, the team that was so bad it never even came close enough to winning to inspire a catchy curse name like Boston. The Red Sox had a long string of disastrous defeats, the Cubs just a string of losses. Alot of them. The closest thing to a curse was some story about a goat not being given permission to enter Wrigley. Now it had all changed. The Cubs were now equal to the Red Sox, together helpless victims of some supernatural being hell-bent on never seeing those two teams acheive glory. The Cubs had arrived to the level of curse-hood, and the Red Sox to curse legitimacy. A new day had dawned in just three days.

Curses don't really exist, and definitely not in baseball or any sports. What would some accursed being care about the trails of two sports teams? Why would the greatest baseball player of all time waste his time cursing his old team, when he could be boozing and womanizing it up in baseball heaven? However, if there was ever evidence that maybe, just maybe, there are some weird megnetic energy and mysticism in America's two most hallowed sports grounds. Maybe the ivy in Wrigley is trapping bad spirits in, and maybe the glory whores mystique and aura do make nightly appearances in Yankee Stadium. All in all, as Tom Verducci pointed out, "Only the Red Sox and Cubs could both lose in a way that has only been done twice in postseason history two days apart." Yes, only the Red Sox and Cubs can. Grady and Bartman agree.