ESPN Films Presents: "Catching Hell" Review + Reaction

Last year when the majority of the "30 for 30" series was shown, this was one of the documentaries that everyone was looking forward to and one that was supposed to be a flagship film in the series. Finally, long after "30 for 30" has ended, emerges the new ESPN Films division with it's first effort "Catching Hell."

Alex Gibney was sitting in the director's chair and he really did an amazing job with this. The extra time it took for this to get out really paid off as it was easily one of the finest films ESPN has put out since they have invested in that side of the spectrum. On another note, I think it would have been wise for ESPN to stick with the "30 for 30 name." They developed a very successful and recognizable brand, a brainchild of one of their own - superstar columnist Bill Simmons.  If people really follow ESPN, it obviously won't be an issue, but for people who tuned in to a lot of the films based off the brand name, they may think it ended when the 30 films were over. Regardless of whether that will happen eventually, they have a really strong series on their hands and hopefully they continue it for years to come.

Through the years, Steve Bartman and his role in the 2003 NLCS has been one of the most controversial topics in baseball and sports in general. However, for Cubs fans, a group that has very very few (if any) living members that have seen a championship, Bartman is one of the many disappointments they have experienced in their lifetime.  I liked the way that Gibney broke down a lot of other angles to the story and showed that at the end of the day, it really wasn't Bartman's fault at all. Unfortunately, it's almost human nature to blame one person or one event for things well beyond that singular aspect.

There were a lot of things that went wrong that night, not to mention the Cubs had been up 3-1 in the series and ended up losing. What about games 5 and 7?  What about Alex Gonzalez, the shortstop who lead the league in fielding percentage that year, missing a routine ground ball that would have ended the inning? I even remember watching the game while it was happening and thinking to myself, "Nobody is going to blame Alex Gonzalez even though he was in complete control and missed an easy grounder." Nobody really blames him until this day, so I'm glad someone recognized that. They still let up eight runs in the inning, Bartman wasn't throwing the balls to the plate.

A lot of the film looked at the Bartman episode through the aspect of a similar scenario with a certain other "cursed" baseball team.  If you can't get Steve Bartman to participate in a documentary, who better to get than Bill Buckner.

They both made mistakes that in some people's eyes cost their team a shot at eternal glory and a World Series championship. Buckner has the unfortunate circumstances of actually being a great player throughout his career, but of course nobody remembers. An at-bat of his in game 5 of that 1986 World Series he gets credit for destroying, really saved the Red Sox from being down 3-2 and not even being in position to win in game 6. Again, why is all the blame going on him?  Even the pitcher who threw the wild pitch right before the hit to Buckner seemed eager to deflect any fault of his own.

When we think about the word "fan," we think of someone with a devotion to a team, a person, or anything you can support. It is a derivative of the word fanatic, and that showed more than ever in some of the footage of the ballpark that night. These people were far beyond inhumane, to the point where even as a huge sports fan myself, you have to realize things are a little bigger than sports sometimes.

Threatening a man's life probably isn't the way to go about it. The most disturbing interview they ran was with the man that threw beer onto Steve Bartman. He was proud of what he did, and he still is. He was smiling throughout the entire interview, especially when he was describing the actions he took. Even the media took everything too far by publishing all of Bartman's information on TV. What good did that do to a story in which he could have easily remained a fan who reached for a ball, as about 4 or 5 people did that night. There was absolutely no benefit in knowing where he lived, or where he worked.

Gibney used some very creative editing to break down the dynamics of the play through color blocking and removing of some fans from the picture. While it still remains almost indistinguishable whether or not Bartman reached over the wall, the tape showed that Moises Alou would have indeed had a clear line to grab the ball had nobody reached for it. He still could have dropped it, but even as the fake broadcast stated at the end of the documentary, "Alou makes an incredible catch, the Cubs are going to the World Series!" everyone assumes everything would have gone the way they wanted it to go. People forgave Bill Buckner in Boston. As for Steve Bartman, that day is yet to be seen. Will it ever happen? Nobody will know until the Cubs win a World Series. Having finished out of the playoff race in the last three years, things aren't looking bright in Chicago.  I guess if Boston could take home 2 titles in 7 years after the "Curse of the Bambino" anything is possible. Even breaking "The Curse of Steve Bartman."

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