I'm getting a little ahead of the course, but I wanted to give you a heads up. "Catching Hell," an ESPN documentary on the infamous "Bartman foul ball" in the 2003 Major League playoffs will be broadcast 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. Saturday on ESPN2 (that's why DVRs and TiVo were invented) and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday on ESPN. In that game, Cubs' fan Steve Bartman interfered with Cubs outfielder Moises Alou as he tried to catch a foul ball. The play, along with subsequent Chicago errors and Florida Marlin rally, cost the Cubs the game and they later lost the National League pennant, allowing Florida to advance and go on to win the World Series.
Those of you who are baseball fans know that the Cubs are the lovable losers of the Major Leagues, having gone more than 100 years since they last won it all (they beat the Tigers in 1908). Despite this legacy of losing, the Cubs have one of the most passionate fan bases in all of sport. But the Bartman play revealed a darker side, as the crowd turned on Bartman and he had to be escorted from the stadium to protect his safety.
When we move to Motion Media Oct. 17 I'd like to focus on the Bartman play and the fan reaction as well as the role television played in fueling the ugliness that filled the friendly confines of Wrigley Field that night. If you are able, watch "Catching Hell" this weekend. If you're unable you will still be able to participate in the discussion. You can view short clips from the film here. The film is also available on iTunes but they will charge you $4.99. Again, watching the entire film will not be necessary for the class, but it will be helpful. The film is damn good and you absolutely do not have to be a sports fan to find "Catching Hell" compeling viewing. Any of you who have watched any of ESPN's previous "30 for 30" documentaries already know this. BTW, "Catching Hell" was directed by Alex Gibney, who directed the Academy Award winning documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side" about the war in Afghanstan.
I will put together a post on Steve Jobs to focus our discussion on Sound Media for next week. "Catching Hell" and Motion Media will be for the week that begins Oct. 17.
About Me
- Rob
- is an outdoor writer who has worked for newspapers in Montana, Arizona, California and Idaho. He moved to Hamilton, Mont. in 1992, where he won his first Montana Newspaper Association Award for outdoor writing while working at the Ravalli Republic newspaper. After working in Arizona (where he edited the state's top outdoors section at the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff) and Idaho, he returned to Montana in 2006. He has worked in journalism as a writer, editor and professor for more than 20 years. He teaches journalism at Flathead Valley Community College and previously taught at Northern Arizona and Idaho State universities.
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