It's been over 2 decades since the Bartman game buried the Cubs' 2003 pennant hopes, and Sammy Sosa is still one of the few guys who lived it from the field who'll actually sit down and talk through it. He did exactly that on The Stretch, running through his side of the most infamous foul ball in Cubs history.
Sammy Sosa explains his view on the Bartman game in 2003 on @thestretchpod
For anyone who needs the refresher: Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS had the Cubs 5 outs from their first World Series trip since 1945, up 3-0 on the Marlins with Sosa's first-inning double having started the scoring. Then Steve Bartman reached for a foul ball down the left field line, Moises Alou didn't get the catch, and the Marlins put up 8 runs in the 8th inning to blow the game open and eventually the series. Sosa was on that field for all of it, which is exactly why hearing him actually revisit it carries weight — most of the guys from that roster don't go there publicly.
The interview wasn't all history lesson, though. Eddie flagged a moment where the conversation turned to a much more recent, much less historic injury — a sneeze — and Sosa's answer apparently had the room in stitches.
Sammy’s response to being asked about the sneeze injury had me dying
It's a small moment, but it's the kind of thing that makes a sit-down like this worth watching over a standard press-tour hit — a guy who hit 609 home runs and is still fighting for his Hall of Fame case getting to be genuinely funny about something as dumb as tweaking himself sneezing, right after getting serious about the worst night of his career.
The full episode is out now, and for Cubs fans who've spent 2 decades arguing about who's actually to blame for Game 6 — Bartman, Alou, Prior, the bullpen, all of it — hearing Sosa's own read on it is worth the watch on its own.