'Just a foul ball': 20 years later, reflections on being feet away from Bartman

Through the hundreds of Major League Baseball games he's attended, Benet boys basketball coach Gene Heidkamp never has been a foul ball guy.

But there he was, 20 years ago, as the bull's-eye for perhaps the most famous foul ball in history.

Google "Steve Bartman seat," and you'll find a common answer: Aisle 4, Row 8, Seat 113. Only that wasn't Bartman's seat on an unforgettable night at Wrigley Field, the venerable home of the Chicago Cubs.

It was Heidkamp's, and he still has the ticket stub to prove it.

Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of Game 6 of the National League Championship Series, also known as the Bartman Game.

The Cubs, with a chance to reach the World Series for the first time since 1945, led the Marlins 3-0 with one out in the eighth inning. A foul ball drifted down the left-field line as Cubs outfielder Moises Alou ran toward the wall to make the catch.

But before the ball dropped to Alou, Bartman reached over the wall and knocked it away. After a tirade by Alou about fan interference, the Cubs imploded.

The Marlins scored 8 runs in the inning, won the game 8-3 and then won the series the next night.

Bartman instantly became the villain in the Cubs' collapse. Heidkamp, Nazareth's coach at the time, was only feet away as the scene unfolded.

"It became scary," Heidkamp said. "People were really angry. I don't think it was anyone's finest moment."

'Everything seemed to focus on us'

Heidkamp, who's rarely spoken publicly about that night, reflected on the game and its aftermath. More than anything, he sympathizes with Bartman and what he's endured.

The anger directed at Bartman, everything from threats of violence to Bartman Halloween costumes, forced him into seclusion amid the immense scrutiny. Then Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich suggested Bartman enter the witness protection program, while then Florida Gov. Jeb Bush offered him asylum.

The ball, grabbed by a fan and sold at auction for more than $100,000, was destroyed in 2004 at Harry Caray's Restaurant in Chicago.

"I feel horrible about what Bartman went through," Heidkamp said. "At the end of the day, it was just a foul ball. The Cubs still had every opportunity to win that game and the series."

Heidkamp, 53, grew up on the north side of Chicago and went to a bunch of games at Wrigley. While not a die-hard Cubs fan, he lucked out in 2003 by getting four tickets to Game 6.

He sat one row in front of Bartman, who was behind and left of Heidkamp at the end of the row.

When the foul ball skied toward his seat, as video and pictures show, Heidkamp backed away. That allowed Bartman to move up, and a friend of Heidkamp's to move left as the two converged on the ball at Heidkamp's seat.

"You could tell right away it was a big deal," Heidkamp said. "Alou was yelling at us. Everything seemed to focus on us. My phone was blowing up with people calling and texting me that they saw me on TV."

As the Cubs fell apart, Heidkamp said, the mood in the stadium turned ugly. Bartman was the primary target of jeers, beers and other objects, but nearly everyone in that area was hit by something.

'I don't talk about it'

Heidkamp and his friends developed an exit strategy. They scattered in the ninth inning, with Heidkamp walking about 2 miles home.

Knowing his red sweatshirt was a potential target because of the TV attention, he put on a gray hoodie and carefully navigated the city streets.

"I was scared," he said. "It's hard to describe what it felt like unless you were there. I had no idea if people were waiting to jump us."

Through the days, months and years that followed, Heidkamp tried to distance himself from the Bartman Game. He turned down numerous requests for interviews, including for the ESPN "Catching Hell" documentary about the game.

As much as he'd like the entire episode to fade away, the images reappear with every anniversary. New people recognize him in the stands and ask about it.

"Unless someone brings it up with me, I don't talk about it," he said. "Knowing what Bartman had to deal with, it never felt comfortable to me."

In 2008 Heidkamp was hired at Benet and established unprecedented success for the boys basketball program.

With Heidkamp the Redwings have finished second in the state three times, including last season. Aside from the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 campaign, Benet's notched 13 straight 20-win seasons.

Heidkamp said his experience that night at Wrigley Field had one positive effect. It changed his coaching.

"I talk to the kids a lot about adversity," he said. "That night was all about overcoming adversity. It may not be something like the Bartman play, but how will you respond if you don't like a call from a referee or your team suffers a key injury?"

'That night changed me'

The Cubs winning the World Series in 2016 relieved a lot of the pressure. Team officials gifted a World Series ring to Bartman, to which he responded in a statement that he accepted it "as an important reminder for how we should treat each other in today's society."

"I'm sure he's suffered a lot," Heidkamp said. "It's not fair what he went through."

Heidkamp, though, still doesn't look forward to the anniversaries and the dredging up of videos and pictures.

Someone surely will bring up that scary, surreal night. But the lesson about adversity also reemerges.

In last season's state semifinals, Benet's leading scorer went down early with an ankle injury and didn't return. The Redwings overcame the setback by winning the game and advancing to the final.

That's the kind of legacy Heidkamp wants to leave from his own role in the Bartman Game.

"I'm in a much different place than I was 20 years ago, and I believe that night changed me," he said. "Hopefully for the better."