Editing Chicago Cubs (section)

====2003: Five more outs====
{{Main|2003 Chicago Cubs season|Steve Bartman incident}}
The Cubs had high expectations in 2002, but the squad played poorly. On July 5, 2002, the Cubs promoted assistant general manager and player personnel director [[Jim Hendry]] to the General Manager position. The club responded by hiring [[Dusty Baker]] and by making some major moves in 2003. Most notably, they traded with the [[Pittsburgh Pirates]] for outfielder [[Kenny Lofton]] and third baseman [[Aramis Ramírez]], and rode dominant pitching, led by Kerry Wood and [[Mark Prior]], as the Cubs led the division down the stretch.

[[File:Kerry Wood 2008.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Kerry Wood]], along with Mark Prior, led the Cubs' rotation in 2003.]]

Chicago halted the [[2003 St. Louis Cardinals season|St. Louis Cardinals]]' run to the playoffs by taking four of five games from the Cardinals at Wrigley Field in early September, after which they won their first division title in 14 years. They then went on to defeat the [[2003 Atlanta Braves season|Atlanta Braves]] in a dramatic five-game [[2003 National League Division Series|Division Series]], the franchise's first postseason series win since beating the [[1908 Detroit Tigers season|Detroit Tigers]] in the [[1908 World Series]].

After losing an extra-inning game in Game 1, the Cubs rallied and took a three-games-to-one lead over the Wild Card [[2003 Florida Marlins season|Florida Marlins]] in the [[2003 National League Championship Series|National League Championship Series]]. Florida shut the Cubs out in Game 5, but the Cubs returned home to Wrigley Field with young pitcher [[Mark Prior]] to lead the Cubs in Game 6 as they took a 3–0 lead into the 8th inning. It was at this point when a now-infamous [[Steve Bartman incident|incident]] took place. Several spectators attempted to catch a foul ball off the bat of [[Luis Castillo (second baseman)|Luis Castillo]]. A Chicago Cubs fan by the name of [[Steve Bartman incident|Steve Bartman]], of Northbrook, Illinois, reached for the ball and deflected it away from the glove of [[Moisés Alou]] for the second out of the eighth inning. Alou reacted angrily toward the stands and after the game stated that he would have caught the ball.<ref name="Bartman">{{cite news |title = Report: Alou initially said he would have caught the Bartman ball |year = 2004 |publisher = [[ESPN]] |url = https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=3423732170 |agency = Associated Press |access-date = June 11, 2008 }}</ref> Alou at one point recanted, saying he would not have been able to make the play, but later said this was just an attempt to make Bartman feel better and believing the whole incident should be forgotten.<ref name="Bartman"/> Interference was not called on the play, as the ball was ruled to be on the spectator side of the wall. Castillo was eventually walked by Prior. Two batters later, and to the chagrin of the packed stadium, Cubs shortstop [[Alex Gonzalez (shortstop, born 1973)|Alex Gonzalez]] misplayed an inning-ending double play, loading the bases. The error would lead to eight Florida runs and a Marlins victory. Despite sending [[Kerry Wood]] to the mound and holding a lead twice, the Cubs ultimately dropped Game 7, and failed to reach the [[2003 World Series|World Series]].

The "Steve Bartman incident" was seen as the "first domino" in the turning point of the era, and the Cubs did not win a playoff game for the next eleven seasons.<ref name=BBC>{{cite web |title = Baseball fan feels Chicago's fury |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3200582.stm |work = [[BBC News]] |date = October 17, 2003 |access-date = July 9, 2008 }}</ref>