It was one of the strangest and toughest endings to one of the most magical runs in Cubs history.

And reliever Kyle Farnsworth had a front-row seat to it all.

The 16-year major-league veteran was in the Cubs bullpen during Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS against the Marlins when the infamous Moises Alou-Steve Bartman incident happened. At that time, the Cubs bullpen was along the left field foul line, where Farnsworth was warming up at the time, giving him a prime view of the incident.

“I feel sorry for Bartman for what happened,” Farnsworth said on the latest edition of the Cubs Weekly Podcast. “I mean, anybody in the stands would have gone for the ball and it just happened to him.”

But the moment that really caused the back-breaking blow for the Cubs was just after that, when a seemingly routine groundball was hit to shortstop and Alex González misplayed the ball, botching a would-be inning-ending double play. Instead, the Marlins went on to score 7 more runs that inning and force a decisive Game 7.

“A lot of people don’t talk about is right after that,” Farnsworth said, “there was a routine ground ball hit to Alex. And he said, I remember talking to him afterwards, he said that ball had just [a] weird spin and he’s never seen a spin like that on a ball hit to him. When [it] hit his glove, he said it spun. He said it was the weirdest thing he’s ever seen. He’s never seen anything like it.”

It contributed to the end of what had been a special run for the Cubs.

“I love (González) to death – great guy – but there’s a ground ball double play that should have been turned,” Farnsworth said. “So, it was unfortunate we lost that whole series, but we still thought we had our chances to win that last game as well, because [Mark] Prior that Game [6] and then Wood for Game 7. So you know, it’s very unfortunate.”

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