The Saga of bottom production in $p \bar{p}$ collisions

I review here the history of bottom quark cross section measurements and theoretical predictions. Starting form the early days of UA1, and going through the sequence of the large excesses reported during run 0 and I at the Tevatron by CDF and D0, I summarize how both data and theory have evolved in time, thanks to improved experimental techniques, more data, and improved control over the main ingredients of the theoretical calculations. I conclude with the discussion of the preliminary data from run II, which appear to finally give a satisfactory picture of the data vs theory comparison.