30 For 30: Long Gone Summer
It’s the story of the 1998 home run chase and is currently airing on ESPN. Say what you want about that era but damn this is bringing back some great memories. That’s the last time I remember baseball being must see TV.
Ah, baseball... Simultaneously the greatest game and the worst sport.
I had been looking forward to this particular episode but thought it was pretty dull overall.
Loved seeing all my STL homies like Miklasz, Shannon, and Bush, but in an unsurprising twist, McGwire is still a smug jerk and Sosa a phony dipshit.
Long live football!
STL? The town that has lost two NFL franchises? Whose state university football program has always been a day late and a dollar short?
Though, on the flip side, you did once have the Spirits of St. Louis which featured, among others, Darryl Dawkins, Maurice Lucas, M.L. Carr and the one and only Marvin "Bad News" Barnes. With 22 year old Bob Costas on the play-by-play.
Well, in fairness they did have 2 of the worst owners in the history of the sport in Bidwill and Kroenke.
Still, I miss these guys...
God damn thats a buff cardinal
stan kroenke every tottenham supporters favorite gooner owner. Guy must lay him some pipe because the only thing he seems to have done well is marry a Walton
that's excellent ABA knowledge!
Put them in the Hall of Fame. They made a lot of people rich and none of them gave the money back after Mcgwire, Sosa and Bonds were dragged through the mud for doing what the game condoned during that era.
McGuire, Sosa and Bonds were rewarded handsomely. They didn't give the money back either. McGuire's career had been on the ropes, Sosa's had not really taken off. Bonds was already one of the best of his generation, but he went from that to all-timer, as his hat size increased by 3.
You missed the point. MLB, the media, owners, and everyone else in the game did not care how the players were able to hit so many homers, as long as they did, and the ratings and profits skyrocketed. Then, when the curtain was pulled back, baseball throws these guys under the bus. Yeah, they got paid, but they literally saved major league baseball after the 1994 strike and deserve to be in the Hall of Fame because of it.
We'll never know if they "saved MLB", though that is the popular narrative. They are already recognized and "in" the HOF in terms of their feats just as Pete Rose is. As to whether all of those mentioned and others like Clemons, Arod, and Rafael Palmeiro, should be officially HOF members, I can see merit in both sides of the argument.
What I don't agree with is that because they did something selfish which benefitted themselves greatly (except for Rose, who apparently lost his a-- gambling), and for which they got paid in $$$ and worship, that because baseball made money off of them as well, that that requires they be in the HOF.
It's not a narrative. It's a fact. That home run race established a new generation of fandom, attendance and advertising interest in the league that was floundering after the strike caused the previous generation to give up on the league or become indifferent. And, being recognized but not in the Hall of Fame is not the same as being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
I don't agree that it was selfish because, by that standard, working out, practicing, or being able to afford a hitting coach when others can't are selfish acts since the player is doing something to gain a competitive advantage. Sure, I think PED use creates an unfair advantage, but not in a league where its use was a part of the culture along side a complicit MLB and media. Everyone benefited but the players were retroactively smeared. They deserve to be in the Hall of Fame because of their statistical accomplishments and their iconic status profoundly benefited the league. Both have merit since people with no statistics but illustrious careers, like announcers or owners, are inducted into the HOF.
My olive branch is that I don't agree with PED use and am glad they try to police it now.
(I'd be curious to see this, but I'm living abroad.)
What I recall most about that era was an extremely complicit sports media that wanted to sweep any discussion of steroids under the rug in the name of profits. One can argue that the players should be allowed to take whatever they want. But that's not what journalists did. They did everything possible to distract from that topic in order to "save baseball." The sport was in horrible shape after the 1994 strike. Cal Ripken's streak helped, but didn't have nearly the impact that this home run chase did.
If ESPN is willing to address the underlying reasons why this happened the way it did, particularly why so many turned a blind eye to what was happening, it could be interesting. I imagine that the WWL would be the last ones to call out their own industry.
And per Yeti's comment above, they of course blamed the players once the obvious finally became accepted as obvious.
I was 8 years old that summer, and watched nearly every Cubs game that was on WGN to see if Sammy was going to hit a homer.
One of MLB's big talking points was that the athletes needed to set an example for kids, but I could've cared less if they were juicing at the time. All I cared about was seeing Sammy do his skipping HR trot and whatever that chest to mouth hand gesture was. That and the NWO vs NWO Wolfpac storyline made for a steroid filled 1998.
YES! That double skip and peace-kiss-to-chest move was the best. I haven't watched yet, but this was the best summer of baseball ever, IMO. Don't care 1 bit about the steroids because I was 12.
Any fan old enough to fill a prescription knew what was going on that summer.
I don't think so. I think it was a pretty small minority of fans that realized it at the time.
The idea behind their season was that there was enough plausible deniability at the time that you could make a mental case for them not being on the juice, despite nearly every indication to the contrary.
But once the Mitchell report and other reporting came through showing how insanely widespread and unchecked the steroid use was, then the whole facade crumbled.
If you'll recall, McGuire, accidentally on purpose, let reporters see the androdyostene (which was legal at the time) in his locker, so as to cover for the illegal, heavier steroids he was using.
Andro provided a pretty significant uptick in those days. He was defiantly on other stuff though.
I used to read every box score of every MLB every day as a kid. I loved it. The baseball strike ruined it and I quit watching except for Tiger games here and there. That season captivated me and brought my interest back to some degree.
I found the directors choice of using modern crowd imagery interspersed with classic footage to be distracting. Not as distracting as Sammy Sosa’s head but pretty distracting.
I found that strange too... they showed a Sammy Sosa HR and then cut to someone celebrating in a Kris Bryant jersey (who would've been 6 years old at the time)
That was certainly back in my baseball-watching heyday. Was a huge fan of the Braves and watching them run away with the NL East for a decade and a half, but I could also watch guys like Griffey, Sosa and McGwire all day. I remember just being mesmerized by the Home Run Derby at Fenway back in the ‘99 season. Seeing McGwire belt home runs well over the Big Green Monster and into the streets surrounding the stadium. Could not believe how strong they were. Of course a few years later we all found out why, but it doesn’t change the fact that they were fun to watch.
I would very much enjoy a 30-for-30 on Griffey. I can't really think of another player whose talents were so prodigious but whose profile was always so low. I suppose part of it was playing in Seattle during his prime, but he never seemed to get the amount of attention he should've.
Griffey with his hat on backwards, hitting bombs, was one of the coolest things growing up.
I don't know, wasn't it the general consensus that he was the best positional player in baseball when he was at his peak? He was a legit 5-tool guy.
Yes, Jr. was very acclaimed when he played, deservedly so.
Ken Griffey Jr should have gone down as the best player of all time. That concrete under astroturf in Seattle ruined him :(
Cool story-bro time: One of my buddies caught McGuire's National League record 57th home run. Dude went on pay for med school at one of the best schools in the country with income from being a professional magician. He's like a walking, random Most Interesting Man In The World commercial (and a legit good guy).