TV Review: ‘Long Gone Summer’ On ESPN

Review by James Lindorf

In 1994 over a dispute about a potential salary cap Major League Baseball experienced what was then the longest strike in professional sports history. The strike lasted for 232 days and resulted in the first canceled World Series since 1904. The following the seasons were plagued by dwindling attendance as fans left the sport in disgust over the bickering of millionaires and billionaires. The summer of 1998 would bring them back in droves as the St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire and the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa embarked on a chase of one of the game’s most hallowed records. The power, speed, and sound of a homerun imparts instant joy or dread to every fan watching the duel between pitcher and batter. Roger Maris set the mark to beat in 1961 with an astounding 61 home runs, breaking a 34-year-old record set by the baseball legend Babe Ruth. Thirty-seven years after Maris, when baseball needed it most, the long ball captured the attention of America and the world. Now in ESPN’s new 30 for 30 film “Long Gone Summer,” director AJ Schnack takes viewers back to that landmark season. McGwire and Sosa talk in length for the first time in 22-years about the emotions and the impact the chase had on Major League Baseball and themselves. “Long Gone Summer” will air Sunday, June 14th, at 9 pm on ESPN and the ESPN app.

On the East coast baseball’s, the biggest rivalry is between the Yankees and the Red Sox, on the West, it is the Dodgers and the Giants, and in the Midwest, it’s the Cubs and the Cardinals. The rivalry added another layer to the chase, the record and the glory would go to the man and his team, but the bragging rights would go to city and their fans. The pursuit was all-encompassing for the sport. Thousands of people would show up to watch McGwire taking batting practice, dozens if not hundreds would surround Wrigley Field for the off-chance Sosa would hit another one out of the park. In every stadium, part of the scoreboard was dedicated to keeping accurate up to the minute counts of where each slugger stood. The race for 62 even inspired the most iconic bit of advertising in MLB history when Nike released the “chicks dig the long ball” ad in 1999.

“Long Gone Summer” features excellent highlights and interviews, especially those with McGwire and Sosa, but it lacks even a fraction of the passion and excitement of the actual event. It is possible telling a story that is as much about how McGwire, Sosa, and the MLB got to this point in 1998 as it is about what took place between March 31st and September 18th took away from that energy. However, expanding the story may have been the only way to convince the previously reluctant homerun hitters to discuss the events in detail. No Surprising facts or shocking behind the scenes moments will hit the ESPN airwaves on the 14th; instead, it is just a retelling of the events by players, managers, announcers, and writers who lived every second of that magical season. The joy as they recall the emotions of that time is evident on all of their faces, except for McGwire’s, who mostly talks about it like it was any other season. Also, the terrible music produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy takes away from the excitement of the documentary. The music during the scene of McGwire hitting his 62nd home run sounds like someone is tuning a guitar or perhaps threw a well-tuned one down some stairs. What should have been a climactic moment was stolen from the viewers by possibly the worst decision in any 30 for 30 film to date.

“Long Gone Summer” is an above-average documentary worth watching by baseball fans of any age, but it is essential to temper expectations. While “Long Gone Summer” will conjure up fond memories, it is unlikely to evoke the wonder of that time.