It was some of the darkest days in baseball. The sport was coming out of the 1994 lockout and had lost millions of fans from that debacle. Baseball was looking for something to rejuvenate interest in the sport and was desperate for anything positive to latch onto. Cal Ripkin and his iron man streak gave the sport a small boost in 1995 but it was short lived. This ESPN 30 for 30 documentary-story weaves us through the period of time where baseball overlooked the devil within to put baseball back on the map.

Before we look at the positives, you have to at least acknowledge the underlying issue built around the chase for the single season home run record. To that point, the record was held by Roger Maris who famously hit 61 home runs in 1961 and had his own challenges in surpassing the legend of Babe Ruth. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa went toe to toe in the summer of 1998 and looked to be a sure thing to surpass the record despite the speculation about steroids being the impetus for the power surge. Years after the record was broken, it was proven that steroids riddles the statistics and records of that era but did anyone really care. Those who hold the records in hallowed grounds have never accepted that McGwire held the record at 70 (until Barry Bonds broke the record under his own cloud of steroids in 2001 with 73). Those who were riveted by the chase that year choose not to care and simply describe it as a magical summer. Here are our winners for the Rewatchables Long Gone Summer.

1. Most Rewindable moment – the moment where you are flipping the channels and you catch this part only to be sucked into rewinding to the start of the movie.
2. The “Did you touch my drum kit” award – not necessarily the quote that the world remembers but the one that someone who has seen the movie 25 times would know exactly what movie this is from. Bonus points if you know which show this quote is from.
3. Best “microwave” actor – the actor who hits the screen with their hair on fire and owns their scenes in such a dominating fashion. Small scenes, big value.
4. Best “Over the Top” acting moment – the actor who dials it up like this is the moment that he/she wants on the “In Memoriam” snippet at the 2044 Oscars.
5. The “What show have I seen him/her in before” award – you know, the actor who you’ve seen in 100 shows and never know their name. Every movie has that person.
6. The “That makes no sense moment” – You know what I mean when you see something that makes no logical sense. That moment.
7. Bonus category – Unanswerable questions – I love this stuff where the movie ends but the questions linger on. I have no answers but lots of questions.

Most Rewindable Moment – Mark McGwire Batting Practice

The documentary was clearly focused on showing you what you came here for, the home run. Throughout the 2 hours, it shows you all of the major milestone dingers of the year for all players involved and those moments Bring you right back to where you were in 1998.

To me the rewindable moment came in the 30 seconds where it focused on McGwire hitting bombs in batting practice and having thousands of fans oohing and ahhhhing along with every laser off his bat. The sheer magnitude of the way he hit these baseballs and the length of distance was jaw dropping and sucks you in for the rest of the show.

The “Did you touch my drum kit” award – Sammy Sosa

There were some great quotes throughout this documentary.

“You would have 5,000 people at batting practice just there to watch McGwire hit”, Chip Carey, broadcaster

“No-one talks to me about getting to 50 homers, everyone wants to talk about 60 or 61 but you have no idea how hard it is just to get to 50.” McGwire press conference.

“Dad always regretted hitting 61 homers that year and was labelled as a on-hit wonder after that. He just dealt with it after he did it”. Maris’ son

The quote that struck me the greatest was the one that Sammy Sosa doesn’t actually answer. Sosa has repeatedly been asked about the rumour that he too took steroids throughout that era. It has haunted he and McGwire so much that neither one of them has been elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Sosa has taken a particularly large beating over the speculation and because he has not even acknowledged the issue, he was dropped from the HOF ballot. In the documentary, he is asked the question again around whether he took steroids during that season and his answer was more more confusing than ever, answering a question with a question.

Why do they focus on me when everyone in that era [took steroids]? I’m not a bad guy.” 

True but has the lesson of telling the truth not taught these guys anything? Pete Rose is paying the piper for 20 years of denial and is still not in the Hall while others who float the truth have been exonerated.

Best “microwave” actor – Roger Maris & the Maris family

I have always had an amazing amount of respect for Roger Maris. He was the epitome of class throughout his career and being an understated gentlemen, the chase of the Babe’s HR record took its toll on him. His son told the story how Roger was losing his hair in clumps under the undying pressure from the fans and media haunting him daily. On top of the chase, he has the added pressure that the Commissioner of Baseball, Ford Frick, claimed that the record would no be considered broken unless he did it in the same or less number of games than the Bambino did it in (154 games).

There are snippets of interviews with Maris laced into the documentary along with several interviews with Maris’ son. The Maris family was actively involved in the backdrop of that summer, following the frontrunner, McGwire around the country as he approached the number. They too said all the right things and showed their class when McGwire hit number 62. Deep down, they must also wonder whether the record was broken legitimately, or under the premise of drugs that you couldn’t fathom in 1961. No matter what, they never cracked and still haven’t and baseball is better for Roger Maris.

Best “Over the Top” acting moment – Jack Buck broadcaster

In fairness, it can’t be easy being the broadcaster who has the responsibility to tell the world that you have just seen something that you have never seen before. Many a great broadcaster has spent hours off microphone, crafting the perfect message for just that moment. Jack Buck was the St Louis Cardinals broadcaster for the previous 40 seasons and had seen it all. He had never seen anything like this travelling circus and the hype that followed these guys. As McGwire climbed the HR ladder 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, Buck needed to continue to weave the story for folks at home.

Buck was no stranger to baseball history. He has some of the greatest calls in the history of the game (You Tube Kirby Puckett Game 6 and Kirk Gibson 1988 for nostalgic purposes). When he called the 62nd homer, he literally had tears streaming down his face. If that’s not the most moving moment of the doc, you have no heart. Take a listen. It’s a worthwhile couple of minutes of one of the greatest broadcasters in sports history.

The “What show have I seen him/her in before” award – The 1998 Montreal Expos

One of the things that struck me greatly was the impact that the now defunct, Montreal Expos played in the race to the HR lead. They were a party to the best sequence in the documentary starting with Sammy Sosa overtaking McGwire for the HR lead on September 25, 1998. Sosa hits his 66th dinger that afternoon to take the lead leaving the exhausted McGwire wondering whether the record would be out of reach, with only a handful of games left in the season. Sosa had been in the groove to catch the leader and McGwire had been flagging in previous games. He needed a response and the poor Expos were the victim for his rebuttal. Take a look at the barrage that Les Expos endured once McGwire felt the heat to keep the record:

September 25	Sosa	462	José Lima	Houston Astros	65	66
September 25	McGwire	375	Shayne Bennett	Montreal Expos	66	66
September 26	McGwire	403	Dustin Hermanson	Montreal Expos	67	66
September 26	McGwire	435	Kirk Bullinger	Montreal Expos	68	66
September 27	McGwire	377	Mike Thurman	Montreal Expos	69	66
September 27	McGwire	370	Carl Pavano	Montreal Expos	70	66

After Sosa hits a 462 foot bomb vs the Astros, McGwire tortures the Expos for 5 homers in 3 games against a “where are they now” list of former Montreal Expos pitchers. Unfortunately for Canadian baseball fans, this may have been the last time that the Expos were playing in relevant baseball games with a national audience before they moved to Washington in 2002.

The “That makes no sense moment” – Tim Fornaris Cardinals groundskeeper

This was a part of the epilogue that I had forgotten about and has totally blocked out of my memory. The baseball’s that each of the men had hit for homers leading up to the record were worth thousands to the lucky patrons who caught them. The world speculated that the ball that eventually would break the record, could be worth $1 million dollars to the person who possessed it. Little would the world know that that September day, McGwire would hit his shortest homer of the season, basely clearing the 361 foot mark of the left field fence. This meant that it would not be a fan that would hold the ball, it would be someone in the Cardinals bullpen. That person, Tim Fornaris was a groundskeeper who was responsible to collect the falling streamers from the raucous Busch Stadium crowd. While sprinting to the field, he picked up the the rolling ball and stuck it in his pocket. The amazing part of the story; days later, he presents the ball to McGwire in a on-field ceremony and forgoing the potential riches he held in his hand. He will never know what it was worth but Spawn creator Todd MacFarlane purchased the 70th homer ball for $3 million months later.

Unanswerable Questions and Conclusions

Here is what I am left wondering:

1. Would McGwire and Sosa both be Hall of Famers by now, if they had admitted to the steroids? I say No here as the fate of the HOF ballot is left to the writers, many of whom still hold these two responsible for selling the game. They may both be on the ballot still but I think they are still on the outside looking in.
2. Would the season have as many warm feelings if Sosa had been the Home Run champion? Again, I say No here. The fact that Sosa was a Latin American born player with limited command of English (especially when he was under scrutiny), makes me doubt that the American audience would have soaked this in the same way.
3. Would Ken Griffey Jr. have been a better foe for McGwire in the chase? I say Yes as KGJ was America’s baseball sweetheart in this era. He was a 5 tool player who would go onto hit over 600 homers lifetime and become a first ballot Hall of Famer. He was in the race until August when he went on a horrendous slump and ended up with 56 dingers.
4. What event would have brought fans back if this never happened? The easy answer is Barry Bonds breaking this record a few years later in 2002 but I will say the first games after 9/11 would have bonded fans to coming back. What’s more patriotic than Lee Greenwood in a leather US flag jacket singing “God Bless the USA”. before a game?

Some will say that this season ruined the game for years to come. Baseball and the powers at hand, ignored the steroid issue during the year and reaped the reward of TV audiences and crowds not seen since. The documentary wasn’t hard hitting enough for my liking, eventually letting both combatants off the hook from telling the truth about their abuse of steroids. That was the true story here and an opportunity to set the record straight but ESPN missed the mark. MLB reaped the reward for the ignorance and sometimes you just need to take advantage of a positive situation when it happens. MLB certainly benefitted by the frantic chase these two put on and the game moved into the new century stronger than it left the old one. McGwire and Sosa should be in the Hall if for no other reason than they saved the game.

Let us know what you thought of the documentary at www.reppinthe403.com.