Long Gone Summer – A Solid Baseball Documentary (Early Review)

As far as the United States is concerned, baseball is America’s pastime. With these uncertain times due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is unclear if we will even get a baseball season this year. For those looking for a baseball fix, Long Gone Summer may very well fit the bill. This latest ESPN 30 for 30 documentary takes viewers back to the good old days of the 1998 MLB season, focusing on the battle between Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals and Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs to beat the former single season home run record set by Roger Maris and the impact it had on the nation and the sport of baseball coming off the strike that cut short the 1994 season. Meanwhile. many that are vaguely familiar with the sport of baseball during that decade are surely aware of the darker side of baseball. A big negative about this film for some, however, will be how it focuses too much on the positive and skirts the whole steroid issue.

Though maybe that is just a generational thing, it was hard not to think about the steroid issue over the course of Long Gone Summer. Nevertheless, baseball purists should find enough to enjoy here as it chronicles that 1998 season and to a lesser extent how McGwire and Sosa’s careers got to that point. Baseball records for many are considered hallowed ground, especially that single season home run record of 61 home runs by Maris that no one ever believed would be surpassed in their lifetimes. While the shortened 1994 season alienated a fair share of fans, the sport needed a draw in order to create some new excitement and perhaps bring some of those alienated fans and maybe some new fans to the sport. Slowly but surely, this back and forth race between McGwire and Sosa did exactly that as the world watched in eager anticipation to see the record possibly be broken. Meanwhile, interviews with McGwire and Sosa as well as many prominent figures, including those from baseball and sports, added some great insight as they spoke to the significance and impact of what was happening.

As mentioned, despite THAT, there was still some excitement to be had with Long Gone Summer. Cutting between archival footage and new footage to provide different perspectives on well-known events was kind of cool to see. However, for a film about McGwire and Sosa, it could have featured more of the latter in comparison to the former. Though the two players may have been competitors on the diamond and possessed polar opposite personalities, they had plenty of respect for one another off of it as each brought the best out of the other. It’s a shame that the film couldn’t have tapped into that relationship a little bit more. In the end, the film may touch the steroid issue (there were little to no rules and/or regulations regarding them), however, it lacked a sense of closure for McGwire and Sosa.

At the end of the day, Long Gone Summer is a well put together documentary that will most likely appeal to baseball purists but many will have a hard time connecting with it because of the elephant in the room.

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.