ESPN has announced they will be releasing the ’30 for 30′ profile of the Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa home run race in 1998. We just have to wait until mid-June to see it.
After the baseball strike of 1994, which canceled the World Series, baseball fans were slow to return to stadiums after the game returned the following year. Fans just didn’t trust the greedy players or greedier owners. The hardcore fans came back, though the common fan stayed away. ESPN‘s ’30 for 30’ series will soon show how the relationship between fans and baseball was patched.
Fans of all sports are deprived right now, of any kind of live competition. For baseball, the Korean Baseball Organization is the only league offering games. ESPN has decided to televise their games to the end of their championship series.
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The popularity of the docu-series “The Lance Dance” has given sports fans an insight into the breaking up of the 1990s Chicago Bulls dynasty. ESPN has coordinated the release of three more documentaries in its 30 for 30 series.
The last one to air will be, “Long Gone Summer”, featuring the exploits of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa during their epic home run battle of 1998. Both McGwire and Sosa discuss the summer in great detail for the first time.
Fans were coming out of the woodwork to follow the home run race, which mirrored the Mickey Mantle/Roger Maris home run battle of 1961. Fans then did not want to see Babe Ruth‘s record of 60 home runs broken (or at least not by Maris). The record had stood since 1927.
The pennant races of 1998 really took a back seat to the power surges displayed by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa as they were battling one another to see who could eclipse the record first, and then finish on top.
Baseball achieved the goal of recreating the love affair with fans and the game, though also brought the public spotlight to the steroids era of baseball.
A free-for-all of bulked-up guys smashing home runs at will and leaving the 61 home runs Maris hit as an afterthought.
I will be interested to see how in-depth into the world of PEDs the 30 for 30 gets. However, for baseball hungry fans, this documentary is coming at an ideal time.