First Call: ESPN's McGwire-Sosa documentary heavy on nostalgia, light on substance - TribLIVE

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Monday’s “First Call” is going to be a review of ESPN’s Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa documentary “Long Gone Summer.”

I looked at the clock for about the fourth or fifth time Sunday night.

It was 10:45 p.m.

“Are they going to get to the steroids topic or what?” I asked aloud.

The answer would end up being — barely.

If you missed ESPN’s 30 for 30 “Long Gone Summer” documentary about the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run chase of 1998, let me give you a few spoilers.

• McGwire ends up winning with 70 home runs. You probably remember that.

• Steroids barely have anything to do with the story.

You probably remember that part differently.

Wait. Let me rephrase.

In the moment — the summer of 1998 — even though we knew about McGwire’s androstenedione use (and had suspicions about steroids in baseball) en route to breaking Roger Maris’ home run record of 61, we didn’t let that get in the way of our enjoyment of watching the bomb shots hit by McGwire and Sosa.

With 22 years of perspective, though, it’s hard to separate the event from the scandal.

“Long Gone Summer” doesn’t really use that perspective. I get the impression it wasn’t trying to find it, to be honest.

At least, I hope that’s the case. Because if the creators were attempting to show some, they did a lousy job.

“Long Gone Summer” is sort of like “Joker.” But backwards.

Some people went into a “Joker” cinema seat last year, thinking they’d get a candy-coated cartoon movie. Instead, they got a dark, brooding, mind-bender.

“Long Gone Summer” is the other way around. If you are expecting a hard-hitting documentary laced with two hours of think-piece density about the duality of men in the steroid era, this ain’t it.

It was more like 105 minutes of baseball rom-com, with 15 minutes of introspection shoved in before the closing credits.

You know what? That’s fine.

If that’s what the piece was attempting to achieve. And I think it was.

Akin to what we saw in the ESPN Michael Jordan-Chicago Bulls “Last Dance” documentary last month, my favorite aspect of “Long Gone Summer” was how the footage inspired nostalgia.

Even though I lived through that summer — and most of Jordan’s dominance — as an adult who was fully immersed in sports, the visual flashbacks certainly help you travel back in time to your misty, water-colored memories.

Obviously, everybody remembers Jordan’s shot to beat the Utah Jazz in 1998.

What I loved seeing in “The Last Dance,” though, were those wild montages of Jordan soaring through the air in his first few seasons when he was a one-man, individual highlight machine. I mainlined those grainy compilations of Jordan dominating with highlights a little deeper from the archives in those non-championship seasons.

“Long Gone Summer” similarly nailed that mark. The moving pictures of McGwire and Sosa cranking epic blast after epic blast made me yearn to rewind the clock back to that season.

Long-time baseball analyst Bob Costas was featured in the piece. And he summed up the documentary really well with ESPN anchor Scott Van Pelt in a post-screening chat.

“I think what the producers of this 30 for 30 aimed for was to be evocative,” Costas said. “Evoke what it felt like in that summer of 1998 in St. Louis and Chicago. To that extent, they were very successful.”

He’s right. It was a joy ride of a watch. Much like the summer itself.

Well, until the last 15 minutes, when in almost an obligatory fashion, they tossed the steroid conversation on top, like sprinkles on your ice cream sundae. They don’t really add much. But every ice cream shop does it.

Kind of like any conversation about McGwire and Sosa can’t happen without steroids coming up, whether you want to talk about it or not.

Van Pelt made a good point, too, using the phrase “suspension of disbelief,” making a comparison to “E.T.” An alien came to earth and used a “Speak and Spell” to get home. McGwire and Sosa combined to hit 136 homers between themselves and saved baseball.

Clean?

Yeah. There’s more chance of the “Speak and Spell” working.

But as Van Pelt alluded, we weren’t cognizant enough — yet — about the proliferation of steroids in 1998 to need disbelief suspended. We just fell in love with the story.

You’ll need a healthy teaspoon to fall in love with this documentary, though.

Now, that’s OK. Two decades worth of andro-induced cynicism is a lot to overcome. Cognitive dissonance is a useful tool.

Just be aware you’ll need to dust a lot on your popcorn to get through 75% of this film.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

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