Arriving when the ballparks are sadly empty, ESPN’s “Long Gone Summer” (6 p.m. PT; 9 p.m. ET, Sunday, June 14) is a reminder of a time when the nation was obsessed with baseball — or more specifically, the great home run chase between Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals and Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs.
It’s also a reminder of a feel-good story that eventually became tarnished by accusations of performance-enhancing drug use. As Bob Costas says in the film, “In retrospect, there was a price to pay for it.”
But for one wild summer in 1998, McGwire and Sosa electrified fans and non-fans everywhere as they chased down Roger Maris’ hallowed single-season home run record of 61.