LONG GONE SUMMER
It was one of the most memorable and significant seasons in the history of baseball. In the summer of 1998, the St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire and the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa embarked on a chase of one of the game’s most hallowed records, igniting the passion and imagination of fans and non-fans everywhere. The drama, excitement, and results would be remembered for generations. If we only knew then just how complex our feelings about it all would eventually become.
In ESPN’s new 30 for 30 film “Long Gone Summer,” director AJ Schnack takes viewers back to the landmark 1998 baseball season – its tremendous highlights, massive impact, and undeniable complications. Featuring in-depth interviews with both McGwire and Sosa, talking at length for the first time in over two decades, the intimate portrait carries viewers through every twist and turn of the sluggers’ historic chase of Roger Maris’s iconic record of 61 home runs in a single season. With a musical score composed by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, a St. Louis-area native and current Chicago resident, the film is a journey back through time that recalls how seismic and emotional the story was – even as the legitimacy of the accomplishments at its center would later be called into question.
Broadcast Premiere - June 14, 2020
ESPN
Selected Festivals and Awards
Official Selection | Tribeca Film Festival, New York City (World Premiere)
Critics Choice Documentary Awards | Best Score Nominee
Cablefax Program. Awards | Best Sports Program Winner
FOCAL International Awards | Best Use of Archival. Footage in a Sports Production Nominee
BANFF World Media Festival Rockie Awards | Outstanding Sports Documentary Nominee
Credits
Directed by AJ Schnack
Produced by Will Lennon and Shirley Moyers
Producers Anne Carkeet, AJ Schnack, Kristen Lappas and Deirdre Fenton
Executive Producers John Dahl, Libby Geist, Rob King, Erin Leyden and Connor Schell
Edited by Omry Maoz and AJ Schnack
Director of Photography Kamau Bilal
Cinematographer Adam Benn
Original Score by Jeff Tweedy
Music Supervisor Linda Cohen
Sound Joel C. Hernandez
Camera Adam Benn, Kamau Bilal, Alan Jacobsen and AJ Schnack
Graphics and Titles La Moutique
ESPN Films Presents a Bonfire Films of America production
Featuring Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Monica Adams, Mike Bush, Chip Caray, C.J. Cherre, Mike Claiborne, Bob Costas, Grant DePorter, Bill DeWitt, Tim Forneris, Rick Hummel, Jay Jaffe, Walt Jocketty, Brian Jordan, Dave Kaplan, Tony La Russa, Jenifer Langosch, Ray Lankford, Ben Lindbergh, Roger Maris, Jr., Todd McFarlane, Matt McGwire, Dave McKay, Bernie Miklasz, Fred Mitchell, Carrie Muskat, Rebecca Polihronis, T.J. Quinn, Jim Riggleman, Kurt Schlogl, Mike Shannon, Paul Sullivan, Steve Trachsel, Ron Vaughn, Joe Walsh, George Will and Kerry Wood.
Selected Press
”If you weren’t old enough to remember the McGwire-Sosa chase, it’s impossible in an era of always-on social media to get across just how connected the country was that summer. “Long Gone Summer” does an outstanding job of getting this across, showing everyone from everyday bleacher bums right on up to David Letterman reacting with open-mouthed awe at the moonshots of McGwire and the sniper shots of Sosa.
Baseball works best when viewed through the prism of nostalgia. You remember your first ballgame with your parents, the first time you went on a date to a game, the first time you brought your kids. A baseball season is like a companion, something you can check in on as frequently as you like over the course of a summer, something that’s always there for you from April to September. “Long Gone Summer” nails that nostalgia, from the title to a score by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy that’s so beautiful I want it as its own album.”
-Jay Busbee, Yahoo Sports
“For baseball fans - some of us baseball fans - "Long Gone Summer," ESPN's new "30 For 30" documentary, will be a little like looking at pictures from a rapturous honeymoon years after a divorce. It's about the summer of 1998 and Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals, Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs going back-and-forth, back-and-forth to break baseball's home run record.”
- Scott Simon, NPR Weekend Edition
“The best decision AJ Schnack made in directing "Long Gone Summer" is waiting as long as possible for the reconciliation we know is coming. His choice to not spoil the joy until he has to is a meaningful one, 22 years after the duel between the Cardinals' Mark McGwire and the Cubs' Sammy Sosa as they both chased baseball's single-season home run record. We again can marvel at it as we did then, not letting any gnawing suspicion of their performing-enhancing drug use overshadow the spectacle that brought mainstream sports fans back to the game for the first time since the 1994-'95 strike.”
-Dan Bernstein, 670 The Score, Chicago