New ’30 For 30′ on Sosa/McGwire 1998 Home Run Race Coming June 14

22 years after the infamous 1998 home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, we finally get to relive it in documentary form.

On Tuesday, ESPN announced a series of new ’30 For 30′ documentaries set to be released early due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the episodes will highlight the slugfest of a summer that was the 1998 MLB home run race.

The documentary is called “Long Gone Summer” and is directed by AJ Schnack, who is a Cardinals fan according to his Twitter avatar. It’s set to debut on Sunday, June 14th at 8 PM CDT.

Schnack is a nonfiction filmmaker, artist, and writer based in Los Angeles. A Southern Illinois native, he’s a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

In the film, Schnack takes us back to the 1998 season and shares highlights, in-depth interviews with Sosa and McGwire, and the twists and turns of chasing the single-season home run record that went unbroken for more than two decades. The previous record was held by Roger Maris at 61 home runs in the 1961 season.

It’s a journey back through time that recalls how impactful and emotional the story was — despite how the accomplishments would later be called into question during the infamous steroid era.

I was seven years old in 1998, so I can’t tell you too much from memory, but I will tell you the home run race is what made me a baseball fan. This should be a fun one following the excitement of The Last Dance.

Other documentaries set to release in the coming weeks include “LANCE,” a two-part film about Lance Armstrong’s story through raw interviews and personal perspective, and “Be Water,” an intimate and very personal look at the life and purpose that motivated Bruce Lee.