Doug and I have been enjoying all of the sports documentaries that ESPN has aired in the past few months. It has been a great distraction from the fact that both professional and collegiate sports have been postponed since the end of March. Sunday night's 30 for 30 revolved around the homerun race between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire during the 1998 Major League Baseball season. As long time Cubs fans, my Mom, Doug and I were all glued to the television from June through September as the players chased the season homerun record of Roger Maris each trying to top his impressive 61 homers. It was a fun summer and although McGwire won in the end, we all enjoyed the thrill of the competition.
The documentary was a fun reminder of how exciting that summer of baseball really was. Baseball stadiums were packed wherever the Cubs and Cardinals played and even non-baseball fans joined in the nightly homerun total count. Shortly after that season professional baseball was surrounded by a steriod scandal that changed Americans' opinions on the record McGwire set that summer and the subsequent records that Barry Bonds set several years later. In the end none of the homerun hitters made it into the hall of fame and fans started to move away from baseball focusing on football and basketball instead. I remember how disappointing the scandal was, but in all honestly none of us were surprised. The rumors had been around for years and the build of the players had changed incredibly quickly. It only made sense that they were all using performance enhancing drugs, but in 1998 no one really cared. I wish we had something that exciting to watch this summer. The news of COVID-19 and world wide racial equality protests have been depressing to follow. A good old homerun record chase would really change everyone's mood or at least distract us for a little while.
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