Traina Thoughts: 30-for-30 Missed the Mark with McGwire and Sosa Doc
The home run chase by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa was certainly exciting in real time. However, ESPN's 30 for 30 chronicling it was not, at least according to Sports Illustrated's Jimmy Traina. Traina talked with SI host Robin Lundberg about why he found Long Gone Summer to be both bizarre and boring, hardly the type of words any film wants in a review.
That in today's edition of Traina Thoughts.
Read full video transcript:
Robin Lundberg: Well, in real time, Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa's homerun chase was exciting. The documentary chronicling it was bizarre and boring. At least according to our Jimmy Traina. Jimmy, why do you say that long gone summer?
Jimmy Traina: Well, they spent an hour and 45 minutes showing you home runs from 1998 over and over again. And then in the last 15 minutes, got to what anyone cared about, which was the issue of the deeds. So it was I mean that documentary could have been 15 minutes long. And then when they got into the PED, you know, they basically decided to crap all over Barry Bonds first. Then they were like, oh, by the way, the two guys we just showed you for an hour and 45 minutes, they were accused of doing steroids, too. So it made no sense on any level whatsoever.
Robin Lundberg: It's weird to put it on Bonds right, because Bonds could have looked at what those guys were doing and gone "Hey, watch this."
Jimmy Traina: Do the documentary on Bonds then. I mean, they wanted to make it about like the summer of '98, but the summer of '98 is ruined and tainted. I don't think anyone looks back on it like it was this pure special thing. I mean, I think I knew we were in trouble with this documentary when it opened up. The first couple of minutes was about a memorabilia collector. And I was like, oh, I don't think they get what people are interested in here. So the entire thing was really weird and boring. And I think what makes it stand out is that the 30 for 30 years are always so good. There's never a bad one. And this one was really bad.
Robin Lundberg: So you're saying this has tainted 30 for 30?
Jimmy Traina: One bad one isn't that bad. You know, no one's perfect.
Robin Lundberg: Jimmy, appreciate your time as always.
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