As much as I dislike ESPN (for their political agenda) and as much as I try to steer clear of them as much as possible I'm going to watch the 30 for 30 tonight.
If you've been paying attention to your pal Nasher (and I know you have been because I'm unavoidable even if you don't want to pay attention to me) I have this passion almost obsession with baseball.
Long Gone Summer focuses on the homer run summer featuring Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire (and Barry Bonds as well) Three sluggers with mega power and caught up in the shit storm of anabolic steroids.
The home run derby that was the summer of 1998 that made Barry Bonds almost insane.
I wouldn't say hate but Bonds disliked what NcGwire was doing pretty much because he was white.
Here's one of several quotes that is documented.
"You know what," he said. "I had a helluva season last year, and nobody gave a crap. Nobody. As much as I've complained about McGwire and Canseco and all of the bull with steroids, I'm tired of fighting it. I turn 35 this year. I've got three or four good seasons left, and I wanna get paid. I'm just gonna start using some hard-core stuff, and hopefully it won't hurt my body. Then I'll get out of the game and be done with it."
Another quote from Bonds at a sports writer dinner.
"I have nine writers standing here, McGwire had 200 writers back when he had 30 home runs. What they're doing is huge, phenomenal. Two guys might break the record. I mean, what's the chance of that ever happening again?"
And yet another quote this time Bonds was speaking to a few of his teammates.
"I use that stuff too, the difference is Mac's doing stuff I wouldn't think of."
Bonds jealousy of McGwire was rampant.
He wanted to be the Michael Jordan of baseball and McGwire was stealing his thunder.
My intentions are not to turn this into a "Bonds is a racist" discussion thread but a discussion thread about my favorite baseball summer (1998) from a rare terrific ESPN production.
Then 2015 came along and that replaced 1998 as my favorite baseball summer.
I remember where I was in 1998 when McGwire hit his land mark homer.
I was in a sports bar across the street from Bally's in Atlantic City where an entire packed sports bar had their eyes glued to all the TV sets,
I'm not going to miss this 30 for 30 tonight.
If you've been paying attention to your pal Nasher (and I know you have been because I'm unavoidable even if you don't want to pay attention to me) I have this passion almost obsession with baseball.
Long Gone Summer focuses on the homer run summer featuring Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire (and Barry Bonds as well) Three sluggers with mega power and caught up in the shit storm of anabolic steroids.
The home run derby that was the summer of 1998 that made Barry Bonds almost insane.
I wouldn't say hate but Bonds disliked what NcGwire was doing pretty much because he was white.
Here's one of several quotes that is documented.
"You know what," he said. "I had a helluva season last year, and nobody gave a crap. Nobody. As much as I've complained about McGwire and Canseco and all of the bull with steroids, I'm tired of fighting it. I turn 35 this year. I've got three or four good seasons left, and I wanna get paid. I'm just gonna start using some hard-core stuff, and hopefully it won't hurt my body. Then I'll get out of the game and be done with it."
Another quote from Bonds at a sports writer dinner.
"I have nine writers standing here, McGwire had 200 writers back when he had 30 home runs. What they're doing is huge, phenomenal. Two guys might break the record. I mean, what's the chance of that ever happening again?"
And yet another quote this time Bonds was speaking to a few of his teammates.
"I use that stuff too, the difference is Mac's doing stuff I wouldn't think of."
Bonds jealousy of McGwire was rampant.
He wanted to be the Michael Jordan of baseball and McGwire was stealing his thunder.
My intentions are not to turn this into a "Bonds is a racist" discussion thread but a discussion thread about my favorite baseball summer (1998) from a rare terrific ESPN production.
Then 2015 came along and that replaced 1998 as my favorite baseball summer.
I remember where I was in 1998 when McGwire hit his land mark homer.
I was in a sports bar across the street from Bally's in Atlantic City where an entire packed sports bar had their eyes glued to all the TV sets,
I'm not going to miss this 30 for 30 tonight.
