Author Topic: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998  (Read 1043 times)

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Offline imref

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ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Topic Start: June 14, 2020, 11:08:17 PM »
Anyone watch this tonight?  It brought back a lot of wonderful memories though it was a shame how everyone's career ended.  I didn't realize that the Cubs still won't invite Sosa back to Wrigley.

Online Five Banners

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #1: June 14, 2020, 11:38:02 PM »
Anyone watch this tonight?  It brought back a lot of wonderful memories though it was a shame how everyone's career ended.  I didn't realize that the Cubs still won't invite Sosa back to Wrigley.

Makes me remember the 1999 exhibition games at RFK Stadium between the cardinals and expos that Bill Collins put together and got the movable seats operational for the first time since the Senators, IIRC

Offline skippy1999

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #2: June 15, 2020, 09:55:05 AM »
What a lousy 30 for 30, sooooo boring.

Offline UMDNats

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #3: June 15, 2020, 10:13:38 AM »
What a lousy 30 for 30, sooooo boring.

a lot of 30 for 30s are actually bad. i laugh at how they're lauded for being amazing filmmaking when a lot them really are not very good or well-made

i haven't watched this one yet but im disappointed it was not well-received. how do you freak this up?

Offline imref

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #4: June 15, 2020, 10:33:54 AM »
What a lousy 30 for 30, sooooo boring.

Seriously?  I enjoyed it immensely.

Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #5: June 15, 2020, 11:07:18 AM »
a lot of 30 for 30s are actually bad. i laugh at how they're lauded for being amazing filmmaking when a lot them really are not very good or well-made

i haven't watched this one yet but im disappointed it was not well-received. how do you freak this up?
What do you consider essential elements of good filmmaking for one of these?  Mostly they just seem to be original highlights interspersed with interviews.

Offline UMDNats

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #6: June 15, 2020, 11:09:23 AM »
What do you consider essential elements of good filmmaking for one of these?  Mostly they just seem to be original highlights interspersed with interviews.

those are essentials if you're telling the story of something like this, but 95% of sports documentaries are the same thing (highlights + interviews, maybe some BTS footage or something). The number of sports docs that get creative are small. sunderland til i die is one of the few ones recently that i think is actually a good one (really, really good). even the last dance basically just relied on never-before-seen footage and some new stories rather than anything groundbreaking

i remember watching the ricky williams 30 for 30 and thinking it looked like a student film

Offline skippy1999

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #7: June 15, 2020, 11:16:13 AM »
Seriously?  I enjoyed it immensely.

There was nothing to it, just a bunch of highlights of homerun 20, 21, 22 etc etc etc mixed in with fluff interviews with McGwire and Sosa and some baseball writers that again just kept saying "it was incredible! Homerun after homerun, woohoo!", McGwire still looks disconcertingly juiced up, just hated it.   

Offline skippy1999

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #8: June 15, 2020, 11:17:19 AM »
those are essentials if you're telling the story of something like this, but 95% of sports documentaries are the same thing (highlights + interviews, maybe some BTS footage or something). The number of sports docs that get creative are small. sunderland til i die is one of the few ones recently that i think is actually a good one (really, really good). even the last dance basically just relied on never-before-seen footage and some new stories rather than anything groundbreaking

i remember watching the ricky williams 30 for 30 and thinking it looked like a student film

At least Last Dance did have new stories, if you're going to do a documentary you should bring something new to it and this one had zero that I hadn't already seen and read. 

Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #9: June 15, 2020, 11:21:54 AM »
those are essentials if you're telling the story of something like this, but 95% of sports documentaries are the same thing (highlights + interviews, maybe some BTS footage or something). The number of sports docs that get creative are small. sunderland til i die is one of the few ones recently that i think is actually a good one (really, really good). even the last dance basically just relied on never-before-seen footage and some new stories rather than anything groundbreaking

i remember watching the ricky williams 30 for 30 and thinking it looked like a student film
Sunderland was good. I think it’s unusual though for a team to grant that much access to their players and management while seasons are ongoing.  They found some good fans to feature also that helped the story.

Offline imref

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #10: June 15, 2020, 11:23:39 AM »
At least Last Dance did have new stories, if you're going to do a documentary you should bring something new to it and this one had zero that I hadn't already seen and read. 

I enjoyed it as a walk down memory lane. 

Offline HalfSmokes

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #11: June 15, 2020, 11:27:56 AM »
Sunderland was good. I think it’s unusual though for a team to grant that much access to their players and management while seasons are ongoing.  They found some good fans to feature also that helped the story.

Amazon has a few of them, Leeds was in a similar vein to Sunderland and was good, the Man City one was the exact opposite- they won the premier league and got to the quarter finals in the champions league that season. If you want to see behind the scenes of a winning club house, it's great.

Offline UMDNats

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #12: June 15, 2020, 11:47:28 AM »
Sunderland was good. I think it’s unusual though for a team to grant that much access to their players and management while seasons are ongoing.  They found some good fans to feature also that helped the story.

a lot of teams have given similar access, the difference with sunderland was their storytelling and working in the big-picture of the fans, connection to city, etc etc. too many sports docs rely on "hey look we're in the GM's office!" as a selling point IMO.

Online Slateman

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #13: June 15, 2020, 06:28:03 PM »
I forgot how awful standard definition is

Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #14: June 15, 2020, 07:06:32 PM »
I forgot how awful standard definition is
Imagine growing up with old TVs and black and white. And four channels.

Offline imref

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #15: June 15, 2020, 09:45:01 PM »
Imagine growing up with old TVs and black and white. And four channels.

And wired remotes, and UHF!

Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #16: June 15, 2020, 09:48:40 PM »
And wired remotes, and UHF!
We were so excited when we got that UHF channel and three new stations.  Also there was no remote. 

Offline wj73

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #17: June 16, 2020, 07:41:09 AM »
And wired remotes, and UHF!


When I was a kid, I was the remote.

Offline HalfSmokes

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #18: June 16, 2020, 07:50:20 AM »
I remember getting cable as a kid and my parents laughing when I complained about nothing being on, now my kids can't even understand the concept of time slots - if they want to watch it, they search and whatever it is is always available

Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #19: June 16, 2020, 08:00:58 AM »

When I was a kid, I was the remote.
:clap:

Offline blue911

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #20: June 16, 2020, 01:08:31 PM »
Imagine growing up with old TVs and black and white. And four channels.

High def was Reynolds wrap on the rabbit ears

Online Slateman

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #21: June 16, 2020, 01:28:03 PM »
It was okay. Interesting story, but was okay production and "story" wise. Would have liked to go more in depth on Sosa

Offline Count Walewski

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #22: June 24, 2020, 08:58:37 PM »
Sammy Sosa has a very interesting Pinterest. No idea what Big Mac is doing now.

Online Slateman

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #23: June 24, 2020, 09:50:24 PM »
Sammy Sosa has a very interesting Pinterest. No idea what Big Mac is doing now.
Hes a hitting coach.

Offline skippy1999

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Re: ESPN 30 for 30: Home run chase of 1998
« Reply #24: June 25, 2020, 12:36:15 PM »
Hes a hitting coach.
I don't think he's doing that anymore.