{"blocks":[{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"IF you’re old enough to remember the summer of 1977, you’ll love a new miniseries premiering tonight on ESPN."}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"And if you’re not old enough to remember the summer of 1977, you’ll love a new miniseries premiering tonight on ESPN."}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"It’s “The Bronx is Burning” and yes, it’s that good. Adapted from Jonathan Mahler’s book, “Bronx” takes place in the summer of ’77, and recreates flawlessly that summer 30 years ago when the Yankees were fighting to get to the World Series (by fighting with each other); the Son of Sam was on the loose; Ed Koch was running against incumbent Mayor Abe Beame; and there was a massive blackout that brought the city to its knees – with looting on a legendary scale."}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"The city that summer was also out of money, (38,000 municipal employees had been laid off, including 5,000, cops which caused all the sanitation workers to walk off the job in protest), and a woman named Bella Abzug became the first female pol to scare the bejeezus out of everyone."}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"Now that’s what you call a summer to remember."}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"But make no mistake, the focus of this miniseries is on baseball and the Yankees – a team top-heavy with three swelled heads so large that it’s amazing they could find hats to fit them."}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"First, of course, there was the team manager, hot-hot-hothead Billy Martin (who is played to within an inch of his life by John Turturro)."}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"Then there was the Yankees star, the great (and great egotist) Reggie Jackson, also played brilliantly by Daniel Sunjata (“Rescue Me“)."}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"And finally team owner George Steinbrenner (Oliver Platt), the man who fired Martin on a daily basis and argued with everyone else constantly."}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"Unlike most other real-life baseball movies that deal with the horrible, lingering death of some baseball great or another, this one deals with baseball as it affected the greater arena of the greatest city in a year that will always be remembered."}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"Yes, of course, it ends up as another baseball-as-a-metaphor-for-life thing, but (and here’s where it really veers off the normal track), this time it’s because baseball reflected the life around it, mimicked it, absorbed it and became it. Rude, rash, reckless."}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"The city was out-of-control, yet incredibly exciting as only something out-of-control can be (the chaos theory in practice), which is exactly like the Yankees were that year."}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"I mean, seriously, how often do players and managers get into dust-ups with each other?"}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"The series mixes up real footage of the games, the rioting, and most especially of Howard Cossel (the man who, while calling the 1977 World Series, directed the cameras away from the field and onto the fires burning in the distance, and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, The Bronx is burning.”)."}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"While we cheer and jeer for the team and its nasty inside battles, we like the players in spite of themselves."}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"The fights, generally sparked by Jackson’s insane ego, never stopped. How could they when Jackson, who loved to throw curveballs, would tell reporters, “I’m the straw that stirs the drink. Me and [Thurman] Munson, but he really doesn’t come into it!” and “I used to be known as a black athlete – now I’m respected as a tremendous intellect.”"}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"Everyone is spectacular, even the secondary players like Leonard Armond Robinson as Mickey Rivers, who steals more scenes than bases, and Erik Jensen, who so underplays Munson that he’s mesmerizing – and, most especially, Michael Rispoli, who plays Jimmy Breslin – or should I say becomes Breslin?"}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"Don’t miss it. Just great."}},{"type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"“The Bronx is Burning”
\n Premieres tonight at 10 on ESPN"}}]}

Linda Stasi

NypLindaStasi@RoundtableIO

‘BRONX’ CHEER