burning... part one.

"I'm the straw that stirs the drink."


I finally finished the book I've been reading, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning, and thus I am moving on to watching the miniseries on ESPN which I've been recording. The book rocked and it'll be interesting to watch it come to life on tv.

The first episode focuses on the Yankees bringing Reggie Jackson to New York for the 1977 season. Played by Danel Sunjata, Reggie's got the big hair, big glasses and tight pants to fit the bill. They somehow managed to enlarge John Turturro's ears to fit the role of Billy Martin and Oliver Platt donned a really terrible hairdo to play the part of George Steinbrenner. Being that those are the three main characters, ESPN has somehow managed to make it impossible to talk these guys seriously, but adds incredible entertainment value to the show.

Aside from the ongoing strife between Steinbrenner and Martin, Martin and Jackson, and Jackson and everyone, the episode is also sprinkled with the Son of Sam's rampage, the Beame administration and Jason Giambi's cameo as a NYC cab driver.

The REAL Reggie Jackson claims that he never made the comment about being the straw that stirs the drink... the media claims otherwise. Will anyone ever know the truth?