I watched "Bronx is Burning" with great interest considering I was a huge fan of the 1977 Yankees. The book was excellent and the way Jonathan Mahler interwove the drama of the 1977 Yankees, politics and the Son of Sam killings was terrific.
Since it was an ESPN production this series focuses mainly on the 1977 Yankees and on the central characters on that team, Reggie Jackson, the egotistical right fielder of the Yankees, Billy Martin, the maniacal and self destructive manager and George Steinbrenner, the owner who also had a huge ego.
I thought John Turturro, Daniel Sunjata and Oliver Platt did excellent jobs as respectively Billy Martin, Reggie Jackson and George Steinbrenner. Turturro does an excellent job of conveying the tortured sole of Billy Martin. Sunjata also does a terrific job of handling the mannerisms of Reggie Jackson and what Reggie was all about.
I enjoy the way the series showed what was going on in New York in 1977 and the way they were able to switch back and forth between sports, politics and the scary atmosphere at that time because of "Son of Sam." Strangely enough while I thought they did a great job I think it is virtually impossible to understand the amazing drama that was the Yankees of the late 1970's. It was a soap opera and a baseball team rolled into one. A group of amazing talents and perhaps even more amazing egos.
In 1977 you wondered if the team would be more exciting on the field or off the field. Sometimes you would get both as shown by the near fight that Reggie Jackson almost had with Billy Martin in Fenway Park during that season. There were the incredible comebacks during the games, comebacks from relatively far behind in the standings, comebacks from trailing in the 9th inning in the last game to the Royals. The drama of the Jackson benching in the final game of that playoff series and Reggie redeeming himself with a clutch hit late that game.
There seemed to be a major controversy every day and you had to check out several newspapers to get the stories of what was going on with that year.
The ending that year of the 1977 Yankees and Reggie Jackson was so stunning that if it was a fictional story I would not have believed it because it was so corny! In possibly the greatest single game performance in baseball history Reggie Jackson hit 3 home runs on only 3 swings to win the World Series for the Yankees for the Yankees first title in 15 years. This was the signature game for Reggie and the game that people always think of when they think of "Mr. October" aka Reggie Jackson.
Strangely enough the following year may have been every bit as exciting if not more so. The 1978 Yankees wouldn't be a bad mini-series either.
Since it was an ESPN production this series focuses mainly on the 1977 Yankees and on the central characters on that team, Reggie Jackson, the egotistical right fielder of the Yankees, Billy Martin, the maniacal and self destructive manager and George Steinbrenner, the owner who also had a huge ego.
I thought John Turturro, Daniel Sunjata and Oliver Platt did excellent jobs as respectively Billy Martin, Reggie Jackson and George Steinbrenner. Turturro does an excellent job of conveying the tortured sole of Billy Martin. Sunjata also does a terrific job of handling the mannerisms of Reggie Jackson and what Reggie was all about.
I enjoy the way the series showed what was going on in New York in 1977 and the way they were able to switch back and forth between sports, politics and the scary atmosphere at that time because of "Son of Sam." Strangely enough while I thought they did a great job I think it is virtually impossible to understand the amazing drama that was the Yankees of the late 1970's. It was a soap opera and a baseball team rolled into one. A group of amazing talents and perhaps even more amazing egos.
In 1977 you wondered if the team would be more exciting on the field or off the field. Sometimes you would get both as shown by the near fight that Reggie Jackson almost had with Billy Martin in Fenway Park during that season. There were the incredible comebacks during the games, comebacks from relatively far behind in the standings, comebacks from trailing in the 9th inning in the last game to the Royals. The drama of the Jackson benching in the final game of that playoff series and Reggie redeeming himself with a clutch hit late that game.
There seemed to be a major controversy every day and you had to check out several newspapers to get the stories of what was going on with that year.
The ending that year of the 1977 Yankees and Reggie Jackson was so stunning that if it was a fictional story I would not have believed it because it was so corny! In possibly the greatest single game performance in baseball history Reggie Jackson hit 3 home runs on only 3 swings to win the World Series for the Yankees for the Yankees first title in 15 years. This was the signature game for Reggie and the game that people always think of when they think of "Mr. October" aka Reggie Jackson.
Strangely enough the following year may have been every bit as exciting if not more so. The 1978 Yankees wouldn't be a bad mini-series either.