More than just a Baseball Story

This summer is being treated to a slew of new movies and TV shows for people to keep them away from the deadly mixture of heat and humidity. I have already caught the sequels to Spider-man, Fantastic Four, Pirates of the Caribbean and Die Hard, not to mention the action-packed Transformers film. USA is offering a great new summer spy dramedy, Burn Notice, that stars Jeffery Donovan and the comical Bruce Campbell to accompany summer series like Monk and Psych. ESPN is taking the biggest leap with a show that not only revolves around sports, but examines society as well.

After watching the first episode of The Bronx is Burning, I am not sure where ESPN is going to take this completely. The show is about the 1977 New York Yankees attempts to recover from a devastating World Series loss, swept by the Big Red Machine the year before, by bringing in flamboyant star outfielder Reggie Jackson. We, as baseball fans, are sucked in to see the drama unfold between Jackson, Yankees manager Billy Martin, owner George Steinbrenner and the rest of the men in pinstripes.

But this isn't the only angle ESPN is taking with the miniseries. Director Jeremiah Checic said that he wanted to create an atmosphere that brings you back to New York in 1977, experiencing what the players go through with everything that is troubling the city. Episode one introduced us to the Yankees and an apparent serial killer (the Son of Sam if anyone is not too keen on their history). We are also going to be introduced to New York's Mayoral race, the massive blackouts that occurred, and the city going bankrupt.

There is one issue that I'm curious if the producers will introduce us to. Even though its' beginning dates decades before 1977, New York had a massive economic problem and the Bronx was being torn apart by greedy business men and an ignorant vision. After WWII, the New York Regional Plan Association envisioned Manhattan as a center for future business and wealth. The plan was to establish an immediate connection between the island with suburbs in New York and New Jersey by way of highways, something that President Eisenhower wanted to establish in America after our engineers observed and envied Adolf Hitler's creation in Germany.

Historian Robert Caro described the project massive as it covered "113 streets, avenues, and boulevards; sewers and water and utility mains numbering in the hundreds; one subway and three railroads; five elevated rapid transit lines, and seven other expressways or parkways, some of which were being built by [Robert] Moses simultaneously." The "Moses" he refers to is Robert Moses, a powerful urban planner who was given the power to construct this monstrosity.

In the process, the production of the Cross-Bronx Expressway supplanted the South Bronx of its businesses, giving Moses reason to usher many of the Irish and Jewish families out of the area and resulted in most of the white population to flee from the South Bronx by the end of the '60s. Left behind were Black and Latino families who took over the slums that occupied the torn-up neighborhoods. The South Bronx saw declining property values, increases in crime and more businesses escaping the area. The worst had yet to come.

Over 600,000 jobs were gone and housing was in the hands of men who were more eager to exploit their tenants than provide a roof for them. First by withholding heat and water to save money and then ultimately burning down the buildings to collect on insurance money. The practice grew into a vicious cycle of insurance companies selling more policies and more apartment buildings going up in smoke. This resulted in 43,000 housing units lost in the South Bronx. Upon his retirement in 1973, Moses pronounced the South Bronx and many other areas in New York "unreparable" and suggested leveling the areas to the ground.

These events led to the social and economic problems that the Bronx faced from the moment Moses dug his shovels in the ground that last to this day. The arson problems were present all through the '70s and were witnessed when the Yankees were trailing in Game 2 of the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers. NBC cut to a five-alarm fire in a nearby neighborhood to which broadcaster Howard Cosell proclaimed, "Ladies and gentlemen, there is it. The Bronx is burning."

(Moses is believed to also have helped chase New York's other baseball teams, the Dodgers and Giants, to the west coast. Dodgers' owner Walter O'Malley had selected a site he envisioned for his team's new stadium and was denied by Moses. O'Malley later spoke to representatives in Los Angeles and needed a second team to commit to the west coast, thus convincing Giants' owner Horace Stoneham to relocate as well.)

Leading us back to the series, this is the material that Checik is interested in capturing. During an interview with ESPN, he said that in 1977 "New York is breaking down politically" and economically. Erik Jenson, who plays Yankee captain Thurman Munson, described that the "social fabric of the city was disintegrating. That reflected in the team and when the team started to find itself, thats when the city came together."

Reggie Jackson, the man and not the actor playing him, may have been the catalyst who was the missing piece of the puzzle (not necessarily "the straw that stirred the drink"). Jackson may have had the best look on his situation. With so much pressure on him to perform, he hit three home runs in the decisive Game 6 of the '77 World Series and was quoted saying that his play gave him the advantage where he "always had the last word."

Our 42 of the Day


Jackson requested number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson
However, Billy Martin brought in friend and
Pitching Coach Art Fowler and gave him the number
Jackson choose number 44 in honor of Hank Aaron