The Straw

Infobox Television episode
Title = The Straw
Series = The Bronx Is Burning
Season = 1
Episode = 1
Airdate = Start date|2007|07|09
Writer =
Director =
Prev = Series premiere
Next = Team in Turmoil

The Straw is the first episode of the ESPN's miniseries "The Bronx Is Burning". It debuted on July 9, 2007, it was directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik and written by Gordon Greisman.

Plot

The episode begins on June 18, 1977, during a New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park in Boston. During the game, Red Sox outfielder Jim Rice hits a bloop into right field for a hit. Yankees outfielder Reggie Jackson (Daniel Sunjata), doesn't hustle to get to the ball, so Rice gets a double. Yankees manager Billy Martin (John Turturro) pulls Jackson out of the game for not hustling. Both Jackson and Martin argue in the dugout, and both have to be restrained by other teammates. The argument in the dugout is shown on national television. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner (Oliver Platt) calls to fire Martin after watching the fight on television.

After the credits, the show then flashes back to New York City in July 1975. Newscast shows the rising layoffs and walkouts of police officers, firefighters and Con Edison workers in the city. George Steinbrenner decides to hire Billy Martin to become manager of the Yankees. However, Yankees president Gabe Paul criticizes the move and says that Martin is trouble. After negotiating on the phone, Martin agrees to manage the Yankees. With Martin as manager, the Yankees surge in the 1976 season and get to the 1976 World Series. However, the Yankees are swept and disgraced by the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. After the loss, an angry Steinbrenner tells a sobbing Martin that things will be run differently next year.

On October 23, 1976, the Son of Sam makes his first major strike with the shooting of two teenagers sitting in a parked car in Queens, New York, though, both teens survive the shooting. Steinbrenner, Martin and Paul meet at Yankee Stadium to decide who to get for 1977. Both Steinbrenner and Martin disagree on who they want. Martin then goes to his home in Arlington, Texas, where his wife tells him that she won't move to New York for next season. After the Yankees fail to sign free agent Bobby Grich, Steinbrenner demands to see Reggie Jackson. Steinbrenner pampers Jackson and tries to make him sign with the Yankees.

On November 27, 1976, the Son of Sam shoots two teenage girls in Queens, New York. Both girls survive, but are wounded. Two days later, Jackson signs a $3 million contract with the Yankees. As spring training begins in 1977, it marks the arrival of Jackson, where he immediately causes friction with team captain Thurman Munson when Jackson opts to take batting practice instead of loosening up in the outfield with the rest of the players. SPORT Magazine reporter Robert Ward offers Jackson an interview, but at first Jackson declines. On March 8, 1977, the Son of Sam murders a 19-year old college student named Virginia Voskerichian in Forest Hills, Queens. NYPD detectives find out that the bullets from the March 8th murder and the October 23rd murder match. Days after the murder, New York City mayor Abraham Beame announces that there is a serial killer on the loose.

Jackson eventually agrees to the interview with Ward. They meet at a bar for the interview, where Martin, Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford are drinking nearby. Jackson notes that the Yankees had won the pennant the year before, but lost the World Series to the Reds, and suggested that they needed one more thing to win it all, pointing out the various ingredients in his drink. Ward suggested that Jackson might be "the straw that stirs the drink." But when the story appeared in the May 1977 issue of SPORT, Ward quoted Jackson as saying, "This team, it all flows from me. I'm the straw that stirs the drink. Maybe I should say me and Munson, but he can only stir it bad."

During a road trip in spring training, Steinbrenner demands that Martin be with his players on the bus during trips. Martin says that he will do that, even though the bus leaves as he's talking to Steinbrenner. On March 26, 1977, the Yankees lose badly to the New York Mets in an exhibition game in St. Petersburg, Florida. After Steinbrenner finds out that Martin did not ride the bus, he goes to Yankees clubhouse. Both Steinbrenner and Martin argue in the clubhouse in front of the players. Steinbrenner threatens to fire Martin and hire Yogi Berra to be manager.