the owner with an insatiable need to win. The pleasure is in the journey -- in this case, how these egos work, as when Steinbrenner (played by Oliver Platt) tries to lure free-agent Jackson (Daniel Sunjata) to New York during a lunch at the fancy restaurant 21. "I thought it would be a little ritzier," Jackson says.
"Looks like a place in (San Francisco's) North Beach." Soon after, a cab pulls up, and the driver shouts, "Yo, Reggie, we need you in New York!" Watching the scene, viewers might miss that it's current Yankee Jason Giambi doing a cameo as the cabby whose recruitment pitch prompts a skeptical Jackson to ask Steinbrenner, "You payin' these people?
" The ESPN project, which premieres tonight and will run eight weeks, is based on Jonathan Mahler's book Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning and other sources documenting the Yanks' comically chaotic championship season, set against the chaos in the city -- the worst being not the garbage and graffiti but a serial killer on the loose, the "Son of Sam." As the body count rises, the city can turn to the soap opera of Steinbrenner trying to tell Martin (John Turturro) what batting order to set -- that he bat Jackson fourth, the "cleanup" spot usually reserved for a team's most dangerous hitter. Martin bristles at the meddling, then makes his point by putting players' names on slips of paper, sticking them in a hat and inviting Jackson to pull one at a time.
"What exactly am I doin' here, skip?" "You're pickin' the battin' order. "You're actually going to go with this?
" Haven't you heard?" • will be shown at 10 tonight -- and 10 p.m.
and midnight Wednesday -- on ESPN. the owner with an insatiable need to win.
News RSS