'Small Potatoes' plays its Trump card.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH, MEDIA

Before the Dodgers hired Charley Steiner to do play-by-play starting with the 2005 season, the Brooklyn native called games for two seasons with the New York Yankees. Before that, his four-year run with ESPN as a "SportsCenter" anchor and boxing reporter was preceded by a play-by-play job with the New York Jets.

And before that, he called games for the United States Football League's New Jersey Generals - hired in 1983,

done like everyone else when the league prematurely crumbled in the summer of '85.

Before we go further with this, we admit everything written to this point was to create a timeline, to help Donald Trump's memory.

In next week's installment of the ESPN "30 in 30" documentary series, producer/ director/narrator Mike Tollin deftly crafts his presentation of "Small Potatoes: Who Killed The USFL?" Weaved between the recollections of fun-filled times this short-lived spring pro football league provided initially as a complement to the NFL and then a misguided challenger, Tollin's goal was simple: Allow those who participated to explain how the league worked, and why it came crashing down.

The death blow wasn't so much the $40 million contract given to Steve Young as a ground-breaking gesture for him to play quarterback during the last two seasons of the Los Angeles Express - although the league absorbed the deal (really, an annuity), as well as the franchise, when owner J. William Oldenburg disappeared.

Tollin has a better villain here: Trump, owner of a Generals team that he claimed was from "New York/New Jersey," whose ego from the start pushed the USFL into suing the NFL for monopoly money. And all they got was $3.

In turn, Trump has his own stable of scapegoats.

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A third of the way through the documentary, Tollin asks Steiner to explain the emergence of Trump, known then as the "Boy Builder" trying to make a name for himself.

Trump bought the Generals, led by Herschel Walker and eventually adding Doug Flutie, before the 1984 season from previous owner and Oklahoma oil baron J. Walter Duncan.

"Donald wanted to become a big shot," Steiner says. "And his entree into being a big shot was buying himself a football team. And he figured that he could buy his way onto the back page of the New York Post, he could move to Page 6, the gossip page, and then ultimately the front page.

"Donald Trump was no longer 'a' Donald, but 'The' Donald."

Trump listens to Steiner's assessment in the film, frowns, and responds:

"Charley Steiner was nobody. Charley Steiner couldn't get a job and we put him on the USFL. So I hope he said that in a friendly way, because if he didn't, I'd love to take him on just like I take everybody else on. So I hope he remains loyal and if he doesn't, let me know and I'll attack him."

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Again, not to rewrite history, but Steiner was hired by the Generals the year before Trump burst in. Steiner was the sports director at New York radio station WOR-AM, which owned the Generals' radio rights.

Over lunch this week, before running off to Dodger Stadium to prep for the start of the Dodgers-Phillies National League Championship Series, Steiner remains amused by Trump's reaction.

"I stand by everything I said," Steiner said. "And what I said from my point of view was completely factual. What (Trump) said in regards to me wasn't."

Steiner, with colormen Dave Herman and Bob Casciola, won an award for best broadcast team by the New York state broadcasters association in 1983.

"We were pretty good - before (Trump) made me," said Steiner.

Said Tollin: "Not only (are Steiner's comments) irrefutable, but it's not even inflammatory. Trump's reaction is completely inappropriate, but it's an opportunity presented to him. He's indiscriminately dismissive."

Concluded Steiner: "I think that based on (Trump's) history, he just likes a good fight."

Trump sort of has a new brawl brewing now with Tollin, which only adds buzz to the film's TV debut (ESPN, 5 p.m. Tuesday, with several replays).

Tollin, the Valley-based TV and movie maker whose Halcyon Days production company did the USFL weekly highlight shows, felt he had a decent relationship with Trump back in the day. Of the 33people interviewed for this documentary, Trump was the most reluctant to finally agree, after initially turning Tollin down.

As it turns out, the words "small potatoes" in the documentary's title is a direct quote from Trump describing the USFL to Tollin after the taping was finished.

Three weeks ago - on the New York Post's Page 6, no less - Trump called Tollin's documentary "third rate, as was spring football. ... Tollin is a sad guy who is living in the past. He ought to get on with his life."

Tollin responded: "The camera doesn't lie. It shows Trump to be rude, impatient, repetitive and boorish. I can't imagine he had the attention span to even watch the whole thing."

Tollin sent a rough cut to Trump and invited him to a screening. Trump responded with a note scribbled across Tollin's invite: "Mike: A third-rate documentary and extremely dishonest (as you know). Best wishes, Donald Trump. P.S.: You are a loser."

When Tollin had a screening of the film Monday in Hollywood, he left a chair reserved for Trump, knowing he couldn't attend. There is another screening Sunday in New York. "Maybe he'll come," said Tollin.

Or he'll just watch on ESPN like everyone else. Tuesday is an off-day in the Dodgers-Phillies NLCS. Maybe Tollin, a Philadelphia native, can join Steiner can meet Trump halfway. At a sports bar near the Meadowlands?

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- 2) The reunion Mike Tollin, top, and Donald Trump, left, had was anything but warm when Tollin spoke to the billionaire for his film on the USFL.

Courtesy of ESPN Films

Box:

(1) WHAT SMOKES

(2) WHAT CHOKES