Plot
In December, 1986, 3 black men ran into car trouble in Howard Beach, a middle-class neighborhood in New York City. Unable to start their car, they sought refuge in a nearby restaurant. What happened later that night shocked the entire city.
Keywords: african-american, based-on-true-story, blacks-versus-italians, criminal, italian-american, justice
Jonathan Tyler Lester (born January 7, 1984, in Tacoma, Washington) is an American professional baseball pitcher with the Boston Red Sox. Lester was 7-2 with a 4.76 ERA before and after being diagnosed with lymphoma. Less than two years after being diagnosed with lymphoma, Lester started and won the final game of the 2007 World Series, and in May 2008, pitched a no-hitter against the Kansas City Royals.
Lester attended Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma, Washington, where he was a three-time MVP and three-time All-Area selection. In addition, he was named Gatorade State Player of the Year for Washington in 2000.
The Red Sox drafted Lester in the second round (No. 57 overall) of the 2002 draft and gave him the highest signing bonus of any second-rounder that year, $1 million.
Lester quickly moved through the Red Sox organization, posting an 11–6 record, a league-leading 2.61 ERA and a league-best 163 strikeouts for the AA Portland Sea Dogs in 2005. He was named Eastern League Pitcher of the Year and Red Sox Minor League Pitcher of the Year and was selected as the left-handed pitcher on the Eastern League's year-end All-Star team and on the year-end Topps AA All-Star squad.
Jonathan Johnson "Jonny" Gomes (born November 22, 1980 in Petaluma, California) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Oakland Athletics.
Gomes was born in San Francisco and raised in Petaluma, California. He was an all-league at Casa Grande High School, coached by Dominique Wirtz, in his hometown of Petaluma. As a sixteen-year-old in May 1997, he was a passenger in a car accident that killed his best friend, Adam Westcott. Gomes, who was sitting next to Westcott in the back seat, was only slightly injured. Gomes has Westcott's initials tattooed on his right biceps.
After graduating in 1999, he went to Santa Rosa Junior College before being selected in the 18th round of the 2001 MLB Draft by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. While he was in the rookie leagues, he was certified to become a personal trainer. His older brother, Joey Gomes, currently plays for the Edmonton Capitals, of the Golden Baseball League. The family name "Gomes" is Portuguese in ancestry.
Gomes suffered a heart attack on Christmas Eve 2002, the result of a clogged artery, despite being in playing condition (he reported having 8% body fat at the time). He ignored the symptoms for 27 hours, even sleeping through it one night, before going to the hospital after he briefly blacked out and stopped breathing. His doctors said he would not have survived a second night. As a result of the heart attack, the Rays' team doctor had to keep nitroglycerin pills on-hand in case Gomes suffered a second heart attack.
Richard Justice is a columnist for MLB.com. He used to work for The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News and the Houston Chronicle. Justice is an alumus of The University of Texas at Austin.
He is also a correspondent for ESPN, and occasionally appears as a guest on their programs Pardon the Interruption and formerly on Classic Now. He has made five appearances on the program/game show Around the Horn, though he has won only once.
Following a stint as a weekly contributor to the morning show on Sportsradio 610, Justice hosted his own sports talk program on 1560 AM KGOW ("The Game"). The show aired M-F at 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM. It was canceled due to a lack of response from the listeners and community as well as bad satellite interruption. He is now featured weekly on each of 1560 AM KGOW's ("The Game") shows on different days and brings additional baseball commentary.
David Américo Ortiz Arias (born November 18, 1975), nicknamed "Big Papi", is a Dominican-American professional baseball player with the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball. Previously, Ortiz played with the Minnesota Twins from 1997 until 2002. Ortiz is a seven-time All-Star and holds the Red Sox single season record for home runs in a regular season with 54, set during the 2006 season. In 2005, Red Sox ownership presented him with a plaque proclaiming Ortiz "the greatest clutch-hitter in the history of the Boston Red Sox".
Ortiz graduated from Estudia Espallat High School in the Dominican Republic and in 1992 he was signed by the Seattle Mariners who listed him as "David Arias". He played for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, a Mariners farm team, until 1996, when he was traded to the Minnesota Twins as the player to be named later in an earlier trade for Dave Hollins. When he arrived in Minnesota, he informed the team that he preferred to be listed as "David Ortiz."
He made his Twins debut in September 1997. For a few years, he was moved back and forth between the Twins and their minor league affiliate in Connecticut, the New Britain Rock Cats. The Twins advanced to the American League Championship Series that year, where they lost to the Anaheim Angels. Despite showing flashes of talent, Ortiz's time with the Twins will be remembered as a series of injuries and inconsistency both in the field and at the plate. Ortiz suffered wrist injuries in both 1998 and 2001. He continued to experience knee problems in early 2002 that plagued him throughout the season, despite hitting 32 doubles, 20 home runs and 75 RBIs in 125 games. He was released by the Twins after the season. In six seasons with the Twins, Ortiz hit 58 home runs and 238 RBI.