Deadly Weekend

Deadly Weekend

Two Bronxites Dead After Wave of Weekend Violence

By David Greene

At least three people were killed and 16 injured after a wave of weekend violence across the city that has claimed the lives of two Bronxites.

Police say Highbridge resident Jason Bragg, 33, was discovered shot to death on 219 Street in St. Albans, Queens at 10:22 p.m. on Saturday, June 28. He had been shot once in the head and discovered lying face down on the sidewalk.

Bragg's killer remains at large, but police continue to investigate.

At 4:59 a.m. on Sunday, June 29, police were called to 2766 University Avenue at East 195 Street after a male victim was shot in the chest. He later died at St. Barnabas Hospital.

One police source stated, "acting on the description provided by a 911 caller, members of the 50th Precinct immediately initiated a canvas and the suspect was apprehended in the immediate area of the shooting."

Police would question and later charge Jason Delgado, 29, who lived across the street from the shooting scene at 2761 University Avenue, with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.

Investigators would later identify the victim as Roderick Romney, 24, a life-long resident of nearby Reservoir Avenue.

One neighbor of Romney's claimed that the victim and perpetrator had been friends. Delgado was expected to be arraigned on Monday, June 30.

In other Bronx shootings, a man was shot in the back at just after midnight on Sunday, at 730 Kelly Street within the 41st Precinct command. The unidentified victim is expected to survive.

Later the same day a man was reportedly stabbed at 1725 Andrews Avenue. Police were looking for a suspect described as a black male, wearing a black shirt and black hat, who fled southbound on Andrews. The unidentified victim was recovering at a local hospital.

Two people were shot at just before 10 p.m. on Sunday at 1115 College Avenue. Police say a female victim transported herself to a local hospital and a 14-year old male was shot in the ankle. Both victims are recovering at Lincoln Hospital.

At just after midnight Monday, June 30, a person was reported shot at 3406 Gunther Avenue, that victim was not expected to survive and no other details were immediately available. 

Reporters covering the LGBT Pride Parade in Manhattan on Sunday say Mayor Bill de Blasio ignored questions about the shootings, but his office later issued a statement that read, "The Mayor and the Police Department are working closely to put hundreds of more officers on the streets, deploy cops to areas experiencing crime spikes and utilize innovative strategies to catch bad guys and keep neighborhoods safe."

Officials say that 100 of those uniformed officers will be hitting the street's across the five boroughs in the coming week.    

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): #Yanks

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): #Yanks: Sox Strike Again Fans Unsure Which Way #Yanks are Heading By Rich Mancuso BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 30- The late June rivalry in the Bronx wit...

#Yanks

Sox Strike Again

Fans Unsure Which Way #Yanks are Heading

By Rich Mancuso

BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 30- The late June rivalry in the Bronx with the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox still had some meaning. Ask the Red Sox, who took two of three from their AL east rivals with an 8-5 win Sunday night at Yankee Stadium. More importantly the Yankees had an opportunity to narrow the gap with first place Toronto and that awaits another day.

And that can happen over the next three games, narrowing their two game gap, or taking first place as this stretch of 15-straight with divisional opponents concludes with last place Tampa Bay. Yes it is still early, with Monday night the halfway point for the Yankees however winning series against teams in the division are just as vital.

“We don’t want to go out here and lose games,” Carlos Beltran said. “Feels right now these last two games we haven’t been able to do that.” Beltran did his part with a 3-for-4-night, including his 366^th career home run in the fourth inning, tying Lance Berkman for fourth place on baseball’s all-time home run list among switch hitters.

His eighth home run in the fourth inning, a solo shot to right at the time narrowed the Boston lead to 4-3. Mark Teixeira led off the inning with his team leading 15^th home run. Both long balls coming off John Lackey (9-5) who earned the win, allowing five run on six hits.

Lackey did not produce a quality start of 6.0 innings or more, three-runs or less, for the third time in his last 13 outings. And in the position the Red Sox are in, also at the halfway point of their schedule, they need Lackey to produce.

This is a year of the mediocre AL east. The Yankees know, with any type of winning streak that they can take control, even though they are not the Yankees that battled the Red Sox over the years when the division belonged to the two rivals.

“Anytime you win a series on the road, particularly against a team that's ahead of us, these are key,” Boston manager John Farrell said. There is plenty of time to overcome a six-game deficit in the division and the defending world champions with all of their first half problems are realizing the same thing:

Winning a series against the Yankees in the Bronx was important. The Red Sox, a team in transition, are also reaching into their minor league system for that extra help. Mookie Betts, their 21-year-old outfield prospect made his Major League debut and got his first single in the fourth inning.

“It was great,” he said. And it came with no extra pressure, if that can be understood, because it came during a game in what has been described as the biggest rivalry in sports. Derek Jeter can echo those sentiments and remember the first time he took part in the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry as a rookie.

Except, Jeter, did not get the first of many hits against Boston. He had many significant and big hits over the years when the Yankees and Red Sox battled down to the wire for a spot in the post season.

And then there is David Ortiz. He has made the Yankees miserable over the years in this rivalry, and that continued Sunday night. Ortiz has hit 40 home runs against the Yankees since putting on the Boston uniform in 2003, and he launched one off Chase Whitley in the third inning. It was the 450^th of his career and good for 37^th on the all-time list.

Whitley said he was frustrated about the pitch to Ortiz. The Yankees have got more than expected from the rookie right-hander, but this was his second straight loss of four innings and five earned runs. And it comes at a time when the Yankees want to make some significant inroads in the division.

Whitley can’t always be a difference maker as the Yankees wait for CC Sabathia and Michael Pineda to return from the disabled list. When these teams meet in September for six more games, pitching could be the decisive factor as to where they are headed in October.  

"We are all going through are issues, there is no doubt about it, in the division," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "As I said, it is probably going to come down to the end and it is going to be who handles the injuries the best. Obviously, we need to play better. I'm sure every club in our division says that."

This time the Red Sox were the better team, next time it could be the Yankees and that is what makes this rivalry so special. 

 Comment Rich Mancuso: Ring786@aol.com  Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso  www.newyorksportsexaminer.com

Tanaka

One Slip Sinks Tanaka

Jon Lester Tops Masahiro Tanaka in Impressive Pitcher’s Duel at Yankee Stadium

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 29- On Saturday night, a sold-out house of 48,433 at Yankee Stadium, the third largest crowd of the season, was attracted to another contest between the biggest rivals in baseball, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

The two courageous and talented starting pitchers, Jon Lester of Boston and Masahiro Tanaka of New York hooked up in an outstandingly performed and fast moving pitcher’s duel.

Lester, 30, was starting his 237th game in the majors. The number of starts would be even higher, but Lester missed large parts of his first two seasons with Boston, 2006 and 2007, after being diagnosed with lymphoma in the summer of 2006. Tanaka, 25, was making his 16th start of his first season in MLB.

Lester pitched no-hit ball for the first five frames. The first hit he yielded was a single up the middle by Brett Gardner, leading off the sixth. After Gardner was thrown out trying to stretch his single to a double, the next two batters, Derek Jeter and Jacoby Ellsbury, each singled, but were left on base when the inning ended.

The only run given up by Lester was scored without a hit. Brian Roberts was safe on an error to begin the Yankee third. The next batter, Yangervis Solarte, was hit by a pitch. Gardner pushed them each up one base with a sacrifice bunt. The unearned run was scored on an infield groundout by Jeter.

Lester’s superlative performance of pitching eight innings without allowing an earned run, while only yielding five hits, was last equaled by a Red Sox pitcher in the Bronx when it was accomplished by Lester on July 3, 2008 in the original Yankee Stadium’s final season.

When asked to describe Lester’s outing, Yankee skipper Joe Girardi remarked, “He does what he always does. He cuts it; he sinks it; he locates. He pitched extremely well tonight.”

The leading Rookie-of-the-Year candidate, Tanaka, pitched his third complete game of the season. He walked one batter and surrendered seven hits, but only two pitches were responsible for his loss.

Catcher David Ross took a 1-0 pitch into the stands for a solo home run with one out in the third.

The winning run came with two out in the ninth on the 112th pitch thrown by the Yankee starter. With the count 1-2 on Mike Napoli, who had two hits and homered off Tanaka in their previous encounter on April22, Tanka threw a fast ball over the plate that Napoli sent into the right field stands.

Through his translator, Tanaka explained what happened, “The sign was for a breaking ball, but I wanted to go hard outside. That’s why I shook him [catcher Brian McCann] off twice. He asked for a splitter and a slider. I wanted to set up for a breaking ball on the next pitch, but I missed my spot.”

After the game, Girardi was asked why he didn’t remove Tanaka in the ninth. He responded with the following statement, “He’d been excellent all night. His stuff was really outstanding. I liked how he’d been throwing the baseball.” 

Neither deserved to lose such a well-pitched game yet one did. Both deserved to win such a well-pitched game yet only one did. That’s baseball, a game of inches.

 

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Pick Pocket

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Pick Pocket: Sticky Fingers Shops Along #Fordham Road Cops Release Pic of Pick Pocket By Dan Gesslein BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 27- Call her Fordham’s mos...

Pick Pocket

Sticky Fingers Shops Along #Fordham Road

Cops Release Pic of Pick Pocket

By Dan Gesslein

BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 27- Call her Fordham’s most wanted. Cops are looking for a serial pickpocket who ripped off shoppers along Fordham Road over a six-month period.

Police released a photo of a sticky-fingered suspect, they say, struck at a Marshalls store seven times. The thief also struck other businesses in the Fordham shopping district including a Children’s Place, a cell phone store and a Burlington Coat Factory.

In incidents dating back to January, cops say the suspect repeatedly robbed shoppers at the Marshalls store, located at 2501 Grand Concourse, and made off with cash and credit cards. In those cases, the suspect took either victim’s wallet or purse and made off with cash ranging from $200 to $5. 

As spring arrived, the crook upped her game. On April 17, the thief struck at a T-Mobile store on Fordham Road. The suspect made off with a 63 year-old’s bag which contained a laptop, two cellphones and chargers.  

On May 3rd, the thief made off with a 70-year-old woman’s paycheck worth $1,044. The victim had put her property containing her paycheck on the counter of a supermarket when the thief helped herself.

The suspect is described as a 40-year-old black woman who is 5 foot 5 and weighs 135 pounds. She was last seen wearing a turquoise shirt and a beige hat.

Anyone with information is urged to call CRIMESTOPPERS at (800) 577-TIPS. The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

All calls are strictly confidential.

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Teen has Wild West Shootout with Cops

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Teen has Wild West Shootout with Cops: Teen has Wild West Shootout with Cops By Dan Gesslein BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 26- Cops arrested a teenager in Claremont who thought he was i...