Fun at the Fair

Fun at the Fair

(Photos by Gary Quintal)

Fun shone through for youngsters during the annual Fair at the Square event at Westchester Square on Saturday. Before the torrential rains struck, youngsters enjoyed a day of fun including rides, face painting and music from the likes of K-Andance.

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Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Lady Rams Crowned Champs Again

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Lady Rams Crowned Champs Again: Lady Rams Crowned Champs Again By Howard Goldin BRONX, NEW YORK, MAY 12 - By coincidence, the Atlantic-10 Softball Championship was playe...

Lady Rams Crowned Champs Again

Lady Rams Crowned Champs Again

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, MAY 12- By coincidence, the Atlantic-10 Softball Championship was played on the home field, Bahoshy Field in the Bronx, of the #1 seed, the Fordham Rams. The home field had been a decided advantage to the Rams this year as they were winners in 14 of the 15 games they played during the regular season at Fordham.

Fordham’s Bridget Orchard, the Atlantic-10 Coach of the Year, appeared to have her team primed for the tournament as the Rams were victorious in 15 of their final 17 regular season games. They lost their last two contests to Dayton after winning 15 in a row.

The Rams, the first seed in the A-10 Championship received a first round bye last Wednesday. They faced the University of Massachusetts, the victor over Dayton in the first round, at noon on Thursday.

With the bases loaded in the second, Rachel Gillen grounded into a fielder’s choice that drove in the first run of the game. UMass tied the game at one in the third, but that was the last run scored by the visitors.

Fordham catcher Gabby Luety blasted a three-run homer in the third. Two innings later, third sacker Kayla Lombardo hit a two-run home run to move Fordham ahead by a score of 6-1. 

With the bases filled and two out in the bottom of the sixth, the Rams added three more runs on three singles by Paige Ortiz, Gillen and Cora Ianiro to end the game, 9-1, by the mercy rule. 

A-10 Co-Pitcher of the Year Michele Daubman was the winner of her 16th game of the season.A-10 Player of the Elise Fortier failed to get a hit but scored three runs.

The winners of each contest, Fordham and #2 seed St. Louis, met at noon last Friday. Interestingly, the Atlantic-10 Co-Pitchers of the Year, Daubman for Fordham and Brianna Lore of the Billikins, were in the circle to start the contest. 

To no one’s surprise, the hurlers engaged in a pitchers’ duel in which no runs were scored during the first five frames. Billikins worked Daubman for a run in the sixth with a lead-off single, a sacrifice but that pushed the runner to second and a run scoring single by Kelsey Biggs. 

The Rams took the final lead in the seventh in a most exciting manner. With one out, Fortier took a 3-2 over the fence in right to tie the game at 1. The homer was her 18th of the 2014 campaign and her 44th at Fordham, one short of the school record. The next batter, Lombardo, followed with her 10th of the season to give the Rams their final lead. 

Lombardo, Fordham’s third sacker, spoke about the back-to-back homers after the game, “Elise and I, the third and fourth hitters, are supposed to put the ball out of the park. In that situation, we were just doing our job.”

Daubman’s 18th win of the season was protected by Patti Maloney, who earned her A-10 record sixth save of the year.

The two teams met again on Saturday afternoon in the championship final. Lombardo, a junior, expressed her feelings about the championship encounter after the win on Friday, “We’re set to play our game and go out with the same desire and hunger that we always have. We’re just on a mission. We want to repeat so badly.”

Lombardo did not underestimate her teammates as Fordham defeated St. Louis by a score of 11-0 in the Championship final on Saturday. Freshman Sydney Canassa led off the bottom of the first with a home run to put Fordham ahead. A double by Amy Van Hooten and an rbi single by Luety scored the second run of the inning.

The Rams scored four in the second capped by a two-run homer by Fortier. The home run was her 19th of the season and her 45th as a Ram. Thus, she broke the Fordham career mark for four baggers in only three seasons as she spent her freshman year at Stony Brook. 

Six hits and an error gave Fordham six runs in the third frame. Luety began the damage with a home run. 

Again, the Co-Pitchers of the Year of the Atlantic-10 began the game in the circle. Lore of the Billikins had pitched two games on Friday and was obviously not up to her usual manner. She gave up 11 runs and 11 hits in 2+ innings. She was unable to retire any of the five batters she faced in the third. Daubman who pitched two hit ball in the five innings of the game, earned her third win. She was voted the MVP of the Championship. Luety, Daubman’s catcher remarked, “She [Daubman] perfected everything this year.”

The A-10 championship for the Rams was their third in the last four years. The victory automatically qualifies Fordham for the NCAA National Softball Tournament. On the evening of Sunday, the brackets of the tournament were announced. Fordham is going to Tallahassee on Friday evening to face #8 seed Florida State. The two other schools in the foursome are South Florida and South Carolina. The tourney is a double elimination so the rams will also be facing at least one of the other Southern colleges.

Who said Stop and Frisk was finished?

Stop-and-Frisk: Down but Not Out;

NYPD Investigates Bronxite's Video

(One of three officers question 21-year-old Brian Garcia who recorded the encounter.)

By David Greene

BRONX, NEW YORK, MAY 9- A young man's cell phone video captured NYPD officers in Queens telling him he was not being frisked as one officer later informed him -- he was being patted down for weapons.

Brian Garcia, 21, is not ashamed to admit he had succumbed to the drug-flooded streets of the South Bronx and the borough's anti-crime tactics used by the NYPD and had fled to his mother's home in the Rockaways, where the video was recorded.

On April 8, Garcia says he was standing outside of 433 Beach 40 Street and he started shooting his video shortly after officers from the 101st Precinct pulled up in a patrol car.

Standing a few buildings away from his mother's residence, Garcia recalls, "I was outside the building and they were looking and pointing at me, so I started recording them on my cell phone."

On the 1:56 video, after asking Garcia to take his hands out of his pockets, the officer asks, "You got no weapons on you, right?"

The officer then starts to tell Garcia, "I'm just going to..." as he appears to start patting down the young man's pockets, when the young man fires back, "No, I don't give you consent to search me."

The officer repeatedly tells Garcia, "I'm not searching you."

The video shows the officer patting down Garcia's pockets and ankles, when the patrolman is heard telling Garcia, "I searched you to make sure you didn't have any weapons."

According to the New York State Criminal Procedure Law, section 140.50 states the search is allowed if the officer, "reasonably suspects that he is in danger of physical injury."

Garcia is then heard telling the three officers, including one ranking member, "It's unconstitutional," when Garcia is cut off as at least one officer physically struggles with him and the phone now shows only brief moments of the scuffle.

Recalling the moment, Garcia claims, "They went for my phone, but I didn't let them take it." He added that he handed the phone off to a friend so the video would not be erased. He was handcuffed and placed inside the patrol car.

After watching the video, Kate Rubin, the managing director of the Civil Action Practice at The Bronx Defenders, stated, "This video makes it clear that while recorded stops and frisks are down, the NYPD still has a long way to go to ensure that the conduct of individual officers is both lawful and respectful of the communities they serve."

Shortly after reviewing the video, Sergeant Brendan Ryan, a spokesman for the NYPD's Office of Deputy Commissioner of Public Information offered a one-sentence statement that read, "The incident is being investigated by the Commanding Officer of the 101st Precinct."

Speaking on a condition of anonymity, one Queens cop who has made countless stop-and-frisks offered, "There's a lot of things we have to take into account that the public does not see. We also don't know why the officers were there in the first place, but I don't see anything wrong with the stop."

Garcia is currently facing as many as nine years in prison after an April 8, 2013 incident in the Bronx, where he claims a female undercover officer's promise of sex prompted him to take her to the local drug spot when he was later arrested on Simpson Street. Garcia is due back in court on May 21.

For more on this story and to view the controversial video, go to: DavidgreeneNYC.com.   

Tags: stop and frisk

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Fighter Stayed in the Game

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Fighter Stayed in the Game: Fighter Stayed in the Game Ready for Next Oppoenent By Rich Mancuso BRONX, NEW YORK, MAY 8- Steven Martinez knows how the boxing business...

Fighter Stayed in the Game

Fighter Stayed in the Game

Ready for Next Oppoenent

By Rich Mancuso

BRONX, NEW YORK, MAY 8- Steven Martinez knows how the boxing business works. The 24-year-old middleweight from the Bronx has been a professional since 2009. But the fights were not coming at a pace to validate his claim a fighter with potential to make noise in a competitive division. Then, as a fighter has to do, he made a change. Recently he signed a new deal with the new Dmitriy Salita, (Star of David) promotional group that also works in conjunction with the former champion, Roy Jones. Jr.

Salita, a one time a welterweight contender, had his share of difficulties with the promoters and as much as Jones had success as a champion, he also had his trials and tribulations. In other words boxing is a business. A fighter has the opportunity when it is presented, however there are obstacles.

At times a fight is scheduled and suddenly an opponent can’t make weight, or a promoter has no contingency plan to find a last minute opponent. Or there are the issues of the trainer, fighter, and promoter not being on the same page.

That has been a part of the boxing business for years. And Martinez has been on that side of it; that, is until he signed with Salita. The fights are constant and Martinez is scheduled for his second under the Salita banner next Thursday night at the Millenium Theatre in Brooklyn.  The six-round fight is scheduled and the opponent, for the 14-1 Martinez, is Antonio Chaves Fernandez.

“Definitely they are promoters and coming up both were fighters so they see the ins and outs better,” commented Martinez who is in the final phases of training. His first fight with the Salita promotion was in late February, also at the Millenium, when he got the TKO in the sixth and final round over Rahman Mustafa Yusubov.

So, what has been the difference? Previously he was under the management of former NY Giants running back Brandon Jacobs and fought under the DiBella Entertainment banner.

Martinez is just a fighter. He may not know what went wrong in the past. But, he is aware, the career is on the move again and that is all he wants.

“They see the fighter's view and promoter's view,” he says about two former fighters in the promotional business. “Hopefully they treat the boxers the way they were treated. The first time around was a learning experience. I’m more grown now, seasoned. I have experience. I know how to fight. The first time I was learning the business.”

And waiting for fights, preparing and then getting cancelled off cards, Martinez certainly learned how the boxing business worked. But, as he continued to be patient and strived for the opportunity there was interest by others. Though, the loyalty to his previous promoter and management only stalled a promising career.

That, though, seems to be in the past and Martinez, with a new three-year deal, hopes to be making noise quick and soon.

As he says, “They (Salitia) were always interested in me but I was signed by someone else. They were knocking at the door. Once I was a free agent they were calling me every other week. I was out for a year… It was a big issue. Now everything is in the past. Now it’s a new chapter for me. I felt it was the time.”

His trainer, Marco Suarez has been with Martinez all the time. Training has been going well at Pop's Gym in the Norwod section of the Bronx. Martinez, married and a father devotes his time to his family. Boxing is what he always wanted to do, and there was never a moment during the hiatus about hanging up the gloves.

“This is what I love,” he says. “I’m not backing away from nobody. I train hard, work very hard. I’m still aggressive. I’ve been doing this half my life. I was still in the gym, frustrated I wasn’t fighting. It’s part of the business. I stood with my head high and positive   I didn’t think it was going to last 16- months, more than a year.

Yes, Martinez moved on. And in the sport of boxing when there is a second chance the opportunity does present itself. The journey continues with his new promoters in a week and Martinez is anxious to get back in the ring.

This time though, it won’t be a long time.

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

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Bronx Week is Here

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Bronx Week is Here: Bronx Week is Here (Photo by Seitu Oronde) 100 PERCENT By Robert Press BRONX, NEW YORK, MAY 7- T he official start to Bronx Week is Thur...