This is a video from a fighter of life. Even though she has already passed away, her message resounds in many who have watched this video somewhere sometime: Don’t you dare waste your f*cking time!
Author: TSMA Page 199 of 202
June 16, 2011
Willie Bloomquist hit the 15th home run of his career Wednesday night. It was by far his most memorable. (Mark J. Rebilas / US Presswire)
Willie Bloomquist gestures to Abe Speck after Wednesday night’s home run.
The script was pure Disney, all except for the lack of a Diamondbacks’ victory.
The scene: Chase Field on Wednesday night, a showdown between the surprising D-backs and defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants.
The central character: D-backs outfielder Willie Bloomquist, a day removed from miraculously walking away from a major traffic accident with only minor bumps and bruises.
The payoff: A night at the ballpark that 11-year old Abe Speck will never forget.
It was a twist on the Babe.
Speck called the shot.
Bloomquist hit it.
Bloomquist has 15 major league home runs in nine major league seasons, but none was more meaningful than the one he had in the third inning Wednesday in front of Abe, some family members and his friend Max Siegel.
Every home stand, Bloomquist invites a patient from Phoenix Children’s Hospital to attend a game. He gives his guests an inside look at the D-backs’ clubhouse and brings them onto the field for batting practice. Bloomquist signed a bat for Abe and Max and had other players sign, too.
Of course they talked baseball, and during the course of the day Speck asked Bloomquist where players point when they hit home runs. Bloomquist said he did not hit enough homers to have a routine down pat.
Abe, contacted Thursday, took it from here: “So I said, ‘If you hit a home run today, will you point to me? I have a feeling you will hit one tonight.’
“He was really bombing them in batting practice.”
Sure enough, Bloomquist hit one in the first row of the left-field bleachers in the third inning to tie the game at one.
“As I was rounding the bases, I thought, ‘No way this is happening,’” Bloomquist said.
“That’s the secret — I have to have him come out to more games, I guess.”
As Bloomquist touched the plate, he turned to Section 129 and pointed.
“The boys were going crazy, screaming and jumping up and down. His lucky patient. It was a magical moment,” said Abe’s mother, Lisa.
“He came home last night and said it was the best night of his life.”
Bloomquist established a foundation after signing as a free agent with the D-backs this winter. He played at Arizona State and has lived here for years, the place he calls home, and said he wants to become more active in the community.
“It’s my turn to give back,” he said.
Incidentally, the special moment for Abe came a day after Bloomquist’s car was totaled in a traffic accident when he was rear-ended. The force of the collision threw his head around, and he said the driver’s-side air bag “hit me like a Mike Tyson left hook.”
“I’m very fortunate in a lot of ways. To be playing the game was something that maybe I shouldn’t be. I’m just trying to be thankful for the opportunity to play and thankful that I’m here right now,” Bloomquist said.
“Having a guy like that out to the game certainly brightens my spirits. I enjoy it. It’s more for me than it is for them. It puts things in perspective.”
Speck, who is recovering from intestinal issues he has had since he was 2, is a big baseball fan and an All-Star in the Arcadia Little League. He will turn 12 in three weeks.
“It was like five birthday presents,” he said of his day at the park.
“Number one by a mile.”
Tough cop survives shooting
DA: Suspect had two guns, bag of bullets
By Marie Szaniszlo and Chris Cassidy | Wednesday, June 15, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
Photo by Mark Garfinkel
The 13-year Boston police veteran shot while responding to a domestic dispute yesterday is a tough-as-nails martial arts expert who once earned a department medal for putting a suspect in a headlock while lying on the ground with broken bones in his ankle, a friend and police sources told the Herald.
Boston Police Officer Shawn Marando, 46, was in stable condition last night after undergoing surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital to control bleeding from being shot in the leg shortly after 7 a.m. outside 22 Dunbar Ave. in Dorchester, police Commissioner Edward Davis said.
“He’s doing well,” department spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said last night.
Marando, a former member of the Air Force and Marine Reserves, had designed a form of martial arts called “Copkido” intended to help cops protect themselves from violent suspects using minimal force and was planning to hold a training camp in New Hampshire next month, said Aaron Spagnolo, a friend.
“He was trying to use it as a solution to help police officers do their job and get hurt less,” said Spagnolo, who told the Herald Marando also taught martial arts to Boston hospital ER staff.
Marando received the department’s medal of honor after being attacked trying to perform CPR on a shooting victim in Hyde Park in 2004, according to Boston police.
After Marando lost his balance and fell during the scuffle, the suspect jumped on top of him and started punching him in the face, police said.
Marando managed to put the suspect in a headlock, then discovered his left ankle “hanging in a 45-degree angle caused by broken bones sustained in this attack,” police said. Despite excruciating pain, Marando managed to hold on to the suspect until backup arrived, police said.
Yesterday, Marando and two other officers were responding to a 911 call from a woman reporting that her boyfriend, Tyrone Cummings, 25, had assaulted her and was threatening to kill her, the commissioner said.
When the officers arrived, Cummings was outside with a woman believed to be the victim’s sister and allegedly opened fire on them, hitting Marando, Davis said. Marando and another officer, whose name was not released, fired back, hitting Cummings “multiple times,” Davis said.
The suspect was taken to Boston Medical Center, where he was in stable condition, police said. The woman was shot in the leg and taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, police said. She was also in stable condition.
Police and the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office are investigating the shooting, including who shot the woman, Davis said. One of the shots also hit the nearby Emily A. Fifield Elementary School, he said, but it was closed at the time.
Cummings is known to police and is expected to be arraigned from his hospital bed today on charges of assault with intent to murder and weapons charges, police said. Two guns and a bag of ammunition were found on him outside the triple-decker, where police had been called previously, Davis said.
“We know he brought two illegal firearms and a bag full of bullets,” District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said. “The officers appear to have acted in self-defense. There is no question Mr. Cummings initiated (the) gunfight.”
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