Barring natural disasters or unforeseen health crises, chances are I’ll watch around 150 Red Sox games during the 2021 season, along with parts of other contests as the pennant races advance.

And I would have done so, it’s important to emphasize, whether deposed strongman Donald J. Trump likes it or not.

Boycott baseball? I literally can’t remember not being a baseball fan. Home movies exist of me imitating the home run trot of Brooklyn Dodgers first baseman Howie Schultz, whom I’ve otherwise forgotten. One of my epic childhood memories is holding my father’s hand and walking up a darkened stadium ramp at New York’s Polo Grounds into the astonishing green of the playing field and the actual, physical presence of Willie Mays — a mythic figure in my boyish imagination.

As for the All-Star Game, I normally take a pass for the same reason I skip spring training games. They’re a relic of the radio era, when American League fans got to see National League standouts only at All-Star time. Apart from the honor, most players would rather have the day off. They’re strictly exhibitions, not real contests.

Selfishly, I’d have preferred that the Major League Baseball avoid political controversy altogether. To me, the game’s a refuge, a few blessed hours when the daily ruck and moil of politics simply doesn’t exist. But that could be my white privilege talking, to employ a phrase that also makes my feet itch.

Problem is, certain realities can’t be avoided.

You can tell by the blundering, characteristically ungrammatical way former Boss Trump jumped into the controversy over Major League Baseball’s pulling the 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta to protest Georgia’s new voting law, hyperbolically characterized by President Joe Biden as “Jim Crow on steroids.”

Continuing to whine about the 2021 presidential election that he lost by 7 million votes, Trump complained in a statement: “For years the Radical Left Democrats have played dirty by boycotting products when anything from that company is done or stated in any way that offends them. Now they are going big time with WOKE CANCEL CULTURE and our sacred elections.”

He produced a list of major corporations, including the MLB, Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, JPMorgan Chase, ViacomCBS, Citigroup and Merck, and demanded his supporters boycott their products.

“We can play the game better than them,” Trump boasted. “The Radical Left will destroy our Country if we let them. We will not become a Socialist Nation.” Then came the punchline: “Happy Easter!”

(Last Easter, it will be recalled, Trump was doing PR for COVID-19, urging parishioners to crowd into churches in defiance of social distancing.)

As usual, this is upside-down. It’s mainly the political right in the United States that has long practiced shunning those with whom they disagree. Think Dixie Chicks. Think Colin Kaepernick.

Even french fries became “freedom fries” after France’s U.N. ambassador warned President George W. Bush against the folly of invading Iraq.

So don’t “cancel culture” me; Republicans invented it.

As for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s phony victimization, there was nothing subtle about the staged iconography of his signing ceremony. Seven middle-aged white men posing in front of an idealized painting of a pre-Civil War plantation. The only thing missing was a rebel flag.

Arresting a Black woman legislator for having the temerity to knock on the office door was an added touch.

Kemp, see, had incurred Trumpist wrath by defending the integrity of Georgia’s presidential vote and its subsequent Senate runoff — all narrowly won by Democrats. The purpose of the new law is to cover his political butt by making it marginally harder to vote, thereby suppressing Black turnout.

What other reason could there be for reducing the number of electoral drop boxes in Metro Atlanta from 94 to 23 and moving them inside government buildings shuttered after normal working hours?

For making it much harder to vote absentee?

For giving a legislative committee power to move precincts around and make it difficult for voters who show up at the wrong place to file provisional ballots?

For making it illegal to give water to voters waiting in long lines? As if Black voters don’t cherish their hard-won right to vote and would give up and go home.

Yes, the amazing Stacey Abrams can probably overcome such cynical ploys all over again. So just in case, the new law takes election supervision away from honorable Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and gives it to a GOP-dominated legislative committee that is also empowered — get this — to remove county election officials for replacements of their own choosing.

Jim Crow? Not really. This is basically election reform Kremlin-style.

Meanwhile, play ball! Because if Trump is fighting MLB and Coca-Cola, much less Citigroup and CBS, then Trump is losing.

All over again.

Gene Lyons is a columnist for the Arkansas Times.

Send letters to [email protected].

Read More

A driver opened fire during a traffic stop Thursday morning, wounding an Oak Park police officer before being shot in return.

They were both hospitalized with serious injuries but were expected to survive, according to Oak Park spokesman David Powers.

The shooting started after the Oak Park officer showed up to assist Forest Park police with a traffic stop about 7 a.m. on Harlem Avenue over Interstate 290, Powers said in an email.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Preliminary information showed the driver of the vehicle exited and began firing, Powers said. The Oak Park officer returned fire and shot the driver, he said.

The officer and driver were taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Powers said.

A witness told ABC7 that the driver got out of the car with his hands in the air and “just went in his waist… he got a gun and just started dumping. Shot the police window out, shot the police and everything.”

The wounded officer was able to walk to an ambulance with an apparent gunshot wound to the arm, the witness told ABC7.

Illinois State Police said they were investigating the officer’s use of force. In a statement Thursday afternoon, state police said the driver’s condition stabilized, while the officer was in “serious but stable” condition.

A United States Postal Service employee and vehicle were in the area of the shooting, but the employee was not wounded nor the intended target, according to a statement from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

State police closed interstate ramps at Harlem Avenue until noon as authorities investigated the shooting.

Read More

An elementary school cafeteria worker said she suffered persistent headaches for months and was eventually diagnosed with a brain aneurysm after her ex-principal, who faces a criminal trial next month, threw a water bottle at her head last spring.

The Chicago Public Schools lunchroom manager is now suing over her injuries, accusing the school district of failing to protect her from the former principal despite a series of past misconduct complaints.

Kurt Jones, the former leader of Franklin Fine Arts Center in Old Town, was charged with a felony last June, three months after the incident that left cafeteria worker Faye Jenkins with a bloody cut above her eye.

During the first week of pandemic school closures in March 2020, Jenkins and other workers were cleaning up after their meal distribution program wrapped for the day when Jones — who later said he and the staff was “horsing around” and “playing dodgeball” — threw a hard, reusable plastic water bottle at Jenkins, striking her in the face.

Provided

The Chicago Sun-Times first reported details of the incident as well as several additional allegations that Jones had created a toxic environment for parents, students and staff.

Given these previous complaints, the school district “knew, or reasonably should have known, that [Jones] was demonstrating a pattern of inappropriate and improper conduct towards both his students and employees,” Jenkins alleged in a nine-page, four-count complaint filed in Cook County Circuit Court last month against Jones, CPS and the Board of Education.

Schools officials “did nothing to thwart his behavior or otherwise investigate its nature prior to the aforementioned battery,” the suit said, accusing the district of “a willful and conscious decision to ignore ongoing complaints and allegations.”

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary relief, accused Jones and CPS — as his employer at the time — of battery, and the school district of failing to remove him from his position based on previous allegations before Jenkins was hurt.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Jenkins said in an interview she’s “not sure, basically, if I’ll ever be 100% again.” She hasn’t been back to work since last spring because of her nagging headaches and concussion, and in January Jenkins underwent surgery for her aneurysm, she said.

“I miss work. I’ve been working at that school for 17 years. I just feel this is something that should never have happened,” Jenkins said. “The kids were who I was there for. I miss Franklin, I really miss being there because it was about the kids.”

Jenkins’ attorney, Peter Tarpey, said he’s seen “a lot of egregious conduct” in his 30 years as a civil trial lawyer but was surprised to read the “outrageous” allegations against Jones when he took the case.

“At first, I thought this has got to be a joke,” Tarpey said. “It was so shocking to see that any adult, let alone a principal, would be acting like this at the school, during school hours, with teachers who he’s basically their supervisor and with children who he’s hired to oversee.”

Jones and his attorney didn’t respond to requests for comment. Jones’ criminal case is set for a bench trial May 6. He faces a felony charge of aggravated battery of a school employee.

Chicago police

Jones files own suit

Jones filed his own lawsuit against CPS in August 2020, accusing the district of breaching his contract, violating his due process rights and wrongfully terminating him.

In April last year, two weeks after the incident with Jenkins, Jones “received assurances from CPS senior management via text and phone calls stating that ‘you’ll get through it, you’ll take an optics hit, but you ain’t losing your job’ and ‘hang in there Kurt, definitely wanted to let you know I support you,” according to the complaint.

Yet at a disciplinary meeting in June, with no previous indication he could be terminated, CPS officials gave Jones the opportunity to resign or be fired two days later, according to the lawsuit.

Later that afternoon, Jones was told he actually had until 4 p.m. to resign or CPS would send a letter to the school community and respond to a Chicago Sun-Times inquiry announcing his termination, the suit said.He submitted his resignation within the hour, according to the complaint, which alleged Jones was “coerced” into a quitting while “under duress” and without a lawyer present. He retained an attorney the next day and tried to rescind his resignation, but his attempt was denied. The district placed a “do not hire” designation on his file the next week.

In court filings in the case, CPS said it decided to speed up the process because the Sun-Times asked about Jones’ status that afternoon and the district wanted parents and staff to hear the news from officials before a newspaper article. The district said Jones was told from the start of the pre-discipline process that one potential result could be termination, and he was told he could have an attorney all along, court records show. Even if he had not resigned, the result would have been termination, CPS told the court.

A federal judge in September denied Jones’ request for a restraining order and injunction to reinstate him as principal, writing in her ruling that there was a “less than minimal likelihood of success” in Jones’ lawsuit, and “there are other stakeholders in this dispute — Franklin teachers and staff, students, parents, and the Local School Council — many of whom would likely be distressed to have Jones at the school while criminal charges are pending against him.” Jones unsuccessfully tried to settle the lawsuit in December.

The case, which started in the local circuit court, was moved to U.S. District Court because one of the complaints, a due process violation, fell under federal jurisdiction in CPS’ view. A federal judge dismissed the federal due process charge late last month and returned the rest of the suit to circuit court.

CPS spokeswoman Emily Bolton didn’t answer questions about either lawsuit, including which officials sent Jones the supportive messages last year, saying the district doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

Read More

A pair of teenage boys were arrested hours after allegedly carjacking a woman in the Bronzeville neighborhood.

The teens, 16 and 17, carjacked a 23-year-old woman at gunpoint at 1 a.m. Wednesday morning in the 3500 block of South King Drive, Chicago police said in a statement.

Officers located the car hours later at 10 a.m. and arrested the teens in the 1500 block of E. 65th Street, police said.

Both are charged as juveniles with possession of a stolen vehicle. The 16-year-old was also charged with aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm.

The teens, who weren’t named because they’re charged as juveniles, were expected in court Thursday.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

Read More

Road rage is a problem in Paris.

You know what drivers do there?

They yell at each other. They lean on their horns. There are fistfights.

Nobody gets killed, but it’s not pleasant.

Road rage is a problem in London, too.

People have been stabbed, punched, kicked and bitten. People have been dragged from their cars.

Almost nobody gets shot. That’s pretty rare. But last year the United Kingdom counted 2,300 road rage crimes.

Road rage is problem in Rome, too.

It was just last November that a woman in Rome, furious that her car had been run off the road by another car, grabbed a gun, walked up to a couple of teenagers and said, “Y’all better call 911 because somebody is going to die.”

No, wait. That wasn’t Rome, Italy.

That was Rome, Tennessee, which explains the “y’all.”

In actually fact, road rage is a problem in Italy, as it is in many countries, but almost never does anybody in Italy or one of those other countries pull a gun, let alone shoot somebody.

That would be a very American thing.

Emboldened to be belligerent

One of the dumbest things we hear from the pro-gun absolutists is that the 393 million guns in civilian hands in the United States make for a more “polite” society. Because, you know, when everybody is armed nobody dares to be rude.

We think the opposite is likely true, that all our guns make us more belligerent. They embolden us to be jerks. Our guns make for busy morgues, not for a more polite society.

The evidence is all around us. The United States is the gun murder capital of the world. But today let’s specifically consider the evidence from road rage incidents because that’s on our minds right now. It’s the horrific news of the day.

A little boy, 21-month-old Kayden Swann, is lying in critical condition in a Chicago hospital, hovering between life and death, because somebody on Lake Shore Drive on Tuesday put a bullet in his head during a classic case of American-style road rage.

Apparently, somebody got angry at somebody else when one car did not allow another into a lane on Lake Shore Drive south of Soldier Field. Both cars continued north, the police say, and there was shooting both ways and little Kayden, sitting in the back of one car, was shot in the temple.

Here’s a safe bet: If our nation were not so damned gun-happy, little Kayden would be home right now watching “Sesame Street.” The drivers of the two cars on Lake Shore Drive still might have had a confrontation on Tuesday, but maybe not. Two Harvard University studies, one based on 2002 data from Arizona and the second based on 2004 data nationwide, have found that people who are armed are more likely to engage in road rage.

And even if the drivers had still had it out, nobody would have been shot because nobody would have had a gun.

Guns jack up deaths

All around the world, road rage kills in one common way. People step on the gas and drive like angry fools and crash and die. That happens everywhere. In the United States, according to data compiled by the online driver’s education company SafeMotorist.com, about 66% of all traffic fatalities can be linked to aggressive driving.

But only in the United States — where there are almost 1 ¹/₂ times more guns than there are cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles — does the presence of guns jack up the number of deaths from road rage. SafeMotorist.com estimates that about 37% of the fatalities linked to aggressive driving are caused by a firearm.

About 30 people are murdered each year in road rage confrontations — mostly with guns — auto insurance industry groups report. And the total number of cases involving guns may be creeping up. In 2016, the most recent year for which we could find data, the number was 620.

All of this makes a mockery of the gun lobby’s mantra that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” The truth is that people with guns kill people, with appallingly irresponsibility and in shameful numbers. We are a stupid country that way.

Any fool can buy a gun

The ultimate irony of how road rage plays out in our country is that the cars and drivers are regulated but the guns are not.

Every legal vehicle on the road in the United States has an identification number, registered with the vehicle’s owner, that can be traced by the police. Every legal vehicle has insurance coverage. Every legal driver has to have a license — and has to pass a test to get that license.

Any old fool can’t just drive a car.

But guns and gun owners are not registered or licensed in the same way. Guns are bought and sold at garage sales, from anonymous seller to anonymous buyer. Gun owners don’t have to pass a test. In many states, they don’t even need a permit.

Any fool can buy a gun.

When we started writing this editorial about three hours ago, Kayden Swann was alive and fighting to stay that way. His doctors said he was making “progress.” Now, before posting this editorial, we’ll have to make a call to see if he’s still alive.

How we pray he is.

Americans kill each other with guns so often and fast. It’s hard to keep up.

Send letters to [email protected].

Read More

A man was in critical condition after a shooting late Thursday morning on Interstate 57 near Halsted Street.

Paramedics responded shortly after 11 a.m. for a shooting victim west of Halsted Street in the inbound lanes, according to Chicago fire spokesman Larry Merritt.

The man, in his 20s, was taken in critical condition to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Merritt said.

All inbound lanes were closed and traffic was being diverted off at 111th Street, according to Illinois State Police.

Read More

MINNEAPOLIS — George Floyd died of a lack of oxygen from being pinned facedown on the pavement with his hands cuffed behind him, a medical expert testified Thursday at former Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial.

Floyd’s breathing while he was being held down by Chauvin and other officers was too shallow to take in enough oxygen, which in turn damaged his brain and caused an abnormal heart rhythm that made his heart stop, said Dr. Martin Tobin, a lung and critical care specialist at the Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital and Loyola University’s medical school in Chicago.

He took the stand as part of an effort by prosecutors to establish that it was Chauvin’s actions — not Floyd’s illegal drug use and underlying health conditions, as the defense contends — that killed the 46-year-old Black man last May.

Tobin, analyzing a graphic presentation of the three officers pinning Floyd for what prosecutors say was almost 9 1/2 minutes, said Chauvin’s knee was “virtually on the neck for the vast majority of time.” He said it was “more than 90% of the time in my calculations.”

But Tobin said other factors worsened the effect on Floyd: He pointed out that Officer J. Kueng held Floyd’s left hand upward, and Chauvin’s right knee compressed Floyd’s side, meaning “the ability to expand his left side is enormously impaired.”

Tobin used simple language, with terms like “pump handle” and “bucket handle” to describe the act of breathing for jurors. At one point, he invited them to “examine your own necks, all of you in the jury right now” to better understand the effect of a knee on a person’s neck.

His testimony comes a day after a use-of-force expert testified that the now-fired white officer bore down with most of his weight on Floyd’s neck or neck area and his back the entire 9 1/2 minutes.

Jody Stiger, a Los Angeles Police Department sergeant serving as a prosecution witness, said Wednesday that based on his review of video evidence, Chauvin applied pressure to Floyd’s neck or neck area from the time officers began pinning Floyd to the ground until paramedics began to move him to a stretcher.

“That particular force did not change during the entire restraint period?” prosecutor Steve Schleicher asked as he showed the jury a composite of five still images.

“Correct,” replied Stiger, who on Tuesday testified Chauvin used excessive force against Floyd.

Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson countered by pointing out what he said were moments in the video footage when Chauvin’s knee did not appear to be on Floyd’s neck but on his shoulder blade area or the base of his neck.

Stiger did not give much ground, saying the officer’s knee in some of the contested images still seemed to be near Floyd’s neck, though he agreed his weight might have shifted at times.

In other testimony, the lead Minnesota state investigator on the case, James Reyerson, initially agreed with Nelson that Floyd seemed to say in a police body-camera video of his arrest, “I ate too many drugs.”

But when a prosecutor played a longer clip of the video, Reyerson said he believed what Floyd really said was “I ain’t do no drugs.”

Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death May 25. Floyd was arrested outside a neighborhood market after being accused of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. A panicky-sounding Floyd struggled and claimed to be claustrophobic as police tried to put him in a squad car, and they pinned him to the pavement.

Bystander video of Floyd crying that he couldn’t breathe as onlookers yelled at Chauvin to get off him sparked protests and scattered violence around the U.S.

Nelson has argued that the now-fired white officer “did exactly what he had been trained to do over his 19-year career,” and he has disputed that Chauvin’s actions were what killed Floyd. Fentanyl and methamphetamine were found in Floyd’s system.

Breahna Giles, a state forensic scientist, testified Wednesday that pills found in the SUV Floyd was driving contained methamphetamine and fentanyl. Another witness, forensic chemist Susan Meith, testified that remnants of a pill found in the back of the police squad car also contained methamphetamine and fentanyl. Earlier testimony revealed that that pill contained DNA from Floyd’s saliva.

Read More

The Blackhawks made their second trade with the Panthers in less than a week Thursday, acquiring forwards Henrik Borgstrom and Brett Connolly, defenseman Riley Stillman and a seventh-round draft pick as part of a six-item swap.

Forward Lucas Wallmark and defenseman Lucas Carlsson were sent to Florida in the trade.

The Hawks previously acquired forward Vinnie Hinostroza in exchange for minor-leaguer Brad Morrison in another trade with the Panthers last Friday.

Connolly’s name had been floated as a bad contract the Hawks could acquire for assets, as the 28-year-old wing has two years left after this season with a $3.5 million cap hit. He could potentially turn his career around, though, as he tallied 46 points in 2018-19 and 33 points in 2019-20 before plummeting to just four points so far this season.

Borgstrom and the draft pick are payment for taking Connolly on. The former was the 26th overall draft pick in 2016 and seemed to be living up to his potential in 2018-19, when he scored 18 points in 50 games as a rookie. But the 6-3 center spent most of 2019-20 in the AHL and 2021 in Finland.

Hawks general manager Stan Bowman has a history of gambling on former first-round picks who fell out of favor with their original teams — Dylan Strome and Alex Nylander are two recent examples.

He’ll hope to similarly revive Borgstrom, who was a college teammate of Ian Mitchell at the University of Denver. Per a source, Borgstrom was a late addition to the trade, taking the place of a higher draft pick.

Meanwhile, Carlsson and Stillman are a like-for-like swap: two 23-year-old defenseman who have waffled on the NHL-AHL borderline during recent seasons and could benefit from a fresh opportunity. Stillman, the son of longtime NHL star Cory Stillman, has played 42 games for the Panthers over the past two seasons.

Wallmark, who played for the Panthers last season before signing in Chicago last fall, had fallen out of favor this season and needed to be unloaded to keep the Hawks below the NHL’s 50-contract limit.

Read More

Police were searching for a car wanted in three separate instances of gunfire Thursday morning on Lake Shore Drive near Bronzeville and on Halsted Street in University Village.

It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was injured as police searched for the wanted vehicle, described as a gray Nissan, according to preliminary information from Chicago police.

The first call of gunfire came at 8:55 a.m. in the northbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive near 35th Street, police said. A male in another vehicle reported being shot at.

At 8:57 a.m., another male in a vehicle reported being shot at by someone in a gray Nissan on northbound Lake Shore Drive near 25th Street, police said.

Then, at 9:05 a.m., police said they received another call of gunfire from a gray Nissan in the 500 block of South Halsted Street, near Harrison Street and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The victim was a female inside another vehicle, police said.

The gunfire comes days after a 1-year-old boy was critically wounded Tuesday in a shootout on Lake Shore Drive near Grant Park.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

Read More

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The gunman who killed five people including a prominent doctor in South Carolina was former NFL player Phillip Adams, who killed himself early Thursday, according to a source who was briefed on the investigation.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said Adams’ parents live near the doctor’s home in Rock Hill, and that he had been treated by the doctor. The source said Adams killed himself after midnight with a .45-caliber weapon.

The York County Sheriff’s Office said they had searched for hours before finding the suspect in a nearby home.

Dr. Robert Lesslie, 70, and his wife, Barbara Lesslie, 69, were pronounced dead at the scene along with grandchildren Adah Lesslie, 9, and Noah Lesslie, 5, the York County coroner’s office said.

A man who had been working at the home, James Lewis, 38, from Gaston, was found shot to death outside, and a sixth person was hospitalized with “serious gunshot wounds,” York County Sheriff’s Office’s spokesperson Trent Faris said.

Adams, 33, played in 78 NFL games over five seasons for six teams. A safety and special teams player from South Carolina State, he joined the 49ers in 2010 as a seventh-round draft pick.

Rarely a starter, Adams also was with New England, Seattle, Oakland and the New York Jets, finishing his career with the Atlanta Falcons in 2015.

As a rookie late in the 2010 season, Adams suffered a severe ankle injury that required surgery that included several screws being inserted into the leg. He never played for the 49ers again, getting released just before the 2011 season began and signing with New England. He moved next to the Raiders, where he had 2 concussions in a 3 game period in 2012.

Whether Adams suffered long-lasting injuries from his concussions as a player wasn’t immediately clear. Adams would not have been eligible for testing as part of a broad settlement between the league and its former players over such injuries, because he hadn’t retired by 2014.

Adams’ father told a Charlotte television station that he blamed football for problems that may have led his son to commit Wednesday’s violence.

“I can say he’s a good kid,” Alonzo Adams told WCNC-TV. “I think the football messed him up.”

John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP

Faris said early Thursday that deputies were called around 4:45 p.m. Wednesday to the Lesslies’ home, and spent hours searching for the suspect before finding him in a nearby home.

“We have found the person we believe is responsible and we are with him at this time and that’s all I can say about the suspect,” Faris said, adding that they had no reason to believe anyone else was involved. “We are currently at his house and we are serving a search warrant.”

Later Thursday, a few sheriff’s deputies were posted near the Lesslie home, which is far beyond an arched stone gate, up a long paved driveway and not visible from the road. The Adams home, roughly a mile down the road, is a modest, one-story brick house with several cars in the driveway.

Lesslie had worked for decades as an emergency room doctor in Rock Hill, board-certified in both emergency medicine and occupational medicine and serving as emergency department medical director for nearly 15 years at Rock Hill General Hospital, according to his website.

He founded two urgent care centers in the area and wrote a weekly medical column for The Charlotte Observer. He also wrote a book, “Angels in the ER,” collecting what he termed “inspiring true stories” from his time in the emergency department.

“I know without a doubt that life is fragile,” Lesslie wrote, according to an excerpt. “I have come to understand that humility may be the greatest virtue. And I am convinced we need to take the time to say the things we deeply feel to the people we deeply care about.”

Faris said Lesslie was very well known in the Rock Hill community.

“Dr. Lesslie was my doctor growing up,” Faris said. “Dr. Lesslie has been one of those people that everybody knows. He started Riverview Medical Center in Rock Hill and it’s been a staple in Rock Hill for years.”

A biography page said he and his wife raised four children, and that Lesslie received his degree at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Rock Hill is a city in northernmost South Carolina about 25 miles southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Contributors include AP Pro Football Writer Barry Wilner in New York; Josh Dubow in Alameda, Calif.; Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia and Nell Redmond in Rock Hill.

Read More