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A’s Back Lester In Win Over Royals

Published

12 years ago

August 2, 2014

Oakland, CA – Jon Lester made his first home debut with his new team and he did not disappoint. He tipped his cap after receiving a standing ovation after his day ended on the mound. The A’s evened the series with a 8-3 victory over the Royals when they opened up their offense in the fifth.

Jason Vargas threw a perfect game until the fifth. He didn’t allow a hit nor a batter to get on base. Vargas allowed seven hits and seven runs in 4.1 innings pitched. Oakland dominated by scoring all of their runs in one inning leaving Kansas City flustered as they could not stop the A’s at-bats.

“We were able to come up with the big inning,” said manager Bob Melvin. “We were a little stagnant the last time we tried to score. We have the ability to do it, once we get a couple guys on, we can start passing the baton.”

Derek Norris leadoff the fifth with a double followed by a pop-up single lost in the sun allowing Jonny Gomes to reach first base safely. Alberto Callaspo tied the game 1-1 with a single to right field and Josh Reddick followed with a RBI single extending their lead 2-1. Nick Punto followed with a RBI single and left the game with a strained right hamstring after sliding to third base.

“This starting rotation is definitely no secret with their resume,” Gomes said. “Like I said I don’t think it’ll be very often that we score zero like the other night. But with that being said if we can get that lead early and what those guys can do with an early lead, that can help us out a lot.”

Oakland kept the hits coming, a bunt single by Sam Fuld loaded the bases with one out. Jed Lowrie’s single rolled past third baseman Mike Moustakas for the A’s sixth single in the inning. Gomes two-run single cleared the bases with a unearned run scored on a deflection making it a 8-1 game and Vargas was finally chased off the mound.

Lester was calm, intense and strong in his debut. He tossed 6 2/3 frames allowing nine hits, three runs, one walk and three strikeouts. He allowed two earned runs or fewer in each of his last eight starts, going 4-0 with a 1.07 ERA. Oakland backed their ace providing enough run support to make him feel welcomed after exiting in the seventh.

“After warming up it felt a little more normal,” said Lester. “Just getting back into pitching more than anything. Just worrying about that and not living situations or moving or anything like that. When I come to the field this is where I can get away from that, it’s my safe haven.”

“He did good,” Derek Norris said. “He battled, some things didn’t go his way, some calls didn’t go his way. Ultimately, he was pretty darn good to get through that.”

The Royals were able to score their first run in the third when Alcides Escobar leadoff the third with a single, Nori Aoki walked and Omar Infante’s sacrifice bunt advanced both runners. Salvador Perez’s sacrifice fly scored in Escobar for the 1-0 lead.

Alex Gordon leadoff the fourth with a double, two errors at third base put two more runners on but good defense by the A’s kept Kansas City from scoring in their next run. Moustakas lined into a double play to center fielder Sam Fuld who then threw to home plate for the out to end the inning.

“I thought it would be close because he had such momentum coming in,” Lester said. “And it ended up not being as deep as I though it would be. So for him to make that throw was unbelievable especially at that point in the game, already allowing one run and to prevent the second run was huge.”

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Black Artists in America, Installation Three Wraps at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens

TRI-STATE DEFENDER — With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

Published

3 weeks ago

March 24, 2026

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By Candace A. Gray | Tri-State Defender

The tulips gleefully greet those who enter the gates at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens on an almost spring day. More than 650,000 bulbs of various hues are currently on display. And they are truly breathtaking.

Inside the gallery, and equally as breathtaking, is the “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” exhibit, which runs through Sunday, March 29. This is the third installment of a three-part series that started years ago and illustrates part of the Black experience through visual arts in the 20th century.

“This story picks up where part two left off,’’ said Kevin Sharp, the Linda W. and S. Herbert Rhea director for the Dixon. “This era is when we really start to see the emergence of these important Black artists’ agency and freedom shine through. They start to say and express what they want to, and it was a really beautiful time.”

With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

“Though [Davis] was from LA, he actually lived in Memphis for a decade,” said Sharp. “He was a dean at Memphis College of Art, and later opened the first gallery in New York owned and operated by black curators.”

Another featured artist is former NFL player, Ernie Barnes. His work is distinctive. Where have you seen one of his most popular paintings, Sugar Shack? On the end scene and credits of the hit show “Good Times.” His piece Saturday Night, Durham, North Carolina, 1974 is in this collection.

Memphis native James Little’s “The War Baby: The Triptych” is among more than 50 works featured in “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, the final installment of a three-part series highlighting the impact and evolution of Black artists through 2011.

The exhibit features other artists with Memphis ties, including abstract painter James Little, who was raised in a segregated Memphis and attended Memphis Academy of Art (before it was Memphis College of Art). He later moved to New York, became a teacher and an internationally acclaimed fixture in the art world in 2022 when he was named a Whitney Biennial selected artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Other artists like Romare Bearden, who had a Southern experience but lived up North, were featured in all three installments.

“During this period of time, he was a major figure,” said Sharp. “He wrote one of the first books on the history of African American art during a time when there were more Black academics, art teachers, more Black everything!”

Speaking of Black educators, Sharp said the head curator behind this tri-part series and Dixon’s partner in the arts is Earnestine Jenkins, Ph.D., an art history professor at the University of Memphis, who also earned a Master of Arts degree from Memphis State University (now UofM). “We began working with Dr. Jenkins in 2018,” he said.

Sharp explained that it takes a team of curators, registrars, counterparts at other museums, and more, about three years to assemble an exhibit like this. It came together quite seamlessly, he added. Each room conjured up more jaw-dropping “wows” than the one before it. Each piece worked with the others to tell the story of Black people and their collective experience during this time period.

One of the last artists about whom Sharp shared information was Bettye Saar, who will turn 100 years old this year. She’s been working in Los Angeles for 80 years and is finally getting her due. Her medium is collages or assemblages, and an incredible work of hers is on display. She’s married to an artist and has two daughters, also artists.

The exhibit catalogue bears some of these artists’ stories, among other scholarly information.

The exhibit, presented by the Joe Orgill Family Fund for Exhibitions, is culturally and colorfully rich. It is a must see and admission to the Dixon is free.

Visit https://www.dixon.org/ to learn more.

Fun Facts: An original James Little design lives in the flooring of the basketball court at Tom Lee Park, and he makes and mixes his own paint colors.