A hacker's broken into the databases of an online limousine service, grabbing details of more than 850,000 customers—including Fortune 500 CEOs, lawmakers, and A-list celebrities.
Medical, military, and ethics experts say health professionals designed and participated in cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment and torture of detainees; seek policies to assure conformance with ethical principles
New York, NYAn independent panel of military, ethics, medical, public health, and legal experts today charged that U.S. military and intelligence agencies directed doctors and psychologists working in U.S. military detention centers to violate standard ethical principles and medical standards to avoid infliction of harm. The Task Force on Preserving Medical Professionalism in National Security Detention Centers (see attached) concludes that since September 11, 2001, the Department of Defense (DoD) and CIA improperly demanded that U.S. military and intelligence agency health professionals collaborate in intelligence gathering and security practices in a way that inflicted severe harm on detainees in U.S. custody.
These practices included "designing, participating in, and enabling torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment" of detainees, according to the report. Although the DoD has taken steps to address some of these practices in recent years, including instituting a committee to review medical ethics concerns at Guantanamo Bay Prison, the Task Force says the changed roles for health professionals and anemic ethical standards adopted within the military remain in place.
"The American public has a right to know that the covenant with its physicians to follow professional ethical expectations is firm regardless of where they serve," said Task Force member Dr. Gerald Thomson, Professor of Medicine Emeritus at Columbia University. "It's clear that in the name of national security the military trumped that covenant, and physicians were transformed into agents of the military and performed acts that were contrary to medical ethics and practice. We have a responsibility to make sure this never happens again."
The Task Force report, supported by the Institute on Medicine as a Profession and the Open Society Foundations, calls on the DoD and CIA to follow medical professional standards of conduct to enable doctors and psychologists to adhere to their ethical principles so that in the future they be used to heal, not injure, detainees they encounter. The Task Force also urges professional medical associations and the American Psychological Association to strengthen ethical standards related to interrogation and detention of detainees.
The report, Ethics Abandoned: Medical Professionalism and Detainee Abuse in the War on Terror, is based on two years of review of records in the public domain by a 20-member task force. The report details how DoD and CIA policies institutionalized a variety of interventions by military and intelligence agency doctors and psychologists that breach ethical standards to promote well-being and avoid harm. These interventions included:
Involvement in abusive interrogation; consulting on conditions of confinement to increase the disorientation and anxiety of detainees;
Using medical information for interrogation purposes; and
Force-feeding of hunger strikers.
In addition, the group says that DoD policies and practices impeded the ability to provide detainees with appropriate medical care and to report abuses against detainees under recognized international standards. The report explains how agencies facilitated these practices by adopting rules for military health personnel that substantially deviate from ethical standards traditionally applied to civilian medical personnel.
Shining a Spotlight on Ethical Breaches
According to the Task Force, the DoD specifically:
Excused violations of ethical standards by inappropriately characterizing health professionals engaged in interrogation as "safety officers," masking one of their key functions;
Implemented rules that permitted medical and psychological information obtained by health professionals to be used in interrogations;
Required physicians and nurses to forgo their independent medical judgment and counseling roles, as well as to force-feed competent detainees engaged in hunger strikes even though this is forbidden by the World Medical Association and the American Medical Association;
Improperly designated licensed health professionals to use their professional skills to interrogate detainees as military combatants, a status incompatible with licensing; and
Failed to uphold recommendations by the Army Surgeon General to adopt international standards for medical reporting of abuse against detainees.
The group also says that the CIA's Office of Medical Services played a critical role in reviewing and approving forms of torture, including waterboarding, as well as in advising the Department of Justice that "enhanced interrogation" methods, such as extended sleep deprivation and waterboarding that are recognized as forms of torture, were medically acceptable. CIA medical personnel were present during administration of waterboarding, says the Task Force. The CIA no longer has detainees in its custody, according to official statements.
"Putting on a uniform does not and should not abrogate the fundamental principles of medical professionalism," said IMAP President David Rothman. "'Do no harm' and 'put patient interest first' must apply to all physicians regardless of where they practice."
Changes Don't Go Far Enough
Despite steps by the DoD to improve treatment of detainees, the Task Force says the agency "continues to follow policies that undermine standards of professional conduct" for interrogation, hunger strikes, and reporting abuse. This includes: issuing protocols requiring doctors and nurses to participate in the force-feeding of detainees, including forced extensive bodily restraints for up to two hours twice a day; enabling interrogators access to medical and psychological information about detainees for exploitation by interrogators; and permitting clinical care for detainees to suffer from the inability or failure of clinicians to address causes of detainee distress from torture.
"Abuse of detainees, and health professional participation in this practice, is not behind us as a country," said Task Force member Leonard Rubenstein, a legal scholar at the Center for Human Rights and Public Health at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Berman Institute of Bioethics. "Force-feeding by physicians in violation of ethical standards is illustrative of a much broader legacy in which medical professionalism has been undermined."
The Task Force recommends a full investigation of medical practices in detention facilities and public release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's review of CIA practices. It also calls for promulgation of rules that harmonize medical and psychological practices with ethical prohibitions on participation in interrogation, use of medical records for interrogation, force feeding, and abuse reporting. Among its other recommendations:
Require military medical training programs, including pre-deployment training, to include human rights and professional ethical principles regarding treatment of detainees;
Urge professional medical associations to strengthen their ethical standards around interrogation and detention of detainees and take proactive steps to foster compliance (This includes disciplining members who have breached standards of professional conduct and supporting state laws strengthening the authority of licensing boards to discipline health professionals who engage in torture); and
Require states to make it explicit that health professionals who support interrogation and participate in torture or cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment be disciplined.
"We now know that medical personnel were co-opted in ways that undermined their professionalism," said Open Society Foundations President Emeritus Aryeh Neier. "By shining a light on misconduct, we hope to remind physicians of their ethical responsibilities."
For copies of Ethics Abandoned: Medical Professionalism and Detainee Abuse in the War on Terror, visit the IMAP website at http://www.imapny.org.
###
About the Institute on Medicine as a Profession
The Institute on Medicine as a Profession (IMAP) aims to set forth a vision for professionalism in the 21st century and to promote that vision through research and policy initiatives. The Institute seeks to shape a world inside and outside of medicine that is responsive to the ideals of professionalism. IMAP conducts research on the past, present, and future roles of professionalism in guiding individual behavior and collective action so that professionalism will be relevant to physicians, leaders of medical organizations, policy analysts, public officials, and consumers.
Task Force Members:
Scott A. Allen, MD, FACP
University of California, Riverside
George J. Annas, JD, MPH
Boston University
Karen Brudney, MD
Columbia University
Richard N. Gottfried, JD
New York State Assembly
Vincent Iacopino, MD, PhD
Physicians for Human Rights
Allen S. Keller, MD
New York University
Robert S. Lawrence, MD
Johns Hopkins University
Steven H. Miles, MD
University of Minnesota
Aryeh Neier
Open Society Foundations
Deborah Alejandra Popowski, JD
Harvard University
Steven Reisner, PhD
Coalition for an Ethical Psychology
Hernn Reyes, MD, FMH Ob/Gyn
International Committee of the Red Cross
David J. Rothman, PhD
Columbia University
Leonard S. Rubenstein, JD
Johns Hopkins University
Steven S. Sharfstein, MD, MPA
Sheppard Pratt Health Systems
Albert J. Shimkus, Jr.
U.S. Naval War College
Eric Stover
University of California, Berkeley
Gerald E. Thomson, MD
Columbia University
Frederick E. Turton, MD, MBA, MACP
Emory University
Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Stephen N. Xenakis, MD
United States Army
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
DoD, CIA required military MDs to breach ethics in dealing with detainees: New report
Medical, military, and ethics experts say health professionals designed and participated in cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment and torture of detainees; seek policies to assure conformance with ethical principles
New York, NYAn independent panel of military, ethics, medical, public health, and legal experts today charged that U.S. military and intelligence agencies directed doctors and psychologists working in U.S. military detention centers to violate standard ethical principles and medical standards to avoid infliction of harm. The Task Force on Preserving Medical Professionalism in National Security Detention Centers (see attached) concludes that since September 11, 2001, the Department of Defense (DoD) and CIA improperly demanded that U.S. military and intelligence agency health professionals collaborate in intelligence gathering and security practices in a way that inflicted severe harm on detainees in U.S. custody.
These practices included "designing, participating in, and enabling torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment" of detainees, according to the report. Although the DoD has taken steps to address some of these practices in recent years, including instituting a committee to review medical ethics concerns at Guantanamo Bay Prison, the Task Force says the changed roles for health professionals and anemic ethical standards adopted within the military remain in place.
"The American public has a right to know that the covenant with its physicians to follow professional ethical expectations is firm regardless of where they serve," said Task Force member Dr. Gerald Thomson, Professor of Medicine Emeritus at Columbia University. "It's clear that in the name of national security the military trumped that covenant, and physicians were transformed into agents of the military and performed acts that were contrary to medical ethics and practice. We have a responsibility to make sure this never happens again."
The Task Force report, supported by the Institute on Medicine as a Profession and the Open Society Foundations, calls on the DoD and CIA to follow medical professional standards of conduct to enable doctors and psychologists to adhere to their ethical principles so that in the future they be used to heal, not injure, detainees they encounter. The Task Force also urges professional medical associations and the American Psychological Association to strengthen ethical standards related to interrogation and detention of detainees.
The report, Ethics Abandoned: Medical Professionalism and Detainee Abuse in the War on Terror, is based on two years of review of records in the public domain by a 20-member task force. The report details how DoD and CIA policies institutionalized a variety of interventions by military and intelligence agency doctors and psychologists that breach ethical standards to promote well-being and avoid harm. These interventions included:
Involvement in abusive interrogation; consulting on conditions of confinement to increase the disorientation and anxiety of detainees;
Using medical information for interrogation purposes; and
Force-feeding of hunger strikers.
In addition, the group says that DoD policies and practices impeded the ability to provide detainees with appropriate medical care and to report abuses against detainees under recognized international standards. The report explains how agencies facilitated these practices by adopting rules for military health personnel that substantially deviate from ethical standards traditionally applied to civilian medical personnel.
Shining a Spotlight on Ethical Breaches
According to the Task Force, the DoD specifically:
Excused violations of ethical standards by inappropriately characterizing health professionals engaged in interrogation as "safety officers," masking one of their key functions;
Implemented rules that permitted medical and psychological information obtained by health professionals to be used in interrogations;
Required physicians and nurses to forgo their independent medical judgment and counseling roles, as well as to force-feed competent detainees engaged in hunger strikes even though this is forbidden by the World Medical Association and the American Medical Association;
Improperly designated licensed health professionals to use their professional skills to interrogate detainees as military combatants, a status incompatible with licensing; and
Failed to uphold recommendations by the Army Surgeon General to adopt international standards for medical reporting of abuse against detainees.
The group also says that the CIA's Office of Medical Services played a critical role in reviewing and approving forms of torture, including waterboarding, as well as in advising the Department of Justice that "enhanced interrogation" methods, such as extended sleep deprivation and waterboarding that are recognized as forms of torture, were medically acceptable. CIA medical personnel were present during administration of waterboarding, says the Task Force. The CIA no longer has detainees in its custody, according to official statements.
"Putting on a uniform does not and should not abrogate the fundamental principles of medical professionalism," said IMAP President David Rothman. "'Do no harm' and 'put patient interest first' must apply to all physicians regardless of where they practice."
Changes Don't Go Far Enough
Despite steps by the DoD to improve treatment of detainees, the Task Force says the agency "continues to follow policies that undermine standards of professional conduct" for interrogation, hunger strikes, and reporting abuse. This includes: issuing protocols requiring doctors and nurses to participate in the force-feeding of detainees, including forced extensive bodily restraints for up to two hours twice a day; enabling interrogators access to medical and psychological information about detainees for exploitation by interrogators; and permitting clinical care for detainees to suffer from the inability or failure of clinicians to address causes of detainee distress from torture.
"Abuse of detainees, and health professional participation in this practice, is not behind us as a country," said Task Force member Leonard Rubenstein, a legal scholar at the Center for Human Rights and Public Health at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Berman Institute of Bioethics. "Force-feeding by physicians in violation of ethical standards is illustrative of a much broader legacy in which medical professionalism has been undermined."
The Task Force recommends a full investigation of medical practices in detention facilities and public release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's review of CIA practices. It also calls for promulgation of rules that harmonize medical and psychological practices with ethical prohibitions on participation in interrogation, use of medical records for interrogation, force feeding, and abuse reporting. Among its other recommendations:
Require military medical training programs, including pre-deployment training, to include human rights and professional ethical principles regarding treatment of detainees;
Urge professional medical associations to strengthen their ethical standards around interrogation and detention of detainees and take proactive steps to foster compliance (This includes disciplining members who have breached standards of professional conduct and supporting state laws strengthening the authority of licensing boards to discipline health professionals who engage in torture); and
Require states to make it explicit that health professionals who support interrogation and participate in torture or cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment be disciplined.
"We now know that medical personnel were co-opted in ways that undermined their professionalism," said Open Society Foundations President Emeritus Aryeh Neier. "By shining a light on misconduct, we hope to remind physicians of their ethical responsibilities."
For copies of Ethics Abandoned: Medical Professionalism and Detainee Abuse in the War on Terror, visit the IMAP website at http://www.imapny.org.
###
About the Institute on Medicine as a Profession
The Institute on Medicine as a Profession (IMAP) aims to set forth a vision for professionalism in the 21st century and to promote that vision through research and policy initiatives. The Institute seeks to shape a world inside and outside of medicine that is responsive to the ideals of professionalism. IMAP conducts research on the past, present, and future roles of professionalism in guiding individual behavior and collective action so that professionalism will be relevant to physicians, leaders of medical organizations, policy analysts, public officials, and consumers.
Task Force Members:
Scott A. Allen, MD, FACP
University of California, Riverside
George J. Annas, JD, MPH
Boston University
Karen Brudney, MD
Columbia University
Richard N. Gottfried, JD
New York State Assembly
Vincent Iacopino, MD, PhD
Physicians for Human Rights
Allen S. Keller, MD
New York University
Robert S. Lawrence, MD
Johns Hopkins University
Steven H. Miles, MD
University of Minnesota
Aryeh Neier
Open Society Foundations
Deborah Alejandra Popowski, JD
Harvard University
Steven Reisner, PhD
Coalition for an Ethical Psychology
Hernn Reyes, MD, FMH Ob/Gyn
International Committee of the Red Cross
David J. Rothman, PhD
Columbia University
Leonard S. Rubenstein, JD
Johns Hopkins University
Steven S. Sharfstein, MD, MPA
Sheppard Pratt Health Systems
Albert J. Shimkus, Jr.
U.S. Naval War College
Eric Stover
University of California, Berkeley
Gerald E. Thomson, MD
Columbia University
Frederick E. Turton, MD, MBA, MACP
Emory University
Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Stephen N. Xenakis, MD
United States Army
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya runs along Fifth Avenue during the New York City Marathon Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013. In a double victory for Kenya, Mutai successfully defended his title and Priscah Jeptoo rallied to win the women's race. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya runs along Fifth Avenue during the New York City Marathon Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013. In a double victory for Kenya, Mutai successfully defended his title and Priscah Jeptoo rallied to win the women's race. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya runs along Fifth Avenue in New York during the New York Marathon Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013. In a double victory for Kenya, Mutai has successfully defended his title and Priscah Jeptoo rallied to win the women's race. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
Runners are screened by police officers as they arrive at the start of the New York City Marathon, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013, in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
Police officers from the counterterrorism unit stand watch over runners who arrive for the New York City Marathon, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013, in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
Runners are screened by police officers as they arrive for the New York City Marathon, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013, in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
NEW YORK (AP) — Geoffrey Mutai looks unbeatable again.
The New York City Marathon returned Sunday after a one-year absence, and the Kenyan star won it for the second straight time. Countrywoman Priscah Jeptoo rallied from behind in the women's race for a Kenyan sweep.
Runners and fans came back, undaunted by tight security, after the 2012 cancellation and April's Boston Marathon bombings.
The last time the NYC Marathon was held, Mutai broke the course record in 2011. Last year's race never happened because of Superstorm Sandy. And after the attacks in Boston, barricades blocked off much of the park Sunday, and fans waited in bag-check lines to get in.
Still, there were plenty of spectators to urge on Jeptoo to chase down Buzunesh Deba, a Bronx resident who finished runner-up for the second straight time in her hometown race.
Nobody was catching Mutai, who pulled away around Mile 22 and beat Ethiopia's Tsegaye Kebede by 52 seconds. On a windy morning, Mutai's time of 2 hours, 8 minutes, 24 seconds was well off his course record of 2:05:06 set in nearly perfect conditions two years ago. He's the first man to repeat in New York since Kenya's John Kagwe in 1997-98.
"To win this course twice, it's not easy," Mutai said. "For me, it's a glory."
Jeptoo trailed Deba by nearly 3½ minutes at the halfway point. She made her move as the race entered Manhattan after a race official on a bike told her how big the gap was.
"I train well, and I was in good shape," she said. "So I tried to push myself to see that I am supposed to close the gap before they reach 40 kilometers (25 miles). When they reach 40 kilometers, it could be difficult for me to close the gap."
Deba was slowed by stomach cramps, and Jeptoo passed the Ethiopian with just more than 2 miles left. The 2012 Olympic silver medalist and 2013 London Marathon champ, Jeptoo won in 2:25:07 to clinch the $500,000 World Marathon Majors bonus.
Last year's events in New York incensed many residents and runners, but there was little sign of those sour feelings Sunday. City and marathon officials initially vowed that the race would go on, and New Yorkers balked at the idea of possibly diverting resources amid such devastation. But by the time the decision to cancel was made, many out-of-town entrants had already arrived in the city.
Plenty came back a year later. A record 50,740 runners started.
The women's race played out almost identically to the last NYC Marathon two years ago. But this time, Deba was the pursued, not the pursuer.
In 2011, Mary Keitany took a big early lead, and Deba and countrywomen Firehiwot Dado chased her down. Dado, who won that day, was 14th Sunday as the defending champ.
This time, Deba and training partner Tigist Tufa separated themselves right from the start. Deba wound up finishing 48 seconds behind Jeptoo, while Tufa fell back to eighth.
"That's my plan," Deba said. "I need to run my best time. My training is very good. I prepared very good."
Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia, who won the race in 2005 and '06, placed third at age 37, returning to the podium after the birth of her son.
Kebede, the London Marathon champ, clinched the $500,000 bonus for the World Marathon Majors men's title. South Africa's Lusapho April was third.
Mutai proved again that when he's healthy, he's the best in the world. He ran the fastest marathon in history, 2:03:02 in Boston in 2011, which didn't count as a world record because the course is too straight and downhill. He also won in Berlin in 2012 but dropped out of the London Marathon earlier this year because of injury.
Tatyana McFadden of Maryland won the women's wheelchair race after taking the titles in Boston, London and Chicago earlier this year. No other athlete has won those four races in the same year. Marcel Hug of Switzerland was the men's wheelchair winner.
Runners, professional and amateur, said they felt safe on the course. Security was tight from the moment they arrived at the start. They were corralled into long bag-check lines, and officers and volunteers repeatedly reminded them to keep cellphones out.
Elizabeth Hutchinson of Seattle recalled the joy at the starting line in Boston this year. People were handing out sunscreen, Band-Aids and energy gels with a smile.
On Staten Island, she said, "the machine guns are very visible."
"The atmosphere is so different," she said, "It kind of makes me sad."
Near the finish, Ashley O'Brien of Brooklyn was ready with a bullhorn to cheer members of her running group, the Hudson Dusters. She got teary-eyed remembering the events of the past year.
"It's a nice time to all come back together," she said. "You still remember why it was canceled last year and you remember Boston. So it's a little bittersweet."
___
Associated Press Writer Meghan Barr and freelance writer Michael Casey contributed to this report.
See if you agree with Gawker that "there's something oddly satisfying about watching this guy kill pumpkins."
Four the fourth year, Tennessee's "Hickok45" has posted clips of various "pumpkin killing methods." They're something of an offshoot (pardon our pun) from his usual fare:
"Hickok45 specializes in doing instructional, entertaining, and informational shooting videos on YouTube."
He identifies himself in his videos as an elementary school teacher. As with anything involving guns, he has many admirers and some critics (judging from comments and blog posts) — and millions of video views (including 4.2 million alone for this instructional on firing a "500 S&W Magnum").
Having lobbed a few worn-out jack-o'-lanterns off the deck and into the woods in his day (just to see them smash), this blogger does have to say he kind of admires Hickok45's imagination.
This reminds us, by the way, that it's almost time for Punkin Chunkin.
For the record: The Two-Way is not endorsing violence against pumpkins.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Marilyn Monroe has a unique place in history and now will be remembered in wax at the Madame Tussauds museum in Washington.
The museum is unveiling its newest wax figure Wednesday. It will be displayed initially at Washington's O Street Museum in The Mansion on O Street.
An exhibit about the late Hollywood star will also include a pin-up calendar and photographs, as well as a shampoo advertisement and lunchbox featuring Monroe.
Monroe died 51 years ago but remains a pop culture phenomenon. She was well known for films that included "Some Like it Hot," ''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and "How to Marry a Millionaire." But for younger generations, Monroe remains an icon of style.
In Washington, a mural serves as a tribute to Monroe in the Woodley Park neighborhood.
A British man has been charged with hacking into U.S. government computers and stealing personal data about thousands of employees, then bragging about it on Twitter.
Lauri Love, 28, was arrested Friday at his home in Stradishall, England, according to a statement from the New Jersey District Attorney's Office. He is charged with one count of accessing a U.S. department or agency computer without authorization and one count of conspiracy
Over the past year, Love and three unnamed co-conspirators -- two living in Australia and one in Sweden -- allegedly planted malware on government computers in order to steal data, according to an indictment filed in District Court in New Jersey.
The group, which planned their attacks over IRC instant messaging, compromised agencies including NASA, the U.S. Defense Department's Missile Defense Agency, the U.S. Army's Network Enterprise Technology Command and the Environmental Protection Agency, among others.
They are alleged to have obtained personal information of more than 4,000 employees for the Missile Defense Agency and "numerous" NASA employees, according to the indictment. The group allegedly publicized their attacks on Twitter.
Government databases were attacked using SQL injection techniques, which involves probing back-end databases. The attackers also gained access to government computers by exploiting vulnerabilities in ColdFusion, Adobe Systems' Web application development platform.
In an attempt to avoid detection, the group allegedly channeled its attacks through proxy servers and used TOR, a network that provides greater privacy by routing encrypted Web traffic through servers around the world.
The indictment alleges the attacks "collectively resulted in millions of dollars in damages to the government victims."
Love could face up to five years in prison and a US$250,000 fine for the two New Jersey charges. He has also been charged in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia for related intrusions, prosecutors said.
Send news tips and comments to jeremy_kirk@idg.com. Follow me on Twitter: @jeremy_kirk
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jonny Gomes arrived at Busch Stadium expecting to watch Game 4 of the World Series from the Red Sox dugout. Halfway through batting practice, Boston's plans changed.
"All I fought for in this year of mine is just the opportunity," Gomes said. "So when my number is called, I'm stepping up. I'm not dodging any situation."
Shane Victorino couldn't shake his bad back. With the Red Sox trailing St. Louis by two games to one in the World Series, Gomes was going to start in left field.
"Came out to the dugout, looked up the lineup card, and now you're going to have to protect David Ortiz," Gomes would say later. "Good luck with all of that."
Good luck, indeed.
Gomes hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer off reliever Seth Maness in the sixth inning, and the Red Sox beat the Cardinals 4-2 Sunday night to even the Series and ensure it will end back at Boston's Fenway Park.
"He's been one of our leaders in the clubhouse," Red Sox manager John Farrell said. "His importance to this team goes above and beyond the numbers that he puts up."
Now 32 and with his fifth major league organization, Gomes has never been an All-Star, never won a Gold Glove. He has a .244 career average in 11 major league seasons but does have some pop — 149 career home runs.
His path to the big leagues was unusual. In an interview published by weei.com in June, Gomes said "I've almost died five times" and the recounted the incidents. A candle and lighter set his sleeping bag on fire during his freshman year in high school; a car crash that sent him to a hospital the following year and killed one of his friends; he nearly was shot during a camping trip in his senior year; he had a heart attack on Christmas Eve 2002; and then he encountered with a wolf.
Gomes made his big league debut for Tampa Bay at Yankee Stadium the following September and stayed with the franchise until 2008. But he was left off the postseason roster that year. In the World Series for the first time, he entered Sunday in a terrible slump: 5 for 40 (.125) with two RBIs in his postseason career, including 0 for 9 in this Series.
While Victorino's back started stiffening Saturday, the Flyin' Hawaiian planned to play.
"When I met with Shane today, he said, 'Yeah, put me in there. I'll find a way to get ready to start the game,'" Farrell said. "As we went through the other work, it became obvious he wasn't capable. And you know what, it turns out that his replacement is the difference in this one tonight with a three-run homer."
Gomes helped Boston get started in the fifth when he followed David Ortiz's leadoff double with a 10-pitch walk that wore down starter Lance Lynn, who had faced the minimum 12 batters through the first four innings.
Stephen Drew's sacrifice fly tied the score 1-all, erasing a deficit created when center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury's third-inning error advanced Matt Carpenter into scoring position for Carlos Beltran's RBI single.
David Ortiz, who is 8 for 11 (.727) in the Series after a three-hit night, was Boston's leader, smacking his hands together and screaming at teammates to get going when he pulled into second base on his double. Then, after the fifth inning, he huddled the Red Sox for a pep talk in the dugout.
"Let's loosen up and let's try to play baseball the way we normally do," Ortiz remembered telling them. "I know we are a better team than what we had shown. Sometimes you get to this stage and you try to overdo things, and it doesn't work that way."
Message heard.
"It was like 24 kindergartners looking up at their teacher," Gomes said, "He got everyone's attention, and we looked him right in the eyes. That message was pretty powerful."
Not long after, Gomes' drive put Boston ahead 4-1.
With adrenaline taking over, Gomes spiked an arm through the air as he rounded first base, yelled and banged his chest with his right fist twice. Teammates tugged on Gomes' beard for good luck when he got back to the dugout, including a two-handed pull by Mike Napoli.
"I'd probably screw it up or mess it up if I tried to put it in words," Gomes said. "What's going on inside here is pretty special, magical. There's so many people and so many mentors and so many messages and so many helping paths and helping ways for me to get here, that there's a lot more than what I could bring individually. And then I step into the box in the World Series and I'm all alone. There's some people out there that need to get praised, and hopefully they take their two cents that they put into my career at some point, and I'm grateful for that."
NOTES: A night after the first postseason game to end on an obstruction call, there was another milestone: the first to end on a pickoff. Koji Uehara caught pinch-runner Kolten Wong off first with Beltran at the plate. ... Felix Doubront got the win with 2 2-3 innings of one-hit relief. ... John Lackey, the Game 2 loser and Boston's probable Game 6 starter, pitched the eighth for his first relief appearance in nine years, overcoming a two-base throwing error by third baseman Xander Bogaerts — Boston's seventh error of the Series — and a wild pitch. ... Lance Lynn was the hard-luck loser, leaving with the score tied and two on for Maness, who allowed Gomes' homer on his fifth pitch. ... Wong tweeted after the game "All i want to say is i'm sorry #CardinalNation I go out every day playing this game as hard as I can and leaving everything on the field."