From Ramona Gardens to Fenway Park

Noe Ramirez made his major league baseball debut on July 3 in Boston's hallowed Fenway Park. Baseball Reference counts Ramirez as the 18,548th player to appear in a major league game, but he's almost certainly the first from Ramona Gardens, the housing project near Hazard Park in Boyle Heights. It has been quite a journey, as Gordon Edes (the former LA Times sports writer) lays out for ESPN Boston. (Gordon hasn't lived here for awhile, but we'd call that the San Bernardino Freeway. Different saint.)

Ramona Gardens is right off the Santa Monica Freeway, close enough to Dodger Stadium that Ramirez could see it when he stepped outside the apartment in which Mexican immigrants Rafael and Maria Ramirez raised their six children. The area long has been known as one of the most dangerous in L.A., described by the L.A. Times as a “bleak bastion of crime” controlled by the Hazard Grande, a notorious gang said to have ties to the Mexican mafia.

Just last December, a small army of federal agents and local law enforcement officials 800 strong swooped down on the project and arrested 38 alleged gang members indicted on a variety of federal racketeering charges alleging drug deals, acts of intimidation and violence, and illegal weapons sales.

“That fear and intimidation is right below the surface, and the community feels it," Los Angeles Police deputy chief Kirk Albanese told the Times. "Even though it may not be as outward as it was 15 years ago, the fear is inside of people, and we're trying to prevent that. This is a war. Today was a battle, and we're going to continue until we win the war."

This is where Ramirez, who learned the game from his father and older brother, Jovan, is composing an alternative narrative, one in which he draws sustenance from family, friends and neighbors who gathered to celebrate the day four years ago that he signed with the Red Sox, a fourth-round draft choice out of Cal State-Fullerton. Ramirez, whose first name is pronounced “No-A” and is the Spanish version of Noah, is the first player from the project to sign a pro contract, and every time he comes back he is swarmed by the kids who now play on the same dirt field he did.

“It’s awesome," Ramirez said after safely navigating the eighth inning Sunday, striking out MVP candidate Donaldson, and protecting a one-run lead in Boston’s 4-3 win, their second straight come-from-behind victory over the first-place Jays. “They support me like no other. That community, I don’t know if I’d be there without them, man. They drive me."

As you would expect, Ramirez's rise from playground to the Red Sox is a known story on the Eastside. He went from Alhambra High School to Cal State Fullerton to the minor leagues, before arriving in Boston this summer. Here are a couple of pieces from when he was drafted, from the Eastern Group Papers and East LA Sports Scene (with video.)