In the more than 150-year history of Major League Baseball, only one player has ever been murdered during a season. That player is Lyman “Wesley” Bostock Jr, a budding star for the Angels in the 70's, who was murdered by a man who would go free just months later.
Tom Rinaldi Presents: Wesley is an 8-part series brought forward by 17-time Sports Emmy Award-winner and FOX Sports journalist Tom Rinaldi that explores Bostock's incredible life, his tragic death, and the miscarriage of justice that let his killer go free. Wesley explores the mindset of man who donated a month's salary to charity rather than accept it while in a hitting slump, the motivations of a man who nearly skipped a career in baseball to pursue the fight for social justice in the late 60's, and the motives of the killer who took his life.
FOX Sports partnered with the best storyteller in sports, Tom Rinaldi, to executive produce, write and host the network’s first-ever serialized audio documentary series. For Rinaldi, Wesley represented the first podcast project of an illustrious career that includes 17 national Sports Emmy Awards, seven national Edward R. Murrow Awards and a New York Times best-selling book.
Over the course of eight episodes, Tom Rinaldi Presents: Wesley detailed Lyman Bostock’s senseless 1978 murder in Gary, Ind., and the shocking verdict that followed. The series explored Bostock’s life in-depth, including the unrest and tumult of the late 1960s, when Bostock was a college student and activist. We learned about his unlikely path to competing at baseball’s highest level and the many hurdles he overcame to get there. The series included a chorus of voices ranging from Hall of Famer Rod Carew to Youvene Whistler, Bostock’s widow, Ronald Reagan to a young Skip Bayless.
Described by legends like Carew and George Brett as a potential Hall of Famer, Bostock’s impact reached far beyond the field. He was an activist for social justice and equality and was a giving athlete who donated his salary to charity while in the worst slump of his career. His memory still brings teammates to tears.
Tom Rinaldi Presents: Wesley premiered Monday, July 18 and coincided with the network’s coverage of the MLB All-Star Game. The first two episodes were immediately available across all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify, as well as FOXSports.com and the FOX Sports app. The remaining six episodes were released in pairs on the following Mondays. To commemorate the release, Rinaldi was invited to throw out the honorary first pitch at a Los Angeles Angels game.
Tom Rinaldi Presents: Wesley was an instant hit, reaching No. 1 on the Apple Podcast Charts among all sports podcasts the week of its debut. The show reached No. 13 overall among all podcasts on the Apple charts, and maintained its status as the No. 1 baseball podcast in America for multiple weeks after premiering.
