Tommy Bilotti was born with athletic ability that was developed during his early years at Palisades West where he earned a statewide reputation as an athlete at George Washington High School as a baseball and football star. He set school and state records and led his American Legion baseball team in all categories. College football and baseball scouts and Major league baseball representatives and scouts followed him every game he participated in. Ted Piano a former minor league star became his baseball mentor, while Carmine Longo, a swab honest businessman working for dishonest men became Tommy's friends. Palisades West was a gambler's paradise, where loan sharks obligated to pay the mob for the right to run their business were easy to find. A bet could be placed in most corner stores and young men played craps and gin rummy in social clubs, in the parks, or on deserted street corners. No one in law enforcement paid attention. Gambling was expected and it harmed no one, they concluded at police headquarters and by the cop on the beat. Tommy was part of the gambling environment that eventually led him to Frankie Pellegrino Jr. who unlike his friend Carmine Longo was one day to become his nemesis and a threat to his family and career.