Fan Fare

Thursday, March 13, 2003     Page: 2B

I DON’T THINK the wrestler from Lake-Lehman should have been punished for
unsportsmanlike conduct in Hershey. He was only saying his prayers.
   
JUST CALLING IN to say, Craig Patrick, you’re doing a fantastic job as
general manager for both the parent Penguins and baby Penguins. I’d like to
say now that instead of the house that Frankie remodeled, it’ll be the house
that I built. Patrick, I hate your guts.
    KUDOS TO COACH Mark Belensky and the Bishop O’Reilly basketball team. You
can see they’re a very well-coached and disciplined team. It’s a tribute to
them and their fans. The parents were great.
   
THIS IS TO the Bishop O’Reilly boys basketball team and the coaches. They
didn’t give you any chance at the beginning of the season, and they still
don’t give you any press. You guys play basketball how it should be played.
Go, O’Reilly.
   
I LIVE IN the Heights in Wilkes-Barre and just got back from the Bishop
O’Reilly game. I tell you what, that coaching staff and team deserve a pat on
the back. What a team they have. Good luck wherever you go, guys.
   
I’M CALLING TO congratulate the Nanticoke boys basketball team on a
wonderful season this year. I know they would’ve liked to have gone further in
the playoffs, but winning the conference and district championships after 18
years, I believe, they have nothing to be ashamed of. I can’t wait until next
year. Go, Trojans.
   
THIS IS IN regards to Fan Fare in Wednesday’s paper. To the person that’s
talking about the weight classes in District 2. It’s not the weight classes
that’s watering down the talent in wrestling. It’s the schools, the media and
the coaches who aren’t promoting wrestling that’s hurting wrestling. Not the
weight classes. District 11 has no problem filling all their weight classes.
   
TRADING FRANCOIS LEROUX makes absolutely no sense. He wasn’t making any
money. He’s only going to end up playing for Springfield, not Phoenix. The guy
was a team leader, a solid defenseman and a great fighter. He was a good
old-time hockey player, not like that showboat Bonvie. We’ll miss you,
Frankie.
   
JERRY KELLAR, YOUR comment on coach Brown of the GAR basketball team where
you say he doesn’t get it, I don’t think you get it. You’re comparing apples
and oranges. You go right into your thing about comparing college versus high
school. In college if a player messes up, he has a chance of losing his
scholarship and other good things. In high school, this is probably going to
be the only time they’re going to play basketball, so what do they have to
lose? I think you don’t get it. I think coach Brown gave you a good
description of the way he felt. I think you’re losing college athletes the way
coach Paterno does things.
   
I COULD NOT agree harder with that comment in today’s paper that it’s the
parents’ fault those kids got to play basketball for GAR. In my day, my
parents would never allow any of my brothers to play in any sports activity,
Boy Scout activity, date, prom, anything, if they were caught drinking like
that. They should have called the coach and said, “My son is not playing in
the game, he’s being punished.” That would have been the end of that. If
parents would start parenting nowadays and stop being friends, it would be a
much better world.
   
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM up at Pocono Downs? They stopped TV races during the
afternoon. Yesterday, I went up to watch qualifying races, which I’ve done for
years. Yesterday, the guard says you can’t get in without a harness license.
What a bummer. The place is going to the dogs instead of good relationships
with their customers.
   
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