Times Leader

Saturday, October 27, 2001 Page: 2B

ALL YOU NAYSAYERS of Joe Paterno should be ashamed of yourselves saying Joe
Paterno doesn’t have it anymore. He just coached a fantastic football game. Go
Penn State.

THIS IS FROM a Notre Dame fan. I’d like to congratulate Joe Paterno for
breaking the record and if Penn State fans ever want to get rid of him, we’ll
take him over at Notre Dame.
should attend the annual Paul Marranca coaching
clinic on how to win big games. They beat Pittston and they beat the Bulldogs.
It’s a clinic worth attending, coach.

LAST YEAR I called into Fanfare to express the same opinion I’m expressing
now regarding Joe Paterno. They won their first game and he acts like he won
the Big Ten and a bowl game. And his fans act the same way. I will repeat what
I said last fall when he was losing. The team is fair and it’s obvious the
coaching is the problem. How could they have been so good at Northwestern and
lose those first four games? As long as he is there, the true potential of
players will never be realized.

’S football team doesn’t get much respect, they beat
West Scranton and Pittston Area, who was undefeated, and they beat Berwick at
Berwick. So sports fans, how about that?

THIS IS FOR coach Armillay. You should use coach Marranca’s philosophy of
letting the kids play other sports, especially baseball. It seems to work for
him. He beat you and he beat the Bulldogs. Less time practicing in the spring,
coach, and more time preparing properly in the fall.

TO THE ATHLETIC directors of the Wyoming Valley Conference. In Bradford and
Wyoming county, they have three-man officials doing soccer and basketball
games. Why don’t they do it here? Because of money. You guys are cheap.
Realize money is not everything. Good officiating means control of the game.

I’M JUST CALLING in to make a comment on the Wyoming Area-Berwick game on
Friday night. It was one of the best-played games I’ve seen in a long time. I
thought the officials had an excellent game. I’m reading your article here and
it doesn’t surprise me one bit that George Curry is crying and complaining
about the last play of the game. The better team won the game. Another thing
that doesn’t surprise me is how they can get away with playing a fire siren in
the end zone when the quarterbacks are up to the line calling signals. I tip
my hat to the officials and Wyoming Area.

THE BREEDERS CUP, one of the biggest events in horse racing of the year and
not one mention of it in your sports section. The other local newspaper had a
complete write-up of it. It almost makes a person want to switch papers.

FIRST OF ALL I’d like to say congratulations to Wyoming Area. My second
comment would be to coach George Curry of Berwick. He can never give credit to
his opponent for winning and can never take blame for a loss. Now he is saying
the ball was in by a yard and nobody wanted to make the call. Let’s wake up
George, everybody’s on to your game.

in who are so jealous of the Yankees, saying they
bought their team, should really realize what they’re talking about. Andy
Pettitte came up through the farm system. Jorge Posada came up through the
farm system. Tino Martinez was acquired in a trade. Soriano came up through
the farm system. Jeter came up through the farm system. Brosius was acquired
in a trade. Paul O’Neill was acquired in a trade. Bernie Williams came up
through the farm system and Chuck Knoblauch was acquired in a trade ... and
the greatest of them all, Mariano Rivera, came up through the farm system. Now
they should really get a clue about what they’re talking about. Where do they
think the Diamondbacks got Randy Johnson from?

WILL YOU PLEASE have Mr. Sembrat please explain to the people calling in
about the Penguins that the purpose of an AHL team is to groom future NHL
players. It’s not fit to entertain us.

and another crying George Curry. He’ll be crying
about the Wyoming Area game. It’s amazing. He just can’t understand and accept
defeat. Congratulations Warriors. Great job.

I’M A LITTLE confused with the high school playoffs. Wyoming Area will at
least tie for its division title. They beat the preseason favorite Pittston
Area. They beat perennial state power Berwick. They’re going to tie for their
conference title and yet they’re not going to make the playoffs. And yet a
team in the division that finishes behind them is going to make the playoffs.
I hope the PIAA takes a good look at this.

Editor’s note: Wyoming Area needs to beat Coughlin next week to tie for the
division title.

I TAKE A little exception to that comment about the Yankees buying
everything. The Yankees have more people on their team from their farm system
than any other team. The Yankees farm system is tops in the league. Yes it
does take good money to keep good players.

JUDGING FROM SOME recent Fan Fare calls, these red-hot, diehard Penguins
fans are getting ready to jump ship after a few early-season losses. Come on
guys, this is the life of a minor league team. There’s always a lot of
personnel changes from year to year. Get used to it.

listened all year how the Pittston Area Patriots
were going to beat the Bulldogs because they have them at home. Well Pittston,
we’re celebrating on the West Side. We didn’t have them at home. We went to
Crispin Field and beat them. How sweet it is. To all the sports writers out
there, remember when it’s time to vote for coach of the year, Paul Marranca
has won the big games with one of the smallest schools. Thanks a lot, your
coverage in the paper has been great.

THERE’S A NEW twist in the Valley to an old saying. Glenn Patrick must go.

SHOULD VALLEY WEST beat Williamsport, it appears that the Spartans would
still wind up 10 or 20 points short of Abington Heights. What a travesty it
would be for Abington Heights to represent our district, in view of the fact
they lost to Williamsport and Valley West by a combined score of 62-23. Who
was the brain trust that came up with this system? The 4A schools can only
thank their local brain trust for screwing up the league.

LAST NIGHT I went to a tavern for a little get-together. I walked around
talking to people and not one person mentioned the World Series. Maybe it’s
because the Yankees are in their 700th World Series and playing an unknown
team from Arizona, I guess it is. And they’re going to be playing late at
night on a second-rate TV network. Anybody want to guess what the ratings will
be or who’s going to win?