Pottstown Rumble Deserves Local Support

Location of Pottstown in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  We agree!!!

If there was ever a time to come out and support the Pottstown Rumble, this is it.

The Rumble is an annual grass tournament in Pottstown started more than 20 years ago by a group of volleyball enthusiasts.

The group, led by by Ken Kaas, worked tirelessly to grow the tournament, starting with some nets in Memorial Park to become the largest grass tournament on the East Coast.

Kaas and his cadre of volunteers got business sponsors to make the pot of prize money attractive to some of the best volleyball players in the country, some from other countries as well.

Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130618/OPINION01/130619259/pottstown-rumble-deserves-local-support-#full_story

Hazleton Community Center To Open With ‘Major League’ Backing

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

HAZLETON, PA — Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon will be among the ribbon cutters Monday at the grand opening of a building he believes will help unify the community — the Hazleton One Community Center.

The community center, housed in the former Most Precious Blood Elementary School, at 225 E. 4th St., between Seybert and Hayes streets, is an initiative of Maddon’s Hazleton Integration Project, which he spearheaded to counteract a sense of divisiveness he detected in his hometown during a 2010 visit over the Christmas holiday.

Tension between ethnic groups seemingly had increased as the city’s Latino population rapidly grew over the last decade. The illegal immigration debate heated up around Hazleton’s Illegal Immigration Relief Act ordinance, which would prohibit landlords and employers from renting to and hiring illegal immigrants.  The law was struck down, but the ruling is being reconsidered.

Read more:  http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/600911/Community-center-to-open-with-major-league-backing

Reading Royals Crush Stockton, Win First Kelly Cup

Stockton, CA – Yannick Tifu lifted the Kelly Cup high above his head, looked toward a contingent of Reading Royals fans who were gathered behind their team’s bench and let out a loud, proud scream.

The work was done, the title was secured and it was time to party.

The Royals claimed their first ECHL Kelly Cup championship on Saturday with a dominating 6-0 win against the Thunder in front of a crowd of 4,662 at Stockton Arena.

The Royals took control of the game with a four-goal second period and another sterling performance by goaltender Riley Gill, who earned the finals most valuable player award.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=481015

Pottstown YMCA Membership Event Through May 31st

The Pottstown YMCA, a branch of the Philadelphia Freedom Valley YMCA, located at the corner of Adams & Jackson Streets in Pottstown is running a Membership Event through May 31st.  Become a new member and the normal joiner fee of $75 is being waived.  Join now and take advantage of access to recreational swimming year round and join as an Association member for access to outdoor pools.  Hundreds of programs offered for infants though Seniors.

Next session of programs runs June 10 – August 18, with registration for members beginning May 20th.  Camp registration is on-going, as well as, child care for ages 6 weeks through 12 years of age.

Call 610.323.7300 for details, stop by for a tour or visit us on the web at https://philaymca.org/

Pittsburgh Marathon: Let The Running Begin

A map of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with its neighborhoods labeled. For use primarily in the list of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Runners, lace up your shoes, pin on your race number and make your way Downtown to the starting line. Pittsburgh is ready for you.

The course is set, winding 26.2 miles through 13 city neighborhoods.  The bands, musical accompaniment to aching muscles, are booked.  Medical teams will be out in force, traffic will be diverted and security measures, fine-tuned after the Boston Marathon attacks, will be in place.

A race that was on hiatus for the five years before 2009 is now a rite of spring, and this weekend, the Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon marks its fifth year back in Pittsburgh with a record registration.  A year’s work, planning that started after the final runner crossed the finish line last year, will be showcased as the first runner steps over the starting line this weekend.

Race director Patrice Matamoros, speaking Friday at a news conference, said the city is ready.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/let-the-running-begin-686207/#ixzz2SL13YOOH

Merger’s Benefits Mulled At Antietam Meeting

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States Public School Districts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If the Antietam and Exeter school districts were to combine in some form, students from both could take advantage of a minimum of 42 new course offerings.

They’d also have access to 10 different buildings and added athletic facilities.

And have the opportunity to take part in up to 31 new clubs and activities.

“You’d have the capacity to do a lot more,” Kerry Moyer told more than 150 parents and residents at Antietam’s Mount Penn Primary Center Wednesday. “And you’d have the capacity to accommodate a large enrollment (increase) if it does happen.”

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=472673

NEPA Lagging In Bicyclist-Friendly Roadways

WILKES-BARRE — The desire for more bicycle-friendly paths in Luzerne County — from lanes on roads to other areas designated specifically for cyclists — is strong, according to enthusiasts.

The ability to implement them, many advocates have found, is not as robust.  Cycling enthusiasts say Northeastern Pennsylvania is behind the times in welcoming

Counties constituting Northeastern Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

to share the road, even though they have a legal right in the commonwealth.

“We’re way behind the rest of the world as far as having the facilities to be able to ride, especially on the road,” said Louie Colarusso, a bike technician at Sickler’s Bike and Sport Shop in Exeter.  “The majority of cities in America have bike lanes, and in Wilkes-Barre and Scranton you’re taking your life in your hands every time.”

Phil Cable, store manager of Sickler’s, said he lives in the borough and bikes to work when possible.  Drivers are generally friendly, but sharing the road is a two-way street.

Read more:  http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/444128/NEPA-lagging-in-bicyclist-friendly-roadways

‘Catastrophic’ Budget Laid Out By Philly Schools

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Philadelphia County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If the “catastrophic” budget picture Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. laid out Thursday comes to pass, Philadelphia schools would be virtually unrecognizable come September.

There could be no money for counselors or librarians. There might be no sports or extracurricular activities. No dedicated funds for secretaries, aides, or summer school would be provided. And that would follow the steep cuts made over the last two years.

There also could be 3,000 layoffs, including some teachers.

This doomsday scenario comes as a result of a deficit of more than $300 million in the district’s $2.7 billion 2013-14 budget. Officials have asked for $120 million in additional funding from the state and $60 million from the city, as well as $133 million in concessions from labor unions.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20130419__Catastrophic__budget_laid_out_by_Philly_schools.html

Olympic Gold Medalist Misty May-Treanor Coming To Pottstown Rumble

President George W. Bush hits a volleyball back to U.S. Women’s Beach Volleyball team member Misty May-Treanor, left, during his visit to the Chaoyang Park practice courts Saturday, Aug. 9, 2008, before the U.S. team began their matches at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  Very exciting news.

POTTSTOWN — Take a deep breath, Pottstown Rumble fans.

Misty May-Treanor, who with her partner Kerri Walsh Jennings has won three Olympic gold medals in beach volleyball, is coming to Pottstown for the 22nd Pottstown Rumble, June 21-23.

When it comes to the best players in beach volleyball, they don’t come any better or more famous and admired worldwide than May-Treanor and Jennings.

May-Treanor retired after the 2012 Summer Games in London after the pair won gold in 2004, 2008, and 2012.

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130419/NEWS01/130419063/olympic-gold-medalist-misty-may-treanor-coming-to-pottstown-rumble#full_story

Hysterical Interview Of Ryan Lochte On Good Day Philadelphia

The interview is funny but after Ryan is done watch Sheinelle Jones laugh so hard she cries, snorts and they go to break.  Ryan has a new reality show on E! which he is promoting, hence the interview.

Click here:  http://www.myfoxphilly.com/video?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=8787217

A Perfect Marathon Day, Then The Unimaginable

Map of Massachusetts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It was as good a ­Patriots Day, as good a Marathon day, as any, dry and seasonably warm but not hot like last year.  The buzz was great.  While the runners climbed Heartbreak Hill, the Red Sox were locked in another white-knuckle duel with the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park.  The only thing missing was Lou Reed crooning “Perfect Day” in the background.

The winners and the elite runners had long ago finished, when in the Fens, at shortly after 2 p.m., Mike ­Napoli kissed a ball off The Green Monster in the bottom of the ninth, allow­ing Dustin Pedroia to scamper all the way home from first base, giving the Red Sox a walk-off win.

Many of those jubilant Sox fans had walked down through Kenmore Square toward the Back Bay to watch the Marathon.

Some of them had just got to the finish line when the first bomb went off, shortly before 3 p.m.

In an instant, a perfect day had morphed into something viscerally evil.

Read more:  http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/15/perfect-day-turns-evil/W7KQHq1NWFqukte3VQ14DJ/story.html

Reading Fightin Phils Set To Make Home Debut

The Reading Fightin Phils are off and running – maybe not quite as fast as last season, when they matched the best start in club history by winning their first five games and seven of their first eight, but they’ve gotten off to a positive start.

The Phillies won four times on a season-opening seven-game road trip to New Hampshire and Portland.  Not bad, considering how young the club is and how badly things started, with a 9-0 loss Opening Night.

Reading manager Dusty Wathan, whose roster includes 10 players making their Double-A debuts and 12 who are 23 or younger, said he likes what he’s seen the first week of the season.

“I think we’ve done a great job of being aggressive on the bases, of putting pressure on the defense,” said Wathan. “We, as an organization, want to emphasize that aggressiveness (this year).  We’ve been taking extra bases, our steal attempts are up.  I like the way we’ve been aggressive on the base paths.”

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=468571

With No Sellout For Opener, Commissioners Pump Up RailRiders Debut

Locator map of the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Metropolitan Statistical Area in the northeastern part of the of . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With Opening Day for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders fast approaching, the Lackawanna County commissioners raved about the new PNC Field and plans for the baseball season at their meeting Wednesday.

They said fans will love the new $43.3 million stadium and its amenities, though plenty of tickets remain for the return of minor league baseball to the region on April 4.

Commissioner Jim Wan-sacz said club- and suite-level seats are sold out for the next three years, but conventional seating is still available.

“There’s probably about another 2,000 tickets available for opening day,” Mr. Wansacz said. The stadium seats 10,000.

Read more:  http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/with-no-sellout-for-opener-commissioners-pump-up-railriders-debut-1.1464686

Pittsburgh Lands U.S. Gymnastics Championships

English: Consol Energy Center (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics, catered to a Pittsburgh audience by wearing a Penguins No. 14 jersey — not for Chris Kunitz, who wears that number, but to help root the Penguins to a 14th win in a row tonight.

And he called the 2014 U.S. gymnastics championships, which will be held at Consol Energy Center, “the annual Super Bowl of our sport.”

But Penny, in formally announcing the national event at a news conference Wednesday at the arena, is convinced that America’s version of his sport, particularly women’s gymnastics, is every bit as dominant as the Penguins and Steelers have been.

“I’m beginning to talk about our women’s program as having established a dynasty in our sport,” Penny said.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sports/more-sports/pittsburgh-consol-land-us-championships-681183/#ixzz2OqUd0aIi

Bethlehen Mayor John Callahan Apologizes To Wrestling Ref Who Ejected Him

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Northampton County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan apologized Monday to the referee who ejected him from a high school wrestling match over the weekend, a story that media sites across the country picked up.

In an email, Callahan said he should have handled “the incident better no matter how I felt about the calls made during the match” and said he respects that the referee, Dennis Buchman, has “the right to call the match the way he sees it.”

“That said, both Mr. Buchman and I agree that this was a minor incident that has become overblown and unfortunately took away from the great effort and dedication shown by the young men who participated in the tournament,” Callahan said. “I hope that this will no longer distract from the real issues facing Bethlehem and Northampton County.”

Callahan did not return a telephone call seeking a comment.

Read more:

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-bethlehem-mayor-apologizes-over-wrestling-eject-20130225,0,1969119.story

Go For It: Pittsburgh Should Explore A Summer Olympics Bid

Dream big, Pittsburgh.

Duquesne University’s view of the Pittsburgh skyline. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As in Olympic gold.

The invitation from the U.S. Olympic Committee for this city to be among 35 in the country to bid for the 2024 Summer Games is a privilege.  More than that, it’s an opportunity and Pittsburgh should go for it.

Sure, the odds look long. But who, 11 years prior to 2009, could have conceived of Pittsburgh hosting the G-20 Summit?  Not possible, people would have said.  Not here, would have been the reaction.  Get aht.

Likewise, who, 11 years prior to 1996, could have conceived of Atlanta hosting the Summer Olympics?  No doubt not many Atlantans, yet now that city is the capital of the New South and everything has changed.  So it could be with Pittsburgh.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/editorials/go-for-it-pittsburgh-should-explore-a-summer-olympics-bid-676446/#ixzz2LdoHfvud

Reading To Take Proposals To Run Egelman Park; Current Operator Objects

Egelman Park is one of the city’s most valuable parks, so it’s time to end the current lease and take proposals from new groups to run it this summer, City Council and Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer’s administration agreed Monday.

That didn’t sit well with Randy Gaston, who has a 25-year lease that runs through 2018.

He and his East Reading Athletic Association have run the Egelman concessions and baseball fields for 20 years.

Contacted after the meeting, Gaston said he can’t run the youth baseball program if he doesn’t have a field.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=452211

Baseball: Piazza Coming To Collegeville In Support Of Autobiography ‘Long Shot’

English: baseball legend Mike Piazza (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

COLLEGEVILLE — The book is appropriately named.

This week, when “Long Shot” is officially released, a lot of the questions baseball fans have had about Mike Piazza and, of course, all the questions the media has asked Mike Piazza as well as the controversial stories they’ve written about the former Major League star, will be addressed in it.

And the Phoenixville High School graduate — a 62nd round draft choice of the Los Angeles Dodgers who became the greatest hitting catcher in the game before retiring just over five years ago — will be putting his signature on the autobiography during a book signing 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Towne Book Center and Café just off Route 29.

It will be Piazza’s only appearance in Pennsylvania during the publisher’s media tour.

Read more:  http://www.timesherald.com/article/20130210/SPORTS03/130219996/baseball-piazza-coming-to-collegeville-in-support-of-autobiography-long-shot-#full_story

A Super Bowl Victory That Was Baltimore To The Bone

English: (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With a parade on Tuesday, the city will celebrate a world championship that was Baltimore to the bone — perfectly imperfect, an overachievement by an underdog and a surprise to sneering outsiders.

“I tell you what, we don’t make it easy,” said an uncharacteristically eloquent Joe Flacco as the Ravans quarterback held the Lombardi trophy, savored his selection as the Super Bowl’s most valuable player and, in this town, elevation to Johnny Unitas status.  ”But that’s the way the city of Baltimore is, that’s the way we are.  We did this for them back home.

Though it started out that way, there was nothing easy about the Ravens’ win in the Big Easy.  Even the lights went out in the Superdome.

Read more:   http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-rodricks-0205-20130204,0,1206003.column

Tuned In: Super Bowl Ads Largely Disappoint

With no team to cheer for in the Super Bowl, sometimes it really can be the commercials that are the draw. But the spots during this year’s big game didn’t leave viewers with much to discuss.  Fortunately, the third-quarter blackout — and the game itself — should fill the void around workplace water coolers this morning.

This year’s ads cost about $3.8 million per 30-second spot, and even with all that money it’s unlikely a commercial from last night’s Super Bowl XLVII will emerge to stand the test of time.

The usual trends — animals, children, ads for big-budget movies — continued and were joined by spots that encouraged viewers to: Vote for a sequel ad online (Coke), sign up online to get a free soft drink (Pepsi Next) and visit online promo sites (many, many ads).  Viewers who don’t watch TV while on the computer simultaneously surely felt left out.

Although viewers may disagree on the best ad during the Super Bowl, it seems likely Americans will come together to declare the Bud Black Crown ads the worst.  The ads, set in a club with supposedly hip people — “the loud, the savvy, the famous” — made it look like anyone who consumes this beer will instantly be transformed into one of these pompous, poser jerks.  Who wants that?

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/tv-radio/tuned-in-super-bowl-ads-largely-disappoint-673351/#ixzz2Jy5AFqpm