Sunday, January 22, 2012

Rest In Peace Joe Paterno

News came out that Joe Paterno has passed away today at age 85. One day Joe Paterno's name will be fully cleared, but the the world lost a truly great man today. Here are some pictures that represent some of the great things that were seen today and throughout his life. (I do not own any of these pictures.)


Joe Paterno began his football career as a quarterback at brown.


Joe Paterno in his early years at Penn State 


Joe Paterno gets carried off the field after winning 1 of his 2 National Championships.


Joe Paterno named sportsman of the year.


Joe Paterno opens the gates onto the field at Beaver Stadium.


Joe Paterno gets carried off the field after his 400th career win.


Joe Paterno was immortalized outside Beaver Stadium.


Joe Paterno leaving Beaver Stadium.


Students, alumni, and fans payed tribute to the fallen Paterno.


Candles were lit at the base of the statue.


Rest In Peace Joe Paterno 1926-2012


Rest In Peace Joe Paterno 1926-2012


God gave Joe Paterno one last Whiteout in Beaver Stadium .


Bear Bryant greets Joe Paterno in Heaven.


Joe Paterno walks through The Gates Of Penn State Heaven.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Joe Paterno Is Still Alive, Media Credibility Dead


At around 8:45 pm on January 21, 2012 CBS reported that Joe Paterno had died, the report even contained an exact time of death. Shortly after CBS reported this, Onward State passed this information onto its followers, most of whom are Penn State students, alumni, and fans. Consequently both Twitter and Facebook exploded with the news of Joe Paterno's death. Within minutes Joe Paterno was the number one trending topic on twitter (two hours later as I write this, it still is). Everyone thought he was dead, for the next twelve minutes anyway.

 At 8:57 pm the first sign of doubt arose on twitter New York times reporter Mark Viera  Tweeted "Dan McGinn, the Paterno family spokesman, at 8:57 p.m. on reports about Joe Paterno's death: "Absolutely not true." This news took longer to spread then the news saying that he was dead. Over the next half hour this story  slowly got noticed. It was passed on by The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC, and many others followed up with this report. This cast doubt upon the story originally laid out by CBS. Most people however still believed he had passed away. Shortly after that, Jay Paterno tweeted "I appreciate the support & prayers. Joe is continuing to fight." and Scott Paterno tweeted "CBS report is wrong - Dad is alive but in serious condition. We continue to ask for your prayers and privacy during this time." Once these tweets spread and reached major outlets and the masses, the rumor was officially debunked. It took some time for this message to get out, but Onward State almost immediately after the Paterno tweets apologized for their error and declared Joe Paterno is still alive. Word spread quickly and about an hour after it came out, the rumor was dead as was CBS’ credibility.

Once word came out Joe was still alive, CBS had an opportunity to apologize and try to redeem themselves, instead they managed to dig their own hole deeper. Once receiving the information that Joe Paterno was alive, Onward State almost immediately swallowed their pride and apologized for their false report, later their editor in chief resigned. Onward State is primarily ran by college students and they showed more maturity and accountability than CBS, a large, trusted, national news station. CBS took a different course of action, their first step was to say there previous story saying Paterno is questionable, despite it already being proven false. Once they finally realized the report was false, CBS could not simply swallow their pride and admit their error, instead they decided to play the blame game. Their next move was to blame Onward State for their misreport, despite the fact CBS reported his “death” before Onward State. CBS has also never revealed its source for their story, yet they blame someone that reported after they did as misinformation from their source. CBS has now stopped trying to blame Onward State, presumably because people saw through their shenanigan. This saga is not over for CBS there is understandably outrage directed at them for such a horrible erroneous report. Heads at CBS should roll for such a horrible display of ethics and journalism. Joe Paterno did not die tonight, but the credibility of CBS along with the fundamentals of journalism did.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

The Long Brutal Wait Is Almost Over!

In about a month, Pitchers and Catchers will report to Spring Training. The first teams have players arrive on February 18th and the last on February 22nd. The worst portion of the year is almost over, the baseball off-season. The torture is almost over baseball will soon be back, We only have to wait 76 more days until Opening day.

As a baseball fan, I am eagerly waiting opening day so i can watch my favorite sport and my favorite tem, the Mets, again. Also as a Met fan, I hope for the best but I am expecting the worst. The Mets now play in one of if not the toughest division in baseball. The Mets have had a less than stellar off-season. The Mets lost the defending batting champion, Jose Reyes, the spark-plug of the Mets offense. Their acquisitions have not been too impressive either. Many fans (including myself) are calling for the Wilpons to sell the franchise. This will not be a fun year to be Met fan, this year will be filled with low attendance and losses. The one advantage to this is tickets on StubHub will be going for dirt cheap.

Here is the Mets projected opening day lineup:

1. Torres CF
2. Murphy 2B
3. Wright 3B
4. Davis 1B
5. Bay LF
6. Duda RF
7. Thole C
8. Tejada SS
9. Pitcher

The Pitching rotation should look something like:

1. Santana
2. Dickey
3. Neise
4. Pelfrey
5. Gee

This a disappointing team the bench and bullpen still need working out. Definitive players on the bench would be Turner and Satin. Notable relivers include Parnell, Rauch, Acosta, Byrdak, Beato, and Corrasco. It will be a long year for Mets fans, but it does not matter to me. After losing Reyes, I already declared this year a loss for the Mets, I am already looking forward to 2014. Hopefully by then names like Cory Vaughn, Reese Havens, Wilmer Flores, Matt Harvey, etc. will be in the mix and putting up big numbers in Queens. As a baseball fan first, I just want to be able to watch baseball again. Unfortunately, I find it very hard to believe the Mets will finish any better than last in the NL East.

My projected NL east final standings:

1. Philadelphia Phillies 
2. Miami Marlins (WC)
3. Atlanta Braves
4. Washington Nationals
5. New York Mets

It will be a miserable season for the Mets, but I still anxiously await Opening Day, I really miss baseball.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Bill O'Brien Hired As Penn State's New Head Coach

Finally, after two months of rumors and names flying around, Penn State has a new coach, Bill O'Brien, the current offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots. O'Brien is coming into one of the most unique and challenging coaching situations. The Jerry Sandusky allegations has left a black eye upon the university and the majority of Americans currently have a negative view of the University. Aside from all this, the Penn State Football program will go on, and on the field, might be his biggest challenge. Bill O'Brien is tasked with the tough task of replacing one of the greatest college football coaches ever, the legendary Joe Paterno, and all 409 of his wins. Perhaps most challenging of all is the continuation of the grand experiment, the combination of academics, success, and most importantly honor. 

So far, my overall impression on O'Brien has been positive. He has said all of the right things, but in the long run the performance on the field is what matters. Bill O'Brien was definitely not my first choice to become head coach, that was Tom Bradley. However despite many fans immediately coming out and stating that they did not    like the hire, he will do just fine as coach. These fans like myself, would have preferred someone from Paterno's system, however that era is over. In one of my previous posts I defended Paterno stating his innocence and that he was wrongly fired. Despite Paterno being wrongly fired, Penn State Football must move on, the Paterno era is over. It even appears that Jay Paterno will be on his way out as well. It is a premature end, but it cannot be changed so now we welcome in the O'Brien era.

I believe O'Brien will be a good coach at Penn State. Success will not be immediate, but it will come. The 2012 football season will not be one for Penn States record books, nor will the new recruiting class. 2012 will obviously be a major transition for the Nittany Lions and although they will not contend for a BCS birth it could be one of the most important in the teams history. The team and its new coaching staff needs to put all of this negativity associated with the scandal and move on into the O'Brien era. The Paterno era is prematurely over but the O'Brien era is beginning, let Bill O'Brien's march toward 410 begin. (I don't actually believe he will go on to win that many, in fact I hoe Paterno keeps that record forever .) O'Brien's most important task however is not winning games, it is carrying on the grand experiment and making sure Penn State remains along with BYU as the only schools to win a national championship and never have an NCAA violation.