Reply #: Well if only North East pa voted it would be Senator Gerry McNamara [View All]

[Cheswick2.0]

http://www.dailyorange.com/news/2003/02/20/Sports/Mcnamara.Earns.Permanent.Place.In.Scrantons.Heart-374657.shtml

SCRANTON, Pa. — Cheers, to Gerry McNamara, from the Guinness line at Cosgrove's Clubhouse & Tavern, where never before could one 19-year-old Irish boy claim so many unacquainted cousins.

Cheers from the Carrier Dome upper deck and its 52 busloads of adoring Scrantonians — 2,000 in all — who marched two hours north to flute their support, in a fan club called "McNamara's Band," for a freshman point guard scoring 14.3 points per game.

Cheers from the employees at Stirna's restaurant, just seven blocks from McNamara's childhood home in North Scranton. Raise a glass, because suddenly, with one heroic 3-point shot and one euphoric riot of people fixed before a 22-inch television, opening four hours early for a 1 p.m. Syracuse basketball game didn't seem so silly anymore.

Here's to Gerry McNamara, the toast of Scranton, Pa. The hero, the role model, the kid with a jump shot who's made a steely town of 75,640 feel cozier than a Holy Rosary church meeting. His game-winning 3-pointer against Notre Dame on Saturday, the one that gave Scranton the ending it hoped for? That's all dandy, but any fairy-tale ending requires a fairy-tale story to begin with.

This one begins with a town and its pride for a teenager, a pride so strong that the simple mention of the teenager's name can turn two strangers in Scranton — young or old, it doesn't matter — into playground pals or golfing partners or drinking buddies. So by now, because of McNamara, it's safe to say Scranton's pretty much run out of strangers.