I’m just glad I’ll be spending my Friday night with all of the other Satan-worshipping, fireworks lovers in Williamson County.
From the Times Leader’s Van Rose.
If you want to watch the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons home opener tonight, you™ll have to be there in person. And don™t stick around for the postgame fireworks.
WNEP-TV (Channel 16), which traditionally televises the home opener, won™t be broadcasting tonight™s 7:05 game against Norfolk at Lackawanna County Stadium because it™s Good Friday, the day that Christians believe Jesus Christ was crucified.
WNEP President and General Manager C. Lou Kirchen said on an April 5 broadcast: œGood Friday is not an appropriate day for us to do that. Kirchen was not available for comment on Thursday.
Dennis Fisher, the news director at WNEP, declined to comment when asked if the game was not being televised because it™s Good Friday.
œAll I can tell you is that we have no comment on the matter, Fisher said.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre General Manager Jeremy Ruby said he™s not surprised by Channel 16™s decision. He also decided against holding the postgame fireworks show after the game.
œWe were getting pressure from the Catholic community, and that™s understandable, Ruby said.
Presumably, the local Catholic community and everyone else in the region have no problem with the Red Barons employing Mick “Mankind” Foley as tonight’s guest of honor. Jesus was only crucified once ; Mick’s endured far worse punishment for our entertainment on many occasions.
One of the greatest things I was lucky enough to witness live on Channel 16: a fired/outgoing video editor decided to fuck with the footage of that day’s birth of a baby bear at the Scranton Zoo, so while the anchor was recounting the story, they cut away to footage of the momma bear spewing its afterbirth all over the place. Obviously meant to have been , uh, “cut”. The anchor’s facial expression was worth a million dollars.