European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 21, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday december 21, 1990 js"2? Jamp a isl v the stars and stripes Pago 25 commentary s a Winner on confession i like a Leonard s / Don t just like it. Every weekend when the show comes on an radio friends Call and we listen to it Over the phone. We cheer the picks we like. Then while watching the games on to we imitate him All night. Like sounds More like obsessed. It never used to be like this t always thought a a Leonard a losers was a cheap prediction show. Some Guy with a Southern drawl who knew nothing about football who never mentioned players or strategy who might be been a Dang northerner for All we knew consumed valuable radio time picking losers for the weekends College and pro football he Wasny to my Type. But Early this season something snapped. One of my gang of football crazies yelled one saturday morning a turn on the radio a Leonard a losers is on a rather than scorn it i started laugh Ingver it. And listening every week. Which is All the Man behind the Mike Leonard Postero wants in radio land. His Corn Pone prediction show has grown from a tiny radio station in Athens ga., in 1958 to Over 600 stations. A it pollutes the atmosphere All Over the world a he joked by phone last a week. A a a a that world includes saudi Arabia these Days. Troops hear a a Leonard a losers on the armed forces radio and television service which has aired the show 20 years. Arts wants Leonard to visit its los Angeles studios for a 20-year presentation. A i done to know if they want to give me a gift or a Bill a he cracked. A a a Leonard wants to give operation desert shield troops a winning pitch this weekend. Its his last show of the year. Yes the pros have another week left in the regular season. But his contract called for 16 weeks not realizing the nil stretched the season to-17 weeks this year. \ not that Leonard is dropping the Ball. When this last show hits Afna a airwaves after the sunday noon sports hell compensate by running Down All the losers for week 17. That a it for 1990. But hell be Back for 1991. Leonard Postero might be 68. But this is a Man who had a heart attack two years ago and insisted on taping his show from an Atlanta Hospital. Make that two shows. A both weeks i went 90 percent a he recalled. A Best Damn aver age 1 had All year in the who is this Man behind a a Leonard a losers and what makes him tick i called him at his Home in Athens a where he has lived forever or since 1922, and where he went to the Liniver sity of Georgia. And where he s a avid Georgia bulldog fan. Where he a mar tied to a Berliner. Where he a a father of five. Leonard has done everything in Athens a i did no to realize until i was 50 or 60 that i could leave. Now i can to afford to leave a he said. Leonard sounds on the phone just like Bucky Fox the radio. The twang. The one line son his radio name Leonard Postos ties a when i started this 32 years ago i figured id make a fool of myself. And i did no to want nobody to know who i on his imaginary sidekick Percy Peabody whose voice Leonard makes Ultra hillbilly Quot i needed somebody who sounded stupider than i on his All stars All from losing col lege teams a he broadcast last weekend a a they re a lot like Custer a standing out there alone without any help in on his predictions which he estimates at 82 percent accurate for the colleges and 72 percent for the pros a being a Genius ainu to never Hurt me. On his preparation which includes compiling a Power rating a a in a dead serious about what i think is Gonna happen. I definitely pick teams to lose and it ticks me off if they go ahead and on his radio script which he spends two hours writing a i have a very Fertile mind. Some people say its full of manure a a. A its mostly full of nicknames. Come radio time Leonard treats actual team nicknames like fumbles he tries to avoid them. He makes up his own the insects of the Institute for the Georgia tech yellow jackets. The red Clay hounds Georgia bulldogs. A the Vatican varmints notre Dame. The foundry workers Pittsburgh Steeles. V the motor City Leos Detroit Lions. He once said of the Tennessee Chattanooga moccasins chances a the water moccasins ainu to got a pit to Hiss v it. T a for a better idea Here Are a couple of game predictions from last sundays a a Leonard a losers a. A la. Raiders is. Cincinnati. The riverfront felines head West for a shootout with the coliseum outlaws in California and if the bengals ainu to Quick on the draw end up full of holes. Art shells band of gunslingers Are getting Down to business As the season comes to an end and be Tough to out Duel in this pigskin gunfight. Leonard a loser Cincinnati. A Philadelphia is. Green Bay Lindy Infante will bring his meat Wagon to the City of brotherly love hoping to choke a big Bird on a chunk of beef. But buddy Ryan has schooled his flight in the Art of watching their diet and big chunks Are out this year. The eagles Are explosive and it take Emall Day on sunday to pack the pack Back up and Send Mem Back to Cheeseville. Leonard a loser Green v and so on. Notice that Leonard does no to mention players. Or anything of substance. Why. No players Leonard explained he tapes his College and pro shows two weeks before the games and players go Down with injuries too often to risk using them in predictions. He would sound like even More of a joke if he said sunday a a Buffalo a Jim Kelly will ride his wild Herd Over Don Shula a swarming Kelly a out for a month. As for lacking substance Leonard says that a exactly the Point a this whole thing is a satire of predicting Leonard hatched this a whole thing 7 in the 1950s, he was spotting Georgia football for radio broadcaster de Thuli Nius a absolutely the Best play by play Man every and statistician Jim Kroger Back then. They were in a cab one night when they started jousting Over de and Jim a prediction Snow Leonard boasted he could do better. Jim suggested he pick losers. Leonard knew the title immediately a a Leonard a started the show in his own room. It aired Over a rec in Athens and later Wool. He switched to the Slick master sound studio in Atlanta 20 years ago. A Liis Wasny to supposed to be anything More than a local joke a he said. Leonard a expansion includes publication of a weekly newsletter with his picks and Power ratings. What about his bowl pick Leonard a losers notre Dame in the. Orange bowl and Texas in the Cotton bowl. That leaves Colorado As no. A Leonard plans to predict All the bowl losers on his 9 10 . Saturday show on an. A. Quot to after which hell say As always a get me out of Here before 1 get out of Here time for a bomb. Just when an to wises up and starts showing All of its nil feeds from arts an radio goes backward. If you tried tuning in to the Chicago de troit game Early monday and the san . Rams game Early tuesday you heard music instead. Now comes word that the Broncos sea Hawks game scheduled for Early monday has been pulled off the radio. Evidently an figures everyone can watch the game on to so who needs it on radio wrong. If you re driving you can to watch it. If you re a shift worker you probably can to watch it. Plus this might be the 1990s, but plenty of listeners done to get an this becomes a cemented policy a like the ludicrous rerunning of a Neucom updated that Cut the evening radio sports show from 15 to 10 minutes a an brass would do Well to Wake up. Radio games Are crucial to sports fun. If someone up the an ladder thinks radio is simply a music medium remember there a always pm the Start and Stripe air Force s Lewis marines Reyes top athletes of year Washington Teresa Lewis an air Force mod Ern Pumi athlete and Sergio Reyes a Marine corps Boxer have been chosen As the armed forces athletes n i ear by he members of governing bodies of the . Olympic committee. ,. Few is and Reyes were selected from 10 finalists a Nve nude and five female a from the sender branches. Niernberg Boxer Bradley Martinez was a finalist As the army Staje athlete of the year., Tewis a Captain at Brooks fab in san Antonio won a Gold medal at the . Olympic festival and a Bronze at the National championships. She is the Only military member of the . Pentathlon team and is ranked 16th in the world for modern Pentathlon which combines running swimming shooting fencing and Riding. At the Goodwill games Lewis won the Riding Competition placed second in swimming and third in shooting. She was also selected As a member of the olympic festival fencing team. The past year was a Banner one for Reyes a Lance Corporal infantryman who is stationed at Cample Jeune . He won Gold medals in All rpm Igor. Boxing events he entered including the Goodwill games the National Amateur boxing federation championships the armed forces championships the .-soviet Union dual meet and the All Marine championships other finalists included Tod Stehman of the air Force Julia Turing from the army Joanna Collins and John Beasley from the coast guard Lynda Soho of the marines and Renita Garnett and James Servis of the Navy. A Quot _. It All 10 finalists will be honoured at a feb. 8 reception in Washington. Quot
