Published: August 20, 2006 12:09 am      

TIM SCHMITT: Gronkowski deserved a better fate

COMMENTARY

If things don’t pan out in Pittsburgh, and it’s a distinct possibility they won’t, Williamsville North football star Rob Gronkowski will be stuck without a school when the season kicks off.

Too bad.

Gronkowski is as good as we grow ’em and as Jonah Bronstein’s story explained on Saturday, sources said his departure had more to do with a possible suspension than the level of competition. The tight end has gotten offers from major players throughout the country, including Ohio State, Maryland and Arizona.

But when his father, Gordon, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “There’s just not the quality of football in the state of New York that there is here,” it might have sealed his son’s playing fate.

Gronkowski faces a blitz on Monday — a Pennsylvania athletic board will decide if he’s eligible. Pennsylvania schools don’t allow transfers for athletic purposes.

If Gronkowski was facing a suspension, his best bet would have been to serve it and move on. Colleges are still frothing to get a crack at him.

But with drama comes additional baggage. Now, if Gronkowski doesn’t get in, he’ll be forced to sheepishly return. He could go back to Williamsville North, but might try to play with a Catholic school team like St. Francis.

It’s not the way a blue-chip football recruit — something that’s scarce in Western New York — should have to spend his senior season.

•••

All it takes is a few minutes with Cal Kern, the Grand Island man who’s trying to bring baseball back to the Falls, and you get the vibe that he’ll get things done.

Kern is retired and needs a hobby, especially since his son Brett has gone off to punt for the University of Toledo.

So Kern is pushing to get a New York Collegiate Baseball League team, and the league’s ecstatic about the possibility of playing at Sal Maglie Stadium.

The move makes perfect sense.

A number of former New York-Penn League cities now have teams in the NYCBL — Watertown, Elmira and Geneva to name a few — and the financial requirement is reasonable, starting at about $100,000 over a three-year period.

Not sure if Kern has the strength to pull it off? Shake his hand and see.

The Kenmore East grad nearly ripped mine off when he came into pitch the idea.

•••

Waiting isn’t the problem. The finished product is.

If J.P. Losman can blossom into a serious quarterback — and Friday’s loss to Cincinnati was a surprising endorsement in my eyes — than he deserves all the time necessary.

Losman’s mechanics still remind me of Danny Wuerffel, but the big play capabilities he showed on Saturday make him worth the roller-coaster ride.

Let’s face facts — this isn’t the year the Bills break their Super Bowl jinx. But if Losman truly develops, and his maturity since being named the “front-runner” leads me to believe he might, it’s time to wait this thing out.

Remember, the Bills went 4-12 in Jim Kelly’s first year, but few of those games were boring.

Group sports editor Tim Schmitt’s column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Contact him at 282-2311, Ext. 2266.