Marco: Please don’t become another Charlie

Marco Rubio is, in many ways, a bright young guy. We don’t think he exhibited the greatest wisdom in launching his ill-fated Presidential campaign after just a few years in the U.S. Senate. But success can be intoxicating and Rubio’s career was flush with success before the reality of 2016. The worst thing Rubio can do now is to become this decade’s Charlie Crist – running for every available office in Florida. A little reflection is needed before he resumes his political career which we imagine he wants to do. And keep in mind Marco that folks like JFK, Reagan and FDR fell short in their first try for the Presidency. Your time may yet come.

Around Tampa Bay

1. St. Pete’s Rick Baker has decided not to challenge for District 13’s Congressional seat which the courts took away from David Jolly without one vote being counted. Baker was probably the GOP’s only realistic option for the voting public to tell the courts to let the ballot box decide who represents us. On the other hand, it’s well documented that Baker does not play well with others and a collaborative post like a Congressional seat probably wasn’t his cup of tea.

2. Related to the two top items this week, wouldn’t it be a hoot to have Marco Rubio rent a condo in downtown St. Pete thereby establishing residency and run for Jolly’s Congressional seat? Nah, no one would buy that. Oh wait…

3. The city of Clearwater lost another long-time civic leader last week with the passing of Dan Carlisle who for many years led Carlisle Lincoln-Mercury on Gulf to Bay Boulevard. Dan was very active in the Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club of Clearwater and various automotive and safety organizations over the years. His and wife Nadine’s philanthropic efforts made Clearwater a better place to live.

4. Last week, we did a short item on Record Store Day. Just days later, we read a piece about a local on-line record dealer down on his luck. He was getting help through GoFundMe as is our niece whose home in Pennsylvania burned to the ground a few months back. Thing is, you can help a good bit more by sending the funds direct to the person you want to help as GoFundMe takes just south of ten percent off the top of every contribution.

5. You can get pretty good pancakes at Perkins, Farmer Boys on Drew Street and Olga’s on Belcher Road, but none compare with the great cakes served up for years at the three Robby’s Pancake Houses along the Suncoast. The good news - you can still buy the Robby’s pancake mix on line or at Wilson-Sonoma.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. Much critical acclaim for Ken Burns’ latest effort – Jackie Robinson. Jackie was a heroic trailblazer, a very good, if not great, ballplayer but he was still out at the plate in the 1952 World Series.

7. Megyn Kelly meets Al Sharpton (as they did on Fox News last week). There has to be some Grade B sci-fi thriller in that meeting.

8. Disappointing falls short of our reaction to MLB Commission Rob Manfred’s condoning, no, almost encouraging, punks like Bautista and Harper and their bat flips. We can’t wait to see his reaction when a few of those showboats get the Sal Maglie/Bob Gibson treatment and are drilled.

9. Kobe Bryant is hanging up his sneakers. Let’s hope the Bryant–inspired offensive push off is retired with him.

10. Factoid: the longest running characters in TV history at 20 years each are James Arness as Matt Dillion on Gunsmoke and Kelsey Grammer as Frasier Crane spread out over eleven years of Cheers and nine of Frasier.

Let’s hear it for the Paducah Middle Class White Guys!

As we mentioned here before, we enjoy the Times’ Tom Jones. But like most of us, he jumps the tracks occasionally. A week or so ago, he was emoting about some third tier ESPN guy who wore a shirt on Mike and Mike emblazoned Caucasians. The inference being that we would hate to see an athletic team named Caucasians, or Rednecks or Effete Snobs. Not really. The vast majority of us are not overly sensitive and also realize there are greater issues such as large unemployment in Cleveland (Indians); horrendous traffic in Atlanta (Braves); and in Washington (Redskins) – where do you begin? As addressed here (RANTS – December 20, 2015) a few months back, solve these real problems, then get back to us about thin skinned people and team nicknames.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK – A PINELLAS UNIT IN NEED OF A SET OF FRESH EYES