Casino shuttle boat fire

The coverage of the tragic boat fire in New Port Richey revealed the print and, for the most part, electronic media’s depth of ignorance concerning boat safety. Stories cited Coast Guard reported violations. Virtually 90 percent, if not higher, of Coast Guard inspections of passenger vessels yield violations – the Coast Guard takes their job very seriously. The vast majority of violations, like all those cited in news reports, are the fix these within a certain amount of time variety i.e. they are not hazardous to boat operation. The more serious violation earns the boat a “do not sail” designation. The issue has to be rectified and re-inspected before the boat can leave the dock. None of the issues on the Island Lady came even close to that status. Lastly, let it be said that Captain Michael Batten did an incredible job of handling the situation. He is to be commended; the local news media not so much.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. If we were a member of AARP, and we’re not for several reasons, we would be furious that our membership money was spent on some puffy full page newspaper ad congratulating Sen. Bill Nelson for basically doing nothing – in an election year, of course.

2. Another Sunday, another morning of gummed up traffic on Clearwater Beach and Sand Key as folks try to get to church, restaurants etc. in the face of another foot race that could just as easily be run on the miles and miles of publicly financed trails in our county.

3. Idle observation - at least once a day on the road we spot a car with chrome wheels that are worth considerably more than the vehicle they grace.

4. Number of the week – $11.1 billion- the annual budget of the IRS. Good grief.

5. You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you enjoyed an Italian meal at Vince Anna’s on Cleveland Street downtown.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. Fifty years ago this week, the ground breaking show Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In hit the airwaves. In virtually every analysis over the years, it has been voted one of the two dozen or so best television shows in history with good reason. Where else could you see Richard Nixon say “sock it to me”!

7. Another sign of the times for the critically ill newspaper industry. The Boston Herald was filed for bankruptcy. The Herald is Boston’s second largest paper with circulation slightly less than half of the Boston Globe which is also witnessing its circulation and revenues shrinking.

8. Speaking of media troubles, folks who grew up in Pittsburgh would be shocked to learn that KQV, the city’s top rocker in the sixties, and a respected news channel in this century went off the air at the end of 2017.

9. Speaking of Pittsburgh, if there haven’t been already, there need to be
shakeups in the Steeler coaching staff after a mistake-riddled loss to a so-so Jacksonville. Mike Tomlin’s job is probably safe, but both his coordinators need to go.

10. Exactly a year ago (TBRR – Jan 21, 2017) we wrote a piece about the five sports voices that will forever stay with us – Lindsey Nelson, Curt Gowdy , Skip Caray, Vin Scully and Keith Jackson. The charming good old boy from the South passed away last week at age 89. Saturday gridiron will never be the same without Nelson, and now, Keith Jackson – one of the greatest.

The seven cities without a World Series trophy

Nearly a quarter of all major league teams have never won a World Series. Living in the bay area, we surely know one of them. Other than our Rays, there are the Brewers, Mariners, Nationals, Padres, Rangers and Rockies. The interesting thing is five of those seven could change that in 2018 and it wouldn’t be a monumental upset. Only the hapless Padres and our local nine have virtually no shot. Two stand out as possibilities in ’18 – the Nationals with all that talent and finally a decent manager and the Rockies who made the playoffs in their first year under Bud Black. Both have strengthened some weak areas and could pull off a World Series win this year. Of the seven, our money would be on the Nats.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK: More on KQV; the 49ers and Clearwater’s election