Is Ybor City a fait accompli?

St. Pete (or shall we say Pinellas County) gave up without much of a struggle and it appears Ybor City will be the most likely site for a new baseball stadium. Will it turn attendance around? Yes for a year or two. Then it will be just like Miami and back to crowds in the four figures every night. The bay area is a great baseball market – for the four or five weeks of spring training. It simply doesn’t have the demographics or the corporate sluggers to support an 82-game season no matter where you locate a new stadium.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. Florida’s legislature is kicking around term limits for county school boards – not a good idea unless it applies to Hillsborough County where the limit should be “time served”.

2. Happy 70^th birthday to Clearwater’s first radio station – WTAN – still broadcasting since 1948 - now from studios on N. Myrtle Avenue in Clearwater. For most of its history, the studios sat right on Clearwater’s Bayfront, and at its zenith, it was a strong AM/FM combo.

3. State Rep. Joe Gruters has been named to Amtrak’s board of directors. Given Amtrak’s record of the past two weeks, we can only surmise captaincy of the Titanic was not available.

4. Attorney General Jeff Sessions drew some heat last week with his suggestion that maybe Americans should take a few more aspirin and a few less opioids. That just doesn’t seem to fly with this generations’ need for instant gratification or relief.

5. You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you shopped at the Food Fair grocery store at Gulf to Bay and Duncan Ave.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. Just a thought related to our lead item. If the bay area’s major league baseball team is going to move to Tampa, at least rename them with a brand that has some legacy – the Tampa Tarpons. Think of what it would do in new merchandise sales alone!

7. Hottest selling baseball apparel in the last two weeks – anything with the Cleveland Indians’ 70-year-old logo on it.

8. Chutzpah defined: a 5-11 team raising ticket prices after yet another year of declining attendance.

9. It’s only logical to assume that Josh McDaniels is the Patriot’s head coach in waiting after he passed on the top job with the Colts. Many rumors suggest that next season will be Bill Belichick’s last as head coach.

10. Back in the day we had AP and UPI for our international news, now we have the 5:05 Newsletter with this report from Great Britain: Princess Charlotte went to her first day of nursery school last week. It was a little intimidating for the other kids… for “Show and Tell,” she brought Scotland.

52: One for the ages

Some thoughts on last week’s Super Bowl…Scratch another team off the list of those who have never won a Super Bowl, there still are 14 who have not (more on that in a future issue)…Big rivalry between east and west Pennsylvania - Flyers-Penguins, Phils-Pirates etc. but last Sunday everybody in the western part of the Keystone State was rooting for the Eagles to keep the Patriots from that 6^th title – a distinction held only by the Steelers…To win, the Eagles had to play a perfect game – and they did…Credit to Al Michaels for correctly saying that a single turnover would decide the game and it did…His broadcast partner Chris Collingsworth needs to decide if he wants to analyze the game or ref it…But Collingsworth is right in joining several others who say the catch rule has to be fixed right now…Despite the high octane offenses, SB 52 had the lowest rating since ’09…If Horatio Alger were still alive, he’d surely write a book about Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles…Amazing how some Boston media and fandom has turned on Bill Belichick after the Patriots loss. Can only think of about 20 teams who would welcome him tomorrow….Finally, we just don’t recall a better Super Bowl.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK: Bad way to choose lawmen; pitchers and catchers