At last, common sense about time changes

The Florida House of Representatives by an overwhelming 10-1 margin has voted to put Florida on daylight savings time year round. The measure, which still must pass the State Senate and then Congress, gets rid of the antiquated system of springing ahead and falling behind. Most importantly, it means another hour of sunshine for Florida’s largest industry – tourism. And just how important is tourism to Florida? Consider that it employs 66,000 people – at Walt Disney World alone. And then there’s the bay area with its beaches, fishing, cruises and aquariums. When implemented, it will be a big win for Florida – and long overdue. A letter to your State Senator, and later, our Congressional members would help.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. St. Petersburg is planning to ignore their long standing policy of not naming things after living individuals and re-name their library after our 44th president. Perhaps they should first review last year’s Corrine Brown Transit Hub debacle in Gainesville.

2. Ruth Eckerd Hall is asking the city of Clearwater for a 3-million dollar grant to help with their 20-some million dollar refurbishing. The vote is March 1. The city and the hall have always worked closely together, but with an election just days away, shouldn’t the sitting council defer to the new council on this matter?

3. And speaking of that election, the gloves have come off in the race between incumbent Hoyt Hamilton and challenger John Funk with both sending out incendiary mailing pieces attacking their opponent. The irony is Funk worked in Hamilton’s campaign four years ago.

4. We would hope the Pinellas County School Board will not cave in to a thin-skinned member’s request to stop doing business with a long established recreation center because of a flyer to which she objected.

5. Breaking news: Clearwater Beach named the number one beach in the nation by Trip Advisor. What’s not to like?

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. Speed Weeks are over - the 500 just another race. The races that used to capture the fancy of race fans more than any other were the Duel 125s that were do or die for racing teams. It was rendered meaningless by the fact that there were not even enough entries to fill the field, much less having cars that potentially would miss the race. NASCAR has truly tumbled.

7. Quote of the week from world class sports columnist Tom Jones: As great as spring training is, prices are still too high for exhibition games. Anything over $20 for games that don't count and have players you've never heard of playing half the game is obnoxious. Actually, come to think of it, anything over $10 is pushing it.

8. Major league baseball has changed the rules regarding one of biggest time wasters in a game – visits to the mound. Teams are now allowed six “no-pitching change” visits a game. That sounds good, but there are a bunch of exceptions which render the rule virtually useless. Count on still witnessing three hour plus games.

9. He, probably more than any American, crossed religious and political lines. Billy Graham, who died at 99 last week, was truly America’s pastor.

10. Now that the Winter Olympics have concluded this thought from the sports desk at the 5:05 Newsletter - “The Winter Olympics seem like many of the sports were invented by drunk people”.

Spring Training: A baseball geek’s treasure trove

(Tom Jones’ comments above aside for a moment) Spring training in Pinellas County: the Yankees will be here, as will the Orioles, the Braves, the Pirates and the Bosox. But none of their stars will be present. Big names like Stanton, Freeman, Machado and Pedroia just don’t travel. And even the names you might recognize will be gone after two at bats. But it’s after those two at bats that baseball geeks relish. There you will see names like Ronald Acuna (MLB’s #2 overall prospect), Vlad Guerrero, Jr. (3), Gleyber Torres (5), Brent Honeywell (12) and Bo Bichette (14). These guys representing the Braves (Acuna), Blue Jays (Guerrero and Bichette), Yanks (Torres), Rays (Honeywell) are the All-Stars of the future. Enjoy them now because five years from now, like Pedroia and the bunch, they won’t be traveling to away games. Do some research and see who your favorite team’s budding stars are and enjoy them this spring. A postscript: as we were “going to press” we learned of Brent Honeywell’s impending Tommy John surgery – a major blow to the already striped-down Rays.

UP NEXT: World Series winners five years from now; parking nonsense