TOP OF THE WEEK:

There was a name omitted in last week’s Top of the Week when we mentioned some legends who have left us in recent weeks. That name was Gerry Goffin. Goffin along with his former wife, Carole King, created magic in the 1960s with “Go Away Little Girl”, “Hey Girl” and dozens more including perhaps their best effort, the moving “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”. The two worked in the iconic Brill Building in New York City along with a few other names who have penned a tune or two – Sedaka, Bacharach and Diamond – to mention three. The book that details the building and era Always Magic in the Air by Ken Emerson is one of the best two or three books about that time and its music.

Around the Bay –

1. Charlie Crist talks of going to Cuba. Why - to open a branch office of Morgan and Morgan?

2. The city of Clearwater spends $125K for a downtown study whose results tell them what a dozen moderately intelligent residents could have told them for free. This blog, crafted by not even moderately intelligent people, has aired two of the issues over the past month. The study will join dozens of others on a shelf at City Hall.

3. Ed Armstrong, one of the most successful land use attorneys in the Bay area, was recently appointed to the board of the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFMD). This sent the environmentalists howling. Thing is the guy probably knows more about water management issues than 80 percent of the people already on that board.

4. Another less illustrious attorney recently charged with moral turpitude was otherwise portrayed as a white knight who defends homeowner and condo associations against all sorts of miscreants. That same branch of the law also protects inept and sometimes law breaking association officers against the homeowners they supposedly serve not to mention the state of Florida.

5. Our Rants and Raves focus group (which is comprised of three old, cranky people) reminds us that the holiday we celebrated this weekend is Independence Day – not the 4^th of July lest we forget.

The Diamond, the Media and Other Stuff –

6. The National League East is the weakest division in baseball this year. And every year, they have the weakest telecast teams. Miami’s Waltz and Hutton along with Washington’s Carpenter and Santangelo are two sets of whiny homers. The Mets have Ron Darling, need we say more? In the last fifteen years Philadelphia has gone from having the elite broadcast team in the game with Ashburn, Kalas and Wheeler to something very mediocre. Atlanta has one of the game’s better analysts in Joe Simpson but he is saddled with Chip Caray who is one of those guys in the business solely because of his last name (see also Buck and Schaap).

7. In a related note, why can’t broadcast “teams” be inducted into the broadcaster’s wing at the Hall of Fame? Granted Harry Kalas is already there but the team he worked with in the 70s and 80s should be there as well – Ashburn, Wheeler and Andy Musser. Same goes for Atlanta’s team of the 80’s and 90’s Ernie Johnson, Pete Van Weiren and Skip Caray.

8. Worst umpires in baseball? Last year’s polling had the trio of Angel Hernandez, C. B. Bucknor and “Country Joe” West at the top or bottom depending on how you look at it. What? No Laz Diaz or Bob “Balk A Day” Davidson?

9. Wake us when all the falderal over the LeBron James free agency is over.

10. As the NFL pre-season approaches (wasn’t the Super Bowl three weeks ago?), a lot of folks are still shocked by how one-sided the event was. But no one should have been surprised by the way Denver’s John Fox was out coached. The bigger surprise was his recent contract extension. This time next year, he well could be without one of the NFL’s elite quarterbacks, and he will instantly become a 6-10 coach and then a coordinator of a 4-12 team. Maybe like Pete Carroll, with a third try, Fox will win a Super Bowl but strongly doubt it. The over/under on Fox getting a copy of the home game from the Broncos is eighteen months.

IN CLOSING:

Recently some Ray’s fan was banned from games for the rest of the year for “improper cowbell etiquette.” This leads us to try to recall how many cowbells rang out when Bobby Thomson hit the shot heard round the world or when Maz shocked the Yankees in the 1960 World Series or when Nolan Ryan notched his seventh no-hitter at age 44 in 1991. The answer is the same for all three and thousands of other memorable baseball events – none. Cowbells are best reserved for little Johnny’s first hit in T-Ball not for a strikeout at a major league game. Tampa Bay will never be recognized as a legitimate major league venue until they do away with those bush league noise makers.