Flight 370 - still no credible answers

It is the greatest aviation mystery since Amelia Earhart went missing in the 1930s. Unlike Earhart’s craft, Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 in March 2014 carried sophisticated tracking gear – all which was switched off not long into the flight. It is presumed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean after making an inexplicable 180 degree turn from its original northerly flight plan. Since then – lots of theories including very recent nonsense that the pilot is in a Taiwanese hospital – he isn’t and that Chinese searchers have identified wreckage on the bottom of the ocean – they haven’t. CNN’s Richard Quest has written a compelling book on the subject (The Vanishing of Flight MH370) including a believable hypothesis on what may have happened. If you can skip past the self-congratulatory segments on himself and his network, it is well worth a read as the four-year old mystery gets no closer to conclusion.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. In the midst of all uproar about the separation of children, Laura Ingraham had a compelling interview with three mothers separated from their children – permanently. Each mother lost their child to an illegal alien who had been jailed and then allowed to walk free.

2. Pardon us if we don’t buy the argument that President Trump’s tariff policies are harming the newspaper industry. That industry has been on life support for a couple decades.

3. With summer’s temps and power bills going up, we haven’t talked to many people who have bought into Duke Energy’s “same bill every month” plan. Most who ran the numbers found it to be advantage Duke.

4. Speaking of energy, we’re sure it’s Justice Kennedy’s resignation, Jameis’ suspension or Joe Crowley’s loss in New York that the oil companies will blame for last week’s 15-20 a gallon price hike. It cannot possibly be the 4^th of July holiday and a chance for them to gouge the American public.

5. You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you dined at the Steak and Ale on U.S. 19 just south of Gulf to Bay Blvd. The chain’s last restaurants closed about ten years ago.

Sports, media and other stuff

6. It was a July 4^th weekend when we saw our first major league game – a Giants-Pirates doubleheader at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. If we were commissioner, teams would have to play at least one home doubleheader on a summer holiday weekend.

7. This week back in 1966, something happened in baseball that had never happened before – a player hit two grand slams in one game – a pitcher no less! Other players have equaled the Braves’ Tony Cloninger since but he remains the only pitcher to ever turn the trick.

8. Michael Kelly’s hiring as USF’s new AD looks like a big win for the Bulls.

9. Television insiders do not predict a long future for The Connors, the Roseanne spinoff. Many say that once contractual obligations to actors and behind camera folks are fulfilled, it’s bye-bye – possibility as soon as ten episodes.

10. As promised, each summer holiday edition of TBRR, we’ll have a doubleheader in our series selecting the best player/pitcher of each MLB franchise (see back story TBRR 3/25); this week – the Marlins and the Padres. The Marlins have one of the shortest histories in the game and no Hall of Famers. Their top winning pitcher won only 62 games but what an ambassador for baseball – Dontrelle Willis (he was a heck of a hitter, too). On the player side, there hasn’t been a lot of longevity, but former Marlin Giancarlo Stanton tops the list as the Marlin’s top player in their brief existence. As for the Padres, they have a little longer history than the Marlins and two outstanding folks to consider. Anyone who is called “Mr. Padre“ is probably a good choice. Tony Gwynn was a 15-time All Star and 8-time batting champion and first ballot Hall of Famer. A more recent Hall of Famer gets the nod as the Padres best all-time pitcher – Trevor Hoffman who holds the NL record for saves with 601, all but 47 of them in a Padres uniform.

MLB at the half way mark

Three months down and three months to go in the national pastime: Some thoughts – half season MVPs – Braves’ Freddie Freeman and Boston’s Mookie Betts. Cy Young – Max Scherzer and his former teammate Houston’s Justin Verlander. It’s hard to imagine the teams in the AL now qualified for postseason changing. The National League is different with every division and wild card race extremely tight – which will make for an exciting second half. Teams to watch in the second half – the Nationals and the Mariners. Teams likely to be most active at the end of July trade deadline – Cubs, Dodgers, Indians and Yanks. Big sellers will be the Orioles, Mets, Reds and our local nine.

UP NEXT: Goodbye City Hall; guess what icon closed 27 years ago?

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