TOP OF THE WEEK:

Through a circuitous (to be charitable) process, St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman reached out to the largest community to his north to snare his new police chief – Clearwater’s Tony Holloway. After a $15,000 half-year search failed to please the city’s big spending mayor, he dumped all four finalists and went to Holloway who agreed to take on what could be a thankless job. Holloway took an already good police department in Clearwater, crafted by Sid Klein, and made a few needed improvements. His tenure was not without hiccups – mainly to due to some loose supervision on lower levels and the few rogue cops that every department of any size is saddled with. Clearwater says initially it will look internally. There is an opportunity for City Manager Bill Horne to again break new ground as he did hiring Holloway as the city’s first minority chief. One of the top candidates is deputy chief Sandra Wilson who could join a growing number of female top cops in the region.

Around the Bay –

1. Quote of the week: “I am the vessel” – perennial candidate for some office, Charlie Crist. Thanks for teeing it up Charlie. What vessel – the Titanic? The Costa Concordia? Or more appropriately one of the Q Ships of World War II which would run up whatever flag was appropriate during times of hostilities.

2. With all the changes at the Clearwater Municipal Marina, some folks are worried that the next step might be privatization of the nearly 70-year-old facility. Rest assured that would require a city-wide referendum, and we don’t think the city electorate is that stupid. Still the current changes at the facility are troublesome.

3. Speaking of the marina, there are very few of the old guard around anymore – the veteran skippers who were there almost from the beginning of the marina. Guys like Captains John Topicz, Bill Burk and Wayne Markham are still around on a daily basis. But you don’t see enough of Captains Maxie Foster, Sandy Haggert, Tom Hylton and Dave Spaulding anymore. All seven of those guys are a walking history of Clearwater’s outstanding fishing industry.

4. Despite some incredible challenges, Dunedin Elementary goes from F to C and the principal is demoted. Imagine if this had happened in the financial sector. Said principal would have been named President for Life and given a seven figure bonus.

5. If you’ve lived in Clearwater for a while, you probably know the name Howard Groth. Howard was an indefatigable advocate for affordable housing – serving on the Clearwater Housing Authority for well over a decade. Howard passed away earlier this month at age 98. His efforts on behalf of affordable housing live on.

The Diamond, Media and Other Stuff –

6. This is truly a great time for baseball wonks. The last few days before the trading deadline – the time when teams can trade players without getting waivers. Like the last few days before Christmas when you wonder what you will find in your stocking.

7. One of the funniest thoughts prior to today’s (July 27) Hall of Fame Induction was to have a veteran umpire do the introduction for Bobby Cox and then run the all-time ejections leader before he could give his speech.

8. CBS will allow their football announcers to decide individually whether they want to use the word Redskins in reference to Washington’s football squad. My, isn’t that special. Guess we should allow MLB, ESPN and other baseball announcers to decide if they want to call Atlanta’s team the Braves or Cleveland’s team the Indians. And then there’s the Golden State Warriors. Come on folks, there are much more important things in this world.

9. Our Rants and Raves focus group (comprised of three old, cranky people) determines that what those “Important Privacy Notice” documents you receive from everybody and his brother mean is that you have no privacy. (Margin of Error – plus or minus 50 per cent).

10. A lot of baseball this week. Probably should say something about the World Cup – glad it’s over.

IN CLOSING:

A follow up to our rant of a few weeks ago about why major league players (especially pitchers) can’t bunt: Remember when you played little league or whatever, the best athlete on your team was almost always the pitcher? What happens between then and the majors? On a random date a few weeks ago here were the batting averages of the starting pitchers in the four National League games played that night (we did not use interleague games as AL pitchers are even more dreadful) - .143, .000, .042, .167, .000 (in 12 starts), .113 (actually the averages of the Mets and Braves starters added together) and .226 – Clayton Kershaw can not only pitch but he hits pretty well. Think back to Dick Hall of the Pirates who not only pitched but played a little third base; Don Drysdale often pinch hit; George Brett’s brother, Ken, tore the cover off the ball as did Mike Hampton; and then there was that stocky left hander the Red Sox had – fellow named Ruth. One fears that with this scary decline in hitting by pitchers, the National League will someday throw in the towel and become a beer league complete with the DH like the junior circuit.