TOP OF THE WEEK – (As this issue “goes to press”, only eight weeks of annoying political ads remain.)

A recent article by conservative columnist George Will on campus sexual harassment created a fire storm until people actually read the article in full rather than the liberal excerpts. That aside, if you never read another thing by George Will, read his book Bunts. We could devote the entire week’s blog to this book but suffice to say, we guarantee no matter how long you have been a baseball fan, player, manager, umpire or whatever, you will learn something that you did not know about our national pastime. This is not a new book. We are sometimes slow getting around to really good books, but it is must reading for the baseball fan. One only hopes that Will, who crafted another fine book – Men at Work, will gift us with another one or two baseball books of this caliber.

Around the Bay –

1. Johnny, Johnny, such a potty mouth. Is that any way to the talk to “The People”?

2. Best wishes to Phillies CEO David Montgomery who has stepped aside temporarily while he battles cancer. Clearwater has few stronger boosters than Dave who was a joy to deal with when the city was in negotiations with the Phillies on a new spring training stadium - all the best Dave.

3. The Charlie Crist – Rothstein connection should be a lesson to all politicians – be careful who you pose with. There were a couple local post-election pictures that made you cringe and ask how could an aspiring office holder be photographed with a scumbag like that?

4. Do you think the real story of why Deputy Chief Sandra Wilson is leaving the Clearwater police department will ever come out? Wilson, a contender for the job that went to Dan Slaughter, left her post last Friday. Slaughter’s reign as chief is off to a rocky start with debate over where he lives (35 miles from Clearwater) and now the resignation of the force’s top female officer.

5. People in Florida always had a different answer to “where’s Waldo”? Floridian’s answer – it’s a speed trap on U.S. 301. Now police officers from the infamous Waldo admit they were given a quota of tickets to write each day. Boy, didn’t see that one coming!

The Diamond, the Media and Other Stuff –

6. Quote of the Week - no, Year: “We have not yet developed a strategy”. Do you think that would be the case if the presidential election had gone the other way in 2008? We can’t quite imagine John McCain ever saying, “We have not yet developed a strategy”.

7. Our Rants and Raves focus group (comprised of three old, cranky people) says Burger King’s plan to move their headquarters to Canada will not affect their choice of burger places. In their pre-announcement poll comparing Burger King, Checkers and McDonalds, Burger King finished fourth behind stay at home. (Margin of error 50 per cent or so).

8. Speaking of food, add another reason not to attend Rays games (along with lousy stadium, lousy team and cow bells). Through no fault of their own, they are embroiled in the Centerplate fiasco. The vendor for their yummy ballpark food has one of their high ranking execs involved in an animal cruelty case that is leading to calls for boycotts of all Centerplate venues across the sports landscape.

9. Isn’t it great to wake up each morning and know you are not the CEO of Centerplate, or Burger King or Duke Power?

10. Last week’s “All Time Top Three” list of songs got us thinking about various decades of songs - like the eighties. Favorite songs of the eighties from your HB (humble blogger) would include an eclectic threesome of Jump by Van Halen; Kokomo by the Beach Boys and (damn, these are hard choices) Rita Coolidge’s All Time High edging out Don McLean’s Castles in the Air. And your hot eighties hits?

10.5 (this week only) Bubba the Love Sponge leaves 102.5 FM. For all but his cult followers, who cares?

IN CLOSING:

Several months back, we praised Keith Olbermann’s latest foray into cable television and suggested the show would be better served with a shorter format and a better time slot. Wish granted – Olbermann debuts Monday the 8^th at 5 p.m. on ESPN 2. This ends the frustration of folks with normal sleeping habits who would tape the show only to find out it had been pre-empted by some late running sports event. If you’ve not seen the new incarnation of Olbermann, it’s worth a look.