TOP OF THE WEEK –

COLUMNIST WANTED: “Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio”? Or more to the point where have you gone Steve Otto and Howard Troxler and people of your caliber? The Bay Area’s two major papers now have pretty tepid versions of Troxler, Otto and the folks who preceded them. A couple ex sports writers who don’t resonate like that ex sports writer turned columnist Lewis Grizzard (few ever did). You also have the clown who now shows up not only on the editorial page but in revered space in the local Times edition previously occupied by Bob Henderson and Diane Steinle. Plus the strident liberal from south Florida who never lets facts get in the way of the point he’s trying drive home. Tom Jackson, of the Tribune, is usually a hoot but all in all, “Our nation (or region) turns its lonely eyes to you” – Steve and Howard and Bob and Diane.

Around the Bay –

1. Pinellas County’s David Jolly has been appointed to the prestigious House Appropriations Committee which can only bode well for his district – and yet another reason why he was so much a better choice than Alex Sink given the Republican control of the House (and now the Senate).

2. Do you notice that during this season of relatively low energy usage that your city water bill (exclusive of solid waste) is as much or more than your power bill? The cost of water, at least in Clearwater, has gotten ridiculously high and customers don’t even have a weak-kneed PSC to address the issue.

3. Tale of Two Cities: Dunedin is struggling with where to park all the folks who come to visit their charming downtown while Clearwater continues to struggle to get anybody in their downtown.

4. Didn’t you love it when you mentioned Duke you were talking about one of the model basketball, and now, football programs in the country and not the power company that doesn’t believe in energy conservation?

5. You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you remember when the south end of Clearwater Beach was not a canyon surrounded by high rises but a spot for the weekend viewing of the “submarine races”.

The Diamond, the Media and Other Stuff –

6. We’re going to channel Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis and apologize for a remark we’ve made – ahead of time. We apologize to all the other morons in the world when we justifiably label Lewis a moron for his incredibly insensitive remarks regarding Brown’s quarterback Johnny Manziel.

7. FSU quarterback Jameis Winston’s “advisor” David Cornwell lists among his clients Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun and Ben Roethlisberger. Wow, with a quartet like that, how do you look yourself in the mirror?

8. Yo, Keith, holler at us when you start commenting on sports again, and we may tune back in.

9. Didn’t you think you would eventually wake up from your bad dream where the Rays would say, “We’ve make a horrible mistake. We’re going to tear this up and start our managerial search process all over.” By the way, nice job on vetting Raul Ibanez’ desire to manage.

10. It appears the Big 12 got jobbed in the first year of a committee picking four finalists for the college football championship. This is what happens when conferences have more than one strong team like the SEC and the Big 12. It’s probably safe to say there are about a half dozen teams or more that would give Alabama a better game than Ohio State will – two of them in the Big 12 and at least a couple in the SEC. But it’s hard to disagree with the committee’s one and two seeds. Oregon and the Tide will be playing for all the marbles in January.

IN CLOSING –

We very much admire Tom Jones of the Times but his statement that Joe Maddon is arguably the best manager in baseball can’t go uncontested. Maddon wasn’t even the best manager in his division - Joe Girardi, World Championship; John Farrell, World Championship; Buck Showalter has won in all three cities he’s managed. We’ll concede that Maddon is better than John Gibbons in Toronto. But the best manager in baseball, hardly - the kookiest perhaps, but not the best.