Tampa Bay Rants and Raves is a weekly airing of national and local politics, sports, lifestyles and nostalgia items from a very politically incorrect viewpoint. As always, beware - some of what is printed here should not be taken literally.

Leading off: A holiday from the serious stuff

On Memorial Day Weekend, we reflect on the many sacrifices our service people have made so we can relax this weekend. In that spirit, we offer up lighter stuff starting with baseball at the two month mark and concluding below with a summer music playlist.

Some two month (50 games) baseball snippets, there are several teams (principally the Dodgers) weak at shortstop. Look for teams to make calls to the White Sox about Tim Anderson or the Braves about one of their three upper caliber shortstops. Speaking of the White Sox, we can safely say the problem last year wasn’t Tony LaRussa. The American League East has as many plus .500 teams as the entire National League. MVPs at the two month mark – it’s hard to back off from our Month One picks Ronald Acuna, Jr. and Randy Arozarena, although Wander Franco is starting to gain consideration which could lead to a split vote later in the year allowing someone not on the Rays to sneak in. Cy Young – you can’t overlook Mitch Keller of the Pirates, who’s enjoying a renaissance along with the entire team. In the American League, it’s neck and neck between last month’s nominee Gerrit Cole and the Ray’s Shane McClanahan. In both leagues, teams are starting to look over their shoulders at the two New York teams, who are starting to roll. Next update: June 25.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

A belated Happy 50^th Anniversary to the best pizza restaurant in town – Capogna’s, founded in April 1973 by Art Capogna; today the tradition is carried on by Al, Stephanie and crew.

The good news: Gas Buddy, the organization that tracks gas prices, swung and missed on their Memorial Day prediction of $4.00 a gallon. As we “go to press,” Florida’s gas prices are averaging $3.39 – about 60 cents below a year ago, but $1.70 more than three years ago.

Faced with possible Congressional action, Ford Motor Company ends their quest to do away with AM radios in their cars which they claimed were falling into disuse. No word yet on the continuation of another seldom-used auto item – the turn signal.

For a very enlightening three minutes, Google woman posing as a cat.

Monthly luncheon date: It’s Indy 500 week and three auto racing legends we’d like to dine with: A.J. Foyt, Tony Stewart and the late great car builder Smokey Yunick.

Seen on a T-Shirt: If I woke up in the morning and nothing hurt, I would think I was dead.

Topping the charts 25 years ago this week was the mega hit The Boy is Mine by Brandy & Monica. It would stay there 13 weeks. Fifty years ago, number one was The Candy Man by Sammy Davis, Jr.

Sports, media and other stuff:

The Florida-Georgia game will remain in Jacksonville at least through 2025. Then it will probably be home and home for two years while the Gator Bowl is renovated. It’s a big payday for both schools with a minimum of $1.5 million each plus other incentives including a piece of the alcohol sales, which has to be huge.

USF plows ahead committing to borrow $200 million for a new stadium. The money will be paid back from revenues gained by a football team that is 8-37 over the past four years. To again quote a Great American, “what could possibly go wrong?”

We rack our brain to think of a better running back than Jim Brown and we can’t. The Browns’ legend died last week at age 87.

TV sports note from the 5:05 Newsletter: 3-D TVs these days are SO realistic. Last night I went to sleep watching a New York Knicks game and when I woke up my wallet was gone.

What kind of odds could you have gotten at the beginning of the NBA season on a Miami Heat – Denver Nuggets final?

Numbers of the week: 45 years and 5000 episodes – the amount of time (and shows) Deidre Hall has portrayed Marlena Evans on the popular soap Days of Our Lives.

During a recent five game stretch, if you were a Yankee fan, you had to have four subscriptions to watch the five games. As we opined earlier this year, baseball is going to kill the golden goose.

You’ve lived in the bay area a long time if you ever enjoyed a sundae or a shake at the lively Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour in St. Pete’s Tyrone Square Mall. The last Farrell’s closed four years ago.

…and another thing: Summer playlist

This weekend marks the unofficial start of summer and with it, our annual suggestions of five songs for your summer playlist starting with the not so well known, but solid Endless Summer by the Arbors, followed by the Happenings’ 1966 hit See You in September, add in two terrific Carolina beach songs, Dink Perry’s Friends and O.C. Smith’s Doin’ the Shag and what would a summer be like without a Beach Boys song - how about their breakout song – Surfin’ USA? Happy summer!

NEXT UP: 60s bowling lanes; Our superb library system; Free agents

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Thank you to our fellow Americans who gave their all.