A weekly airing of national and local politics, sports, lifestyles and historical notes from a very politically incorrect viewpoint, Tampa Bay Rants and Raves has been published since 2014. As always, beware - some of what is printed here should not be taken literally.

First thing on our mind:

Only three months and two weeks to get your body and weight into a condition where they become your New Year’s resolution – again.

Leading off: Consolidating our efforts

It may seem simplistic, but most things that make a lot of sense seem that way. Consolidating efforts, particularly in the non-profit arena could only help our efforts. We think specifically about charities that benefit veterans. There is the VFW, the American Legion, DAV, PVA, Wounded Warriors and Tunnels to Towers. And those are just the ones from whom we receive regular solicitations. We know there are egos and territorial issues involved, but there is also a great deal of duplicated effort just in fund raising alone. We can’t help but think that our vets would be better served with a centralized agency that would spend more on veterans and less on mail outs and duplicated personnel/ back office efforts.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

Outstanding actor and director Robert Redford passed away last week at age 89. In addition to performing in numerous classic films, he was responsible for the Sundance Institute which fostered independent film production.

We learned in Broadcasting 101 that you do not make on-air inflammatory remarks about others – especially those who died under tragic circumstances. Apparently, wherever Jimmy Kimmel went to school did not offer that course.

And if Kimmel was absent the day you were lectured about not being a moron, he should visit the 1970 clip that has resurfaced this week from the king of late night comedy. That was Johnny Carson saying, “Once you start that, you get that self-important feeling that what you say has great import.” Every last person in Hollywood should heed Carson’s words.

Increasing the retirement age and especially raising the contribution cap seem like solid first steps to buttressing Social Security for future generations.

Fani Willis is officially removed from Georgia’s Donald Trump case. Does it really matter?

President Dwight Eisenhower’s wise formula for winning World War III was to prevent it. From Bret Baier’s excellent book Three Days in January, loaned to us by our friend George Hick, part of Ike’s Marine honor guard during his presidency.

On line shopping news from the 5:05 Newsletter: I just ordered a chicken and an egg on Amazon. Will let you know.

This week in 1960 (9/26): The first ever televised presidential debate takes place between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. It is viewed by an estimated 85 million people.

Sports, media and other notes:

Matt Silverman and Brian Auld will be stepping away as the Rays’ top executives as the result of the sale of the team to new investors.

Happy 100^th birthday to baseball’s oldest living MVP. Crafty lefthander Bobby Shantz went 24-7 in 1952 to win the award. He was an eight time Gold Glover as well as part of one of the very few sibling batteries having brother Billy catch many of his games as teammates with the Philadelphia A’s.

Four sets of team’s fans are being disenfranchised each week by MLB’s ill advised deal with Apple TV. Sooner or later, there is going to be a revolt by those folks who lay out hundreds of dollars each year to watch fewer and fewer of their team’s games.

He’s off to a rough start, but the most underrated college football coach – for our money it’s Dabo Sweeney, the steady presence at Clemson since 2008. One losing season out of 17, two national championships, two more appearances in the championship game, an overall winning percentage of .793 entering this season.

Two in state battles last week. Miami prevailed over USF to move to #2 in The Athletic 136 while USF dropped to #22. FIU (117) put away FAU (121) in a minor upset. The Gator’s loss to LSU dropped them to #50. FSU remains at #4 while UCF stagnates at #76. Ohio State is ranked #1and winless UMass remains #136.

Topping the charts fifty years ago (1975) was Glen Campbell’s Rhinestone Cowboy. Ten years earlier, the Beatles Help! prevailed at Number 1.

One last thing: Manfred’s radical idea

It is a good thing baseball is a very durable game. It has overcome gambling scandals, work stoppages and epidemics. If it hangs on four more years, it just may survive Commissioner Rob Manfred who says he will retire in 2029. Manfred’s latest attempt to ruin the game is a radical realignment that would eliminate both the National and American Leagues which have existed since 1876 and 1901 respectively. It would include expansion, something that hardly makes sense with two of our MLB teams playing in minor league ballparks and three or four of them bleeding money. The realignment would be geographical with teams like the Mets and Yankees and the White Sox and Cubs playing in the same division. It also allows for half of what would be 32 teams to make the playoffs. That, currently, would have at least one sub .500 team in the playoffs. It is just not a well thought out plan.

NEXT UP: Eric Gagne; Dick Tracy; The winner is…

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