Tampa Bay Rants and Raves (TBRR) is a weekly chronicle of politics, sports, lifestyles and historical notes from a politically incorrect viewpoint. Some of this content should not be taken literally.

First thing on our mind:

Only 326 days until pitchers and catchers report, we think – see below.

Leading off: Enjoy this baseball season

It’s opening week for major league baseball and fans should savor it because the 2027 season will not start on time, if at all. The issue is the salary cap. Baseball is the only major sport that does not have one. The ownership, tired as hell of the Dodgers’ buy another pennant strategy, are going to push hard for a cap of some sort. The player’s association is going to push just as hard against it. The result will most likely be a delayed season or none at all. The Dodgers, Mets, Blue Jays and perhaps the Phillies will begin this season with payrolls of more than $300 million. In contrast, our two Florida teams will carry payrolls of less than a quarter of that amount – the two lowest payrolls in baseball. It is an inequity that is long overdue for rectifying. The current agreement between players and management ends on December 1.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

Fred Petty, who served for years in the Pinellas County Tax Collector’s Office, including two terms as Tax Collector, died last month at age 95.

The number of deaths in the Russian-Ukrainian War is over 1.5 million – an obscene number. When will these two governments shake hands and stop this unholy amount of killing?

A majority of Americans oppose our nation’s intervention in Iran. But one factor a large majority does agree with is President Trump’s insistence that he doesn’t want to leave this mess for the next president as has been the case over the past three or four administrations.

As Democrats continue to play games with our aviation safety, more and more experts are calling for the privatization of the TSA.

Idle thought: Perhaps the city of Clearwater would like to take over Cuba’s power grid as well.

Airport news from the 5:05 Newsletter: Plane loads of people fleeing the Middle East have been landing at Newark Airport. A lot of the passengers are saying it has been a very scary experience because they had never seen Newark before.

This week in 1958 (March 27) the first stereophonic record is released by Columbia leading to an onrush of stereo record players, FM-stereo radio stations and receivers.

Sports and random notes:

The entertainment world mourns actor and martial arts expert Chuck Norris who died at age 86.

Well, we missed the Oscars last week for like the 30^th year in a row.

Fifty years ago in 1976, the newest TV merchandising product was the Ginsu knife, which you can still buy today. Twenty years later in 1996, the hottest new gadget was the DVD.

Not cool – you write your check for something between $150 and $200 to watch your favorite MLB team’s games and if you’re a Giants or Yanks fan, you’re blacked out of your first game of the season.

Also not cool – we’re old enough to remember when there was a gentlemen’s agreement between teams that they would carry 3 or 4 regulars on spring training away games. You might not see Yogi or Mickey or Whitey, but at least Bauer, Richardson or Stafford would be there. Now, it’s a bunch of 80s and 90s for your $100 (plus parking).

So cool – the advent of ABS ball and strike system that will do away from rogue umpires trying to determine the outcome of the game. They should call it the EGS (Eric Gregg System).

The biggest selling album of all time? It’s the Eagle’s Greatest Hits at 40 million and climbing. The biggest single hit remains Bing Crosby’s White Christmas at over 50 million.

From our friend TL, purveyor of “Dad” jokes: What does a hungry clock do? It goes back four seconds.

One last thing: The evil empire again?

The MLB season is about to start. We need to enjoy it – see above. Here are our picks worth every nickel you are paying for them. NL East – Mets (added a lot, but lost even more) and Phils as the wild card with the Braves again winning the Blue Cross team of the year award, but look out for youngster Didier Fuentes; NL Central – somebody has to win, so we’ll go with the Brewers and the Cubs as the wild card, but keep an eye on the Pirates and rookie phenoms Konnor Griffin and Bubba Chandler. Out west, it’s the Evil Empire along with the Padres.

The American League would seem to belong to the Tigers with the awesome front end of their rotation. They probably could use another bat, but pitching wins championships. The AL East is loaded and we can see the Jays, Yanks and Orioles all securing playoff spots – in that order. It is just lousy luck that our Rays play in this division. Out west, Seattle is the cream of the crop. The sixth and last playoff spot should be a battle royal between Boston, Cleveland, Houston and perhaps the Royals.

It’s Detroit versus The Evil Empire when all is said and done.

UP NEXT: Pitcher’s parks; MVP & the Prez; Inside Man

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