Gender discrimination and common sense

Augusta Country Club is no longer a men-only bastion. It was over thirty years ago that Sandra Day O’Connor, one of the last century’s best jurists, became the first woman on the Supreme Court. And it’s probably a 50-50 chance that our next president will be a woman. But still there are ridiculous things like the recent case in Washington, Pa. (south of Pittsburgh and just north of Claysville, my Dad’s birthplace). A high-end men only barbershop there has been fined for not cutting a woman’s hair. The shop offered suggestions to the woman on other shops – even offered to pay for her haircut. For their efforts, they were fined $750 by the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Just wondering what would happen if I tried to join Curves this week? Can’t men and women have a few retreats where big brother will just leave us alone?

Around Tampa Bay:

1. This first appeared in this space almost a year and a half ago (Rants – May 25, 2014) and we still believe it. The answer to the Ray’s attendance problems could best be solved not by a new glitzy stadium on either side of the bay, but moving the franchise to the National League which has many more followers in the bay area than the American League and nationwide by 4 million fans. Houston switched leagues, why not Tampa Bay?

2. Oh joy, oh joy! Charlie Officeseeker has decided he’s going to run for Pinellas County’s newly gerrymandered U.S. House seat. Almost makes you wish Alex Sink would move back over from eastern Hillsborough County.

3. Kudos to the folks responsible for the improved lighting at the pedestrian crosswalks along the beaches’ Gulf Boulevard. The enhanced lighting makes it so much safer crossing the busy thoroughfare.

4. Well, it’s official. Retirees have been informed there will be no hike in Social Security benefits because the cost of living has not increased. They learned this the same week that the city of Clearwater informed them that water, sewer, recycling, storm water and reclaimed water fees would all be increasing anywhere from 1.25 to 4.5 percent respectively. These increases are on top of a nearly four percent increase in solid waste fees in conjunction with a 50 per cent decrease in pick-ups.

5. You’ve lived in the bay area a long time if you remember the Captain Mac kiddies show on WSUN-TV, Channel 38. Captain Mac was played by Burl McCarty who later became part of the strong CBS affiliate WDAE’s radio news team which included Ronald J. Ebben and News Director Dennis Crandall in his pre-WTAN days.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. Two takeaways from Don Mattingly leaving the Dodgers. First, it just seems Bud Black would be a perfect fit in L.A. Second, we hope Mattingly is smart enough to spurn an expected offer from the Marlins for their dugout job. The Nats’ job would be no bed of roses but it sure beats the revolving door in Miami.

7. Wow, being a college head football coach these days seems to be akin to being a kamikaze pilot in WWII.

8. Earlier this year (Rants – April 12) we featured Daniel Norris, then a Blue Jay now with the Detroit Tigers, who takes a different approach to life than most 22-year-old major leaguers. Now we wish him nothing but the best as he faces surgery for thyroid cancer.

9. You’ve watched more baseball than us if you ever saw a crazier inning than the 7th inning of Game 5 between Texas and Toronto. That inning will be shown over and over on baseball retrospectives through the years – not because it was that great but because the play during that inning (not to mention Toronto fan behavior) was so lousy.

10. It can be argued that the three worst things to happen to baseball in the last half-century (taking the DH out of the conversation) are Marvin Miller, Donald Fehr and Scott Boras.

The Game Must Go On – good reading for MLB, WWII buffs

The Game Must Go On by John Klima isn’t for everybody. But if you have an interest in the history of our National Pastime or World War II, you probably would enjoy it. If you have an interest in both, you won’t put it down. Klima tracks the state of major league baseball from before the bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor through the 1945 World Series – which unfortunately is given short shrift particularly since it was the last fall classic for the Cubs. You get a better understanding of folks like Pete Gray, Hank Greenberg and the Southworth family. And you see which major leaguers, like Greenberg, gave their all to the war effort and which players phoned it in – we’ll leave that to your judgment. All in all, a tightly written book on a very important five years in American and baseball history.