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

First thing on our mind:

Books – Helping introverts avoid conversation since 1454 (borrowed from a good friend).

Leading off: Ending a national embarrassment

The United States of America is the world leader in virtually everything. But our great nation’s capital is an embarrassment. As a driving versus flying couple, our frequent visits to the Northeast saw us drive miles and hours out of our way to avoid what we have, only somewhat pejoratively, referred to as a third world nation. Kudos to President Trump for taking needed action to clean up the cesspool that is this great nation’s capital. DC’s mayor calls Trump’s takeover of DC policing “unsettling and unprecedented.” The majority of Americans would call it an action well past due.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

Diane Brown, who with her late husband, Herb, founded Our Lady of Divine Providence House of Prayer, passed away earlier this month at age 90. She and Herb spread good works around the world during their lifetimes.

Erin looks like it won’t be a threat, but don’t let your guard down. The average day for an Atlantic hurricane to make landfall is September 10.

We noticed several red flashing lights in school zones last week. Remember it’s 15 mph during drop off and pick up hours.

One of the very first items in our very first TBRR (3/9/14) was urging Tampa leaders to get off the dime and fix up the historic Jackson House. Last week part of the structure crumbled due to a lack of attention. It’s going to be rehabbed, but that should have happened ten years ago.

By the way, in looking back at that issue for the info on Jackson House, we see that 3212 idiots read that premiere edition.

Many companies that have been household words for decades have faced tough sledding recently. Among the most recent is Eastman Kodak faced with large debt obligations.

Social media advice from the 5:05 Newsletter: If you ever decide to drop out of Facebook, don't announce it. Just make your last post something fun like “I wonder if there’s a bear in this cave?”

This week in 1969 (8/17) the deadly Hurricane Camille is directly west of Tampa Bay, but fortunately far offshore.

Sports, media and other notes:

Plans are in the works for an affordable housing complex on South Fort Harrison Avenue at the current location of O’Keefe’s. The restaurant’s ownership says if the project comes to fruition, they will simply “move down the street.” We’d hate to lose that Clearwater institution.

It seems while we weren’t looking, the local breakfast-lunch chain, Benedicts has expanded to five locations in Pinellas. Our favorite is the Largo location, where, if you’re lucky, you’ll have Luli as your server.

Well it seems that our “cloud storage” has maxed out again. Funny how that seems to happen 3 to 4 times a week.

Miami is at #8 in the preseason football poll; the Gators #15 and the Noles picked up a few votes, but not enough to crack the Top 25.

“Chuckie’s” lawsuit against Roger Goodell and the NFL has taken another step forward.

Idle sports thought, shouldn’t MLB umpires be treated the same as players – if they stink up the joint, they too get farmed out to Wichita?

The Rays’ farm system ranked number 2 at the beginning of the year has dropped to 10 in the mid-year rankings. And the furor over whether they would play postseason games at Steinbrenner or a neutral site now seems moot.

You’ve lived in the bay area a long time if you remember the Jeans Giant and their crazed radio commercials (buy one, get four free) delivered by owner Rich Unger.

One last thing: A salary cap is coming

Major league baseball is the only major sport without a salary cap. The NFL has it, likewise the NBA and NHL. The 2026 baseball season might well be the last season without one. It (the 2026 season) might also be the last full season dating back to the COVID season. A salary cap will be the number one topic when the players and owners try to hammer out a contract after 2026 with most insiders predicting a work stoppage over the issue. Salary cap opponents point to the disparity in contracts between MLB’s highest paid player, Juan Soto at $765 million versus the NFL’ s Josh Allen at $250 million. But $250 million – come on! And the lowest paid MLB player makes just short of $800,000 a year. Add to that, the last time a small market team won the World Series was ten years ago – the 2015 Royals. You can blame the big spending Yanks, Phils, Dodgers and Mets, but the problem goes deeper than that. The cap is going to come, but with it, there also must be a salary floor.

UP NEXT: “Suitcase” Simpson; Lenny Dee; Last Beatles concert

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