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

First thing on our mind:

To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Pittsburgh. (A bit of a twist on a William Faulkner quote).

Leading off: Tough week for Braves’ fans

Without either one of them, the game would not have been the same. Ted Turner’s superstation made Braves fans from coast to coast and Bobby Cox, with Ted’s largesse, made a joke of a team into a constant winner. As for Cox, he managed 2504 winning games, the fourth most in baseball history. He not only led the Braves to 14 consecutive division championships, but in-between two tours of duty in Atlanta, made a winner out of the Toronto Blue Jays. Captain Outrageous, as Turner was properly nicknamed, forever changed the way we watched TV; was a world class sailor and owned and managed (for one game) “America’s Team.” Cox is in the Hall of Fame, Turner should be and Braves’ fans literally all over the world mourn the loss of Ted at age 87 and Bobby at 84. Baseball heaven will never be the same.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

We send our condolences to former Pinellas Park mayor Bill Mischler on the passing of his wife of 64 years, Joan.

The Florida DOT says construction on I-4 will be complete by 2031 – and they said it with a straight face.

We had a very pleasant and quick experience at the Pinellas DMV a couple of weeks back - smiling faces and efficient service. No appointment required. Our phone call to schedule one had the folks telling us to just walk in – but avoid Mondays.

We tip our cap to Delta, JetBlue, Southwest and United Airlines for their help in getting stranded passengers and crew home after the shutdown of Spirit Airlines last week. It’s a shutdown that could have been avoided over two years ago.

Related: Delta is eliminating snack service on flights of 350 miles or less – that’s just short of 800 flights a day.

Something we always enjoy reading – “So and so did not immediately respond to a request for comment.” To interpret – so and so was supposed to drop everything they were doing to respond to a dumb question from a reporter or – we called at the very last minute, so we could make it look like they were dodging the question.

Idle thought: More and more, stop lights and stop signs seem to be merely suggestions.

Our friends at the 5:05 Newsletter point out that bourbon has never been recalled due to E.Coli.

Thirty years ago this week (5/11/96) a ValuJet DC-9 plunged into the Everglades killing all 110 people on board, the victims of improperly stowed cargo. The tragedy led to long overdue industry reforms and the eventual demise of the cost-cutting airline.

Sports and random notes:

Cherie DeVaux makes history as the first female trainer to win the Run for the Roses with 23-1 long shot Golden Tempo.

We doff our cap to Ms. DeVaux and her team for declining to run Golden Tempo in the Preakness, citing his overall health. Skeptics say it’s for other reasons. Most of them are looking at dollar signs rather than the horse’s health.

March Madness to expand from 68 to 76 teams. Why not just invite everybody?

Lightning again goes one and done in the NHL playoffs, but as several hockey cities will tell you, it’s better to be in than to watch from home.

Last week baseball mourned the passing of player and manager Bob Skinner at age 94. He was one of only four players remaining from what many call the greatest World Series of all time, 1960 Pirates-Yankees thriller. The others are the Yanks’ Bobby Richardson and Tony Kubek along with Pirate ace Vern Law.

Don’t look now, but the Rays have the second best record in the American League and fourth best in all of baseball.

And dead last in this week’s power rankings by The Athletic are the normally contending Giants and Mets.

Ad blast from the past: the famous “I’d rather fight than switch” Tareyton commercials that debuted in 1963 featuring Tareyton smokers with black eyes.

One last thing: Preserving transportation history

Sometime this week, if the weather holds, a piece of transportation history will arrive in Australia. It’s a relic of the 20^th century, but what a history. The piece of history is a Boeing 707 originally used by Qantas Airlines and later Braniff. But the real cache came with its private owners, first Frank Sinatra and later actor and licensed pilot John Travolta. Now Travolta is donating the aircraft, which again carries its original Qantas livery, and is shipping it to Australia’s version of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum just south of Sydney where it will be on permanent display. As a transportation aficionado, it warms our heart to see such preservation. If only we could have found a better outcome for our nation’s namesake liner which will rest at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

Next Week: Visiting team; Apollo 10; Gambling & politics

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