Is the 2016 election more about the Supremes than the President?

Right out of the box, let us explain we are talking about the slang term for Supreme Court Justices and not the Diana Ross-led super group of the sixties. It is quite likely the next President will appoint as many as four Supreme Court Justices – obviously a replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, a Reagan appointee and perhaps the most conservative member of the high court. Two justices will hit their eighties during the next President’s term; a third is already there. Clinton appointee Ruth Ginsburg, unquestionably the most far left member of the court, is already 83. Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee and pretty much a disappointment to the nation’s conservatives, is 79. And Justice Stephen Breyer, another Clinton appointee, is 77. That’s two liberals, a so-called moderate and a rock solid conservative to potentially be replaced. This is perhaps the most compelling argument for conservatives to swallow hard, turn out and pull the Trump lever in November.

Around Tampa Bay:

1. Quote of the week: “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented”. The late Elie Wiesel, humanitarian and visiting professor at St. Petersburg’s Eckerd College.

2. Boosters of legalized “medical pot” assure us that all will be well if the ill-advised constitutional amendment should pass this fall. Medical pot cannot be dispensed in drugstores but we can be comforted by the fact the up to 2000 pot shops to be set up around the state will be “state regulated”. Kind of like the many “regulated” pill mills around the state and we know how well that’s worked out. More on this in a future RANT.

3. A recent and very unscientific poll of the “fan experience” at major league parks had our Florida franchises ranked dead last (Marlins) and next to last (Rays). Having attended more than a few games at both venues, can’t disagree. Number one in fan experience, as you might guess, is Wrigley Field.

4. It’s gratifying to know many of the day to day items associated with The Tampa Tribune will be preserved at the Tampa Bay History Center on Old Water Street in downtown Tampa. Some of the items will hark back to the days of hand-set type and Linotype machines. The paper itself harks back to when journalism was journalism - not whatever we call today’s left and right wing advocacy organizations.

5. Guys, you’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you got your hair cut for something like 65 cents at Howard the Traders on Gulf-to-Bay Blvd. Your Mom would give you six bits with instructions to give the extra dime to the barber. Sometimes he actually got it.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. Earlier this year (RANTS – Feb. 21) we did a piece on long-living character actors now in their middle nineties. Sadly, one of those folks, Noel Neill, has passed away at age 95. She was the original Lois Lane, first in the movies and then on the 50s TV series. Now only the relatively young Phyllis Coates, age 89, is left from the original Superman cast. She played Lois the first year of the TV series but left for another opportunity with Neill resuming the role.

7. A simple piece of wisdom from Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton: “When a pitcher throws a strike, four things can happen – three of them good”.

8. We know it creates slights of more deserving ball players, but we still like the rule that says each major league team must be represented on the All Star roster. It gives every one of us fans someone to pull for.

9. Poor Andy Jackson – if they had written a blockbuster Broadway play about him, he wouldn’t lose his place on the twenty dollar bill. Seriously, a Treasury Secretary stays and a President and war hero is removed?

10. Factoid: An eclectic mix of songs that closed out the first four decades of the rock era at the #1 spot. 1959 – Why – Frankie Avalon; 1969 – Someday We’ll Be Together – Supremes; 1979 – Escape (The Pina Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes and 1989 – Another Day in Paradise – Phil Collins.

At the All Star break, our all-time baseball team

This team is nowhere near the best ever although there are five Hall of Famers (plus a sixth as manager) on the squad. These are simply guys we loved to watch play because, to a man, they loved playing the game. No “why do I need to be out here making a million dollars”, no hot dogs flipping bats after a home run or pointing to the sky after a strikeout, simply guys who were fun to watch. We’ll start at catcher and our favorite Yankee – Yogi Berra, he played the game to the max and never stopped talking behind home plate; 1b – Julio Franco, who could also qualify at second, in his middle forties he was still lining drives into the right center gap and loving every minute; 2b – Mark Lemke, the man they called “Dirt” – diving after every ball, making incredible plays, getting the most out of very average talent; SS – Ernie Banks – “let’s play two” says it all; 3b – Richie Hebner, just loved to hit and you loved watching him hit, always grabbing at the back of his shirt like it didn’t fit him; OF – Hunter Pence who plays every game, no every inning, with such great enthusiasm; another terrific Giants outfielder, the “Say Hey Kid” – Willie Mays plus Roberto Clemente who simply did everything right and, like Mays, at full speed, on the field; Pitcher – Mark Fidrych in a close battle with Fernando Valenzuela - both guys were so much fun to watch on the mound and you knew they loved what they were doing; Relief Pitcher (hey, he had 154 saves) John Smoltz who had that uber-competitive streak in everything he did. DH – you’re kidding, right? Oh and a manager - hard to find anybody who was (and is) a bigger cheerleader for the game than Tommy Lasorda.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK – CLINTON CASE: TOO MANY CONNECTING PIECES