World Series: Achmed now 3 for 3!

When we established this blog a little over two and a half years ago, we added a little known, mysterious man from the east to prognosticate sports. He specializes in baseball. Since our inception, Achmed Walled (pronounced wall-ED) is a perfect three for three in postseason predictions even picking the Cubs this year who never win anything. Granted, he and the Cubs should send Christmas cards to the entire Cleveland outfield whose Bad News Bears play in the last two games of the series handed the Chicago nine a gift they have not savored in over a century. And finally, no, Achmed is not comfortable in giving you six numbers between 1 and 53 for this Saturday night. We know, we asked.

Tampa Bay, politics and other stuff:

1. A not so outrageous prediction: whoever prevails in the presidential race this week will be our nation’s first one-term (or less, pending indictments) president in two decades.

2. Sad commentary: Social Security recipients who will be receiving a gigantic three tenths of one percent increase in their monthly payment will see that wiped out by an increase in their city of Clearwater water bill each month - so much for COLA adjustments.

3. Obamacare premiums going up an average of 25 percent – wow, who saw that coming?

4. While we are more than happy to see all the awful political attack ads leave, brace yourself, there is still a month to go with wall to wall Medicare enrollment ads.

5. You’ve lived in Clearwater for quite a while if you remember when there were no neighborhoods named Morningside, Countryside or Island Estates.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. A second not so outrageous prediction: the Chicago Cubs could be the first team since 2000 to win back to back World Championships. The Yankees won their third in a row in 2000 – something no team had done since the Oakland As in 1972-74. But that’s us talking not the above mentioned Achmed, so don’t call Vegas just yet.

7. Have you ever seen an uglier football game than last week’s Bucs loss to the Oakland Raiders? Oakland completely dominated the Bucs but kept aiming their six-shooter directly at their foot – setting an NFL record for penalties along the way - an exciting, but awful game.

8. With the election soon behind us, what are Fox and MSNBC going to do for the next two and a half years – other than take potshots at each other?

9. A thought from one of our Rants and Raves focus group (comprised of four old, cranky people): Smart phones seem to make people dumber.

10. The premier publication of the 21^st century, the 5:05 Newsletter, recently featured this tidbit on another well-known publication: “Playboy Magazine’s circulation has risen thirty percent since it stopped running photos of nude young women six months ago. The magazine has adjusted to the sexual fantasies of a new generation of young male readers. This month’s issue features the iPhones of Australia”.

Argument grows stronger for “robo umpires”

Games 3, 4 and 6 of this year’s World Series made the strongest case yet for human ball and strike callers to be replaced by robotic umps in the future. John Hirschbeck’s work in Game 3 was universally panned – the strike zone was a moving target all night long in the 1-0 thriller. The next night, Marvin Hudson had a strike zone the size of a smallish cupcake – particularly on the outer half. In Game 6, while “Country Joe” West was consistent, he treated the outer half of the plate like it was in the next county. Lastly, you cannot mention postseason umpiring without a nod to the late Eric Gregg’s butchering of Game 5 of the 1997 National League Championship where the strike zone was slightly wider than an aircraft carrier. It’s going to take some time and experimentation, but too much is at stake in the World Series to allow human error or exhibitionism to decide the outcome.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK – ABOUT THAT 2020 PRESIDENTIAL RACE….