A weekly look at the Tampa Bay area and national politics from a conservative viewpoint – plus a helping of sports and lifestyle items. Warning: not everything printed here should be taken at face value.

Keep your eye on this bill!

It had to happen – law enforcement and responsible medical authorities predicted it would. There is a bill in the Florida House to legalize recreational pot, sponsored by South Florida Democrat Michael Grieco. Right now, there are long odds against the bill including strong opposition from House Speaker Jose Oliva. But it’s important for Floridians to remember that pro-medical pot advocates managed to cobble together enough support to get a medical pot amendment passed despite opposition from virtually every law enforcement and medical group in the state. This bill bears watching by every concerned Floridian.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. Election officials are talking about a future where we vote with our smart phones. Does this mean the old, unwilling to change codger who authors this drivel will be disenfranchised with his flip phone? Just being facetious, but voting by smart phone or other electronic means, given today’s security technology, is just scary.

2. Number of the week – 48 billion – the number of robocalls in the U.S. last year. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and her colleagues in all the other 49 states, are joining together get legislation to crack down on this plague. The proposed legislation would put the onus on the telephone providers to help in the suppression of such intrusions.      

3. Idle thought – how does David Straz expect to beat Jane Castor in the April 23^rd Mayoral Runoff? Castor got just two points short of a majority, so Straz has to pick up virtually every non-Castor vote to win. It isn’t going to happen – by a longshot.

4. Our last two governors fired two incompetent election officials for creating a mess much, much smaller than the chimps running Sun Pass. That bunch needs to be shown the door.

5. You’ve lived in the bay area a long time if you remember when the Cards and Yanks trained in St. Pete and the Reds in Tampa. You’d often see Yogi and “The Man” at Derby Lane.

Sports, the media and other stuff:

6. This week marks the 100^th anniversary of the birth of one of America’s greatest singers – Nat “King” Cole.

7. Capturing Bryce Harper was a great add by the Phils, but we think their stealing catcher J. T. Realmuto from the Marlins will pay bigger on-field benefits.

8. One old school baseball guy’s take on the miserly raise given by the Rays to Cy Young winner Blake Snell – “ Maybe if he wore a major league number (usuallydouble digits for pitchers) instead of a Little League number (4), he’d get a major league raise. Harsh.

9. A t-shirt appropriate for March 17: “So this Irish guy walks out of a bar…no really, it could happen.”

10. As promised last week (TBRR 3/10/19), we’ll spend the baseball season picking the greatest player to wear each number starting with number 1 - You would think #1 would be a premier number, but it’s not. Only four player members of the Hall of Fame ever wore it (Ashburn, Doerr, Reese and Ozzie Smith). Ashburn was a great lead-off hitter and won two batting crowns but the Wizard of Oz was a 15-time All-Star and 13-time Gold Glover. Ozzie gets the call as the greatest #1.

The best college basketball markets:

As the “dance” begins, the personal finance website WalletHub recently ranked the best cities for college basketball fans. The rankings were based on, among other things, attendance, season ticket prices and overall team performance. The top five were, in order: No. 1 Lawrence, Kansas; No. 2 Durham, N.C.; No. 3 Los Angeles; No. 4 East Lansing, Mich.; and No. 5 Chapel Hill, N.C. We can understand the homes of Kansas, Duke, Michigan State and North Carolina. Los Angeles, while a major market, hasn’t had an outstanding basketball team since Lew Alcindor. We would think markets like Lexington (UK) or Louisville would rate a higher ranking than L.A., but it’s hard to argue with the other four.

Up Next: The Mighty Walled predicts; Picking the right person; Best #2

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