TBR&R is a weekly airing of national and local politics, sports, lifestyle and nostalgia items from a very politically incorrect viewpoint. As always, beware - much of what is printed here should not be taken literally.

Trump was the right pick in 2016 – and 2020

We sometimes forget why we voted for Donald Trump in 2016. More than anything else, it was a response to eight years of an Obama presidency with its failed medical system which, in effect, fined people if they didn’t buy in. The vote represented displeasure with a stalled economy which took off like a rocket once Obama and crew vacated the White House. It was a vote that said we’ve had enough with a corrupt Justice Department which did its bidding for the Obama/Clinton coalition rather than the American people. Voters decided they wanted to be rid of an unbalanced Supreme Court churning out decision upon decision vastly tilted to the left. Four years later after rejecting the Obama agenda, we are being asked to elect his flunky of eight years. Instead, remember why we voted for Donald Trump.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. $40 million – that is the amount of money the Biden campaign is throwing at Florida thus far. Think winning back our state isn’t important to the Democrats?

2. Why, in heaven’s name, would organizations like NPR and The New Yorker give a crackpot like Vicky Osterweil a forum for her book In Defense of Looting? The book and its author have been roundly criticized by officials of both political parties. Free speech, yes, but this is shouting “fire” in a crowded theater.

3. Quote of the Week: "I think it's ridiculous when you make decisions that are knee-jerk political decisions that are not based on evidence, not based on research," Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, whose department is welcoming law officers to his city who have been affected by knee-jerk reductions in other cities.

4. Election item from The 5:05 Newsletter: The Democratic Party election strategy is phenomenal. When I awoke after anesthesia from dental surgery this week I had an "I Voted" sticker on my shirt.

5. A sign of the times, one of Clearwater’s and Florida’s very first Checkers Restaurants on Gulf to Bay Blvd. has closed.

Sports, media and other stuff:

6. Idle thought – until the last week or so, we were seeing less of the “5 o’clock express” than we usually see in late July, August and September. That is the five o’clock shower from the east that helps cool off the late afternoon and evening.

7. Cardinal great Lou Brock passed away last week at age 81. The first ballot Hall of Famer was at the center of one of the most lop-sided trades in baseball history. The big name coming to the Cubs in trade for Brock was Ernie Broglio who won just seven games in his three years with the Cubs while Brock starred for 15 seasons with the Redbirds.

8. The Rays are currently ranked as having the best farm system in baseball. It’s a nice accolade, but means little. Over the past five years, the top systems have been the Braves, the Nats, Tigers and Padres. The Nats and Braves have shown a knack for turning those prospects into All-Stars (Soto, Acuna, Albies etc.). The Tigers and Padres have gotten little production from their farm or have traded away top prospects.

9. While it looks like the National League will go down to the wire with teams qualifying for playoff sports, the American League, with a larger set of weak teams, is pretty much set with Tampa Bay, the Yanks, Toronto, the White Sox, Twins, Indians, As and Astros moving on. As it stands now, in the first round, the Rays would play the Yanks – a team nobody wants to play in post season.

10. Sixty years ago this week, a song went to Number 1 on the charts – one of only two identical songs to ever top the charts in different years. It was Chubby Checker’s The Twist which would again hold the top spot for two weeks in 1962. The only other song to do so was Bing Crosby’s White Christmas which topped the charts in 1942, 1945 and 1946.

Every MLB team’s greatest

MLB.com had an interesting piece a couple weeks back on every team’s greatest player. Their selection of the Rays’ greatest was Evan Longoria. You sometimes forget how many offensive categories in which #3 holds the team record – homers, runs and RBIs to name just three. He is also one of just three active players named the best in their franchise history – the others being Giancarlo Stanton and Mike Trout (the only one of the three still with their original team). The rest of the list is pretty predictable – Ruth, Williams, Mays, Aaron, Musial, Koufax, Cobb, Feller, Brett, Griffey, Seaver, Schmidt, Banks, Rose and Gwynn. Our only two arguments might be picking the Twins’ Kirby Puckett over their home run machine Harmon Killebrew and Pittsburgh’s Honus Wagner over Roberto Clemente. Granted, we never saw Wagner play while, as a kid, we thrilled to the cannon of an arm and the magnificent gap power of Clemente. Those are minor quibbles about an incredible list of players.

UP NEXT: A-Rod & J-Lo; Hitting the mute; Crafty lefties

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