Tampa Bay Raves and Rants is a weekly airing of national and local politics, sports, lifestyles and nostalgia items from a very politically incorrect viewpoint. As always, beware - much of what is printed here should not be taken literally.

Baseball shoots itself in the foot again

At a time of year where baseball is shoved to page 2 or 3 of the sports section by the upcoming football conference championships, the down the stretch drama in the NFL, college basketball and the NHL, it manages to remove itself to page 6 or 8 or out of the section completely with a lockout. Late last week, MLB’s Rob Manfred and the player’s union head Tony Clark, unsurprisingly, accused the other for the stalemate in the talks. With a major league minimum salary of just short of $600,000 and the teams making money hand over fist with the pent up desire for live baseball after the 2020 COVID season, neither side is content. The National Pastime has never fully recovered from the last work stoppage in 1995 and, in fact, is not really the National Pastime anymore. Another elongated interruption in play will shove baseball somewhere between the NBA and the Canadian Football League in fan interest. It is time to get serious boys.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

Number of the Week – 1,000 per minute - that’s the number of persons who enlisted during this week 80 years ago after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.

Joe Biden lays the blame for $1.20 a gallon increase this year at the feet of gasoline companies – the same companies that were in place last year when gas was $2.15 a gallon. So what else has changed in the last year? Oh yeah.

Just in time for your Christmas shopping, a Made in America Store is opening in Florida. The stores, featuring only U.S. made products, have previously been exclusively in New York State. It’s still a bit of a drive to Wellington, just west of West Palm Beach, but the store is planning expansion to other parts of Florida in 2022.

Legal note: the California Penal Code doesn’t allow for the use of the term "looting" describing the thefts involving large groups of people because, it claimed, the definition didn't match the act as defined by law. Only in California.

Five Years Ago in TBR&R (December 4, 2016) - The new vision for Clearwater’s waterfront is promising, but the devil is in the details (read financing). Several years ago, Clearwater voters turned down a proposal where a major developer would pony up all the money. This time around, it’s going to have to be a mostly public funded project – there’s the rub. (Update, well here we are five years later….)

Sports, media and lighter stuff:

This week’s holiday insight from The 5:05 Newsletter: “The difference between husbands and wives is that wives can remember the backstory for every Christmas decoration.”

It’s sad to see the closing of Biff Burger on 49^th Street in St. Pete. It was one of the last two remaining Biff Burgers nationwide. The other in Greensboro, NC closed in May of this year.

Christmas music factoid: Bing Crosby’s White Christmas is the biggest selling single song of the holidays, but the biggest selling song recorded by various artists is the 1945 Robert Wells/Mel Torme composition The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) recorded by literally hundreds of artists with the most popular being the original Nat King Cole recording in 1946. More Christmas music items below.

For couch potatoes it just doesn’t get any better than last weekend’s football menu of Florida-FSU, Alabama-Auburn, Michigan-Ohio State and Oklahoma-Oklahoma State. And throw in basketball’s Duke-Gonzaga for good measure.

How many swings and misses does UF Athletic Director Scott Sticklin get at hiring a football coach? Consensus is he better be right on his hire of Billy Napier or he will be cleaning out his desk along with the coach.

He’s had a Hall of Fame career, but Mets’ rivals are glad to see them spend $130 million for three years of 37-year-old Max Scherzer whose arm broke down in last year’s playoffs.

‘Tis the focus group’s season to be jolly

As we enter the holiday season, we asked our TBR&R Focus Group to create a medley of their three favorite pop Christmas tunes. Our leadoff hitter was very specific with Perry Como’s Home for the Holidays, followed by The New Christy Minstrels’ We Need a Little Christmas and the not so familiar, but poignant Christmas Is by Percy Faith and his Chorus.

Topping another focus group members list was Bing Crosby’s White Christmas along with Winter Wonderland and Silver Bells, first sung by William Frawley, TV’s Fred Mertz.

Our third submission spans the genres of holiday music with Christmas Vacation (from the movie), Gayla Peevey’s I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas and then the beautiful Mary, Did You Know?

Our western-most focus group member dug into the past for her three favorites – 1953’s ‘Zat You Santa Claus? by Louis Armstrong, Elvis’ Blue Christmas from 1957, then Chuck Berry’s 1958 song Run Rudolph Run.

Another submission brought votes for Darlene Love’s Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You and a second vote for Silver Bells.

Finally, an original member of the focus group went for traditional songs connected with much-loved artists – White Christmas (Bing Crosby), The Christmas Song (Nat King Cole) and the lively Sleigh Ride, most associated with The Boston Pops. Thanks to our members for creating a great holiday playlist for your device.

UP NEXT: Saturday savings; Broken record; Alan Freed

120521/67

SORRY, WE ARE CURRENTLY UNABLE TO RESPOND TO COMMENTS