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

Gas is high – and confusing

We know we are paying an outrageous price for gas. But who are we paying it to? It’s confusing. Remember the Hess gas station at Drew and Belcher in Clearwater? The Hess brand went away a few years back as Hess got out of the gas station business. It became a Speedway station. But then 7-11 bought Speedway and there was already a 7-11 across the street and more importantly, the federal government felt there were too many 7-11s after the acquisition and the convenience store giant was forced spin off about 250 stations. Enter the Anabi Oil Company from out west. They bought about half the spinoffs and attached their Rebel brand to those stations, selling primarily Exxon/Mobil gas. Adding further confusion to the consumer is the move by the large Circle K chain away from Shell gas to their own in-house brand. Now, consumers cannot use their Shell gas cards at the growing number of Circle K stores that no longer sell the brand. Got all that straight?

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff: 

Related Factoid: The popular Cracker Barrel restaurants, now totaling close to 700 locations, had gas pumps in front of many of their early locations until they were phased out in the mid-1980s.

Unlike the presidential race, it’s getting harder and harder to keep this guy and his daily gaffes in the basement and out of sight.

The new Tampa City Council appointee Lynn Hurtak describes herself as “a deeply ethical person who will bring a wealth of city board experience to the job.” Not to mention a healthy dose of narcissism.

Idle question: why do we, as a nation, spend so much time dwelling on the death of criminals while all but ignoring the deaths of innocent people killed by drunk drivers, drive by shootings and the like?

From the, let’s say interesting, mind of the 5:05 Newsletter editor-in-chief: As I look at the young kids today, I realize that I am supposed to offer them words of advice about this pandemic based on the wisdom I have acquired over the years. But I am a Baby Boomer, and the truth is my generation never had to deal with anything like this. The closest we ever came to a pandemic was the 1970s, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, millions of people became Amway distributors. 

THIS WEEK IN 1970 – PAUL MCCARTNEY MAKES IT OFFICIAL, THE BEATLES ARE BREAKING UP. THANKS YOKO!

Lighter stuff:

In terms of USF men’s basketball coaches, there have been Lee Rose, Seth Greenberg then everybody else. Rose, who guided the Bulls to their first post season tournaments, died last week at age 85.

Volare, Wildwood Days, Wild One, Forget Him and Swinging School were just five of the 30 songs Bobby Rydell put on the Billboard charts. The Philadelphia born teen idol died last week at age 79.

Another Grammy for Tony! It’s hard to believe that it was 60 years ago that his signature song I Left My Heart in San Francisco was spending five months on the charts.

Number of the Week: 16 – that’s the number of coaches who have won multiple NCAA basketball championships. Bill Self joins that elite group and is now one of only three active coaches (Rick Pitino and Jay Wright) with multiple wins.

Sports Factoid: Due to baseball’s messed up schedule, their oldest franchise, the Cincinnati Reds, opened on the road for only the third time since 1890. The last time they started away from home was 1990 and they won the World Series.

With baseball season underway, the greatest news is that the game’s most beloved character, Bob Uecker, is again behind the mic for the Milwaukee Brewers for his 51^st season - this despite the off season issues of the death of a daughter to ALS, his contacting COVID and the replacement of a knee replacement.

MLB Predictions: Achmed wants a raise

Tampa Bay Rants and Raves’ premier baseball predictor Achmed Walled (pronounced WALL-ed) is channeling the baseball union and asking for more money. His rationalization is that he has to predict a dozen playoff teams rather than the previous ten. As negotiations continue, he, unlike the players, will work without a contract. Leading off in the National League, Achmed likes the World Champ Braves in their division, figuring the big spending Mets will find a way to foul things up. In the Central, he predicts the Brewers’ superstar, Christian Yelich will again play like himself and their outstanding pitching staff will carry them through. Out west, it’s very hard to bet against the Dodgers and their money – but not hard to root against them. Achmed thinks each division will contribute a team to the expanded Wild Cards – the teams being the Padres, Cards and Mets moving west to east. In the American League, Achmed gives a vote to the home town Rays in the East, he likes the White Sox in the Central and last year’s AL champ Houston in the West. Achmed sees both the Yanks and Blue Jays getting Wild Card spots from the East Division as well as the Mariners breaking their 20-year playoff drought in 2022. Achmed feels eventually his annual confidence in the Mariners will pay off. The High Priest of Predictions has spoken.

NEXT UP: Tax Day; Keebler/Publix elves; Getting back to work

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