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.

There’s no place like home

The Tampa Bay area has its warts. Our transportation system (both mass transit and highways) is second rate, we’re building indiscriminately and our schools have more than a little trouble. But when you compare it to other metro areas, it is paradise. Portland, in that gem of a blue state, has an unbelievable homeless situation with the homeless invading neighborhoods and city government doing little. Washington DC, with a population a quarter million less than Pinellas County has a jail twice its size – and they need it. Violent crime in our nation’s capital is up 20 percent in the last year. In Chicago, well suffice to say, it is simply a broken city with an out of control mayor and a totally dysfunctional school system along with an unemployment rate ranking fourth highest among US metro areas. And then there’s California. Warts and all, we’ll take Tampa Bay.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

A Rave to Clearwater High School - they have enhanced their recent renovations with some very attractive landscaping.

Thought of the week from financial planning guru Craig Phillips: Many times, consumers and the person-on-the-street recognize that the U.S. economy has entered a recession long before the economists get around to declaring it.

Our friend TL asks what the FBI is going to do with the blouse they confiscated from Melania Trump’s closet. Hoover’s dead.

San Diego Padres’ star Fernando Tatis, Jr. has been suspended for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. Unfortunately, Joe Biden wasn’t.

So Charlie, when you ran one of your many campaigns just a few years back, you defined yourself as pro-life. Now, in your most recent campaign, your ads portray you as pro-abortion. We can only surmise each position was the most convenient at the time.

Idle election thought: You hate to see candidates waste money with mailers to your home when you voted three weeks ago. It is easy to obtain voting records from the election’s office on a daily basis.

With the local primaries coming up next week, this advice from the 5:05 Newsletter: “Want to get out of your next traffic ticket? Tell the cop you don’t have any ID on you because you are on your way to vote.”

This week in 1939 (August 17) the musical film “The Wizard of Oz” opens at Loews Capitol Theater in New York City.

Sports, media and other stuff:

If Not For You, Let Me Be There, Xanadu and so much more – the legacy of the great Olivia Newton-John who passed away last week at age 73.

With football season less than a month away, this great note on Iowa football: One of college football’s best traditions is getting even better. Iowa will have weekly kid captains choose the song that plays as nearly 70,000 fans turn and wave to patients at the UI Children’s Hospital before each home game.

In shocking sports news, Alabama is ranked #1 in the USA Today pre-season football poll. Miami (#19) is the only Florida team ranked.

A Rave to the NBA for retiring Celtic legend Bill Russell’s number 6 league-wide.

Factoid: In 2021, sporting events accounted for 75 of the 100 most watched shows on TV as more and more scripted shows move to streaming services.

Numbers of the week: 115 (the average number of baseballs used in a major league game); that translates to 279,450 balls used in a regular season which gives you $7 million, the cost to major league baseball each year – not including spring training, post season and the minor leagues!

As Yadier Molina suits up for the Cardinals, his 22-year career with the same team spans five U.S. presidencies.

“You could have done so much better” – what we and many, many others tell our SW (Saintly Wife) over and over. Nonetheless, this week we thank her for 53 years of pure bliss.

The end of college football as we knew it

We baby boomers can’t imagine what Coach Rockwell and Chip Hilton would have thought about today’s game of college football. If you don’t know who the Coach and Chip were, no problem. But today’s Name Image and Likeness (NIL) collectives are radically changing the sport. The transfer portals are stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey with kids thinking this school (usually one of the Power Five schools) can bring them bigger bucks than good old Louisiana Tech, UCF or South Alabama will. The NCAA is making threatening noises about the situation, but the truth is, they are powerless. For those of you who always thought a free education, room and board were a fair trade for three years of football, welcome to the new reality of free agent college football players.

NEXT UP: Used to be the Mustang; Woolworths; Ron for President?

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