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.

These things are real

We can watch in abstract when storms like Ian pound Caribbean islands. This past week, we got a dose of reality. It is going to take years to bring southwest Florida back to normal. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay continues to live a charmed existence with minor damage, few power outages and a quick return to normalcy. We were, in a word, lucky.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

While Duke Energy customers in the bay area were lucky, Spectrum customers not so much. Channeling Floyd Patterson in his famous Sonny Liston fight, Spectrum’s internet service went down early (Wednesday morning) and remained out in many areas for over 48 hours, making you realize how much you depend on the internet and how important a reliable service is.

One casualty of the storm was Charlie Crist’s gubernatorial campaign. While Charlie was spouting campaign rhetoric, Governor Ron DeSantis was looking very gubernatorial, if not presidential, in his handling of the crisis.

Somewhat frustrating (and downright scary) were FEMA chief’s Deanne Criswell’s comments that there has not been a serious storm on the west coast in a hundred years. We would invite this New Yorker to review the results of Charlie, Jeanne and even 2017’s Irma.

The city of Clearwater got some great publicity when the Weather Channel stationed meteorologist Paul Goodloe on Clearwater Beach during the storm. In addition to solid reporting, there was a lot of extolling the great things about Clearwater. Thanks Paul!

An approaching hurricane brings up mentions of the Waffle House index. An acquaintance told us we had to try a Waffle House to understand all this. We did – once.

A Rave goes to the Social Security Administration. With the threat of a disruptive storm and realizing many people rely on those monthly checks, the SSA issued them early so folks could stock up on groceries, gas and other essentials.

Fast approaching is Clearwater’s premier fall event – Jazz Holiday, October 14-16 at BayCare (Phillies) Park featuring 10 acts over the three days plus fireworks on Saturday night.

Speaking of the Phillies Park, why in the world wasn’t some sort of commemorative object placed in the park to honor Clearwater’s father of baseball and former MLB pitcher Jack Russell for whom the Phils’ original home was named?

Five Years Ago in TBR&R (Oct. 1, 2017) A recent study valued the University of Florida Gator football program as a franchise at $682 million. FSU’s gridiron organization came in at $385 million. Which would you want – Gators at 682, Noles at 385 or the Miami Marlins at $1.3 billion?

Sports, media and other stuff:

We tip our cap to the World Champion Atlanta Braves for accepting an invitation to The White House last week from a low life who did everything in his power to steal last year’s All-Star Game from Atlanta. Biden’s freak show of a press secretary took the occasion to suggest they change their 100-year-old name – way to class it up. The Braves are much more forgiving than they should be.

Sidebar: Gerry Callahan, host of "The Gerry Callahan Show," shared a similar opinion, writing, "Every time I look [at] my disappearing 401K, I think, ‘Damn, we really have to do something about the name of the frigging baseball team in Atlanta.’”

We’re sorry to see Don Mattingly relinquish his post with the Miami Marlins – simply a great baseball man as a player and manager.

Oddity: When the Washington Nationals traded stars Juan Soto and Josh Bell, they called up 30-year-old journeyman Joey Meneses. Since the trade, Meneses has more extra base hits than Bell and Soto combined.

It was 75 years ago this week (1947) that the first pinch hit home run was hit in the World Series. Fittingly, it was one of the greatest clutch hitters in the postseason to do it – Yogi Berra.

Football news: NFL to drop the Pro-Bowl and not a decade too late.

The baseball playoffs are barely underway and the NBA exhibition season is beginning this week with the Atlanta Hawks playing the Milwaukee Bucks in Abu Dhabi – no we’re serious – Abu Dhabi!

Baseball: now the rubber hits the road

As the Atlanta Braves proved last year, you can now toss away all you think you knew based on the regular season. It’s a new season, but it sure is hard to bet against the Dodgers – hard to bet against - yes, root against - no. Earlier in the year, we thought it would be what we used to call a subway series - Dodgers and the Yanks, but the pinstripes have faded somewhat down the stretch and Houston should get a chance to avenge a series loss from last year – but they won’t. The rest of our seeding: Mets, Braves, Yanks, Rays, Blue Jays, Cards, Mariners, Padres, Phils and Cleveland. Please do not wager any serious money based on these predictions!

NEXT UP: Rule by the elite; Five for the Hall; Authenticator code

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