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.

Leading off: Keep New Hampshire first

Like sports teams, politicians like to play “home games.” That has much to do with Joe Biden’s attempt to move New Hampshire out of its long held position as our nation’s first primary. Biden would have South Carolina lead off. Makes sense, in 2020, Biden ran fifth out of eight candidates in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary. It was South Carolina that took his campaign off the respirator. The rest is regrettable history. Some things should be sacred – even in politics and Iowa’s misunderstood caucus and New Hampshire’s primary should be two of them. By the way, there is an interesting piece on the New Hampshire primary (Say It Ain’t So, Joe) by former Clearwater Sun city editor and Concord Monitor editor Mike Pride. Google Mike’s name and you’ll find it.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

Numbers of the week: 3 out of 4 as in Americans who do not wish to see Biden run for re-election. Poll conducted by AP, which is, to be charitable, a bit left of center.

Teens riot in Chicago streets last weekend. Spring training for the ’24 Democratic convention?

Somewhat related and borrowed from a friend: “Remember: when something goes wrong in the circus, they send in the clowns to distract the audience. Well something has gone very wrong with this circus, and the clowns are everywhere.”

Clearwater’s Dan Slaughter is turning in his chief’s badge and becoming an assistant city manager overseeing, among other departments, the marina and solid waste – two departments that have suffered from lack of oversight for the past several years.

Many observers were surprised when Clearwater voters approved a massive, out of character development project for the bluff overlooking Clearwater Bay. Now, the developers are beginning to backpedal on the promises they made to city officials. This could get ugly.

Here’s a fun exercise. As Governor DeSantis becomes more and more a serious candidate for the Presidency, count the number of attack articles each day by The Tampa Bay Times – and put a dollar in a sock drawer for each one. By next summer, you will have a fully funded vacation.

Post tax season reflection from the 5:05 Newsletter: “I am so glad I learned about parallelograms in high school math class instead of how to do my taxes. It comes in so handy during parallelogram season.”

Seen on a bumper sticker: Don’t New York My Florida. Perhaps that should read Don’t Eastern New York My Florida. Like Pennsylvania, its neighbor to the south, there is a huge difference between the eastern and western parts of New York.

Forty five years ago this week, (April 25): Everybody’s favorite mascot, the Phillie Phanatic, makes his first appearance at Veteran’s Stadium in Philadelphia and ever since has been a spring treat in Clearwater.

Sports, media and other stuff:

NPR is quitting Twitter after being labeled as government-funded media. The left of center network says Twitter “is taking actions that undermine our credibility.” In reality, NPR is doing a good job of that without Twitter’s help.  

A thought from our friend TL: “It’s weird being the same age as old people.”

Most of us don’t own one or can’t afford one, but a cool feature of the Porsche SUV is an analog clock.

Some observers have former Gator QB, Anthony Richardson, going as high as #4 in this week’s NFL draft.

Number of the week: 38 – the most times slugging catcher Yogi Berra ever struck out in any of the 17 years he played in the majors. The fewest? In both 1947 and 1950, he struck out 12 times over a combined 890 at bats.

…and another thing: Oakland, the first domino

It appears to be a fait accompli that the Athletics will be playing in Las Vegas by 2027 – or sooner. Coincidently, that’s the same year the Rays’ contract with the Trop ends. Oakland should have never been in the San Francisco Bay area - a market too small to support two baseball teams. The Athletics, again last year, had the lowest attendance in baseball. The next two lowest are the Marlins and Rays. The Athletics and Marlins you can understand, as both are sub .500 baseball teams. The Rays are a consistent playoff team, yet averaged just 13,000 fans last year. By comparison, the next two lowest drawing playoff teams were Cleveland and the Phillies with 17,000 and 28,000 respectively. Despite some of the local spin, it’s not a sure thing that the Rays won’t join the Athletics in a 2027 move.

NEXT UP: Denver omelet; Bye to phones & others; “47 for 47”

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