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: Auto industry being squeezed

It’s always been hard to feel sorry for GM or Ford or whatever they call Chrysler these days. While your humble blogger has blindly bought American (mostly GM) over the years, we’ve never purchased out of pity. But the whole auto industry has changed over the last several decades, as well illustrated in Kenneth Whyte’s 2021 book The Sack of Detroit. Its unions are now making unreasonable demands, but not as unreasonable as the Biden administration’s demands that they build electric vehicles which very few people want. Meanwhile, other manufacturers in right to work states or overseas are not burdened by these issues. The upshot may be something that makes Obama’s early 21^st century auto bailout look tame.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

Just once, we would like to see our government shut down “all but essential services,” for a length of time so we could see just how much government we could do without.

It starts this week. One media source is calling it the big payback as the “tax holiday” is over for people with outstanding student loans, unless Biden comes up with another scheme to buy their votes.

Senate reinstates its dress code. To the “distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania,” if you can’t abide by those rules, perhaps we can find someone else.

Hang on to your hat when you get your auto insurance renewal. Rates are up as high as 30 to 45 percent.

Idle recollection: Our late father was a pretty savvy investor, but his one big swing and miss was when an acquaintance tried unsuccessfully to interest him in investing in a small chain he was building. The acquaintance’s name was Jack Eckerd. Oh, while we’re at it – Happy Birthday Dad and thanks for all the love and wisdom.

News of the Big Apple from the 5:05 Newsletter: Mayor Eric Adams said that just because New York City declared itself to be a sanctuary city, he has no idea where people got the idea they could actually come there and find sanctuary. At publishing time, Mayor Adams is vowing to build a wall around New York City and force Texas to pay for it.

This week in 1961 (10/3) The Dick Van Dyke Show premiers on CBS.

Sports, media and other stuff:

Brooks Robinson was the best fielding third baseman in the history of the game and the heart and soul of the great Oriole teams of the late sixties and early seventies. The Hall of Famer passed away last week at age 86.

October lunch date: As we head to the playoffs three baseball players we would love to have lunch with: our three boyhood heroes, Yogi Berra, Roberto Clemente and Herb Score.

Fire off the rockets! USF beats its first Division I opponent in over a year!

Notre Dame and Ohio State gave us a good game last weekend, but they also showed why neither should be ranked among the top ten programs in the country.

This summer (TBR&R 6/11), we forecast interesting times for the Denver Broncos, but short of the hot mess the team has become. Surely, after a 70-20 embarrassment, the only way is up – right? Denver vs. the Bears, somebody has to win that game - right?

Born 100 years ago this week (10/4) was Academy Award winning actor Charlton Heston. The actor won the award for his role in Ben-Hur. He also starred in epic films like The Ten Commandments, The Greatest Show on Earth and The Greatest Story Ever Told.

You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if your elementary school supply store sold Blue Horse three-ring filler paper. Blue Horse hung around until the early seventies.

…and another thing: the best time of year

For this old slap, it’s a tossup between the first pitch of spring and this week’s first pitch of the playoffs. The two playoff teams nobody wants to face are probably the Braves and the Astros with the Dodgers and Phils close behind. Next, a truism, the best team hardly ever wins the World Series. In the 28 years of wild card play, only six times has the team with the best regular season record won the World Series. Last year, the Dodgers had the best record in baseball, but were upset by the San Diego Padres who finished 22 games behind them in the regular season. It truly is a whole new season. It doesn’t even come down to who is the hottest team at the end of regular play. Last year, it was the Braves and they were dumped by the Phils who were 4-6 in their last ten games of the season. So you figure it out. We’re going to go with the team that has arguably the best three starters going into the playoffs – the Milwaukee Brewers, assuming they can generate any sort of offense. By the way, as we write this, just 135 days until pitchers and catchers report.

UP NEXT: Bond, James Bond; Finding a mayor; Brain drain?

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