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

First thing on our mind:

The world is a series of 800 numbers masquerading as customer service.

Leading off: Will new ownership matter?

The deal has been all but sealed. The Rays will have new ownership by this fall and Stu Sternberg and his partners will ride off into the sunset with $1.7 billion in their saddlebags. The team will most likely move to Tampa, but will it make a difference? Our answer is a semi-strong maybe. You couldn’t have a worse venue than the Trop. The team consistently finishes in the bottom four or five in attendance despite consistent winning numbers on the field. Two sets of ownership have failed to generate enthusiasm in terms of attendance. If this third group, with a Tampa stadium, fails to generate better crowds, it might be time to admit the bay area is just not a good baseball market.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

The All-Star game was played last week in Atlanta. Baseball’s commissioner was there. Maybe we missed it, but there was no apology for pulling the rug from under Atlanta citizens back in 2021. Of course, the city got some sweet revenge when the Biden stooge had to hand the World Championship trophy to the Braves that fall.

All this hand wringing over the so-called Alligator Alcatraz – you would think we were holding American patriots there rather than hardened non-citizen criminals.

An Italian company owning Snap, Crackle and Pop – outrageous!

Factoid: in the early 1900s approximately one-third of New York taxi cabs were electric. The same issues with today’s electrics are what led to the demise of the electric cabs in the Big Apple.

Political news from the 5:05 Newsletter: To counter Elon Musk, Democrats form the Unamerican Party.

This week in 2000 (July 25) Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde supersonic airliner, crashed shortly after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. The fatal crash marked the beginning of the end for the Concorde.

Sports, media and other notes:

She was the top-rated female singer of the 50s and 60s combined with 56 Billboard hits and three number one songs. Connie Francis passed away last week at age 87.

A sign of the times – the newest Barbie release has Type 1 diabetes and comes with a glucose monitor and insulin pump.

Diminishing ratings and revenues to bring an end to Colbert’s stay at CBS. And apparently there are only so many times you can call the President of the United States a racist and still get funding for your little left wing public broadcast outlets.

Last month’s prime time winner – Fox News followed by CBS, NBC and ABC.

Don’t recognize many of the Emmy nominees? You’re not alone unless you have hundreds or thousands a year to spend on Netflix, Hulu, Apple Plus, the list goes on.

The Hall of Fame inductions are this coming weekend. Interesting factoid – the Hall contains a position player who started as a major league pitcher (Babe Ruth). A not so well known fact is the third baseman who turned into a Hall of Fame pitcher – Indian legend Bob Lemon.

As we have opined many times, most baseball books are snoozers. A brilliant exception is this year’s bio of Earl Weaver, The Last Manager by John Miller (the former WSJ writer, not the longtime former voice of the Orioles who spells his name Jon).

Largest sit-down restaurant chain by sales in the country – it’s Texas Roadhouse at $5.3 billion. The chain has only one restaurant in the bay area (St. Pete).

You’ve lived in the bay area a long time if you remember the “Swingin’ Gentlemen” of WLCY Radio, Dick Stambaugh, Dave Archard, DJ O’Day, Roy Nilson, Rock Robbins, Johnny Dark and Beachcomber Bob, the lineup this summer in1963.

One last thing: those football rivalries

The well-respected Athletic recently published a list of the Top 100 college football rivalries. With the first kickoffs about a month away, some highlights. The top five are hard to argue – Michigan-Ohio State; Alabama-Auburn; Oklahoma-Texas; Army-Navy and although it’s lost some of its luster, Notre Dame-USC. In Florida - #7 FSU-Miami; we’d be tempted to put Florida-FSU (9) and Florida-Georgia (12) ahead of FSU-Miami. Call it regional bias, but we can’t see the world’s largest outdoor cocktail party not being in the Top 10. For us locals, the USF-UCF match up squeaks in at #99.

UP NEXT: Trade deadline; 1960 TV hits; Big wages, fewer jobs

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