Tampa Bay Rants and Raves (TBRR) is a weekly chronicle of politics, sports, lifestyle and historical notes from a politically incorrect viewpoint. Some of this content should not be taken literally.

First thing on our mind:

A personal loss, our wonderful cousin Lynne Gagetta passed away last week in her native Pittsburgh at age 89, leaving your humble blogger as the last of Thomas and Mary Keating’s 14 grandchildren.

Leading off: Narrow focus, Don

President Trump: You are like a rich kid on Christmas morning, wanting to play with everything around you. It might be time to perhaps focus on five or so things and let the others wait for another day. Leading off – forget about Greenland. Instead, find a way to extricate yourself from the garbage dump that is Minnesota; use a rational approach to Venezuela, perhaps letting private industry carry the ball there; just let Jerome Powell go quietly into the night; work on getting the Ukraine fiasco finally settled and possibly let Iran settle Iran – more on that below. Then, you can move on to other fun projects.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

Speaking of Christmas above, we and our Saintly Wife only half-jokingly refer to our oven, garbage disposal, refrigerator and washing machine as our 2025 Christmas presents. It was a tough year for appliances. After one attempt to run the new washing machine, we are no longer allowed to play with it.

Iran doesn’t seem to get it with their continued aggressive moves against U.S. forces in the region.

Chilly weather hampered the start of the Florida State Fair, but improving weather this week should make for happier fairgoers.

Number of the week: 261. The city of Clearwater is the 261^st largest city in the nation – just behind Las Cruses, NM and just ahead of West Jordan, UT. Tampa is the nation’s 49^th largest city and St. Pete 85^th.

You probably don’t know the name Frank Bisignano. He holds two of the most thankless jobs on earth. He is the CEO of the IRS and commissioner of the Social Security Administration.

Pizza Hut to close 250 “underperforming” stores across the nation. No word yet on bay area locations. The reason sales are down 7% is obvious if you order a Pizza Hut pizza. Either our memory is very bad or the quality of their product has slipped severely. Our only excuse for this recent pizza misstep was that Capogna’s wasn’t open yet.

From the 5:05 Newsletter: Never forget where you came from, because that is probably where you left your phone.

Born 100 years ago this week (2/11) in Regina, Canada was dramatic actor and later, the face of the Police Squad franchise, Leslie Nielsen.

Sports and random notes:

Mike Tirico, the vastly underrated sports voice of NBC, is going to be a busy guy. First the Super Bowl, followed by the Winter Olympics. And, if you haven’t noticed, Sunday night sports belong to NBC pretty much year-round.

Topping the charts 50 years ago this week was Neil Sedaka’s Laughter in the Rain. Ten years earlier, The Righteous Brothers were on top with You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.

Ad blast from the past (and back again): Dos Equis’ “most interesting man in the world” commercials after a 10-year absence.

Number of the week: 35 years. It was 35 years ago that Blondie Bumstead entered the workplace with her catering business. It doesn’t seem that long ago for the matriarch of the 75-year-old strip written by Clearwater’s Dean Young.

Florida is doing extremely well in winter pro sports with the Lightning leading their division and the Heat and Magic running 1-2 in their NBA division.

Number(s) of the week are 27-2. That’s Curt Cignetti’s two year record at Indiana. A few more years like that he’ll be mentioned along with names like Rockne, Saban and Wilkinson.

We visit several pro baseball and football internet sites. Measured by fans’ comments, we don’t think anybody likes their home team’s front office.

Back to back Cy Young Award winner Detroit’s Tarik Skubal wins $32 million in an arbitration hearing, and he’ll be a free agent at the end of the season – and likely a Dodger or Met the next season.

As we head for Spring Training, remember the name Justyn-Henry Malloy. The young outfielder could be a very pleasant surprise for the Rays.

A corollary to our occasional “Someone we’d like to meet” items. Some people it was really cool to meet: syndicated radio talk show host Bruce Williams, veteran MLB umpire Frank Pulli, Fox commentator Tim McCarver, Braves play by play man Pete Van Wieren and USF Presidents Betty Castor and Judy Genshaft.

One last thing: Pitchers and catchers:

As pitchers and catchers get ready to report, it’s pretty likely none of them will win the Rookie of the Year Award. Early on, it was more likely when pitchers like Bob Grim and Herb Score won back to back awards in the mid-fifties. Last year, Drake Baldwin was the first NL catcher to win the award in 15 years. And only three catchers have ever won the award in the American League – Sandy Alomar, Thurman Munson and Carlton Fisk. Even Hall of Famers like Campanella and Berra didn’t make it. When it comes to Rookie of the Year, you better be a position player – and that position had better not be behind the plate.

NEXT WEEK: Chocolate; Gas Plant; Strawberries  

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