Why must politics and sports mix?

Remember the good old days when sports provided relief from the day to day grind? It was your own little fantasy world of batting averages, NCAA brackets and Hail Mary passes. Now everybody, but everybody, wants to link sports and policy making. Editorials call for the heads of city council members because they won’t cave in to the Rays; the mayor of Tampa thinks the NCAA should treat Indiana like a third world country and Keith Olbermann still pines for his old MSNBC days commenting on everything but sports. Even the normally level-headed Tom Jones has to opine on the state of affairs in Indiana. Please folks; just let us have our baseball season, our playoffs and our mock drafts. Sports is too much fun to mix with politics – which is rarely ever fun.

Around the bay:

1. David Jolly has an announced Democratic opponent for his congressional seat in 2016 – a gentleman by the name of Eric Lynn who moved into Pinellas County six months ago. But compared to Jolly’s first opponent, Alex Sink, Lynn’s six month residency seems like deep roots

2. It appears that Florida legislators are struggling to come up with an acceptable medical marijuana bill. Their failure could result in another push to make medical marijuana a constitutional amendment in 2016. It was a bad idea last year and will be no less so in 2016.

3. Bill Jonson, mentioned last week in connection with his thoughtful no vote on a $600,000 monument folly in Clearwater, has taken over as chair of the PSTA. Having a steadier hand on the throttle at the transportation authority should lead to some much needed reforms.

4. Florida Senate passes a bill that makes it illegal for law enforcement agencies to set traffic ticket quotas. Good news for Florida and visiting motorists; bad news for Waldo, Lawtey, Inglis and Brooksville among others.

5. You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you remember FAG night put on by the Rotary Club of Clearwater for graduating CHS seniors.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. Duke University is again the NCAA national basketball champion. Tyus Jones was the most outstanding player of the tournament but the young man who won the championship game for them was known only to hardcore Duke fans – freshman Grayson Allen. He will not be quite as unknown in his sophomore year.

7. A great run by the Wisconsin Badgers, which included an upset of undefeated Kentucky in the Final Four, was diminished somewhat by the irrational pouting of their coach Bo Ryan after the championship loss to Duke.

8. The above referenced NCAA tournament bore witness to the fact that another rule violation, the Kobe Bryant-style offensive push-off, has joined the travel and double dribble as just another piece of basketball history.

9. “Breaking news” last week on ESPN, Tiger is going to play in the Masters. Yeah, and Mike Trout is going to play for the Angels, Aaron Rodgers will lead the Packers and Seth Curry will be in the NBA playoffs. Poor Tiger Woods is undoubtedly the most over covered sports figure in America.

10. Quote of the week from Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, “I don’t think social media is helpful to any human being on the planet”.

Daniel Norris - the most captivating player since Mark Fydrich

His name is Daniel Norris. If you’re not a serious baseball fan, you’ve probably never heard of him. The Blue Jays gave the hard throwing lefty a two-million bonus to sign. Has success gone to his head? Not really. During spring training, he lived in his beloved 1978 VW Bus behind a Wal-Mart. Ate his meals there, stored his surfboard in the cramped quarters and oh, by the way, is averaging over a strikeout an inning for the Blue Jays. He is not a flake or Sidd Finch – just a very well-grounded young man who is on just about everybody’s Top Ten List of prospects. Keep your eye on this Tennessee native as he begins his first full year in the major leagues as part of the Blue Jay rotation.