The MLB playoffs: umpires, upsets, lack of class and broadcasters:

Baseball commentators have been unanimous in one area during the playoffs – the umpiring has been atrocious. This is because union contracts say umps must get a postseason assignment every so often no matter how awful they are. This is akin to letting Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Atlanta (baseball’s three worst 2015 teams) into the playoffs. Upsets have turned the playoffs topsy-turvy with the Cubs ousting the injury-riddled Cards and the favored Dodgers falling to the Mets. Then there was the complete lack of class displayed by beer can throwing Blue Jay fans. Lastly, the gulf between broadcast presentations: Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that Fox outshines TBS as Fox does more in the regular season and has a better stable of announcers and analysts from which to draw. And TBS should probably follow the Fox example of having analysts who do not represent participating teams. Having the Met’s Ron Darling whine about every play that goes against his team greatly detracts from the game. Oh, by the way, our prognosticator Achmed Walled’s (pronounced wall-ED) quinela of the Royals and Cubs is still alive.

Around Tampa Bay:

1. Not surprising that “Florida’s Best Newspaper” took a cheap shot at St. Pete City Council candidate over some tax liens he satisfied three years ago. Somewhat to their credit, they mentioned his opponent Lisa Wheeler-Brown’s playing games with campaign funds in the 11^th paragraph of the article. No mention of her previous arrests for retail theft and bad check charges. Not when she supports the Mayor’s open checkbook policy toward the Tampa Bay Rays.

2. Factoid: For many years, the editorial page of the above publication carried a quote from its long time publisher Nelson Poynter. It read “The policy of our paper is simple – merely to tell the truth.” The quote was dropped several years ago.

3. Read recently of the perils of locating virtually anything, but particularly a spring training site, on a landfill. Point noted. Anxious to see if the same fears are raised should the Tampa Bay Rays, rather than the Atlanta Braves and perhaps the Toronto Blue Jays, want to build a facility at Toytown.

4. We hear so much about this high tech company and that one and what they mean to Tampa Bay but a recent report shows that MacDill Air Force Base pours just shy of 3 billion dollars into the economy each year and supports 25,000 jobs – not bad for an institution we so often take for granted.

5. You’ve lived in the bay area for a long time if you remember when folks flocked to the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory to see the likes of Eddie Graham, Sam Steamboat, Haystack Calhoun and others every Tuesday night.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. We know he was polarizing and blatantly plain spoken (always loved that Auburn books line), but Steve Spurrier will go down as one of the 5 or 10 best coaches in college history. Hard to think of many coaches who took three mediocre college programs and made them relevant. And yes, his timing was unfortunate.

7. Speaking of ball coaches, it’s hard to believe that Jon Gruden broadcast his 100^th Monday Night Football earlier this month since the Bucs unwisely dropped him as their head coach. Coincidentally, the Bucs have played 101 games since Gruden’s departure. They are 32-69 in those games.

8. Here’s a longshot candidate for the Marlins’ manager’s job – Ruben Amaro who is looking to return to the game as a field manager.

9. We’ve heard good things about the high tech Tesla vehicle but stopped short when we saw the gull wing doors on the car. The doors hark back to the DeLorean and we all know how well that went.

10. Thought for the week: One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors – Plato.

MLB expanding to Canada and Mexico?

Newly - minted MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has run the idea of expansion to Canada and Mexico up the flagpole. At face value, it may make sense; there are few choice U.S. markets left for major league teams and a couple existing markets don’t seem to be making it – particularly the two in Florida. Baseball has already failed in one Canadian city and attendance of the other is in the lower half of all MLB teams although it could improve when the final numbers are in for this year due to the Blue Jays resurgence in the second half of the season. Mexico is much more of a crapshoot – no track record at all and the constant political instability in that nation. All in all, 30 teams (or maybe even 28) seem like a good number and Manfred probably should work at buttressing up the weaker franchises like the A’s, Indians, Marlins and Rays before looking across borders.