Month: October 2014

Changes In Raysville

As the 2014 World Series plays its seventh and final game this evening to determine whether or not Kansas City’s Royals or San Francisco’s Giants become the best team in baseball this year, changes amongst Tampa Bay’s franchise are worth looking at.

Last week, it was announced that Joe Maddon would not return as the team’s manager, and it presently appears he is headed to Chicagoland to become the new skipper of the Cubs.

I cannot nor will not blame Maddon for wanting fair value for his services. When Andrew Freidman left his general manager post with the Rays to join the Dodgers, it gave Maddon the loophole to opt out of managing the Rays in 2015. Did the Rays ownership screw up? I don’t think so.

As was the case with the David Price decision, I think this was all about money, and how with a 10% drop in attendance, that money is not coming in. I went to a Rays game in September, and I saw what they were charging for photos, concessions, and what not. The Rays attempts to squeeze the almighty dollar ought of the pockets of the fans means one thing: THEIR pocketbooks are hurting.

Rumors are circulating once again that the Rays might move to Montreal. If so, they have every right to do it, but if that does happens, the fate of Tampa Bay’s franchise was sealed the minute they were awarded it by not moving all the minor league teams out of the Tampa Bay area, as I mentioned on this blog beforehand. When Major League Baseball moved into Miami in 1993, the minor league teams all fled to the north and west of their area. In 1998, all the minor leagues teams in the Florida State League stayed put in the local area.

The Rays still have players that can compete in 2015, but Joe Maddon brought a little edge with him as manager that will be hard to replace, whether that replacement is David Martinez or somebody else. I hope for the best in the coming seasons for the Rays, but I prepare for the worst.

London Or Las Vegas?

I watched the first ever NFL regular-season game played in the morning (US time), as Detroit rallied back from 21-0 down to nip Atlanta’s Falcons, 22-21.

I often wondered, when I was a bit younger, what would happen first: would Bob Barker retire from “The Price Is Right” before Jerry Lewis stopped doing the Labor Day telethons, or vice versa? In 2007, the answer became clear: Barker retired, and Drew Carey took his place.

Now a days, I have a similar hypothetical question not designed to be answered anytime soon: who gets an NFL, MLB, NBA, or NHL franchise first, London or Las Vegas? The answer is bound to come soon, as the games at Wembley Stadium draw quite a following no matter who plays. Meanwhile, Las Vegas seems close to getting a team in the NBA, NHL, and MLB (and not particularly the NFL), but they have that pesky obstacle about sports betting in Nevada that is likely no longer a hurdle in New Jersey.

Pretty sure we’ll get an answer in the next 10 years or so for sure.

Standing For Canada

It was a tough day for our friends north of the border today. Terrorism may have found its way to the Great White North.

Canada has always been our friends, so naturally, the Americans should “stand on guard” with our neighbors to the north.

When 9/11 happened, several nations honored ours by playing our national anthem. Canada, this is one American who would like to return the favor.

Who Minds The Store?

I have to admit I was most disappointed when President Obama appointed Ron Klain as the “czar of Ebola” on Friday past.

I try to keep things apolitical on this blog, mainly because when push ever comes to shove in this era of America, the major parties collude against the wishes and best interests of the American people. “Obamacare” and its implementation was an example of this, as it marked a major Republican-like move by Democrats to screw the people out of their money and line the pockets of healthcare and insurance companies with it. The Republicans, when the time comes at some point in the future, will keep Obamacare in place. Mark my words on that.

Now, they put a bureaucrat in charge of a mainly medical problem.

Would I go to the Dalai Lama to help me bowl better?

Would I go to a football coach to learn to paint?

Putting a bureaucrat in charge of Ebola makes as much sense. Seems to be an asinine move, unless the disease is farther along than what’s publicly being discussed.

If Ebola goes airborne, will this government tell you?

Only In Florida

Gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist is ready to debate, but where's the governor of Florida?
Gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist is ready to debate, but where’s the governor of Florida?

I didn’t watch last night’s governors debate between former governor Charlie Crist and the present governor, Rick Scott. But by now, I bet you have heard what happened.

First, a little background for those of you outside of Florida.

Crist and Scott used to each be Republicans, but Crist left the GOP a couple of years ago and campaigned for President Obama in 2012, and the GOP seemed happy to be rid of him. There were rumors of Mr. Crist being gay and a lover of alcoholic beverages (not necessarily in that order), but nothing was ever proven to be substantial.

As for Rick Scott, he was so bad as the owner over at the HCA hospital chain (buying up Largo Medical Center a few years back, where my mom used to work) he became the governor of Florida. The GOP loves their crooks, don’t they? My theory as to why that is is because said individuals (such as Herr Scott) are figureheads really, controlled by the middle men pulling their strings. Would George W. Bush have been successful without Karl Rove?

Fast forward to last night, and Ricky’s little tantrum. The Scott camp alleged Crist had committed the heresy of keeping a small fan under his podium, so Ricky Boy threw a hissy fit, refusing to debate the former governor for a good seven minutes.

It was the first time I had ever seen a candidate lose a debate before the debate ever began. I also hope it costs him the election! I did my part, voting for Mr. Crist, thanks to early balloting by mail.

Just Another Boogeyman

Like many of you, I’ve been watching the news over the past days and weeks of the Ebola outbreak here in United States.  Ironic that 45 years ago we could go to the moon, and now we can’t even keep a disease away that is harder to get and spread as gonorrhea once was.

I have a hard time believing our government is that incompetent, but I was saying that roughly a decade ago when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and for a while back then our government WAS that incompetent.

I’m not a physician, so I don’t know what to tell you in terms of advice, other than it is not rational to live in fear as the media would want you to. Apparently people will get sick, and people will perish from this, but the odds are still pretty good that the average human being will still be around.

So there is that.

Flashback Friday: “Indian Reservation” by Paul Revere and the Raiders

With the passing of Paul Revere this week at the age of 76, thought I’d play this classic. Was an unlikely hit for the Raiders back in 1970, and the song also serves as a bit of a history lesson.

Until next week…

The Expanding Televised Sporting Universe

Being a sports fan in the year 2014 is both a blessing and a curse.

With so many channels specialized for sports these days, it’s quite possible a cable system might not carry all of these channels. For example, I don’t get the MLB Network or Fox Sports One, but I do have MLB.TV (which I got in September for a steal at $9.95, it’s kind of a Netflix of baseball games) to watch the baseball playoffs on a delayed basis for the games that air on those channels. I can also listen to those games live on the radio.

But I miss the days where everything was live and on common TV outlets you could actually see. If you want to watch a game these days, you have to figure out whether or not your cable system gets a specific cable channel.

Quick, what’s on the SEC Network?

Did you catch that on Fox Sports Two?!?

It just smells of a cabal by cable outlets and stations to get you to get you to expand your cable coverage so they can get a little deeper into your pocket, and it’s always about the dollars, isn’t it?

With technology advancing as it has the past few years, I wouldn’t be shocked if something Internet related comes along that bypasses all of this cable expansion somehow, so I think I’ll just wait around for a bit.  What expands must contract, sooner or later.