Category: Uncategorized

It’s likely come down to a zero-sum scenario for the Rays in their ongoing quest for a solution to bad attendance and an obsolete, poorly positioned facility. Make Tampa work or leave the market for good. Although there hasn’t been an MLB relocation in half a century (Montreal to Washington), that scenario still looms because the Rays’ attendance is still awful. As Nashville, Charlotte, Las Vegas and other sports-craving markets still know.

That’s the upshot of MLB telling the Rays and its would-be Montreal partners that the twin-cities “ExRays” plan–that’s been on the table for more than two years–is now kaput. It’s likely the Rays, although deeply disappointed and seemingly blindsided, had wished they hadn’t been strung along by MLB, which gave them permission–and implied approval–to explore the two-city plan. In retrospect, the Rays can understand the ultimate pushback. The untried concept wasn’t going over well with the players’ union—already embroiled in a lockout. Other variables range from TV and radio contracts and sponsors to corporate season-ticket support and territorial rights. And then a stadium with a retractable roof and a larger footprint will run the cost into 10 figures.

This looks a lot like square one. The Rays’ situation is unique. It’s in a regional market that is easy to misread. World class airport, major port, and ongoing revitalization of downtown Tampa. Tampa Bay, while no New York, Chicago or Los Angeles, is a major market, including TV. But it’s asymmetrical. The bay is a gulf between Pinellas and Hillsborough counties and no meaningful mass transit exists. The region has its share of regional corporate offices, but is headquarters challenged. Golf, fishing, boating, tennis and summers in the Carolinas can be more attractive than baseball. Many locals have allegiances elsewhere—as in Boston and New York.

The one variable the Rays can control after 2027: a new stadium in a new location. It has to be spot on, and the Rays have to ante up. And it has to be Tampa, the business and logistical hub of the Tampa Bay market, plus TIF (tax increment financing) money, hotel and car-rental taxes and light rail that also connects to Orlando. Without all the pieces, this Florida market—one ironically so successful with hockey–will bid adieu to one of the most successful on-field MLB franchises.

* The U.S. will host the 9^th Summit of the Americas in June in Los Angeles. The focus will be on “Building a Sustainable, Resilient and Equitable Future.” The Summit of the Americas is the only hemisphere-wide convening of leaders from the countries of North, South and Central American and the Caribbean. One topic that should come up: The U.S., no longer the province of Trumpian foreign policy priorities, hasn’t eased the embargo on Cuba.

* “Some people may call what’s happening now the ‘new normal.’ I call it a job not yet finished. It will get better.”–President Joe Biden.

* “The president, finally, appears to have given up on his quixotic hope that GOP senators, some of whom he considers close friends, will ever have an ‘epiphany’ that breaks the spell Donald Trump cast upon them and brings them back to their senses.”–Eugene Robinson, Washington Post.

* “(The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan) acted like a vaccine for the American economy, protecting our recovery from the possibility of new variants. The protection wasn’t complete, but it was very strong. It prevented communities from suffering the most severe economic effects of omicron and delta.”–Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

* Look for the President and other top Dems to push several proposed laws over the next few months that would rein in Big Tech.

* The Biden Administration has asked for an additional $80 billion over the next decade to bolster Internal Revenue Service enforcement and customer service.

* “What a stupid SOB.”–President Biden’s hot mic response to Fox’s Peter Doocy at a press briefing.

* All 200-plus American athletes heading to Beijing for the Olympics are fully vaccinated—with no medical exemptions requested.

* Amtrak is reducing service in its Washington-to-Boston corridor after a surge in infections.

* A taxing experience. The IRS is warning taxpayers that staffing shortages and paperwork backlogs will mean a lower level of service when Americans file their taxes.

* 5.7 million eligible Florida residents remain unvaccinated.

* Florida’s most recent weekly positivity rate: 26.8 percent. In Hillsborough County: 27.7 percent.

* The South Tampa Chamber of Commerce has named Dr. Charles Lockwood, dean of Morsani College of Medicine at USF, the 2022 “Citizen of the Year” for his leadership through the pandemic.

* Free public COVID test sites in Hillsborough and Tampa: Adventure Island, Al Barnes Park, Al Lopez Field, Hillsborough Community College Brandon, Progress Village Park and West Tampa Community Resource Center.

* A report by Florida Taxwatch highlighted $175 billion in economic risk annually by 2050 from climate change in the Sunshine State.

* Four state universities—South Florida, North Florida, Florida International and the University of Florida are in the process of changing presidents.

* “The freest state in these United States.” That’s how Gov. Ron DeSantis characterized Florida in his State of the State address. That obviously includes the freedom to self-servingly define freedom.

* “Stop Woke.” Now a Florida campaign staple by the usual Tallahassee suspects.

* The U.S. Department of Agriculture has projected that Florida’s citrus industry will produce 44.5 million (90-pound) boxes of oranges for the current growing season—a decline of 3 percent from an earlier projection. For context: Decades ago, growers produced about 200 million boxes of oranges a year.

* Lara Logan, former CBS News (and “60 Minutes”) correspondent, was a speaker at the anti-vaccination mandate rally in Washington. Her career has devolved from network foreign correspondent to trolling opinionist.

* “When the ox goes to the palace, he does not become a king. But the palace becomes a barn.” That was the proverb quoted by a Turkish journalist, Sedef Kabas, in reference to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. She was jailed for “insulting” Erdogan.

* Rite of pissage: Those who disdain Porta Potties for private property on Gasparilla.

* Speaking of, uh, pissage, it’s still surprising that there are no Gasparilla-catheter concessionaires.

* Next month’s (Feb. 25-27) Gasparilla Music Festival will be highlighting Band of Horses, Black Pumas, Cimafunk and Trombone Shorty. Another reminder of feeling like an alien in pop culture. Trombone Shorty?

* “To have the rug pulled out from under us like this is extraordinarily disappointing.”–Tampa Bay Rays President Brian Auld, in reaction to MLB rejecting the Rays’ split-season plan with Montreal.

* On the other hand. “Now we can focus all of our energy on a full season. I am optimistic the Rays will call Tampa Bay home for many years to come.”–Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.

* No, there won’t be back-to-back Super Bowls for the Buccaneers. But what a two-year run and welcome diversion during a pandemic. The reality, however, is that the NFL, as with all major pro sports, is no repeat-champ enabler: Parity-favoring free agency, college drafts and salary caps ensure as much. Plus, the Bucs don’t know if Tom Brady will retire at 44 or 45.

* Alabama football coach Nick Saban is among the notable sports figures urging West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin to support sweeping legislation to protect the right to vote. It probably helps recruiting too.

* It will be interesting to see if British Prime Minister Boris Johnson survives his alienation of the public and the political class after lying about violating his own government’s lockdown orders. “Partygate” is a big deal on the other side of the pond. This isn’t just prevarication, which BoJo has periodically engaged in. This time–specifically, his attendance at non-lockdown parties at his residence–it’s being treated more like moral hypocrisy, a de facto attack on the social contract itself. It’s what happens when the prime minister takes a public stand on behalf of shared sacrifice and lies about his own compliance–even as Queen Elizabeth masked up and socially separated for the funeral ceremony of her husband, Prince Philip.

It’s also a reminder that moral hypocrisy in a national leader can vary by nation. And if a leader has a cult following masquerading as a constituency, he can conceivably get away with practically anything. For the record, however, Boris Johnson never said: “I could stand in the middle of Trafalgar Square and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”

* “The (Republican) Party is no longer a party, but a fascist, white-nationalist cult.”–LeonardPitts, Miami Herald.

* Some 20,000 (largely unmasked) people attended a Washington rally at the National Mall to protest vaccination mandates. Among the speakers: Robert Kennedy Jr. Among the signage: “Vaccines Are Mass Kill Bio Weapons” and “Trump won.” No, there’s no vaccine for this.

* Filibuster hypocrisy. Let’s not forget: Former Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell pushed against the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees during the Trump presidency.

* “The (2020) election was fair, as fair as we have seen. We simply did not win the election, as Republicans, for the presidency.”–Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D.

* “Republicans are suddenly crying ‘socialism!’ But let’s be fair … former President Donald Trump was the most vociferous proponent of easy money we’ve ever seen.”–Mona Charen, The Bulwark.

* “You may think of Donald Trump as the most committed authoritarian in the Republican Party … but Gov. Ron DeSantis is giving him a run for his money.”–Paul Waldman, Washington Post.

* “We’re in trouble. I hope everyone understands that.”—John Kerry, the U.S. special envoy on climate change, in underscoring the need to intensify efforts to move away from fossil fuels this decade.

* “NATO has no plans to admit Ukraine anytime soon because doing so would commit the United States and Europe to Ukraine’s defense. And there’s no chance the United States and Europe will make that commitment if it could mean fighting Russian troops.”–Peter Beinart, professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York.

* “The Andrew formerly known as Prince.”–Monica Hesse, WaPo.

* “I did not anticipate that there would be such a stalwart effort to make sure that the most important thing was that President Biden didn’t get anything done.”–President Joe Biden.

* “In all likelihood, the most important day in the history of the Senate as an institution.”–Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s response to Democrats’ failed attempt at temporarily changing Senate rules to expedite passage of the voting rights bill that lacked any Republican support.

* “Democrats assume any concern with fraud or voter integrity is a ruse for disenfranchising voters. … Republicans fear that if everyone voted, the GOP would lose.”–Jonah Goldberg, The Dispatch.

* “Republicans stand for ending access to abortion. They stand for unfettered access to guns. And they stand for exploiting whatever random flotsam of the so-called culture war … can be inflated into an existential threat to stampede their easily stampede-able base to the polls.”–Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald.

* “What happens when (Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky) gets out and accuses me of things that are completely untrue is that it kindles the crazies out there, and I have threats upon my life, harassment of my family and my children with obscene phone calls because people are lying about me.”–Dr. Anthony Fauci.

* “Critical race theory is a prism for understanding why decades after the end of segregation, over a century and a half after the end of slavery, after genocide has occurred, why racial inequalities are so enduring.”–UCLA and Columbia law professor Kimberle Crenshaw, who developed critical race theory.

* “If a challenge as slow-moving and widely publicized as 5G can catch the FAA unprepared, it’s hard to be hopeful about smooth landings in other areas. And tech folks are already working on 6G.”–David Von Drehle, Washington Post.

* “To the extent that we got more heat, we got a lot more growth for it.”–Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, in noting that rising inflation has been accompanied by a robust rebound in economic output.

* “This map dilutes the power of minority voters.”–Ellen Freidin, president of Fair Districts Now, on Gov. Ron DeSantis’redistricting plan for congressional maps.

* “During this session, Florida lawmakers have the opportunity to lead on climate and the economy with common sense solutions. In March, we will know if they have risen to the challenge.”–Dawn Shirkeffs, Florida director of the Environmental Defense League.

* “The whole purpose and centerpiece of my campaign was inclusive progress, how we move forward as a city. In my view, equity is fundamental to that. We cannot be the best city if equity is not fundamental to that.”–St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch.