By Jim Bleyer Would you reward an employee whose ineptitude cost you well over $100 million? Of course you wouldn’t but that’s precisely what Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik did when he extended coach Jon Cooper’s contract last March. Cooper’s contract with the Lightning was set to …
By Jim Bleyer The federal investigation into shady land deals in Hillsborough County includes several targets besides County Commissioner Ken Hagan and his family, Tampa Bay Beat has learned. Those being investigated include private citizens as well as other public officials, according to our source in Tallahassee. No specific …
By E. Eugene Webb PhD, from Bay Post Internet It seems like the proclamation of former baseball Commissioner Bud Selig still haunts Tampa Bay. At the height of St. Petersburg’s struggle to acquire a major-league baseball franchise in the late 1980s Selig notably said, “St. Petersburg is not …
By Jim Bleyer It may be the prohibitive favorite (again) to win professional hockey’s coveted Stanley Cup but the 2019-20 edition of the Tampa Bay Lightning are set up for more failure and heartbreak when its season kicks off Thursday. Thanks to former General Manager Steve Yzerman, …
By Sharon Calvert, from Eye on Tampa Bay Almost $760,000 has been paid to the New York baseball lawyer Irwin Raij by Hillsborough County in its pursuit of a new Rays baseball stadium. The handsome sum was paid from October 2014 through July 2019. Raij was paid hundreds …
By Jim Bleyer The guilty pleas entered last week by former Tallahassee Mayor Scott Maddox and a confidante is not the end of public corruption investigations in Florida. That’s the word from Lawrence Keefe, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, and sources at the Federal …
By Jim Bleyer Two months ago the attendance-challenged Tampa Bay Rays could at least boast of a fiercely loyal, though modest, fan base. No more, thanks to Rays owner Stu Sternberg striking out with a far-out proposal to play half a season in Tampa Bay and the other half in …
By Jim Bleyer Horse racing fatalities this year at Santa Anita’s fabled Southern California track have put the Sport of Kings under the scrutiny of politicians, animal rights activists, the media, and the thoroughbred racing industry itself. Thirty horses died in racing or training since Christmas at Santa …
2019 Haskell Invitational, Monmouth Park’s premiere event, was witnessed by sparser-than-usual crowd. By Clocker Vandalay The battle between animal rights activists and the horse racing industry over whether the sport is inhumane intensified this weekend. If you are keeping score at home, chalk up a major victory …
By Scott Myers, Contributor The recent proposal by Stu Sternberg, with the approval of MLB, to pursue having the Tampa Bay Rays, beginning in 2024, play 35 home games per season in Tampa Bay and 46 in Montreal is fraught …
