By Scott Myers, Contributor For the 2018 Major League Baseball (MLB) season, there were just 13 pitchers who logged 200 innings or more – less than 1/2 a pitcher per team. Up until 1998, except for strike interrupted seasons, the average per team hung at two or higher. …
Lytle cleans up nice By Jim Bleyer Tampa City Council candidate Steve Lytle continues to promote the narrative that he has reformed his youthful wayward ways: it just isn’t working. Last week Tampa Bay Beat recounted Lytle’s multiple arrest record—DUI, breaking and …
Jane Castor speaks at Arts and Culture Forum By Jim Bleyer Tampa’s uninspiring mayoral race enters its final month with a clear leader, no spark from the seven suits seeking to succeed Bob Buckhorn, and a questionable process in reaching the average voter. The Big Yawn began in earnest …
By Sharon Calvert, from Eye on Tampa Bay Can a hand-picked cabal, unaccountable to voters, earmark one dollar, let alone 16 billion, of public funds for projects that were created to primarily benefit the wealthy and influential? It’s a question that should be asked throughout Florida, not …
By Jordan Kirkland, from RoundTable Politics Mob and gangster movies are a dime a dozen. From The Godfather to Goodfellas, the genre has taken the U.S. by storm since the early 1900’s. On a yearly basis, directors like Martin Scorsese churn out mafia sub-genre movies, allowing viewers to …
By Jim Bleyer Tampa City Council candidate Stephen Lytle, tipped that his multiple arrest record would be disclosed in the weeks leading to the March 5 primary, went into full damage control Monday. Using the notorious pay-for-play blog Florida Politics as his outlet, the 36-year-old Lytle asserted he …
By Sharon Calvert, from Eye on Tampa Bay The All for Transportation (AFT) 30-year $16 billion transit tax referendum has created mass confusion, with the public questioning the viability of the program, the veracity of its advocates, and the motives of the corporate players and media entities that …
By Jim Bleyer The Tampa Bay Lightning possess the most talented roster in the National Hockey League. By far. The Lightning have the NHL’s best goaltender, even the best backup goalie. Victor Hedman is one of the top three defensemen in the NHL. Four rolling forward lines with some …
By Sharon Calvert, from Eye on Tampa Bay The Tampa Bay Times discarded its journalistic ethics in reporting on the proposed Hillsborough County sales tax hike for transportation that was spearheaded by the newspaper’s primary benefactor, former hedge fund manager and developer Jeffrey Vinik. The Vinik Tax passed in …
By Jim Bleyer Pending legislation by a group of Oregon Legislators would eliminate a $150 million state appropriation towards a Major League Baseball stadium in Portland. It’s a blow to Portland’s hopes of luring an MLB team and a boost for competing cities, especially Las Vegas. The Tampa Bay …
By Scott Myers, Contributor Some factoids regarding long-term $100 million contracts for MLB starting pitchers… Roy Halladay and Mike Mussina were just voted into the MLB Hall of Fame. Do you think they were fairly compensated during their lengthy careers? Some basic metrics for each: • Roy Halladay …
By Jim Bleyer There is no shortage of Tampa Bay media lackeys that gladly genuflect for Jeff “Transit Tax” Vinik. “Vinik to relaunch asset management firm: ‘The fire still burns in my belly” bleated the headline dutifully penned by the Tampa Bay Business Journal. This would be …
By Beth Eriksen Shoup, Contributor Today marks the ninth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission ruling, striking down limits on independent corporate spending in elections. It also marks the anniversary of the founding of Move to Amend, a group that sprang up to fight corporate …
Tom Alte, John Godwin, Nicholas Golver By Jim Bleyer, from the Sunshine State News The ethical boundary has always been blurry for political operatives in the midst of a heated campaign, but that line may have been crossed by St. Petersburg-based Blue Ticket …
By E. Eugene Webb PhD, from Bay Post Internet Have you had the experience of going to a dentist, eye doctor, chiropractor or other medical provider and been given a reasonable looking estimate of the cost of the procedure you need or are interested in only to have …
By Jim Bleyer Anyone that sat through the entire Tampa mayoral debate Wednesday night punched their ticket to heaven. It was that bad. The stench emanating from the Hillsborough County Community College Ybor campus and the Bay News 9 airwaves hung thickly over the Big Guava like those stationary, …
By Jim Bleyer The obsequious Tampa Bay media, never passing up an opportunity to genuflect to the local lords of professional sports, uniformly term the shrinking of Tropicana Field’s seating capacity as creating “an intimate fan experience.” The national press and fans of the Tampa Bay Rays know better: …
By Jim Bleyer Tampa City Council candidate John Goodwin welcomed his opponent, incumbent Charlie Miranda, into the District 2 race with more than a shot across the bow; the young progressive fired a volley into the veteran politico’s midships. Miranda filed for reelection Friday. With the campaign in its …
By Tom Rask, from the Tampa Bay Guardian “The referendum language was vetted closely,” Hillsborough County commissioner Kimberly Overman told the Tampa Bay Times earlier this month. Overman was speaking about the ballot language for the Hillsborough transit tax hike referendum that passed in the general election this …
By Jim Bleyer The abject failure of Hillsborough County to provide a sensible location and realistic financing for a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium has emboldened two western cities that yearn for Major League Baseball. Both Portland and Las Vegas are rumored to be hastening plans for building state-of-the-art …
