The name Josh Hamilton should ring a bell with a few of the Rays fans around here. Hamilton was the first round pick of the Rays back in 1999. Then the trouble started. Hamilton was a powerful slugger with an impressive arm ON the field. That's not...

21-year-old Oscar Pistorius had both of his legs amputated when he was just a small boy but that never killed his dream of competing in the Olympics. The runner was banned earlier in the year from running at the Bejing games because of his prosthetic...

Grady Judd may be the best sound bite in law enforcement.  This beauty delivered during a newscast I was watching from home nearly made me fall off the couch.   Judd channeled Andy Griffith while describing  crack-addled...

    Update from Bucs Headquarters -  RB B.J. Askew signs a new deal.  Could Earnest Graham be next?  Don't think so.  Graham deserves a pop in the wallet, but he better not let his agent Drew Rosenhaus screw up his career...

  Mid-May and the Rays continue to set franchise standards with every game.   First place.    Seven games over .500.   A record homestand.   Is it me, or is this franchise starting to look like the Buccaneers of...

A Pew Research Center study finds conservatives are markedly happier with their lots in life than liberals.  Yes, wealthier people and married people are more content than those scraping by in solitude, but even adjusted for income and marital...

  Is anybody really surprised there are rumors of an agent giving money to USC basketball star OJ Mayo?   Mayo is hardly the only star freshman to face these allegations over the years.  Basketball is hardly the only sport to face...

This weekend brought an embarrassment of riches to an already lucky guy. I celebrated a milestone birthday in good health, cherished my wife and my mother on Mother's Day, and saw my first born child graduate with honors from Duke University in...

    Hello out there!  What happened to the thousands of fans who said they don't go to Rays games because the team wasn't worth the price of admission.     Have you checked these guys out this season.  What more...

I like this kind of baseball. The Rays have powered their way to big wins the last two nights behind the late-inning heroics of Dioner Navarro and Evan Longoria homers. First, on Thursday night, Navvy grand-slammed the Rays to an extra-inning...

    There continues to be grumblings from FSU fans about the firing of P.T. Willis from the Noles football broadcast booth.  Since Bobby Bowden's statement at a recent FSU booster club gathering saying, " (A FSU analyst) should be...

     Tennessee Vols basketball fans thought that their stud player, Chris Lofton was out of commission because of a knee injury.  It turned out he had testicular cancer.  Lofton didn't want anyone to know about it. ...

Today, Nick Bollea was sentenced to eight months in jail and five years of probabtion. Do you think this punishment fits the crime?There is no need to register, so feel free to leave your comments.You can read more about this story here....

Enough with the rumors that the Lightning will fire John Tortorella after the ownership change. The NHL changes coaches faster than the wind.  The Lightning has bucked the trend by staying the course with Tortorella.  Remember, Jay Feaster...

By Brendan McLaughlin Some have derided  Hillary Clinton as an unkillable droid who will stop at nothing on the road to the nomination. Fair enough. But how can you help but admire a person who smiles at a slaughter, chuckles at destruction...

   UPDATE:  Eight Belles trainer Larry Jones has ordered drug testing to prove his fallen Kentucky Derby filly was not on performance-enhancing drugs.  Why is this test being done?  Two reasons.  One to prove the...

The promised revitalization of downtown Tampa is progressing nicely with the arrival of a new Vietnamese/Asian fusion style restaurant on Tampa Street near Twiggs.  I ducked in to Bamboozle Cafe today and was impressed with the stylish...

   Job One for the Buccaneers heading into the off-season was to give Jeff Garcia more weapons.    After free agency, after the draft, are those weapons here?    I'm still having night sweats remembering how the Giants...

This morning on Flashpoint. The Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission is supposed to rise above partisan politics to craft long term solutions to the State's thorniest problems. Hopes were especially high that the 25 member appointed...

Tickets are still available for the Florida Aquarium's premier food and wine event  "Sea Grapes" is Saturday night at 7:00. Tickets ain't cheap, but it's a crucial source of revenue for our world class aquarium and you will get your money's...

On the heels of some crazy opening round games to March Madness at the Forum, April still left a lasting impression on the Bay Area's sports scene. Check it out... April 6th: Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg brings the IRL to town. A 19-year...

By Brendan McLaughlin After penning the blog below, it was interesting to see how I wasn't the only one to see past Hillary Clinton's decision to line up with John McCain on the summer gas tax holiday plan.  She couldn't possibly have believed...

By Brendan McLaughlin The "gas tax holiday" promoted by both John McCain and Hillary Clinton is a bad idea on so many levels, it's hard to know where to start.  New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman calls it "so ridiculous, so unworthy of...

Hey, you on the couch.... PASS THE BROOM. The Rays swept the Blue Jays in Disney. They followed that up with a dusting of the defending World Series champs at home in "The Pit", as Maddon calls it. Well done, Rays. A few weeks back I wrote...

O.K... maybe it's just the party of the year, but if you love the Florida Aquarium like I do and your wife is the special events director at the Aquarium like mine is, then you would not miss this event Saturday, May 3rd at 7:00 pm. Seagrapes...