* You can see why the Tampa Bay Rays get skitterish whenever designated hitter Luke Scott gets off baseball message and onto politics. He’s a PR time bomb. Here are some Scott outtakes from a recent interview with the Tampa Bay Times: President Barack Obama, opined Scott, is “an open Marxist, an open socialist.” As for the president’s health care reform plan: “That needs to be taken and thrown into muriatic acid and just absolutely disintegrated and never spoken of again. … We can’t afford it. It’s not right. It’s the unaccountability thing, where people can smoke cigarettes and be lazy and be unhealthy, and then you and I have to pay for their health-care bills.” On Paul Ryan: “What I’ve heard about him is awesome. He’s cut from the same cloth as (U.S. Rep.) Lt. Col. Allen West…”
* Sobering to see the Rays–back in the pennant chase and the wild-card leader–come off an 8-2 road trip, including a sweep of the contending Los Angeles Angels, only to draw less than 10,000 in their first game back. More market-bashing material for MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and yet another reminder that a poorly positioned, inadequate facility in this asymmetrical, mass transit-challenged market is a franchise killer. And how’s this for timing? The Rays at least draw well on Sundays, averaging 26,000. But because of the GOP Convention Trop party, the Rays lost that home date (with Oakland).
* The Rays have had a better record on the road than they have at home. Could part of that atypical pattern be psychological? They are professional athletes and they go about their business and all that, but it’s got to make a difference when a very successful baseball team–and feel-good story–barely outdraws the Rowdies some nights.
* While it’s being hailed as a stroke of progress, the admission of Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore into the exclusive Augusta National Golf Club should be seen for what it is: blatant, self-aggrandizing tokenism. The real message: If you’re a female, you too can join this venerable good ol’ boys club if you were once one of the most powerful people in the world or the highest-paid woman in the banking industry. Otherwise, it’s still par for the course.
* Among things that make absolutely no sense are point spreads for NFL pre-season games. Do people actually bet on games whose outcomes will typically be determined by players who won’t necessarily even be on the team when the regular season starts? These pre-season contests are exhibitions and game-situation try-outs; they don’t count in the standings. By the way, the New England Patriots were 6.5-point favorites over the Bucs last Friday. The Bucs won 30-28.