CAN YOU BELIEVE THS SEASON

What a first half the Tampa Bay Rays enjoyed as the majors 'surprise team of the season. Their goal now? To make the second half just stunningly as good.

Back-up catcher Shawn Riggins homered among his three hits yesterday and drove in two runs and the first-place Rays completed a remarkable first-half turnaround, beating the Pirates, 4-3 behind Andy Sonnanstine's effective seven innings.

The Rays are 49-32, the most victories midweay through a season by a team that had the majors' worst record last year. All this by a team that has never had a winning season or won more than 70 games since joining the American League in 1968.

The Red Sox are coming into town today, Shields, shown above putting a right cross on Coco Crisp. I guess Coco doesn't want anymore of that so he is doing his suspenion for the three games. Now a half of a season doesn't make a full season. But I have a gut feeling about this years Rays. At least my Dodger s made the papers had a no hitter thrown at them but won. Wow! UC157 Larry

Its a business

Are you tired of hearing that BS line all the time from owners of teams and it players? I am very tired of it and used to think yeah its a business to all but those who foot the bill, the fans.

But after a few years of thinking I realized we no longer foot the bill, the people in the luxury boxes do.

The sad thing most of them don't watch the game while there, it is a place to hold a business meeting, and for what they pay I guess they can do whatever they want.

I have one question with the Buc's going back to the electronic pat downs this season, will the privileged go through them also? I know they have there own entrance so that tells me we could have a two class system.

So what is the fan's roll these days, they pay an obscene amount of money to bake or freeze according to the weather and cheer the team on, someone should the luxury boxes are sound proofed, so the meeting's don't get interrupted, we can't have that.

WAITING FOR THE BIG ONE

I took this photo about 10:00 AM last Thursday, sorry but my camera wasn't big enough to get all of the cabs in it. I spoke to a few of the guys and they all said the same thing mostly, waiting for maybe a trip to St. Pete Beach. I thought what if they got a trip to the Hilton on Lois. Or worse to one of those office buildings on Westshore.

I remember one instance I got a call at the Howard Johnson on Dale Mabry, near the Mons Venus. These nice older folks needed to go to a cruise ship at Port Manatte, that is south on US41. At that time the fare was around 90.00, works for me. This was on a Sunday. After I found the port and unloaded their luggage this guy who must have been working there asked me if I was going back to Tampa, I almost said something cute like "heres your sign" but instead said yes I am in a very nice voice. He said these four girls needed to get to Tampa International but only had 75.00 and the previous two cab wouldn't take them. I told him to get them and we would go. I have no idea why the other cabs wouldn't take them, they had to go back anyway. Of course that doesn't happen to often.

The next morning I picked up this kid in south Tampa in a nice area and took him to town and country. I was at the light at George and Memorial and out the back door he went. I haven't seen that kid since. So it isn't all good. But that hasn't happened to oftain. I always tried to be careful.

The answers to the last question about the 1960 World Series in the 7th game, not the winning home run but there were no strike outs recorded by either team. The other answer is in 1944 the Dodgers, Yankees and Giants played a 6 inning game, each team played 2 innings. The score was Dodgers 5, Yankees 1 and Giants zip. This was for War Bonds. I don't how they did it. But I think that UC123 does. If it happened in New York he knows. Be careful out there. UC157 Larry

This and that

To Tim, sorry but when Larry approved your comment it was lost, if you could please repost it we would appreciate it.

To Sawbriars, Bill Parcells is very superstitions, and when the Gatorade shower got started he wanted it to continue. Early in the 86-87 season he dropped a couple of penny's on the floor of his office and because they where tail down, he left signs that he didn't want them touched till after the season.

Sir Lawrence I know why you where not at the game and it had nothing to do with your age, the game was 3000 miles away in Brooklyn, and Ill leave it at that.

I watched the 1960 WS and can't think of anything unusual except the home run hit by Bill Maz who I think didn't have 1 home run all year.

YES OR NO

This, of course is a photo Jenne Finch, the star fast pitch pitcher of the Olympic team. My question is why can't this beauty get paid for modeling and such without losing her status with the olympic team? Case in point, one Tiger Woods, was paid 30 million from Nike before he hit the first ball. I happened to watch this young lady pitch in the NCAA tournament, her ball does things that many a major leaguer would love to have. It is this writers opinion that they should let olympic athletes rake in the money while they can.

Now let us get to baseball in days gone by. First for my learned co-writer, what strange thing happened in the 7th game of the 1960 World Series? Not the obvious please.

There was a very strange game played on June 26, 1944, I was only 2 1/2 years old so I wasn't there. However my "team" won the game, if it could be called that. HINT: The score was 5-1-0. The answers in a later post.

UC157 Larry

Gas prices are more then a one sided dagger, it has many sides.

First is the obvious the price at the pump, secondly the increased food prices, last is something I didn't think about until I read about it in an article from Associated Press.

They talked to a waitress and a cab driver in Cincinnati, both are seeing less tips of late from there regulars.

How much more can cabby's take, people complain when they have to wait for a cab, if things don't get better soon the wait will get longer, much longer.

I had used a poll to ask the trivia question, what team started the tradition of the Gatorade shower?

The choices where the University of Florida, the New York Giants, the Notre Dame and two others.

There where 4 responses, 3 went for Florida, 1 for Notre Dame and none for the correct answer the New York Giants.

After a win late in the 1983 season that the Giants went 3-12-1, they dumped the bucket of Gatorade on Parcells in his first year as head coach.

In 1984 they where 9-7 and after every win came the shower and a tradition was born.

The Gatorade shower after Super Bowl 21 introduced it to the world.

4th of July

I heard rumors that the guy on the left is going to work in in the shop and help with the broken down cabs. The cab drivers should do well during the fourth. I always did. I didn't work at night and I didn't change my routine. However, the tips were better. I have found that if you laugh at their dumb jokes, even if they aren't funny helps. But on the other hand I have heard some good ones. I have a very good friend, named Harold, he drives for Greyhound. Anyway he told once he was on his way to Miami, when he noticed a squad car behind him with their red lights on. But goood ole Harold kept right on driving. Shortly the cop pulled along side of him and motioned for him to pull over or else. Harold finally stopped and all of his passangers were relieved. The cop asked him why he didn't stop. Harold told him that a few months ago his wife ran off with a cop and he was afraid that he was bringing her back. Just a joke folks, I know Harold's wife and she is a fine lady. I have told that joke many times to people in my cab. I have also found that if you keep them laughing they are more relaxed. Than when it comes to paying the fare they tend to add to it. Not always. Have a good evening and catch you later. By the way it is hard to believe that the Rays are 14 games over .500. UC 157 Larry

PGA WITHOUT TIGER

I am sure that the PGA will get along with out Tiger Woods, of course the commericals will not be as exspensive. I really think there will be more competion. There still are some great golfers out there, VJ Stigh, Stewart Cink, who just won. Phil Mickelson is probably #2 behind Tiger as best in the world. I am going to have to cut this short, as there is a lot of lightening out. I have one of those protectors but you never know. Tomorrow we will get to finding out how the guys are doing early in the morning with "bear" on vacation.

Changes in baseball over the last 40 years.

There have been many changes in baseball over the last 40 years the 2 biggest are the DH and inter league play.

The DH has been around since the early 70's and inter league play is in its 11th season. The DH has been a topic of discussion whenever and wherever fans gather and is the most polarizing topic in baseball, some love it and some hate it.

Hank Steinbrener last week said the National League should adopt the DH after Chien Ming Wang the Yankees ace, was hurt while running the base's.

Some fans don't like inter league play, one reason is that they think it takes away from the world series.

Another compliant is playing teams too far away if all games where like Yanks vs Mets, Cubs vs Sox or Dodgers vs Angels this would not be an issue.

You can register your thoughts on the poll to the left or if you have more to say by leaving a comment.

Specials in a time of need

I took the picture of the United Cab emblem yesterday. As I was leaving a driver was going into the office and we got into conversation. He claimed that it is a little slow. Now this was Saturday afternoon and there were about 20 cabs in the lot. He told me thata if it weren't for his specials he would have a problem. Now that brings us to specials. Before I got sick I had a few specials. What my co-host and Tim from Taxi Shots call left handed specials. Two that come to mind were Pedro, whom Tim mentioned in his blog and Frank. I picked Pedro up at 6:00am every morning, Monday thru Friday. I took him to work at the Woodlands Center on Waters, the fare was 13.00 + but he gave me 15.00. Now this is in Town and Country almost anyway and I live in Town and Country, but I don't work in that area. On my way back Frank would call and I would take him to work downtown. Another 14.00. You are thinking hell not much. Take off your shoes and count. 29.00 a day, for 5 day=145.00 a week X 50 weeks., Oh yeah, 7250.00. Nice left handed specials. Then Susan would call me a couple of times a week, she was in the medical field and would go to the airport for 25.00, thats 50.00 more a week, I had been taking her for 6 years. I am the only one she would ever call. Why because I was dependable and safe. Could I make a living out there with the gas price like it is. Damn right. Would I sit in those long airport lines, hell no. My system was very simple, I had goals set for the day. When I met those goals, no matter what time it was I went home. They used to have a hit list, drivers that hadn't dropped their lease by 10:00am. To this day I can't understand that. In 24 hours can't make 95.00, maybe they are in the wrong line of work. I would get to McDill and Kennedy and park in the Bank of Ameria parking lot at 4am and wait for calls. Maybe talk to Tim from Taxi shots. From 6am until quiting time, usually around 11:00 am I would be around the Burger King at Dale Mabry and Columbus. I did that for 8 years. By working 7 days a week and no more than 6 or 7 hours a day. It worked for me. Driving a taxi was a great way to make a living and get fat. UC157 Larry