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Keeping eyeballs off the field

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By STEVE OTTO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 6, 2009

Was it a good thing Florida Gator coach Urban Meyer upped the penalty on his star linebacker Brandon Spikes by saying Spikes will sit out the entire game this weekend against Vanderbilt?

Spikes jammed his hand inside the helmet of a Georgia running back and attempted - or so it appeared on the video - to gouge the guy's eyes. Initially his punishment was to sit out the first half of the next game. Now it is going to be the entire game so Spikes will not become a "distraction" to his teammates.

The only trouble with the severity of the punishment is that the next time a player gouges someone's eyes, and an eyeball or two goes rolling out onto the field, the punishment is likely to be two entire games. And how fair is that?

•Staying with sports, sort of, my friend Andy was lucky enough to go to New York to take in the Yankees beating the Phillies. Back in his hotel room, he ordered one of those plastic water bottles. One bottle was $9.50. He thought that was outrageous until breakfast the next morning in the hotel restaurant, where two eggs, toast and potatoes - no meat - was an even $42 a person.

•Staying with sports II: When the Bucs come out onto the field this weekend in their old Creamsicle jerseys, it certainly will send a shiver through Tampa Bay. If the Glazer boys would walk onto the field in the pastel sports coats and slacks fancied by former owner Hugh Culverhouse, it would be perfect.

Cycle and sickle

A letter came in this week from Captain Marty Paterno of Expedition Outfitters. Captain Marty leads motorcycle expeditions around the country, from the Blue Ridge mountains to his latest trip to Alaska. Apparently he keeps his cool on those trips and saves his wrath for local politicians.

"This morning I stared down through groggy eyes at the Trib after staying up late at night trying to figure out why my tax bill keeps going up but my property value continues to drop," Captain Marty wrote. "I read in disbelief a story that said Hillsborough pays a vendor $450 to mow and clean up an overgrown yard. I thought I must be in the wrong business. Seems to me the last time I mowed a yard for money it netted me about five bucks and took me most of the day.

"Granted it was about 40 years ago. I had a new Sears mower and 35 cents filled up my gas can. But $450? So where are all the kids looking to earn money after school?

"OK, so there are no motivated kids. What about the jails that are full of low-risk DUI white-collar criminals? What about the people who are having their homes foreclosed on? Let's see, two yards a week at $450 a yard. ... That's $3,600 a month. Maybe I'll take that job."

Toy trains

Finally, former county planner Jim Hosler wrote in, commenting on the mass transit plan the county commissioners, on Wednesday, voted to head toward putting on the ballot next year.

"The current transit plan is more of a group-think fed by planners who want their own train system to play with," Hosler wrote. "... They have been everywhere looking at every possible system, but they are expecting the public to just trust them and pass a one-cent sales tax."

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