Mackerel starting to show near beaches

Posted Feb 11, 2012 by The Tampa Tribune

Updated Feb 11, 2012 at 04:45 PM

BY BILL MILLER

Spanish mackerel have arrived along our beaches. This appears to be the early scouts, with the major migration not far behind.

Captain Billy Miller and I both limited out our parties with Spanish fishing just off Blind Pass on the early morning outgoing tide. Although I haven’t heard any reports, my guess is the same thing is probably happening in front of other local passes like John’s Pass, Hurricane Pass and Clearwater Pass.

These early arriving mackerel can be here today and somewhere else tomorrow. There was a lot of bait in the Gulf, and the diving birds helped us locate the schools of hungry macks.

Early in the week, I went down to Charlotte Harbor and Pine Island Sound with Eric Bachnik to film the first episode of my new TV and Internet show, “Fishing with Bill Miller.” Captain John Ochs guided us, and we caught 30 trout and two redfish on topwater lures.

I was using a She Dog that has a high-pitched rattle, and Eric and John were using a MirrOmullet XL that is a little smaller and has a lower-pitched sound to it. After falling behind my partners 10 fish to none, I switched to their lure and started catching fish.

On this particular day, sound and shape seemed to matter; some days it does not. Many of us have favorite lures we always start with, but if the fish are not keying in on it, don’t be afraid to try another one.

Jonathan Grantham and his father Jim went out with me this week, and we had a mixed bag of action. We started the day catching mackerel in the Gulf and then moved inside and had a nice day on the flats catching speckled trout, silver trout, bluefish and assorted other flats fish using DOA Deadly Combinations and Lil Johns.

Captain Bill Miller hosts “Hooked on Fishing” on Bright House Sports Network, Channel 47. To book a charter with captain Bill or his son captain Billy, call (813) 363-9927.

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Linsanity leads to Lin-credibly inflated prices

Posted Feb 11, 2012 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Feb 11, 2012 at 01:26 PM

Total Linsanity has hit the NBA, and now it is trickling down to the card collecting world.

I mean, this is bigger than Tebowmania, as blasphemous as that may sound.

New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin proved Friday night he was more than a flash in the pan, scoring a career-high 38 points to help his team defeat the Los Angeles Lakers 92-85.

His average over his first four NBA starts with minutes is 28.5 points and eight assists per game. Not bad for an undrafted point guard out of Harvard, the first Ivy Leaguer to play in the NBA since Yale’s Chris Dudley debuted in 1987 with the Cleveland Cavaliers. And Lin had the numbers at Harvard, as he was the first Ivy League player to score 1,450 points, grab 450 rebounds and get 200 steals during his college career.

Needless to say, Lin’s rookie cards (he was with Golden State last season and was picked up by the Knicks on Dec. 28, 2011) have rocketed in value this week.

Panini America reported on its blog that in the last 24 hours, some of Lin’s autographed rookie cards have sold for up to $1,000. Another one also sold for $799, and others are fetching $200. Even non-autographed cards are being snapped up at auction for $100.

And how weird is this?

On eBay, there is a 1/1 Lin rookie card, a National Treasures autographed card with a game used swatch, graded 9.5 by Beckett. There’s a Buy It Now for a mere $100,000 (money order or cashier’s check, of course). There are six days remaining if you are trying to rustle up the funds.

That’s not Linsanity. That’s just crazy.

Especially when you realize that Lin’s highest-selling rookie card went for $40, and many could be had for $3. On Feb. 3, a similar card to the one that has a $100,000 price tag (I am still smirking at that one), sold for $21.71 on eBay.

Auction sellers on eBay, recognizing a hot trend, are putting that particular National Treasures card (numbered to 99 with auto and swatch) online for one day. Two of those cards have bids of more than $1,000.

As long as Lin keeps playing to a high level, his cards will sell for inflated amounts. Playing in New York will keep his profile high, and as the first American of Taiwanese descent, he has international appeal.

And if Lin keeps scoring, his card values might stay high, too. Perhaps that guy with the $100,000 Buy It Now tag will push it up to $200,000.

At either price, that just won’t fly.

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Bucs blocked again in search for staff assistant

Posted Feb 11, 2012 by Roy Cummings

Updated Feb 11, 2012 at 12:42 PM

BY ROY CUMMINGS
The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA – Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Greg Schiano has run into yet another roadblock in his quest to build a staff of assistants.

The San Francisco 49ers have denied the Bucs an opportunity to speak to defensive backs coach Ed Donatell about their vacant defensive coordinator’s position, according to an NFL.com report.

The denial marks at least the third time since Schiano took over as Bucs coach that he has been denied the opportunity to speak to a potential coordinator candidate.

  The Bucs were previously denied opportunities to speak to Arizona Cardinals receivers coach John McNulty and Green Bay Packers tight ends coach Ben McAdoo about their offensive coordinator’s job.

  News of the latest refusal comes less than a day after the Bucs named former New York Giants quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan their offensive coordinator. It may also be an indication of the team’s plans for former University of Miami coach Butch Davis.
 
Davis has agreed in principle on a contract with the Bucs that calls for him to join Schiano’s staff as a special assistant to Schiano, and the team’s interest in Donatell is a sign Davis may only serve the Bucs in an advisory role.

Davis was most recently the head coach at the University of North Carolina, which fired him last July during an NCAA investigation into claims of academic misconduct and illicit player-agent relations.

Because Davis was fired “without cause,” he immediately became entitled to a $2,703,500 buyout package that he would forfeit were he to accept another college or pro coaching job.

The buyout calls for Davis to receive payments of $590,000 on Jan. 15 in 2013, 2014 and 2015, UNC officials said.

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Super Bowl: The Greatest Show in the World

Posted Feb 10, 2012 by TBO.com

Updated Feb 10, 2012 at 11:59 PM

We just experienced the 2012 Super Bowl and Madonna: the game, the Patriots and the Giants, was great, the ads spectacular and all had a good time except at the end when the New England fans got disappointed. It brought to mind our first Super Bowl here in Tampa and a letter I had saved of Tom writing to Jim Steeg, who was in charge of the games for years and years, a man unmatched in putting on the greatest show in the world, and a great personal friend of both Tom and I.

I was invited to watch the game at Val Pinchback Jr’s home with his wife, Mindy, and family and friends. It brought back memories of the monumental tasks of putting on the Super Bowl and the heartstopping problems to solve. Val Sr. was in the NFL headquarters and did all of the scheduling of the NFL team games for many, many years until his death. In 1984, Tampa’s first Super Bowl, Jim did the impossible. - Linda

Steeg: This is McEwen

They told me I could not mention the women at Hooters and your 50th birthday party.

They told me I could not mention the insurance costs of the ‘84 Super Bowl Party at the Florida Fairgrounds when you hired and allowed high wire trapeze acts and motorcycle acts on wires above the diners in the great hall there, probably the most daring of all parties.

They told me I could not mention your skills at juggling ticket allotments and the Commissioner’s Party - also not improperly recognized as Jim Steeg’s Super Bowl Party - not the wonder at who and the heck are all the people there every year?

They did not tell me I could not say I have no idea who has the second-toughest, and second-best, job in the world to you, Jim Steeg, nor who could possibly succeed you.

Remember who followed Vince Lombardi, or Bear Bryant? No one remains who could manage the greatest event in the world with the aplomb, absence of known malice, or getting a case of the crazies, of despite some acts seeming to make no one who counts angry. And how bold but lasting it was to come to Tampa for a Super Bowl, then three more, to start the Host Committee and the NFL Experience with us, and paving the way for the mid-sized American cities to get on the rotation - Tampa, Phoenix and San Diego and Jacksonville and others later.

Yet, in these tense moments, you remain the same, unsmiling, stoic, impersonal, yet loyal to friends and pro-Super Bowlers, fair and fun, if without much of a sense of humor. It did show once when you had to change the wallpaper in the bathroom for the NFL Commissioner’s wife at Saddlebrook near Tampa. And your patriotism burst through In smile and tears and gratitude when your choice, Whitney Houston, sang the great National Anthem in Tampa during the Gulf War and the tense circumstance came off brilliantly, without a hitch, and as American as the Super Bowl wants to be.

Finally, riding with you on a Saturday inspection of venues at a Super Bowl, I watched with admiration at the great Jim Steeg Juggling Act when on the car phone, you had the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Paul Brown, George Halas, and a representative of the White House while you and Brownie and Weiss settled the matter positioning of coin flip participants, or something equally critical.

Thank you, Steeg, for the fun and the lessons, helping take Tampa to the bigtime, but mostly for the unchanged friendship.

McEwen

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Hillsborough’s Sherit lands offers from Oklahoma, Ole Miss

Posted Feb 10, 2012 by Bill Ward

Updated Feb 10, 2012 at 09:31 PM

Two more scholarship offers have landed in the big hands of Hillsborough defensive end Jordan Sherit, including his first from the Big 12.

Seven-time national champions Oklahoma has made an official pitch for the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Sherit, Terriers coach Earl Garcia said Friday. Later that day, Garcia said Sherit picked up Ole Miss, his fourth Southeastern Conference school.

That brings his Division I total to 16 offers. And it’s still only the winter of his junior season.

Rivals.com recently rated Sherit the nation’s No. 76 player and the No. 5 defensive end. And with his frame, speed, tackling ability (a team-high 110 tackles and nine sacks) and grades (he’s in Hillsborough’s International Baccalaureate program), there’s a good reason why Garcia says Sherit “has all the parts.”

Sherit also owns offers from Arizona, Illinois, Cincinnati, Georgia Tech, Purdue, Connecticut, the University of Central Florida, South Carolina, Auburn, Purdue, Duke, Miami, Vanderbilt and the University of South Florida.

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