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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Mays is first Topps Prime 9 redemption card for 2012

Posted Feb 10, 2012 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Feb 10, 2012 at 06:47 PM

Topps announced its first card in the 2012 Home Run Legends Prime 9 program today, and it belongs to one of the classic power hitters of all time: Willie Mays.

Mays will be redemption card No. 1. Every Friday, Topps will name its “Prime 9 Player of the Week.”  Collectors holding the corresponding Prime 9 Redemption card for that week can bring the card into their participating local HTA card/hobby store and redeem it for an exclusive limited edition Topps Chrome Refractor.

Redemption cards can be found in 2012 Topps Baseball Series 1 Hobby packs (1:18) and Jumbo packs (1:5). Each card is denoted by a week number.

Who will be card No. 2? I vote for Hank Aaron, because as much as I loved Willie as a player, the man who originally broke the unbreakable home run record was Hammerin Hank. And No. 1 would have been a nice honor.

That said, Mays is still a good choice. With nine sluggers to choose from, Topps will keep us guessing through mid-April.

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Rays accepting applications for the Community Fund Grant Program

Posted Feb 10, 2012 by Roger Mooney

Updated Feb 10, 2012 at 05:54 PM

The Rays Baseball Foundation, the charitable arm of the Tampa Bay Rays, is accepting applications for its Community Fund Grant Program.

Applications for the Community Fund Grant Program are currently available on raysbaseball.com, on the Community page.

The Rays Baseball Foundation Community Fund Grant Program provides financial support to local nonprofit institutions in the Tampa Bay region.  These funds will support current youth and/or education programs offered by community-based nonprofit organizations.  Grants up to $5,000 are awarded through this program.

For more information on the Community Fund Grant Program or the Rays Baseball Foundation, please contact the Rays Community Relations department at (727) 825-3137 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Applications must be received by mail no later than March 1, 2012. Applications can be sent to:

Rays Baseball Foundation
Attn: Rays Community Fund Grant
One Tropicana Drive
St. Petersburg, FL 33705

The Rays Baseball Foundation is committed to supporting youth and education programs throughout the Tampa Bay region that make a measurable difference in the community. Since 2008, the Rays Baseball Foundation has proudly invested $2.2 million in youth and education programs in the Tampa Bay area. 

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Gaither’s Stanger ranked tops in his class by Golfweek Magazine

Posted Feb 10, 2012 by Jarrett Guthrie

Updated Feb 10, 2012 at 12:38 PM

Gaither junior Jimmy Stanger has been ranked as the No. 1 golfer graduating in 2013 in the state of Florida and No. 11 nationally by Golfweek Magazine for the month of February. In the adjusted poll of all junior golfers (with c/0 2012 and younger included) Stanger is ranked No. 50 nationally and sixth in the state.

Stanger won the Class 2A-9 district title at Temple Terrace finishing five strokes ahead of the next competitor shooting a 3-under 69. Stanger qualified for the 2A state tournament in November finishing 28th and was awarded Tampa Tribune All-Hillsborough County first team honors.

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