Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

After listening to the Florida Legislature debate ridiculous laws (such as the necessity of Truck Nutz), North Lauderdale and the City of Margate are beginning a push to split Florida and establish a new, 51st State:

25. RESOLUTION – SUPPORTING SEVERING THE TIES OF MIAMI-DADE, BROWARD, AND PALM BEACH COUNTIES FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA AND ESTABLISHING THEIR OWN 51ST STATE OF THE FEDERAL UNION OF THE UNITED STATES; PROVIDING FOR CONFLICTS; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY; AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. (Requested by the Mayor)

Yep, they want to secede and become South Florida.

Check out radio WIOD and listen to interviews of South Florida officials who have had enough with Tallahassee.

Your weekly Rays update!

This is a feature debuting this week at the Sticks in which we take a weekly snapshot of the Rays. Of course, throw any suggestions in the comments.

OVERALL: 16-15
LAST WEEK: @ Baltimore (2-1), @ Boston (0-3)
THIS WEEK: @ Toronto, LA Angels

Last week was shaping up to be a very good week for our Rays. They had swept the Sawx in St Pete, were near the top of the division and had ace Scott Kazmir coming back from injury. Then they went up to Boston, were swept in three games and the wheels almost fell off the bandwagon.

Still, the Rays are keeping up with the competition. They have the fifth best team ERA in the AL (4.12) and Troy Percival and Dan Wheeler have become anchors in the bullpen. The Rays Achilles Heel last year, their bullpen, looks to be in good shape.

Boston………….20 — 13 __ .606 __ -
Baltimore…….16 — 15 __ .516 __ 3.0
Tampa Bay…..16 — 15 __ .516 __ 3.0
New York……..17 — 16 __ .515 __ 3.0
Toronto……….16 — 17 __ .485 __ 4.0

RAYS POST OF THE WEEK
This honor goes to Rays of Light for their post after the Rays second victory over the O’s, which did an excellent job of capturing a snapshot of the understated enthusiasm for the Rays at that point. Plus, Rays of Light has run with the red-headed step child analogy mentioned here at the Sticks. And like any good Olympic judge we are open-minded about bribery.

RAYS PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Carlos Pena - .259 batting average, 4 RBI, 1 HR