Gary Shelton Sports

A life in sports means lessons learned

February 17, 2015 College Sports in Florida

Tuesday, 1:52 p.m. My speech to the St. Petersburg Kiwanis Club: All my life, my classroom has always been a pressbox. My classmates were the other writers, all in a row with notebooks and pens and laptops. My teachers were the athletes and coaches of the day. My field trips were to the athletic stadiums. […]

Tagged as: Armstrong, Bowden, Montana, O.J. Booker, Sapp, Shula, Van Dycken

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Remembering Worst, Best Bucs’ Free Agents

February 16, 2015 general

Monday, 8 a.m. In this market, the shelves are usually empty. The prices are ridiculous. The pickings are slim. The production is awful. And yet, in the search for hope, teams keep grabbing a cart going down the aisles. There has to be hope somewhere, doesn’t there? There has to be a short cut. There […]

Tagged as: Collins, Harper, Johnson, Nickserson, Rice, Ward

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Random Thoughts: Peyton set for regular season

February 15, 2015 general

Sunday, 6 a.m. Random thoughts: — Hello. I’m Peyton Manning, and I want to play some more. Heck, I’m free up until the first round of next year’s playoffs are over. — It turns out that previous stories were false. No, Brian Williams did not save Private Ryan. I was misremembering. — So, what would […]

Tagged as: Brian Williams, Jenner, Kerrigan, Penn, Sapp, Wilson

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To all fields: Lovie admits his mistake

February 14, 2015 College Sports in Florida

Saturday, 6 a.m. TAMPA In the NFL, cutting your quarterback means never having to say you’re sorry. With Lovie Smith, however, it is implied. When the Bucs gave up on their failure with Josh McCown this week, Lovie Smith made an admission that he was wrong. He was wrong when he signed McCown. He was […]

Tagged as: Bucs, Florida, FSU, Leavitt, Lightning, McCown, Rays, Stamkos, USF

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Ask the Expert: Phil Esposito

February 13, 2015 general

Friday, 10:54 a.m. Phil Esposito was a Hall of Fame forward for the Boston Bruins. Not only that, the Tampa Bay Lightning was his brainchild, and he was the team’s first owner. Even now, he works on the team’s radio crew. Each week, Esposito will answer questions from readers. To ask Phil a question, send […]

Tagged as: Bishop, Boucher, Cooper, Crisp, Lightning, Stamkos, Sustr, Tortorella

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Asking Gary about Rays, Bucs and Super Bowl

February 13, 2015 general

Do you think there would have been so much turnover on the Rays roster if Andrew and Joe were still here? Or could they have possibly left because they didn’t want to face another roster churn? — Robert […]

Tagged as: Bucs, Freidman, Glazers., Maddon, Rays, Super Bowl

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Cooper must stop the Bolts’ bleeding quickly

February 12, 2015 general

Thursday, 11:37 p.m. TAMPA– This, then, is where a coach earns his money. Here, at the crossroads of trouble, is where a coach becomes important to a team. Now, we will learn a bit more about Lightning coach Jon Cooper. His team has just been squashed, like the bug in a Raid commercial. It was not […]

Tagged as: Bishop, Blues, Lightning, NHL, Stamkos

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It’s time to kick off Ask Gary

February 12, 2015 College Sports in Florida

Anything you wonder? Have a point to ask? It’s your turn. Ask a question either in the comments section or by sending it to GarySheltonsports@gmail.com. Want to talk about the Bucs? The Rays? That commercial where the doctors skate around the Lightning players? The Super Bowl? The college playoffs? Let’s have some fun with this, […]

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The worst Bucs’ QB ever? Choices, choices

February 12, 2015 general

Thursday, 6 a.m. Year after year, they have been a conga line of failure. One after one, they have overthrown their receivers. Times after time, they have looked on with glassy eyes as their terrible offensive coordinators of a terrible franchise have called terrible plays. But who is the worst Bucs’ quarterback of them all? […]

Tagged as: Bucs, Chandler, Dilfer, McCown, NFL, Testaverde, Thompson

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Ask the Expert: Doug Waechter

February 12, 2015 general

Thursday, 6 a.m. Doug Waechter spent four of his major league seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays, his hometown team. Over his time in the bigs, Waechter won 18 games. In his first start at Tropicana Field, Waechter threw a two-hit shutout against Seattle. He joins GarySheltonsports.com weekly to answer your questions about major league […]

Tagged as: Balfour, baseball, Canseco, Hernandez, Howard, Jepson, Mazzone, MLB, Rays, Rupe, Shelton, Wohlers