Jonah's blog on Medium, Casual Rambling, is the home for Jonah's takes on sports, wrestling, and entertainment. He's written over 175 pieces and currently averaging 2,000+ views per month. Two of Jonah's favorite pieces are below.

The Greatest 2nd Place Finish of All-Time

Oh yeah. I’m jumping straight into hyperbole. Best ever 2nd place finish. No debate.

Story always trumps performance. The narrative aspect of sports is the reason we watch, the reason we are so invested.

Watching NASCAR as a 7-year old, my rooting interests were simple. Jeff Gordon had flames on his car and they looked really freaking cool. For the next decade up until his retirement, I remained a fan of Gordon. Every year, another legend hangs it up. Gordon, Stewart, Dale Jr.

Much like when golf lost Tiger Woods, NASCAR has become a sport of young guns vs. veterans (I think we last did this storyline circa 2004). It takes years for a secondary American sport to find or regain its marketability. Woods sold himself, and frankly still does. Dale Jr. was an enigma, despite never being dominant or winning, he remained the most popular NASCAR driver for his entire career.

As Junior and Gordon fans have found themselves aimlessly lost in the proverbial fandom woods, wondering who will provide the resurgence in stock car racing, I can finally say look no further.

If only God may will it, let 2018 be NASCAR’s Year of the Bubba.

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Assessing the Prospects of Minor League Football

If minor league football were to become a reality, it would need to embrace the humble beginnings of existing in the minor league sports realm. That realm is not flashy, glittery, or lathered in bags of money falling out of the sky. It would also help to have the blessing of the NFL and, in some capacity, be recognized as a minor league system.

If having a new football league in 2019 and another in 2020 wasn’t strange enough, even stranger is the connection between the founders of each league. Charlie Ebersol, son of legendary television producer and executive, Dick Ebersol, is the creator of the Alliance of American Football. Charlie’s father sits on the board for AAF along with former NFL executive Bill Polian.

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Neighborhood News Bureau was a high level reporting and research class at the University of St. Petersburg. We researched and reported on issues in underserved and blighted communities in St. Petersburg. My experiences in and outside of this class led to conversations with black business owners and community leaders that I’ll never forget.

John Lewis talks to St. Petersburg

Lewis speaks on the importance of voting, optimism in the face of fear, and endorses Charlie Crist

Civil rights is a 9-word problem: “Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, I Have a Dream.” 

Those nine words are the universal American understanding of the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. 

Another two words you may want to add to the list are John Lewis. You’ve still only breached the surface, but Lewis’s experiences and perspective speak volumes to the cold dark realities of racism and the peaceful combat against it in the civil rights era...

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Community Grant Program to Up its Funding in 2017

BY DEVIN RODRIGUEZ, JONAH KING, ROBERT DARE AND SARA AL-MUTAWA, Neighborhood News Bureau

ST PETERSBURG — City officials announced a substantial increase in funding available for the businesses in the Midtown community in 2017 based on an increase in tax revenue and contributions.

For years, shuttered businesses littered south St. Petersburg and the Midtown district. Many of the buildings stand in disuse, including the Merriwether building, a historic landmark built in the 1920s...

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A Roster Construction Debate: Fielding vs Power Outfielders

(published in the Sports Info Solutions Blog)

When baseball teams construct their rosters, there are specific molds that players fall into based upon their position. Look across the league and you’ll notice most infield players have a certain build based upon their position. First basemen are tall and strong, built to hit the ball for miles. Shortstops are strong-armed, lean, and are able to react at a lightning-fast pace to track a ball lasered in their radius.

There are always exceptions, but exceptions are mere circumstance when a player is exceptional despite a difference in genetic or physical makeup. The infield generally has a uniformity to it. The outfield is the wild west. It’s home to power sluggers like Bryce Harper and Joey Gallo, yet it also has room for defensive specialists like Ender Inciarte and Billy Hamilton.

Ideally, every team would like to have a Mookie Betts or an Aaron Judge who combine defensive excellence with elite power and contact, but players of their stature are outliers. Generational talent is rare, and either you have one or you’re everybody else and your outfield combines fielding prowess and power.

Most outfields will have their fielding specialist in center field. Left and right is where teams will stash their power guys if they have the luxury and ideal ballpark dimensions.

To get a state of league outfielders, I compiled a list of every team’s starting outfielders (playing 60+ games) and gave each player a classification of either “fielding” or “power”. The classification was determined by a player’s perceived value to a team based upon statistics from previous seasons. The AL has nine more fielding based players versus power players while the NL has four more power players as compared to fielders.

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OLIVIA HOLT TAKES HER TALENTS TO SOUTH FLORIDA

(published on MAAF BOX)

Remember that moment when we collectively realized Taylor Swift wasn’t a country singer really ever? And just as we came to that conclusion, she blasted off a set of catchy pop tunes and took over the charts? Olivia Holt is right where Swift was at when that evolution occurred.

Holt combines authentic southern sweetness with a big city voice.

Olivia took the stage supported with a full band and a rush to the front of the stage from an excited crowd. Olivia played all the five songs from her EP, and did covers of current pop hits including: DNCE’s Cake by the Ocean, and Ellie Goulding’s Something in the Way You Move...

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Why I Am Choosing Snapchat Over Facebook

(published on All Things Snap)

There’s been an alarming trend on my Facebook feed. Jessica has shared Buzzfeed’s video. Michael has shared a Bleacher Report article. Devin has shared [random name]’s post.

Facebook has become a breeding ground for sharing viral content.

It’s not the act of sharing viral content that has me upset and cheating on Facebook for Snapchat, but I feel so much less connected to my friends on Facebook.

In most instances when a Facebook friend shares a post, they don’t offer anything beyond just sharing the post itself. In essence, they let these shared posts do the talking for them. There’s a level of communication removed when that happens. Most of the time you can assume your friend is sharing something they think is funny, or cute, or interesting, but there’s something lacking.

Originality...

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