Author: Rob Holbert

Regular readers of this column may have gathered over the years that at times I can be a bit cynical about humans in general and politicians in particular. Roughly five years ago my cynicism was at an all-time high when it came to our fair burg. Sam Jones had been re-elected mayor a few years before without facing a challenger, and that seemed to be a signal to him and his cronies that they possessed absolute power. From a journalist’s standpoint, covering Jones and his administration had never been easy, as they were almost always reluctant to provide full...

Probably the most important thing we learned from Mobile’s first mayoral debate Monday night is that the best way to end up on Sam Jones’ sh** list is to forget to invite him to a party. The debate between Mayor Sandy Stimpson and former Mayor Jones wasn’t full of “You’re no John F. Kennedy” moments. Political zingers were in short supply and WPMI’s broadcast kind of made both men look like the debate was happening on the bottom of the ocean. I’m still not sure why the picture didn’t fill my TV screen, but then again my television is...

A lot of Mobilians consider our little slice of heaven a “baseball town.” What’s a baseball town? It’s a town that embraces the national pastime, supports the local team and produces great talent. While it can’t be argued that Mobile has produced some of the greatest ballplayers of all time, the rest of that baseball town equation isn’t quite adding up. And that’s why, once again, there is talk of the BayBears leaving town. In fact, this time the talk is a lot more than the usual whispers and rumors, as multiple news reports say the team is indeed...