[Twitter.com/gregcote. Reminder: No chat today. Our live online chats move from Mondays to Wednesdays beginning this week]
Cats and dogs, black and white: What the Miami Cat Killer is accused of doing is worse than what Michael Vick (right) has done time for doing. It won't get the national attention or have the same shelf-life for media interest because obviously a perp who happens to be a celebrity NFL quarterback tends to draw a spotlight. But I wonder if race will also be a factor in the general comparative reaction. I think the reaction to Vick's crime was somewhat magnified unfairly because he is black. Now, I wonder if the reaction to accused Miami Cat Killer Tyler Hayes Weinman, 18 (pictured left), will be less outraged than it should be because is young, clean-cut -- and white.
I say Weinman's alleged crimes are worse than Vick's because murder was the express purpose in the cat killings, which were heinous (eyes gouged out, snouts cut off, etc.) and meant to horrify the pets' families. Vick's canine killings were a result of a dogfighting operation. Both are horrible. Dead is dead. But the cat killings were premeditated and first degree. Vick did serious time. I'll be following intently to see how the sentence Weinman is given -- if found guilty -- compares.
(As an aside, I read that Weinman's divorced parents are a dentist and a "life coach." Taking a wild guess, I'm thinking that being a divorced life coach with a son accused of cat-mutilating cannot be good for business. It'd be sort of like hiring a personal trainer who's fat and smokes).
Hanley Ramirez's bad timing: C'mon, Hanley! The Marlins are finally showing signs of life, winning three straight in Toronto and leapfrogging Atlanta into third in the NL East and instead of good feelings there is controversy because Ramirez got hit by a pitch Sunday and his team failed to respond with outrage. What, you wanted a bench-clearing brawl? The issue boiled to the point manager Fredi Gonzalez booted reporters from the clubhouse for pressing questions on the matter. Hanley may have been right. The HBP may have been intentional. And maybe it did call for Fredi to jaw at the ump a little. But Ramirez going all me-first with public emotion and blame-casting hurts the team just when it seems to be righting itself.
The Dolphins. Men of Mystery: Click here for today's column by me on the Dolphins as the team wraps up its minicamp work and pretty much leaves the stage until reconvening for training camp in late July. The no-pads/no-hitting time of year tells us very little about a team, and so nobody -- not Tony Sparano, not me, not you -- knows how good Miami might be this season.
Let the vilifying of Van Gundy begin!: Magic got spanked in the NBA Finals, with Lakers taking the series 4-1 in Mousteown last night, and so now I suppose the bashing of Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy should be expected. It'd be dumb, though. L.A. won because it is clearly better and because Kobe Bryant 
was the best player in the series by far and because the next best was Pau Gasol, not Dwight Howard. The only legit quibble with Van Gundy is that he forced Jameer Nelson back into his guard mix and that didn't work. But that wasn't the difference. Kobe was. Now take our poll. Does his latest championship, this one Shaq-free, push Kobe over the top as the NBA's greatest player ever or does Michael Jordan still wear that crown?
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