GREG COTE'S RANDOM EVIDENCE BLOG: MIAMI. SPORTS. AND BEYOND.
1) It's SATURDAY, MAY 19. Happy Wedding Day to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle! Not quite sure why I care about the Royal Family, but strangely I do. 2) Astonish and thrill the Dolfans in your life with our 'Fins At 50' book. Their reaction is sure to be: "Wait. Greg Cote wrote a BOOK!?" Click on Amazon to check it out. 3) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Should Florida legalize sports betting poll, bold(ish) predictions on LeBron/Tiger/Marlins, latest Back In My Day video & more. 4) Join us on Twitter @gregcote. Also Facebook and Instagram.
THE LAST (HOME)STAND OF CANES BASEBALL COACH JIM MORRIS: Only Hurricanes baseball legend Ron Fraser and Dolphins icon Don Shula have exceeded Jim Morris' 25 seasons at UM among South Florida's all-time biggest-team coaches (see The List below). Now, weather willing of course, the retiring Morris' final home game is Saturday afternoon vs. Boston College at the campus ballpark. The final home series began Thursday night with a 3-0 UM win and continued Friday with a 4-3 win, making it 10 straight Canes wins to keep alive Miami's hope of making the NCAA Tournament with a record now 27-25. Last season and this one have been a downturn for Canes baseball and Morris. Nevertheless the two-time-champion Morris earned his way out of Fraser's long shadow and stands on his own in UM history, retiring as the fourth-winningest major-school coach in college baseball history. My latest column is an unabashed ode to Morris as he bids farewell. He is the man who would never fill Fraser's -- and yet did. To read the column, click Heading For Home: An Ode to Jim Morris.
Latest column: A solution to Derek Jeter's impatience: The Marlins' boss said this week he is impatient for the team to be a winner. Guess what, Derek? So are Marlins fans! But Jeter's ground-up, farm system reboot is a slow-fix that will test that patience. To accelerate the process and help assure its success Jeter must do something more. It involves spending. And it should center around two names: Re-signing J.T. Realmuto long term, and going after Manny Machado in free agency after this season. To read my latest column, click A Solution To Jeter's Impatience.
Will this NBA playoffs make history?: Golden State and Houston are giants out West. In the East, LeBron is LeBron. For those reasons I believe both conference finals will go the limit to Game 7, which would be the first time that has happened in the NBA since 1979. To read our latest column, click NBA Rolling A Pair of 7s. Additional most recent columns: Supremes Got It Right On Sports Betting, Confessions of a Lifelong Dolfan, Adam Gase Places His Bets and Crossing the Line On American Sports' Pandering For Foreign Money.
THE LIST: ALL-TIME MOST TENURED SOUTH FLORIDA MAJOR-TEAM COACHES: In the long history of South Florida's biggest teams -- Miami Dolphins, Miami Heat, Miami Marlins, Florida Panthers and Miami Hurricanes football, basketball and baseball -- here are the only persons to have served at least 10 seasons as head coach. The man third on the list, Jim Morris, coaches his final home game on Saturday:
Coach, Team Years Span W-L Pct.
Ron Fraser, UM baseball 30 1963-92 .742
Don Shula, Dolphins 26 1970-95 .659
Jim Morris, UM baseball 25 1994-18 .698
Ferne Labati, UM w-basketball 17 1988-05 .608
Andy Gustafson, UM football 16 1948-63 .587
Katie Meier, UM w-basketball 13+ 2005- .607
Bruce Hale, UM m-basketball 13 1954-67 .663
Pat Riley, Heat 11 1995-08 .535
Erik Spoelstra, Heat 10+ 2008- .602
Hart Morris, UM m-basketball 10 1938-52 .592
Leonard Hamilton, UM m-basketball 10 1990-00 .495
POLL RESULT: STRONG MAJORITY WANT FLORIDA IN ON LEGALIZED SPORTS BETTING: We asked, "In the wake of this week's Supreme Court ruling, do you hope Florida will be among the states to legalize betting on sports?" And it was 76.81 percent yes, 18.84% no and 4.35% undecided.
OUR APSE CONTEST-HONORED COLUMNS: The Associated Press Sports Editors writing contest ranked me the No. 5 national sports columnist in the major-outlet category. Thanks, APSE. Here are the nominated columns that earned the honor: At Doral, an annual tradition since 1962 is replaced by silence, and by what's missing / Marlins' Jose Fernandez statue is divisive yet has a chance to serve a greater purpose / NFL has moral obligation to help Buonicontis and Kiicks while it limits future suffering / What led to El Clasico Miami began with Joe Robbie's unlikely, accidental love of soccer / With 59 home runs, Stanton still had a magic season. Just hope this wasn't goodbye.
For all of our more recent columns, browse MiamiHerald/GregCote.
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