1) It's MONDAY, JUNE 3. Happy new month, y'all! 2) Check our review of the new Elton John biopic, "Rocketman," below. 3) It's always football season, so it's always the right time to check out our 'Fins At 50' book for the Dolfans in your life. Learn more or buy on Amazon. 4) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Marlins on a run, NBA Finals with polls, Bill Buckner dies, ranking Miami's top 25-and-younger players, Back In My Day (Food Trucks!), Sheryl/Bonnie/Mavis video & more. 5) Join us on Twitter @gregcote. Also Facebook and Instagram.
Our past week's quartet of columns: Marlins, NBA Finals, Bill Buckner, Miami's top young stars: For Marlins, An Encouraging Two Weeks Is Progress / Drama Kings: How NBA Became America's Most Interesting Sport / Buckner Legacy One Of Notoriety And Forgiveness / And Ranking Dolphins, Heat, Marlins & Panthers' Best Young Players.
HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (UPDATED): WHAT SOUTH FLORIDA SPORTS FANS ARE TALKING ABOUT: Our blog-exclusive every-Sunday feature, updated Mondays, is part week-in-review, part look-ahead. Hot Button means what's on our minds, locally and nationally, from a Miami perspective, as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. This week's HB10:
1. NBA: Warriors even Finals heading back west: Toronto, an underdog entering its first NBA Finals, won Game 1 but saw Golden State even the series Sunday night despite no Kevin Durant (again) and 6-for-17 shooting from Steph Curry. Three-word analysis on the opener: Pascal Bleepin' Siakam!?! Now, after Game 2: What, you didn't think the Warriors were actually going to lose the series did you!?
2. CANES BASEBALL: UM season ends in NCAA Regional: Ranked No. 20 nationally in Gino DiMare's first year as head coach, Miami saw its season end Sunday night in a 5-2 loss to Mississippi State in the NCAA Regional in Starkville, after the Canes had hoped to be named a regional host but were denied. It marked UM's 46th postseason appearance after missing out the two previous years, but an ultimate disappointment for a program once defined by trips to the College World Series in Omaha.
3. NHL: Bruins lead Blues in Stanley Cup Finals: Boston wins opener, St. Louis ties series, then Bruins take 2-1 command Saturday night with a 7-2 road rout entering Game 4 Monday night. Boston has raised Lord Stanley's Cup as recently as 2011, while the Blues are in the Finals for the first time since 1970 seeking their first championship ever. Sorry, Bruins, but everybody outside of New England is rooting for those 'dogs on skates from the Midwest.
4. MARLINS: Fish on road as team prepares for MLB Draft: The Fish, a sub-dreadful 10-31 at the season's quarter mark, went on a nice little 9-5 run to end May, and have begun June with back to back 9-3 wins in San Diego to make it 11 wins in past 16 games. Road trip continues Tuesday in Milwaukee. Meantime look for the Marlins to target a big bat with their first pick (fourth overall) as the three-day MLB Draft begins today/Monday. Two names to remember: Vanderbilt outfielder J.J. Bleday and Cal first baseman Andrew Vaughn.
5. SOCCER: U.S. defends title as Women's World Cup nears: The United States is defending champion in the month-long Women's World Cup commencing in France in four days, this coming Friday, with the first U.S. match on June 11 vs. Thailand. The veteran American squad led by Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe are betting favorites to repeat at 2-1 odds, but host France (7-2), Germany (11-2) and England (7-1) all are top contenders in the 24-nation field. I'm entirely neutral, of course. "U.S.A! U.S.A!" "Let's gooooo States!"
6. DOLPHINS: Mandatory mini-camp closes offseason: The Fins stage a mandatory three-day mini-camp this Tuesday through Thursday to end their offseason work, then it's around six weeks off (how will we ever survive!?) until the start of full preseason training camp. Big question: Josh Rosen or Ryan Fitzpatrick? Second-biggest question: Ryan Fitzpatrick or Josh Rosen?
7. TENNIS: French Open reaches quarterfinals in Paris: No. 1 men's seed Novak Djokovic and betting favorites Rafael Nadal and Simona Halep all were still alive entering the midpoint of tennis' latest major, but top women's seed Naomi Osaka was ousted in the third round -- and so was Serena Williams, who was after but fell short of a 24th career major that would have tied Margaret Court's all-time record.
8. SOCCER: Liverpool takes Champions League title: In Madrid Saturday, Liverpool rode an early penalty kick to a 2-nil triumph over underdog Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League final. It was the sixth Euro crown for Liverpool and first since 2005. Tottentham was playing in its first Champs League final.
9. HORSE RACING: Belmont to close wild Triple Crown season: The Belmont Stakes closes thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown calendar this coming Saturday with Tacitus at 11-8 odds and Preakness winner War Of Will at 2-1 the clear betting picks in the tight nine-horse field. The triumvirate of races was doomed from the start when Country House was awarded the Kentucky Derby by controversial disqualification and did not enter either subsequent race, quickly erasing any possibility of a Triple Crown. Country Mouse is more like it.
10. CRICKET: Yes, that's right. Cricket, dammit!: Cricket is very popular in South Florida with those from the West Indies especially, and I don't have to tell them the six-week-long ICC Cricket World Cup is now underway in England, with the host nation the betting favorite at 2-1 odds and India (11-4) and Australia (4-1) chasing. Bumper sticker: I Chirp For Cricket!
Missing the HB10 cut: The teenage sons of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade reportedly will play basketball for the same Los Angeles-area high school next season. "We quit," said every other school in the district ..... Astros star Carlos Correa is out six weeks after injuring a rib during a home massage. Moving on! ..... The SiriusXM PGA Tour radio channel suspended analyst Hank Haney after he poked fun, entering this weekend's Women's U.S. Open, at how South Korean players tend to dominate the LPGA tour. (Quick aside: Hank ain't wrong, by the way) ..... The 2020 College Football Hall of Fame finalists ballot will be released Monday. Once again look for Howard Schnellenberger to not be on it, because the Hall continues intractable in its dumb qualifying rules ..... Six Hurricanes qualified to compete in the NCAA Divison 1 Outdoor Track & Field Championships later this week in Jacksonville ..... Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee ended in an unprecedented eight-way tie when, oddly, all eight kids misspelled "cat" ..... Panthers prospect Juho Lammikko won a gold medal with Finland in the IIHF men's ice hockey world championships in Slovakia ..... A week passed without Inter Miami announcing a new soccer stadium site, so the count remains for now at three ..... Update: Countdown now 2,576 days (give or take) until Miami hosts its first match in the 2026 World Cup.
POLL RESULTS: YOU PREDICT WARRIORS BUT WANT RAPTORS: In separate polls we asked who you predict WILL win the NBA Finals, and who you WANT to win the Finals. And results were split. And 77.78 percent of you predicted Golden State would win (most of the votes cast before the series began). But 58.82% of you wanted Toronto to win.
THE ELTON JOHN BIOPIC 'ROCKETMAN': WEIRD BUT WORTHY: I've been an Elton John fan since my teens. No one else in music or pop culture has been as steadily important to me. So I walked into the theater Friday night predisposed to love Rocketman, the new biopic of his life (well, of his early years and early stardom through rehab in the early '90s). I walked out of the theater having liked but not loved the film. That's partly because I wasn't sure exactly what I had just seen -- which itself might be a positive viewing experience to some. (To most, judging by the 90 percent Rotten Tomatoes score the film is garnering). Rocketman is part movie, part biography, and a big part musical. Not just musical as in a lot of his songs are heard. I mean musical as in dancing and choreography. I can so see this biopic ending up as a Broadway production. It is largely based on fact but with much creative license taken as well. A "true fantasy," as the film describes itself. The performances are strong, especially Taron Egerton as Elton, but there are times the production seems a bit disjointed. Times when dialogue turns to song rather jarringly. (Another nitpick: No mention of or reference to his longtime bandmates, Davey Johnstone and Nigel Olsson). Despite the flaws and the film being all over the map stylistically, though, I highly recommend it for Elton fans and also for appreciators of a cinema experience that is outside the norm. Rocketman takes chances. And that's a good thing.
Other select most recent columns: Take Heart, South Florida. We're Bad, But Hardly Alone / Riley, Heat, Everyone Else Chasing Warriors' Epic Greatness / Meet Tyler Gaffalione: Local Jockey Who Made It (Really) Big / Smart Decision A No-Brainer: Dolphins Should Start Rosen / Zion Williamson's Power to Reject the Lottery / All The Ways Dolphins Are Finally Headed Right / Inter Miami's Demolition Ceremony Begins Frantic Race To The Finish / Maximum Security's Disqualification Is Kentucky Derby's Ultimate Stain / Brady Is As Brady As Ever / Marlins Losing Big Now, But A Future Is Emerging.
Other select columns: Welcome to the New America, Lexi Thompson / Dolphins Land Big Prize in Wilkins / Everything Aligning for Dolphins to Land Tagovailoa in '20 / Oh To Be Hated Again! Lean Times For Miami Sports / Why Tiger's Masters Triumph Is About So Much More Than Golf / In Joel Quenneville, Panthers Get Their Riley, Their Shula / Dwyane Wade Trilogy: The Last Star: Post-Wade, Miami Sports Is Bereft; Wade Fittingly Goes Out A Winner And A 30-point Star and Thank You, Dwyane Wade, Miami's G.O.A.T. / Why Tannehill's Legacy Probably Isn't What You Think / Case For Kaepernick's Comeback As A Dolphin / Transgender-Athlete Firestorm A Necessary Debate / Across the Rio Grande to the PGA Tour / From Dark and Empty to Top Of the World: Dan Le Batard at 50.
APSE-HONORED WORK: The Associated Press Sports Editors 2018 writing awards ranked us a Top 10 national sports columnist in the major-outlet category. Thanks, APSE. Here are the five 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.
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