GREG COTE'S RANDOM EVIDENCE BLOG: MIAMI. SPORTS. AND BEYOND
1) It's SATURDAY, AUGUST 1. Welcome, Augie. Be nice to us. You, too Isaias! 2) Our Greg Cote Show podcast is now separately on Twitter and Instagram. Follow us on both! 3) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Marlins postpone opener due to virus outbreak, Hot Button Top 10, Greg Cote Show podcast Episode 22 & more. 4) Join us on Twitter and Instagram.
GREG COTE SHOW PODCAST: EPISODE 22 OUT NOW!: Our Miami Herald podcast, "The Greg Cote Show With Greg Cote," debuted in March and Episode 22 is out now! A new episode drops every Monday morning on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, Megaphone, iHeart or wherever you do your podding, and of course at MiamiHerald.com. Find all 22 we've done so far RIGHT HERE. Free! No paywall! Please listen, subscribe, rate and review. In Episode 22 Greg and Chris are joined by special guest co-host Juju Gotti, the Atlanta rapper, for a fun and veering conversation. New episode also includes Greg's Mail Sack, the top 10 Miami sports stars of all time, and the Mount Gregmore Name Game (E's). Hear all that and more in new Ep22!
OUR TRILOGY OF COLUMNS ON THE MIAMI MARLINS' WEEK FROM HELL:
3RD/LATEST: ARE MARLINS TO BLAME FOR OWN OUTBREAK? IF SO IT WOULD MIRROR AMERICA'S STRUGGLE: The COVID-19 outbreak that has derailed the Miami Marlins season so soon after its delayed start perfectly mirrors America’s struggle to contain and get past this coronavirus pandemic that has turned 2020 upside down. The lesson: It only takes a relative few, on a team or in a nation, to mess things up for everyone. Half of the Marlins roster — 17 players and two coaches after one more test-positive Thursday — have been hit by the virus. The infection total for the other 29 MLB teams combined: Zero. How can that possibly be? If what USA Today’s Bob Nightengale said on the radio is true, a very few unnamed Marlins went out partying in Atlanta after an exhibition game a week ago Tuesday, in violation of health and safety protocols, contracted the virus and unknowingly spread it. I would emphasize the word if there. MLB is investigating that report, according to ESPN. The team has made no statement on its truth but also is investigating the cause. Meantime, CEO Derek Jeter (pictured), manager Don Mattingly, team captain Miguel Rojas — anyone who fancies himself as leading this team — should be profoundly embarrassed if the cause is proved to be self-inflicted. If a few players’ rule-breaking selfishness caused this outbreak, the Marlins would owe their fans an apology. Last season’s 57-105 record was bad. This outbreak, no matter its root, is every-way worse. For our full latest column, visit Are Marlins To Blame For Own Outbreak? If So It Would Mirror America's Struggle.
2ND: AS MARLINS COVID OUTBREAK WORSENS, SPORTS SHOULD RETHINK PLAYING AT ALL AGAIN IN 2020: Maybe the Miami Marlins have done sports a huge favor. Maybe this is the slap in the face, the slap of reality, that every league commissioner in America has needed. Because maybe this is when the perils of playing in a pandemic begin to seem more and more like, well, like insanity. Then again, maybe I’m dreaming. That sure seemed the case when the MLB commissioner’s first words on the Marlins’ COVID-19 outbreak that postponed their Monday and Tuesday home games was that this could be "managed." "I don’t see it as a nightmare," said Rob Manfred, a man paid to put his team owners’ financial bottom line ahead of the health and safety of his players and coaches and their families. "We think we can keep people safe and continue to play." How did that work out for you with Miami, Rob? Or are at least 17 Marlins players and coaches testing positive three games into the start of the season not enough to make you rethink the risk? One of the infected players is team captain Miguel Rojas, it was reported Tuesday, after Rojas had begun the season 7-for-10. This is a nightmare, Rob. This should be enough to make all sports rethink the risk. For this full column, visit As Marlins Outbreak Worsens, Sports Should Rethink Playing Again in 2020.
1ST: MARLINS ARE NOW 'EXHIBIT A' AND SCARY LESSON ON PERILS OF PLAYING IN PANDEMIC: For all the world to see, the Miami Marlins just became Exhibit A for all that can go wrong when you try to play games in a pandemic. It is this baseball club, in one of America’s continuing coronavirus/COVID-19 hotpots, that you look to now when you wonder if this whole sports restart — for our entertainment and so leagues can make money, not necessarily in that order — is worth the risk. The worst that can happen, happened. The Marlins (masked manager Don Mattingly is pictured) suffered a virus outbreak infecting half the team on the first road trip of the season. At least 12 players and two coaches have tested positive — forcing Monday night’s scheduled home opener at Marlins Park to be canceled. It is an historic happenstance in a year unlike any in American history as the U.S. virus death toll grimly approaches 150,000 while sports start back up in empty stadiums and arenas. The Marlins’ next game, when and where it will be — all to be determined. For this full column, visit Marlins Delaying Home Opener For COVID Outbreak a Scary Lesson For All Sports.
Our most recent other columns:
Marlins and Dolphins, In a Race For Relevance, Offer Hope At a Time We Need That
When Will Dolphins Unleash Tua? Exploring the Timetable as Rookies Report
Sports Resume, But Major Concerns Complicate Opening of Football Training Camps
And: He Made a Mistake, But Miami Knows Who Dwyane Wade Is -- And Knows It By Heart / Marlins Captain Miguel Rojas On Pandemic And Playoffs As Baseball Returns / and Rest In Pieces, Redskins. Now Here Are Sports' Other Suspect Nicknames
Other recent columns: 'Redskins Is Racist Nickname Based On a Lie. Time For It to Disappear / Money Or Health? NFL and Major College Football Face A Decision / Tough Times All Around, But Rise Of Miami Sports Offers Hope / The Face Of Miami Sports in 2020: Our Top 20 And Who's No.1 / Time to Abort Season Restarts and Call Off Sports For Rest Of 2020 / Uh-oh. Cam Newton means Belichick and Patriots Are Back / Saving the National Anthem From Sporting-Event Extinction / Baseball Joins In With Restart Plan. But Is Sports Walking Into a Giant Mess? / Noose Left For NASCAR's Bubba Wallace's Only Grows Resolve to End Racial Hatred / and Team That Signs Kaepernick Will Be Champions Of the Street
Special Don Shula tribute columns: Don Shula, 1930-2020, R.I.P. and What Shula Meant to a Father & Son. They Boy Was Me
George Floyd-related columns: Sports' Gradual Return Offers America Relief We Desperately Need / It Took George Floyd To Finally Wake Up White America / Goodell's NFL Response to Floyd Killing Is Hypocrisy At Its Most Ironic / and George Floyd Is Why Kaepernick & Sports Must Continue Fight For Social Justice
Select earlier columns from 2020: Amid Pandemic And Protests, 'America's Pastime' Is Letting American Down / Return Of Sports Promises Historic TV Smorgasbord / Homestead Is Test Lab As NASCAR Gradually Welcomes Back Fans / R.I.P. Kurt Thomas, an American Gymnastics Pioneer / MLB Players Demanding More Millions, Right Now, Is A Bad Look / Amid a Pandemic, An Outrage in Alamance County / Welcome to Sports Without Fans, the New Normal / As NBA, MLB Plot Return, We Miss Them -- Yet Sports Have Never Seemed More Trivial / Anticipation of Relevance, Excitement Is Tua's Gift to Miami / Hall of Famer Andre Dawson On Baseball and Owning a Funeral Home Amid COVID-19 / Dolphins Aim High, Win Big With Tua Tagovailoa Pick / Greg Cote's 2020 NFL Mock Draft / Coronavirus, Tua Make This Dolphins' Weirdest, Most Interesting Draft Ever / NFL Draft Will Offer Blunt Verdict on Canes' Talent / Ultimate All-Time South Florida Major Sports Trivia Challenge / Sports Should Stop Pretending It Will Resume Anytime Soon As Coronovirus Rages / How a Longtime Herald Sport Writer Came to Own a Top Contender in Florida Derby / Time for NBA, NHL to Shut it Down, End Seasons / Le Batard Show Deals with Coronavirus-Related Upheaval / Brady Leaving Patriots for Tampa. Will Belichick Be Proved Right In Letting Him Go? / Miami Sports Now Utterly Engulfed By Coronavirus Threat -- But Precaution Is Justified / Inter Miami Is Market's Sleeping Giant As Home Opener Nears / Jeter Arrives At Camp, Calls Marlins 'Layered With Talent' / Dwyane Wade, His Transgender Daughter And A Lesson In Love / Time For Anonymous Lone Voter Who Denied Jeter To Step Forward / Heat And Gloriously Impatient Riley Win In Trade For Iguodala / Return Of Ed Reed, Even If Mostly Symbolic, Leads Surge By Canes Football / Our two-part series: How One Man Long Forgotten Changed Everything For the Miami Dolphins and How Shula Made Dolphins Perfect and Made Miami Matter, And the Coach Today at 90 / Kobe's Death Sends Sports World Reeling, But Immortality Is His / Jimmy Johnson's Biggest Triumph? Knowing When To Quit -- And Why / and Announcing Miami Dolphins' 2010-19 All-Decade Team
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Revisit this blog often because it updates regularly. The Associated Press Sports Editors writing awards ranked the blog's author a Top 10 national sports columnist in the major-outlet category. Greg is also a regular on the Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz on ESPN Radio. Finding Greg Cote: Twitter. Instagram. Facebook. Columns. Podcast. Podcast on Twitter. Podcast on Instagram. LeBatard Show. Book: Fins At 50. Songs: Letting Go (audio) and The Ballad Of 1440 (video).
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