GREG COTE'S RANDOM EVIDENCE BLOG: MIAMI. SPORTS. AND BEYOND
1) It's MONDAY, AUGUST 17. The Greg Cote Show podcast is now separately on Twitter and Instagram. Follow us on both! 2) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Fractured college football mirrors America's divide on pandemic, Big Ten and Pac-12 set a moral compass, On Panthers moving on from GM Tallon, Marlins home opener (finally!), Greg Cote Show podcast new Episode 24 & more. 3) Join us on Twitter and Instagram.
GREG COTE SHOW PODCAST: A WEEK OFF, THEN NEW EPISODE 25!: Our Miami Herald podcast, "The Greg Cote Show With Greg Cote," debuted in March and Episode 24 is out now. After a week off (no new episode Monday), we'll celebrate our silver podiversary with Ep25 on August 24. New episodes drop Monday mornings on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, Megaphone, iHeart or wherever you pod, and of course at MiamiHerald.com. Find all 24 we've done so far RIGHT HERE. Free! No paywall! Please listen, subscribe, rate and review. In Episode 24 Greg reveals his likes and dislikes about being on Le Batard Show. Also, hear from a screenwriter with a movie on Netflix who also happens to be running for Broward County supervisor of elections. And a guy who wrote a book about baseball cards ... and a double dose of Mount Gregmore (G's)! All that and more in new Ep24!
Our most recent columns:
For Marlins, A Home Opener -- And First Place -- In Mid-August
Also: Fractured College Football Mirrors America's Divide On How to Handle a Pandemic / Fall Without Football: Big Ten, Pac-12 Set Moral Compass for NFL, Others to Follow / As Panthers Move on From Tallon, Who's Next Miami Team Executive on Hot Seat? / 'Perfect Storm For Virus Transmission': Why Football Is Struggling to Lift Off and Here's Why Nobody Should Rule Out Heat Reaching NBA Finals
HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (AUGUST 16-17): WHAT SOUTH FLORIDA SPORTS FANS ARE TALKING ABOUT: Our blog-exclusive Sunday-into-Monday feature 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. MARLINS: Hear ye, hear ye! An actual game actually happened in Miami!: For the first time in 156 days, since the coronavirus pandemic shut down sports on March 11, an actual game happened in South Florida -- the Marlins' long-delayed home opener Friday night, albeit sans fans. The Heat, Panthers and Inter Inter Miami have been playing elsewhere; this was the first time in just over five months a local team had played an actual home game. Seven-game Fish homestand vs. Braves and Mets continued Sunday with Marlins wearing throwback Miami Giants uniforms (a 1930s semipro team) in honor of 100th anniversary of Negro Leagues. Atlanta won to take two of three.
2. COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Seismic! Big Ten, Pac-12 to skip 2020 season: In the biggest sports story of the pandemic since the cancellation of March Madness, two of the Power 5 football conferences, the Big Ten and Pac-12, announced they would not play in 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns. They're hoping to play in spring of '21 instead. However, the SEC, Big 12 and ACC/Miami Hurricanes plan as of now to play this fall as scheduled. Miami is to open September 10 at home vs. UAB, though likely without fans or with a very limited number.
3. HEAT: Playoffs! Miami-Indiana best-of-7 series starts Tuesday: NBA playoffs start Monday and Heat-Pacers first-round series begins Tuesday, all in the Orlando bubble. Miami finished only 3-5 in the eight-game regular season restart, including a split of two games with the Pacers. Derrick Jones Jr. left on a stretcher Friday with a "neck sprain."
4. INTER MIAMI: Team announces major signing as MLS resumption nears: Portland Timbers beat Orlando City 2-1 to win the MLS is Back tournament, now the league's regular season has resumed. Expansion team Inter Miami returns to play next Saturday, August 22, vs. Orlando in its temporary stadium in Fort Lauderdale -- its first-ever home game, although sans fans. Miami is 0-5 in its rookie year but just signed French international midfielder and former Juventus star Blaise Matuidi, 33, who helped France win the 2018 World Cup. Meantime speculation persists that David Beckham's Miami is hot after Barcelona striker Luis Suarez.
5. DOLPHINS: Club to honor Shula with jersey patch this season: Miami would be one game into its exhibition schedule had the whole preseason not been canceled. Now, with the September 13 season opener at New England less than a month away, Dolphins announced players would wear a 'Shula/347' jersey patch this season to honor the late Don Shula. This will be first time club has had a uniform patch to honor an individual.
6. PANTHERS: Cats get unlucky in NHL draft lottery: NHL Stanley Cup playoffs are underway, as Florida continues its search to replace general manager Dale Tallon, sacked after a play-in series fizzle vs. Islanders. (Might former Cat Scott Mellanby be a candidate?) Meantime Panthers got no luck in NHL draft lottery. Had a 12.5 percent shot at the overall No. 1 pick but will select 12th instead. Draft, delayed from June, is scheduled to be done virtually October 9–10.
7. SOCCER: UEFA Champions League semifinals are set: UEFA Champions League being held in Portugal is down to its semifinals. It'll be Paris-St. Germain vs. Leipzig on Tuesday, and Bayern Munich vs. Lyon -- which stunned Manchester City 3-1 on Saturday. Semifinal winners will meet for the European crown on August 23, with Bayern now a stout favorite.
8. HIGH SCHOOLS: FHSAA green lights fall sports: The FHSAA, governing body for Florida prep sports, voted 11-5 to allow fall sports including football to go on beginning later this month despite the pandemic hitting this state harder than most. To the five adults in that room, thank you for trying, at least.
9. UFC: Miocic pummels Cormier into retirement: Stipe Miocic beat Daniel Cormier in a unanimous decision in UFC 252 Saturday night in Vegas to cement his status as the sport's heavyweight G.O.A.T. The loss pushed Cormier to say he's retiring. Over/under on his coming out of retirement: Three months.
10. HORSE RACING: Delayed Kentucky Derby to allow some fans: The 146th Kentucky Derby, delayed by the coronavirus from early May until September 5, plans to allow some 23,000 spectators, or 14 percent of capacity. Meanwhile activists are calling for the race day to be cancelled and accuse police of cracking down on social-justice protests to put a happy face on Louisville as the race nears.
Missing the HB10 cut: R.I.P., Aubrey Hill. FIU''s wide receivers coach, 48, passed away on Sunday after a long battle with cancer ..... The Miami Hurricanes impressed in a football scrimmage Sunday night,with D'Eriq King throwing for four TDs. That was according to UM. Since no media were there to see it, did it really happen? ..... The Masters at Augusta, delayed by the pandemic this year from the spring to November 12-15, announced it would go on with no spectators allowed at the course ..... Along with some 70 players who have opted out of the coming season (including Dolphins Albert Wilson and Allen Hurns), at least seven NFL game officials have opted out, ESPN reported. Five are on-field officials and two are replay-booth guys ..... "TUA," a documentary on the Dolphins' rookie quarterback Tagovailoa (unless by some wild coincidence somebody else goes by Tua), premieres on Sunday, September 6 on Fox ..... The Greg Cote Show podcast will return August 24 with silver pod-iversary Episode 25 after a week off ..... Update: Countdown now 2,143 days (give or take) until Miami hosts its first match in soccer's 2026 World Cup, always presuming the world still exists at that point.
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THE COTE ARCHIVES:
Marlins Hell Week Trilogy: Are Marlins To Blame For Own Outbreak? If So It Would Mirror America's Struggle / Marlins Outbreak Worsens, Sports Should Rethink Playing Again in 2020 / and Marlins Delaying Home Opener For COVID Outbreak a Scary Lesson For All Sports.
Other most recent 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 / 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 / Rest In Pieces, Redskins. Now Here Are Sports' Other Suspect Nicknames / '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 / Kobe's Death Sends Sports World Reeling, But Immortality Is His / Jimmy Johnson's Biggest Triumph? Knowing When To Quit -- And Why / Announcing Miami Dolphins' 2010-19 All-Decade Team / and two-part series on how Dolphins' Glory Day happened: 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
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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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