Marlins Rally, Lose Anyway

Well that was a tough series to swallow. The final victory this weekend put the Marlins at a sparkling 23-14 and gave them sole possession of the best record in baseball. Instead of continuing the momentum, Florida squandered their position on top and got swept by the lowly Reds.

I'm not sure what this series proves. We've been beating up on weak teams to fatten up our record so far, and losing to a sub .500 team doesn't make us look any better. That being said, anybody is really vulnerable to getting swept by anybody else in baseball. It's not that hard. Happens all the time. Because of that, I wouldn't panic quite just yet if I were you.

However, I wouldn't be completely unconcerned about the state of this team. They've been overachieving for quite some time now and the lack of talent will start to bite this team in the ass. The starting rotation just isn't good enough to hold up against the rigors of a 162 game season. They really need Josh Johnson and Anibal Sanchez to come back quickly and at their game to continue to contend for a playoff spot.

The Marlins should consider the previous paragraph a compliment because I would have considered them out of contention for a wild card spot on Opening Day, much less a fourth of the way through the season. Fredi Gonzalez has done a great job in his sophomore year as our coach. If anything, the Marlins putting together some wins has rejuvenated sports in South Florida, at least until the NBA Lottery next week.

Everett Waived

This is actually a good thing. Buffalo was great to our former Cane, but obviously they need to move on with their roster and placed Kevin on the waived/failed physical list. I believe this means they don't have to pay him his 400,000+ dollar salary, but in turn allows him to collect a 225,000 dollar a year disability payment from the NFL.

Because the Bills paid him his entire salary last season, he became eligible for an NFL pension, receiving about $1500 a month. It might not seem like a whole lot, but combined with his disability checks and I think Kevin should be taken care of for the rest of his life assuming the hospital bills aren't too high.

This is one of the few examples where you see the system work. The NFL is notorious for not taking care of it's older retired players, many of which are extremely disabled due to years of brutal play in the NFL. This is a nice story to hear. Best of luck to Kevin, who is an inspiration to everyone and presents hope to all those who have been paralyzed.

Canes Stay Atop Polls

Despite losing a game to lowly VT this weekend, the Canes baseball team remained the consensus #1 in the country. Miami won 2 of 3 in the series, but suffered a disappointing loss on Saturday to a below average team. Regardless, the polls made Miami the consensus #1 for the 6th week in a row.

Miami continues to roll thanks to the efforts of 9-0 pitcher Chris Hernandez, who pitched well again on Friday, allowing only 2 earned runs in 6 2/3 innings against the Hokies. The team is so well-balanced that it is extremely difficult for them to lose on any given day. Many are saying this team has the most professional level talent than any other team in the country, some even go as far to say they are the most talented team in years.

The praise will be put to the test this weekend, when the 2nd ranked Tar Heels come to town. This will be the 2nd time Miami has been part of a 1 vs 2 matchup. I'd like to see how often that's happened before in college baseball. I know it rarely happens in the regular season in college football, but I don't know that much about baseball history.

North Carolina consistently produces a Top 5 team and should be a tough challenge for the Canes. I'll say the same thing I said before the FSU series: if we can take 2 of 3, there is no shame in losing that 3rd game. Winning the series is crucial to both our confidence, and our national ranking. I doubt that pollsters will overlook losing a series to the #2 team. Not that it matters, but it's always nice to see Miami on top of the world.

Patchan Shot

My friend at the Bull Gator mentioned this to me yesterday.

I've said my piece about Matt Patchan's decision to become a Gator. I think it was a mistake and I don't understand how he could have committed to UF. However, nobody deserves getting shot at, especially when it's for no reason.

Patchan has the bullet lodged in his shoulder and the doctors decided not to dig it out. Supposedly he should be back on the field in no time, but who knows. I don't think getting shot anywhere is ever good for football players.

Let's just hope this shooting was incidental and that somebody doesn't have it out for Matt. He should consider himself lucky that the bullet didn't hit him in a worse place. Good luck for his recovery.

Marlins Win 7th Straight

Ladies and gentlemen, the Marlins now own the best record in the major leagues. Fredi Gonzalez has to be the early frontrunner for Manager of the Year, because this ragtag bunch belongs on the bottom of the standings, not at the top. Still, somehow the Marlins have managed to put together a 23-14 record, continuing the best start in team history.

Today was a sweet victory, coming back from a late 4-1 deficit to win thanks to a pair of Dan Uggla home runs (no help to my fantasy teams who faced him in both leagues). The win complete a sweep of the lowly Nationals and again, ties the Marlins with the Diamondbacks for the best record in the majors despite only a +14 run differential. And that's including yesterday's 11-0 pounding in Washington.

The success is in most part due to some solid hitting and excellent work from the bullpen. It's an exciting start to the season because our young hitters will get better and the starting lineup should benefit from the return of Josh Johnson and Anibal Sanchez later on in the season. What a Cinderella story it would be if the Marlins could actually contend for the playoffs with such a low payroll. Making the postseason with this roster would be arguably as impressive as winning the World Series back in 2003.

Shandel's Interviews

I'll be the first to admit I miss Omar Kelly's coverage of the Canes on the Sun-Sentinel. Ever since he was moved to the Dolphins beat and replaced by Shandel Richardson, I've felt that the quality of the coverage has dropped off substantially. Omar was closer to his readers and gave us good stuff. Shandel isn't bad, but he had some pretty big shoes to fill. On top of that, he has some stiff competition from the Herald's Manny Navarro, who often has the the latest news up really quick.

However, Shandel has recently stepped it up big time. He knows what the deal is. All we care about down here is football. The baseball team is amazing and should be poised for a title, but nobody really cares. The basketball team was a few seconds away from a Sweet 16 appearance, but they too have to step aside for football. In the South, football is king. Anyway, Shandel has responded to this by providing one on one interviews with several incoming freshman recruits from Miami's heralded 2008 class.

Here is one with Davon Johnson. I encourage you to read up on the other ones on the blog. As Bruce Feldman point out on his ESPN blog, the most interesting comment was from CJ Holton, who said he got numerous death threats about decommitting from FSU and committing to Miami. I wish I could say this sort of behavior is exclusive to Noles' fans, but I've seen some pretty nasty stuff online from Canes fans when our guys switch commitments as well.

Ramirez to Get Extension

Hallelujah! The Marlins finally are breaking the bank for a top player. Sadly, the generous financial stance taken by the front office comes too late, as we have already traded a perennial All-Star in Miguel Cabrera in exchange for a strikeout machine (Maybin) and a struggling rookie pitcher. At least now we know the cornerstone of the franchise will be locked up for the future.

Supposedly the contract extension is for 6 years and 70 million dollars. That's not too shabby for what will eventually be one of the game's 5 best players. I'm sure that contract won't hold up towards the tail end. It's too much of a bargain. Hopefully by then we will be able to afford other talented players to put alongside Hanley. This year's early success has been nice, but we can't rest our laurels on a 20-14 record.

It's Not Great to Be A Florida Gator

Simply because I don't have the energy to whip out the statistics and the usual bleeding heart Canes-against-the-world soapbox talk, I'll be short and sweet about the latest Gator in the news. Safety Jamar Hornsby has been arrested and accused of credit card fraud. This wasn't your ordinary, run-of-the-mill fraud you might find yourself guilty of if you find someone's lost wallet. Hornsby had been using a dead girl's identity. Not only that, but she was a close friend and girlfriend of former teammate Michael Guilford, who alongside Ashley Slonina died a few months ago in a tragic car accident.

And here I thought Fred Rouse breaking into his teammate's apartment was some serious betrayal. Try having your teammate ruin your girlfriend's credit. Hornsby is lucky that Guilford didn't survive the crash, because this situation is just sick. On top of being morally reprehensible on every level, Slonina's family had enough to deal with before getting hit with the charges to her credit card. That's just a cruel thing to do.

Of course, nothing substantial will come of this in the big picture. Hornsby has been kicked off the team, obviously, and should serve some jail time for his crimes. However, you won't see an SI cover imploring the University of Florida to shut down their program. I'd be willing to be their last 18 months have been far worse than anything that ever went down here in the late 80's. It's sad but the reality is Miami will never shed the Thug U image no matter how dirty things get elsewhere.

Pats Taped Dolphins

Apparently, some time between 2000 and 2002, the New England Patriots videotaped games of the Miami Dolphins for future access in stealing our signals. They also taped 4 other teams in 5 other games. This revelation comes from Matt Walsh, who's saga continues now with more evidence that the Patriots are bigtime cheaters.

Granted, they are likely not the only team to have been doing this. Regardless it should be interesting to see what kinds of punishments they will face for this if the NFL finds them guilty of cheating. I personally don't know what they were doing taping the Dolphins, when Wannstedt's offense was run left, run right, run backwards, and his defense was straight up cover 2 man.

Hopefully they'll get more than a slap on the wrist. It would be fun to see some real chaos in the NFL, with a Super Bowl title stripped from those damn Patsies.

Noles OL Ineligible

Right off the heels of OLB Marcus Ball's departure from FSU, the Seminoles have lost another important starter in Daron Rose. It's been a pretty rough 6 months from a Noles standpoint, what with the academic scandal going around and all. Poor Geno Hayes leaves early for the NFL and gets drafted in the 6th round. Oops.

Don't forget there are several players suspended for the first two games of next season. FSU will be hard-pressed to keep up in the ACC with all of these issues looming over their program. However, things will probably be fine in Tally in the long run. They just finished locking up a decent 2008 class and so far have one of the top 2009 recruiting classes in the country.

I look forward to the day when we can see another 6-0 Miami vs 6-0 FSU matchup that actually means something. Beating the Seminoles is that much sweeter when they are relevant.

Olsen Pitches a Gem

Had the opportunity to catch part of the Marlins' victory last night over the Brewers 3-0. Scott Olsen somehow has found his groove after being statistically the worst regular starter in the NL last season. He is now 4-1 with an excellent 2.22 ERA and a sparkling 1.05 WHIP.

I particularly enjoyed the late stretch where Olsen got fired up after failing to give himself run support. Somehow the Marlins, with a 3-0 lead, had the bases loaded with no outs and got nothing out of that situation. Olsen struck out with 1 out in the inning and returned to the dugout livid with himself. Throwing stuff, the usual. Looks like his anger problems haven't entirely gone away.

However, whatever he's done to control that anger has been working. Usually, he might have lost his focus and begun to pitch poorly. Instead he walked up to the mound and smoked Prince Fielder for a strikeout, eventually leading the team to a victory with 8 2/3 innings pitched.

With the Philly loss, this puts us back in a first place tie atop the NL East. It's a nice place to be, even if it is early May. You have to like what the young lineup and the bullpen are doing to make up for the pretty weak starting rotation.

So Much For Marvin Harrison

It's funny, I just finished writing a piece on the modern athlete last week and praised Marvin Harrison as one of those quiet hard-working guys who is all business. I wasn't aware of a previous incident when he supposedly choked a young fan asking for an autograph (then again I've heard horror stories from fans regarding everyone from Dan Marino to Alonzo Mourning). All it took was a couple of days for Marvin to make me look pretty dumb.

The ongoing investigation into a shooting involving the Colts' receiver has now turned up shell casings from a gun that belongs to Harrison. Oops. I'm not entirely sure what a guy like Marvin is doing with such a powerful gun (armor piercing? Jesus), but I'm going to refrain from making any judgment on that until we get a little more information. Regardless, this is quite the PR nightmare for him.

I thought it was an interesting situation because the timing of my article was perfect to illustrate how we can't idolize these guys too much. We hear about how great Zach Thomas is, how he studies film so diligently, buys a hyperbolic chamber in the offseason to improve his performance, and how he takes football incredibly seriously. You see him at charity events and raising a family. But do you really know him? It's tough, because we often look up to these guys growing up as kids not knowing anything about their personal lives.

The fact is football players and other athletes are human beings. They make mistakes and nothing is ever black and white, good and evil. Everyone hates on T.O for being a prima donna, but how many fans know he was raised by a cruel grandmother who wouldn't let him go out, or how he fell in love with the girl down the street before the girl's father showed up one day and said Terrell couldn't date her because she was his sister. That's bound to screw you up.

I think we have to be careful and try hard to distance ourselves from athletes as heroes. For all I know, Zach eats baby kittens for breakfast. I'll still always love the guy for what he's done for the fans and for the city of Miami, but I know from experience that my kids' role model will be someone he knows and understands, not some guy on TV that could end up disappointing you when he doesn't turn out to be the ideal person you thought he was.

Celtics Dominate, Advance

It certainly took longer than expected (I had them sweeping), but Boston dismantled the outmatched Hawks in Boston today to advance and meet the Cavs in Round 2.

This means I was 8-8 in my predictions for Round 1, albeit none of the predictions of the length of the series were on the mark. That's not too much to brag about, as I went chalk for the majority of my predictions, save for the Spurs topping the Hornets in 6 in Round 2. Yesterday's shellacking didn't do much to support my opinion that the Spurs are a better team than New Orleans. Then again, I doubt Tim Duncan will be held to 5 points and 3 boards ever again in the playoffs.

I'll stand by my original predictions because not much has changed my mind since Round 1. Boston showed they have some serious weaknesses and it has to be a bit disturbing that they couldn't close out Atlanta on the road. Regardless, they should still send Cleveland home packing pretty quickly. I still say it goes down in 5, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it go 6 or 7 based on the success that Atlanta had.

Detroit also easily took care of their second round opponent, but I don't think the Pistons are 20 points better than the Magic every night. Dwight Howard will dominate, especially at home, and I still think the series goes 6 or 7.

The Lakers are taking care of the Jazz as we speak, but the game isn't over and Utah is an excellent team. Some have them as a darkhorse to win it all and I couldn't disagree with that choice. I still think LA wins this series but I fully expect it to go the distance.

And even with the Spurs' disappointing Game 1 loss yesterday, I think they will pull it out and win the series at home in Game 6. San Antonio is an excellent home team and I don't expect them to lose there in this series. I think they take the next 3 before losing Game 5 and finishing the Hornets off in San Antonio. New Orleans has been playing better than I thought they would, and Chris Paul is ridiculous, but they are still relatively young and the experienced Spurs know how to get it done in crunch time.

Hernandez Shines as Canes Top Gaels

Fresh off a week that saw the Canes lose a disappointing game to FIU before sweeping ranked Virginia, the Miami baseball team continued to roll yesterday with a 10-6 victory over St. Mary's.

I was sure that the loss to FIU would drop the team from the top spot in the rankings, but apparently the pollsters were sufficiently impressed by the sweep of a Top 25 team that the Canes were again the consensus #1 team in the country.

With the ranking came a much needed midweek rest where we didn't have to play a Tuesday or a Wednesday game. That should have given the guys some time to rest up and study a bit for final exams. It seems the mini break was productive, as Miami did a nice job of handling the Gaels yesterday. Chris Hernandez held them to 1 run over 5 innings, as he has been our most consistent and impressive starter so far this season. The freshman has impressed me and probably will have caught the eye of most MLB scouts by now.

The game also saw Jemile Weeks break the school record for career triples with 18. That's a nice touch to Weeks' spectacular career here, which looks to end this season as he is projected to be a 1st round pick in the MLB Draft. Yonder Alonso also contributed to the rout (the final score was much closer than it should have been) with his team-leading 13th home run of the season. He should also be playing his final season in a Canes uniform, as he has joined his teammate in most 1st round mock drafts.

Marlins Top Padres, Regain First Place

Today's 6-4 victory over Justin Germano and the Padres was a big win for the Marlins. The recent sweep at the hand of the Dodgers erased our division lead and raised concerns that maybe the Marlins were finally starting to show their true colors. Surely they can't keep it up much longer, right?

Well as long as the Ws keep piling up, keep the faith. I don't know how they piece together wins, but whatever they've done has worked. Today's heroics were provided by Dan Uggla, who homered twice off Germano to give Mark Hendrickson enough support to win. Speaking of Hendrickson, I've only watched a pair of his outings and wasn't impressed. Still, he has managed to pitch well enough to post a 5-1 record so far.

I'd have to say much of the reason for the Marlins' early season success is thanks to their all-world shortstop Hanley Ramirez. The young infielder is on pace for a .320, 45 HR, 100RBI and 55 stolen base season. Those are MVP numbers, and I don't doubt his ability to keep it up. The homers should probably settle at around 25-30, but Ramirez has proven he's got some pop. What's amazing is that Ramirez is batting at such a high level and still striking out so much. Once he develops a little more patience, it's scary to imagine how impressive his numbers will be.