Miami News Blog

Duke Blue Devils @ Miami Hurricanes, Saturday at Noon, on ESPNU and WVUM 90.5

Let's get real fucking excited about the Meineke Car Care Bowl! Because that's where the season might be headed ...against West Virginia or something! This is exactly where a team that starts it season with beating 3 ranked teams in four tries belongs! Meineke Car Care! So please excuse us for phoning in blog posts for the rest of the season. It is depressing.

Anyway, Saturday your Hurricanes play the Duke Blue Devil Disco Club at home to finish out both their home schedule and their conference schedule.

You know which team's fans would actually be absolutely thrilled to get in the Meineke Car Care bowl? Duke. Incidentally, they'll be playing to keep bowl eligibility hopes alive. Miami will be playing to keep their hopes that they are actually on the verge of becoming an elite football program again alive.

C. Stiles

Rene "Level" Martinez gears up for his second pro fight against Charles Champion

​Inside a mixed martial arts training studio just a block east of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Charles Champion takes a seat on the blue mat where for the past month he has been training for his cage match versus Rene "Level" Martinez tonight.

Like Martinez, Champion is looking to prove that a reformed ex-gang banger can make it as a professional mixed martial arts fighter. "People can change," he affirms. "They can come out the backyard fights and make something of themselves."

A fair-skinned 28-year-old man with blue eyes and a short buzz-cut hairstyle, Champion grew up down south, between Homestead and Florida City. As a teenager and young adult he proclaimed himself a Latin Disciple, a Miami gang that counted members from the south end of the county to South Beach. That's all in the past, Champion attests. ""It's been seven years since I've been involved in any gang activity," he says.

​First things first: Ricky Williams is now officially the Ambassador of Fucking Your Shit Up and Knocking Fools' Dicks Into the Dirt after last night's brilliant 119-yard, three-touchdown performance. Many had their doubts about the Dolphins' ability to effectively run the ball without Ronnie Brown. But Ricky silenced all the doubters with a swift roundhouse kick to their collective nards as he put the team on his back and led it to a season-salvaging 24-17 win over the Carolina Panthers.

But there's plenty of love to go around for everybody else. The Robot Chad Henne delivered a fistful of awesome.exe right into the teeth of the Panthers defense with a solid 172-yard one-touchdown performance. Davone Bess and his 63-yard game showed us all the magic and wonder that can happen when you actually catch the ball. It was also good to see Joey Porter kicking dudes' balls up into their chins again after his one-week hiatus on the island of Shit Your Ass Down. Randy Starks was also a menace, parking his party bus right on Jake Delhomme's face and registering five solo tackles. Elsewhere on defense, Cameron Wake continued to prove he's a rising star. Wake must have a steady diet of scrap metal doused in gamma rays, because he's a human wrecking ball every single time he hits the field. No doubt Delhomme's mediocre performance was caused by Wake's ass-denting presence. He didn't register any sacks, but his constant harassing of Delhomme caused a flurry of bad passes.

​And so we come to this. Sitting at 4-5, the Miami Dolphins face a must-win game tonight as take on the equally desperate (and some would say equally craptastic) 4-5 Carolina Panthers. The winner will experience the sweet taste of being a .500 team for the first time this season while embarking on an epic journey of chasing the Wildcard spot in its respective conference (tastes like victory). The loser will experience the not-so-sweet taste of having its season pretty much done (tastes like shit and onions). So lots is riding on tonight's game.

It seems as if pretty much everybody even remotely involved in the showdown is injured. Carolina lost perennial bad-ass linebacker Thomas Davis and All-Pro left tackle Jordan Gross for the year. DeAngelo Williams is listed as questionable with a bum knee. As for the Dolphins, the biggest news heading into tonight is the loss of Ronnie Brown and his amazing feats of awesomeness; he's out with a foot injury. This puts a huge dent in the Dolphins' plans of trying not to suck. And now the running game falls square on Ricky Williams's shoulders. How much will the Fins miss Brown's face-demolishing, ass-kicking ways? We'll find out tonight. The outlook is not great.

Chad Pennington has already worked his way back from throwing arm injuries twice in his career, and he's not sure if he can do it for a third time.

Photo by Dirk Hansen, via Wikicommons and http://www.flickr.com/people/dirkhansen

​It took awhile, but the Marlins finally beat the Philadelphia Phillies this season.

Fish rookie outfielder Chris Coghlan won the National League Rookie of the Year Award today, narrowly beating out Phillies pitcher J.A. Happ, according to ABC News.

In 128 games this season, Cogs hit .321 with nine home runs and a .390 on-base percentage, providing the spark at the top of the lineup that had previously been missing. All of that for a measley $400K.

Cogs, a natural second basemen, will likely move into the infield for the 2010 season, because it's looking like a sure thing that Dan Uggla is headed elsewhere.

​Well, we did say in our preview that this one felt like it was going to be closer than it should be? And, Christ, was it ever. Ugly win? This was lady-bitten-in-the-face-by-a-crazy-ass-chimp ugly as the Dolphins mangled, bungled, and stumbled their way to a 25-23 victory over the lowly Buccaneers yesterday.

While there were plenty of chances, the Dolphins failed miserably to hit that nail-in-the-coffin touchdown that would've finally put Tampa Bay away for the day. Instead, they let the Bucs mosey about the place, picking up a first down here, converting on big pass plays there. And then, with 1:52 remaining in regulation and the Fins clinging to a 22-16 lead and looking to grab one more first down to ice the game, Chad Henne threw what could only be described as an "Ah! Holy crapbuckets!" interception at the Miami 25-yard line. The Buccaneers made the most of the blunder and eventually scored the go-ahead TD on a Cadillac Williams one-yard run. The stunned Dolphins crowd was suddenly staring down the barrel of a possible 23-22 loss to one of the worst teams in the league. You could almost hear the fan base's collective asses clenching.

​So, the Dolphins clearly cannot hang with the likes of the Colts, Saints, Falcons or Patriots. We get that. But this Sunday, the Fins host what is most likely the worst team in the NFL this side of Detroit - the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And while Miami does have the better team on paper, this just feels like one of those games that end up closer than it should be, merely because the Dolphins love to fuck with its fanbase by playing beneath their level of talent. That's just how they roll.

That's why Miami has to come balls out in this game. We're talking running the shit out of the ball, blitzing the bejesus out of Bucs rookie QB Josh Freeman, taking a flame thrower to the Tampa defensive line, throwing ninja stars at the Bucs receivers, and smacking the Bucs coaching staff's asses with their own clipboards for good measure. We're talking a no-holds bared beatdown of the Pirates from Tampa. Here are the two keys to a victory heading into Sunday's matchup:

via SMQ

​When circling big games at the beginning of the season, I think we all ran out of ink after we got past the first four.

When those were over with, then everyone decided to paint North Carolina as an easy win when we were all more eager to talk about the possibility of a three way tie for first in the ACC Coastal. But hopefully it's dawned on everyone that, yes, Holy crap!, this is a big, big game for your Miami Hurricanes.

There's always excitement when the Canes take on former coach Butch Davis. Then there's always disappointment. Davis is 2-0 against the Canes (a team he racked up a 51-20 record with, despite never winning a national title), and the Canes are 0-3 in Chapel Hill. A win here, almost as much as any other win this season, proves that the Canes have finally turned the corner.

A Loss? Well, that puts a kaput on any BCS bowl series hopes.

Facebook

​Blessed is the life of the anonymous Major League middle reliever. You work six months of a year, spend half of your team's games shooting the shit in the bullpen, and make as much money as the president.

But the key is to not get too good. Because then people start noticing when you get sued by your business manager, or a warrant is put out for your arrest. And those Facebook photos displaying your Eminem-esque panache for the old double-gauged one-fingered salute are suddenly blog fodder.

Twenty-seven-year-old Florida Marlins middle reliever Renyel Pinto had a career year in 2009, keeping his ERA to a very impressive 3.23 over 73 appearances. With his slightly rotund build and an afro mushrooming out from under his baseball hat, he's one of the more conspicuous members of the Marlins' bullpen. But outside of Landshark Stadium, Pinto's been a master of evasion.

via Dime Mag

The 25th Anniversary Air Jordan

​So, here's the brand new 25th Anniversary Air Jordan, which incorporates the latest "see Dwyane Wade's feet" technology. The window is supposed to symbolize Michael Jordan's ability to "see through" opponents. It also ensures that wearers will have to make sure they have on matching socks. 

Jordan Brand knows how to do it big. After arriving in Miami and being taken to the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach, we hopped on a yacht from the hotel to an undisclosed location somewhere in the heart of Miami. White walls, red mood lighting and the portraits on the walls were closeups of the next shoe in the legendary Air Jordan line: the Air Jordan 2010.

The Air Jordan I

​For the 25th anniversary of the iconic Air Jordan sneaker the shoe's namesake will be making some room in the spotlight for another superstar: Dwyane Wade. "I was in awe, because I know what it means to not only be a part of Jordan Brand but really represent Michael on the court in the shoe he would wear," Wade told The AP. "Very excited, to say the least."

via Rakontur

​Rakontur's highly anticipated documentary on University of Miami football, The U, premiers on ESPN on December 12, and this latest bit of news has us even more excited: Uncle Luke has recorded the theme song.

Luther Campbell, The 2 Live Crew rapper, was persona non grata at UM for a decade and a half after admitting to paying players for big plays, and threatening to reveal other secrets about the team. But head coach Randy Shannon, who played when Campbell was a constant sideline presence, quietly welcomed Campbell back into the fold.

We imagine some uptight higher-ups at the school might not be thrilled at the aspect of the As Nasty As They Wanna Be rapper is putting his stamp on the documentary, then again, The U doesn't promise to be a rainbow filled trip down Hurricane history. That hasn't stopped the doc from getting an on-campus screening on December 10, a day after the film premieres at Colony Theater.

In the meantime, we'll continue to stare at the picture of Sebastian the Ibis being slammed up against a fence by police currently featured on Rakontur's homepage, and wondering if it is perhaps the single, greatest image ever.

C. Stiles

Can't stop. Won't stop.

​Depending on how much of a die-hard soccer fan you are, watching South Florida's pro soccer team Miami FC's front-office machinations can be more interesting than any of its on-field action.

In its effort to survive, the club has tried everything. It's signed the Barry Bonds of soccer -- and then two freshly-minted Cuban defectors. The team has switched stadiums, and everybody has shaved their heads. If you're a fan of the underdog, you are obligated by law to love Miami FC.

Today, the club announced that it and six other teams are leaving the USL-1 league to form a new competing circuit. The rebellion was sparked by disagreement over control of the league. The new, as-yet-unnamed, league will include teams from Montreal, Vancouver, Atlanta, South Carolina, Minnesota, and St. Louis.

The most important aspect of the news: it means our hometown squad will live to see another year.

Simon Bruty for HarperCollins

​Former Miami Herald scribe and current Sports Illustrated senior writer S.L. Price makes his living where sports and culture intersect. His 2000 book Pitching Around Fidel was an exploration of the crumbling Cuban sports machine, and the importance of play to a people deprived of basic freedoms. His newest non-fiction tome, Heart of the Game, gains the reader access to a culture that might just be as closed to outsiders and as arbitrarily ruled as Fidel's fiefdom: minor-league baseball.

In a July 2007 contest between two bush league ball-clubs, a first base coach named Mike Coolbaugh was killed almost instantly when a batted ball cometed into his neck. The ball had been hit by a player named Tino Sanchez. Both Coolbaugh and Sanchez were minor league "lifers", with a combined 28 years of pro ball between them. The tragic accident was national news for a moment, but with a merciful lack of video, the sports media quickly moved on.

Price starts with that fateful foul ball on a Sunday night in Little Rock, Arkansas, and unspools the tape of both men's lives--one which began in Binghampton, New York, the other in Puerto Rico--to impart on us an understanding of what life is like in the minor leagues. And it's bitter, mean, and unfair. Time and again, deserving and talented men are robbed of the chance to fulfill their dream because of circumstance, luck, or prejudice, and the real-life Moonlight Graham doesn't shrug off his thwarted big-league opportunity. "Fans look at baseball as this sort of 'Field of Dreams' environment of magic and romanticism," says Price. "Baseball players really don't. Everybody's got an 'I got screwed' story. I wanted to write an adult book about baseball, that told the truth about this very tough existence."

Coolbaugh's 'I got screwed' story has him being passed in the Toronto Blue Jay organization's third base hierarchy in favor of less-talented bonus-baby Chris Weinke, who would later quit the sport to become, at age 28, the oldest Heisman Trophy winner in history for Florida State University. Coolbaugh accumulated only 83 major league at-bats, although scouts insisted he had the talent to be at least a benchwarmer in the Bigs, before retiring from playing and being killed at age 35. Says Price: "I identify with Mike. I think most of us are more like Mike than we are like Alex Rodriguez."

Price will speak at 3 pm on Sunday, November 15, in a sports panel that also includes authors of new books on a female wrestler and baseball owner George Steinbrenner.

​What's there to say about Miami's win against Virginia? It was nice to see the Canes dominate a conference rival who deserved to be dominated during Homecoming, but otherwise *yawn*. Instead let's bitch about polls and make wild predictions about bowl games!

​When Vontae Davis started off the game with a leaping interception that can only be described as Fuck Yea!, the consensus feeling was the Dolphins were going to make this one interesting. Maybe even pull off the upset. Alas, it was not to be. The Patriots were able to show us, once again, that the Dolphins are good, but not good enough. And that there are more than a few weaknesses that need to be addressed before Miami can play with the big boys (i.e. - Colts, Saints, Patriots) and actually win a damn game against them. Here are the two main culprits to yesterday's 27-17 loss to the Patriots (hint: no surprises here):

A Lack of Sacks: Not so much "sack" as in "taking down the quarterback," but "sacks" as in "balls." As in, there are none to be found on this defensive line when sacking up is at a premium. Aside from Randy Starks and Cameron Wake, the Miami front seven was completely emasculated by the Patriot offensive line. When Tom Brady wasn't writing a thesis on David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest in the pocket, he was busy carving up the inexperienced Fins secondary, going 25 of 37 with 332 yards and a TD, hitting receivers in stride, converting 3rd downs and taking a pipe wrench to our collective clavicles. All thanks to a lack of pressure from the d-line.

It didn't help that the Fins were without Jason Ferguson and Channing Crowder (how crappy are things when we actually miss Channing Crowder?) At 34 it's a miracle Ferguson has gone this long without more injuries. And his absence just proves that Miami has to address the defensive tackle position soon (perhaps Alabama's Terrence Cody?).

​When last we saw our Miami Dolphins, they were busy beating the bejesus out of the shitdipping trash-talking New York Jets, and silencing their shitdipping trash-talking fans in the process. It was one of the most satisfying wins in recent memory. Jason Taylor was able to talk some trash of his own about New York, and Ted Ginn Jr. - fresh off his redeeming record-setting 2 kickoff return touchdown performance - was compared to Jesus Christ by his offensive coordinator.

Not too shabby.

This week, because the NFL schedule makers thought it would be clever to stick a proverbial crowbar up our collective asses when they decided it would be neat to see the Dolphins travel to New York and New England on consecutive weeks, the Fins visit the Patriots for another AFC East showdown.

Still, even with the unfortunate scheduling, the Dolphins are in the driver's seat as far as their playoff hopes are concerned. After this week, Miami has the 4th easiest schedule in the conference, while the Patriots have the most difficult. In fact, the Dolphins have the easiest schedule remaining in the AFC East.

When Miami sports agent Juan Ignacio Hernandez Nodar, 51, flew into Miami Friday after spending 13 years in a Cuban jail, he felt a bit like Rip Van Winkle. The small children he had left behind were all grown up and Miami had sprouted a new skyline.

Hernandez, who tried to help Orlando "El Duque Hernandez" and other baseball stars defect from the Communist island, served "every last day" of his 15 year-sentence. (A Cuban jail-year is 10 months long.) And he believes what he did was right.

"What we did we did it with the best knowledge that we were doing good for people," Hernandez Nodar said shortly after arriving on a Taca flight from Cuba.

College football is a ridiculously frustrating thing, and playing in the ACC only magnifies that. Listen, we know the chances of it happening are slight, but if Duke beats NC and somehow knocked off Georgia Tech next weekend they'd have the best conference record. Seriously, Duke!?! 

Jacob Katel

A-Rod has portraits of himself as a centaur above his bed. And we all know the centaur is the douchiest of all mythical creatures.

​Maybe it's a bad idea to publicly disagree with your boss. But I gotta say, watching this postseason only confirmed my belief that Alex Rodriguez is a world-class douche. It's not just the strangely purple lips or the gingerly smug way that he digs in at bat like he's got diamonds for testicles. What really confirmed my belief that A-Rod is a D-Bag  -- and perhaps a sociopath -- is the way he celebrates.

Call me a hater if you'd like, but I have video evidence backing me up.

The video below is of the Yankees clinching the final game of the ALCS to lock up the pennant. At around 0:25, FOX shows a replay of A-Rod's celebration after the final out. He's screaming so hard that a piece of gum falls out of his mouth. He looks a bit moronic, to be sure, but if anything it's endearing video: it proves that he's human.

​They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. We haven't been quite this flattered in a very long time.

Three weeks ago, Riptide published a story about the very drastic fall of former pro basketball player Rumeal Robinson. We used court documents filed in Miami-Dade court and a revealing interview with Robinson's brother, Donald Barrows, to show how a guy could end up virtually homeless and under indictment for financial crimes after a lucrative NBA career.

The short answer: strippers.

This Sunday, the Boston Globe published its own story about the extent of Robinson's decline. We knew Globe scribe Brian MacQuarrie was working on one, because he called three times asking for the location of the documents we used and for Barrows's phone number. Still, we were a bit surprised to find a virtual Xerox of our article reprinted in the Boston daily, with slight wording changes. But don't take our word for it: After the jump, judge for yourself.

Could you imagine if Wake Forest kicker Jimmy Newman actually made that 60-yard field goal at the end of the game? Yeah, it was nearly possible, but it could have happened. Or imagine if the Demon Deacons had gotten a little farther down field in their last drive and set Newman up for a more likely attempt. Imagine! We would have lost! And the Miami Hurricanes should not even be imagining losses to teams like Wake Forest! 

​Coming into yesterday's rematch in the Meadowlands, Jets players called the Miami Dolphins a gimmicky team, called their Wildcat formation "nonsense," and called Chad Henne a clown. They said they couldn't wait to play Miami again, claimed they were the better team and threatened to take out Henne. DE Shaun Ellis sarcastically noted how the Fins acted as if they had won the Super Bowl when they scored the game-winning touchdown in that first meeting three weeks ago (and yet their quarterback feels the need to run around screaming, jumping, and generally acting like a monumental tool after every touchdown the Jets score. Seriously. Look at the tape. Is there anything more ri-douche-ulous than Mark Sanchez's touchdown celebrations?) This even after having their asses handed to them before the entire NFL-watching world on Monday Night Football three weeks ago. So, it seemed as if the big bad trash-talkin' Jets, an obnoxious reflection of their insufferable head coach, were ripe for yet another heaping slice of Shut the Fuck Up, served up courtesy of a Miami Dolphins 30-25 victory. With so much awesome packed into one game, we condense it to three key factors:

1. The Ted Ginn Jr. Redemption: It didn't start off so hot for Ted Ginn. He was demoted in favor of a rookie before kickoff, was almost called for blocking in the back during a crucial drive, and was run down by the Jets kicker during a return early in the game. We bashed him. Reviled him. Told him he'd make better use of his time by swimming to Cuba and disposing of the Castro regime. We were all lined up with our torches and pitchforks, ready to run him out of town. Yet Ginn and his rocks-for-hands told us all to go suck a bag of dicks by running back not one, but two kickoff returns for touchdowns, almost single-handedly defeating New York. Ginn -- whose returns were for 100 and 101 yards -- became the first NFL player since 1967 to return two kickoffs for TDs in the same quarter. Zero catches, zero yards, two very big plays. The man cannot catch a football for the life of him, and he runs routes as if he were being chased by a bee, but the man can flat-out fly. And that's all we can ask of him. We're sorry, Ted Ginn Jr. All is forgiven (until, of course, you drop another pass during a key moment).

It's the weekend, so the best you're getting from the ole Riptide sports desk is a repost of a repost.

Check out this video of former Miami Heat coach Stan Van Gundy, AKA the Master of Panic, showing complete disdain for his overhyped, NBA-style introduction at the Orlando Magic's home opener. I like Erik Spoelstra, but you have to miss SVG and his utter disregard for celebrity, the fans, the media -- basically everything except his job. If this guy were secretary of the treasury, the United States would have a trillion-dollar surplus.

​Despite winning the last two meetings against the New York Jets, the Dolphins enter Sunday's rematch as 3-point underdogs. This is mainly because the Jets are coming off a big win against the Raiders (which is basically the equivalence of beating a team made up entirely of organ grinders and their street-performing monkeys), while the Dolphins are coming off a heartbreaking loss to the Saints. Also because Ted Ginn sucks.

As with all Dolphins-Jets match-ups, we're expecting a tough, physical game. Here now are 10 predictions for Sunday's Really Big Apocalyptic Dogs & Cats Living Together End of Days Showdown, Part II:

Prediction No. 1: Dolphins rookie receiver Brian Hartline will make his presence known and, in turn, make us forget Ted Ginn Jr.

Prediction No. 2: There will be approximately 498 lead-changes.

​Last week's Clemson game got Canes fans' hearts pumping in fear harder than anything they're likely to experience on Halloween. After last week's trick, please, Great Pumpkin, deliver us a treat.

Tomorrow, the Canes will travel to Wake Forest to take on the Demon Deacons, the second most ghoulishly named team in the ACC after the Duke Blue Devils. We'd make a joke about how their names are the scariest parts of their team, but they have ACC records on par with or better than ours.

But Wake Forest should be the perfect in-conference rebound game for the Canes. They've lost their last two games, and the last time WF came up over UM was in 1944 -- so history and every prediction are on our side.

Meanwhile, Virginia Tech's embarrassing loss last night to North Carolina brings our chances of winning the Coastal division back into the realm of somewhat possible. We'd just need Georgia Tech to drop an in-conference game and for the numbers to work out. Of course, Tech's remaining conference schedule includes only those Demon Deacons and Blue Devils.

Photo by Keith Allison, via Flickr

​Running off the pure optimism of Wednesday night's opening beat-down of the New York Knicks, I present to you the top five Miami Heat starting lineups for the 2010-2011 season.

As most fans know, the Heat will have perhaps the best cap space situation in the league next summer to lure free agents, thanks to Pat Riley's admirable discipline in not throwing a bad contract to some schlub this summer just to calm the moronic fan base. Some of that $20-22 million (about $12-14 million) has to be used to re-sign Dwyane Wade (if he'll agree to stay), but there will be a lot left over, enough to land at least one and probably more than one, premier player.

You just know Pat-- who loves the big free agent splash like no one else -- is licking his well-coiffed chops looking at the following list: LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Joe Johnson, Carlos Boozer, Dirk Nowitzki, Yao Ming, Paul Pierce, David Lee, Manu Ginobili, Rajon Rondo, Shaquille O'Neal, Ray Allen, Tracy McGrady, Tyson Chandler, Michael Redd, Richard Jefferson, Ramon Sessions, Ray Felton, Nate Robinson, Travis Outlaw, John Salmons and Al Harrington. There's also a chance that some other guys (Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Rudy Gay, Andrea Bargnani, Ronnie Brewer, Tyrus Thomas) could spurn a chance to re-sign with their own teams and test the market. (Although there's zero chance of Brandon Roy leaving Portland's young core.)

So without further ado, here's are our wet dream starting lineups, always listed from center to point guard:

There's two wars going on, Iran's got nukes, the economy is still in the dumps, and so much more, but what has Republican Iowa Congressman Steve King (and possible future Presidential candidate) upset? The fact that Jennifer Lopez and Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson can own an NFL team while Rush Limbaugh can't.