Last night, in Minneapolis, it was Dwyane Wade’s turn. D-Wade scored 32 points, collected seven rebounds, and dished out 10 assists as the Heat set a new franchise record for consecutive wins, defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves 97-81. LeBron was playing with a sore knee, but ended up scoring 20 points and grabbed ten rebounds in the win. Kudos to the Heat team defense as well, as they held the T-Wolves to 37.5% shooting. The team returns home to face the Magic tomorrow, and will continue at the AAA with games on Friday against Philadelphia, and on Sunday, when they have a tough matchup against the Indiana Pacers. The Heat’s 44-14 record has them comfortably in first place in the Eastern Conference, and only the San Antonio Spurs have a better record in the league at 47-14.
In the rest of the NBA yesterday,
New York 102 Cleveland 97
Amar’e Stoudemire led a second-half comeback by the Knicks with a season-high 22 points.
Milwaukee 109 Utah 108 (OT)
Monta Ellis scored 34 points, Brandon Jennings had 20 points and 17 assists.
Orlando 105 New Orleans 102
Aaron Aflalo scored a game-high 26 points, including the go-ahead basket in the final minute of the game.
Denver 104 Atlanta 88
Corey Brewer led the way with 22 points, Ty Lawson added 18.
Portland 122 Charlotte 105
Seven Traiblazers scored in double figures. LaMarcus Aldridge finished with 23 points and 14 rebounds, Nicolas Batum and Damian Lillard had 20 points each.
Golden State 125 Toronto 118
David Lee led the Warriors with 29 points and 11 rebounds, Stephen Curry scored 26 points and distributed 12 assists,
TONIGHT IN THE NBA:
Boston @ Philadelphia 7:00 pm TNT
LA Lakers @ Oklahoma City 9:30 pm TNT
Denver @ Sacramento 10:00 pm
In college hoops, the #5 University of Miami Hurricanes fell one spot in the rankings to #6 after their tough loss at Duke on Saturday. The Top five are Gonzaga at #1, Indiana at #2, Duke remains #3, Kansas goes to #4, while Georgetown is #5. The rest of the top 10 - #6 Miami, #7 Michigan, #8 Louisville, #9 Kansas State, and #10 Michigan State. The Florida Gators fell from the top ten to #11. The Canes are focused on their game against Georgia Tech at the BankUnited Center tomorrow night. A win over the Yellow Jackets will clinch Miami’s first basketball conference championship in their history.
The FIU Panthers head to Hot Springs, Arkansas, to take part in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, where they are the #4 seed. They will play Arkansas-Little Rock, the #5 seed, on Saturday, March 9 at 8:00 pm.
In college baseball, FIU will next take on Stetson up in Deland, FL on Wednesday. It gets even harder next weekend when perennial powerhouse Rice comes in for a visit. Meanwhile, the University of Miami will be at home for a pair of midweek encounters - Tuesday night against the University of Maine, and then against Central Florida on Wednesday. First pitch for both those games is 6:00 pm.
The Miami Dolphins have a lot of options available in free agency. Here’s the latest from Ben Volin of the Palm Beach Post:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/sports/football/miami-dolphins-use-franchise-tag-on-randy-starks-t/nWgps/
TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION: The Miami Dolphins have a Ring of Honor at the Seven-Names Stadium to honor past players, but they have only retired three numbers in their history. Who are the Dolphin greats whose numbers have been retired? Tell you later, alligator.
In Major League exhibition baseball, the Marlins will play the Venezuelan team that will participate in the World Baseball Classic tomorrow at 7:00 pm at Jupiter. The Braves are up in Tampa to take on the Yankees, also at 7:00 pm.
Here are all the scores from yesterday’s spring training games. You can “click” on the box scores and the recap under each individual game’s line score.
The World Baseball Classic is off and running. Here is MLB.com’s coverage of the classic:
In case you missed it, here is Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria “Letter to our Fans” that was published in the three South Florida major newspapers last weekend.
Here is my reply and response to Mr. Loria’s letter:
Mr. Loria:
You are totally and unequivocally to blame for this fiasco you and your minions have created. Spring training is the time of year where most baseball fans have hope for the new season, unless you live in Miami and root for the Marlins. You have sent baseball in South Florida back to the dark ages.
You state in your letter that "Losing is unacceptable to me."
Your team is 877-904 during your ownership, and from 2002 to 2011 your payrolls added up to $410.1 million, THE LOWEST IN BASEBALL. You probably should have stated “Not making money is what is not acceptable to you”. You cried poverty in the years prior to getting the stadium project approved, kept payroll at the poverty level, and profited quite nicely. Then, you topped it off by getting the stadium built.
More from your letter:
"It's no secret that last season was not our best – actually it was one of our worst. In large part, our performance on the field stunk and something needed to be done."
REALLY? Your team lost 93 games last season. You went out and overpaid for some players, against the advice of some of your minions, and hired a crazy man as manager, a guy who was in it exclusively for the $$, didn’t really care about this team, and brought nothing but problems, both to the ball club and to the community. Of course, you fired three managers prior to that, all first-class people - Joe Girardi, Fredi Gonzalez, and Edwin Rodriguez. In case you missed it, both Fredi and Girardi had their teams in the playoffs while you and your minions were watching the post season on television. Your knee-jerk response to the season of 2012 was to gut the whole thing and start over. Understandable. The Boston Red Sox just did that as well. However, their management immediately went out and re-spent the money saved into improving the ball club on the field. You, on the other hand, are going to pocket the savings once more.
More excerpts from your letter:
“The controversial trade we made with the Toronto Blue Jays was approved by Commissioner Bud Selig and has been almost universally celebrated by baseball experts outside of Miami for its value.”
"In fact, objective experts have credited us with going from the 28th ranked Minor League system in baseball to the 5th best during this period. Of the Top 100 Minor Leaguers rated by MLB Network, we have six."
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to re-stock your minor league system by trading away proven major league stars for prospects. Anyone can do that. The fact is that you and your minions let the minor league system erode to an unacceptable level. Why did your minor league system drop to 28th among all 30 teams? What is the explanation for that? By the way, your minions have misled you if you think you “robbed the Blue Jays” in the trade. In reality, you didn’t get any of the Blue Jays’ top prospects. (Travis d’Arnaud, Aaron Sanchez, Anthony Gose). Hell, you couldn’t even get them to include local product JP Arencibia. You also mentioned that the trade with the Blue Jays was approved by Commissioner “Bud Light” Selig. This, sir, is not news. The last time a commissioner of baseball blocked a trade was 1976.
The trades themselves were not the problem. I understood trading Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante and agreed with trading Hanley Ramirez, although the Hanley trade should have been handled differently. You and your minions ended up trading him while his value was the lowest. Trading the oft-injured eternal prospect Josh Johnson, colossal failure John Buck, Mark Buehrle, Jose Reyes, and Emilio Bonifacio all to the same team? The reasons that last year’s team lost 93 games were not Johnson, Buehrle, Reyes, and Bonifacio. Buck doesn’t even count, and Toronto immediately shipped him off to the Mets after they acquired him. Reyes should have been a cornerstone here along with Giancarlo Stanton. Of course, you telling him to buy a house here a couple of days before trading him was not a nice thing to do. By the way, finding anyone to take Heath Bell off your hands and get them to pay his contract was a feather in the cap of Larry Beinfest and Michael Hill.
"Our plan for the year ahead is to leverage our young talent and create a homegrown roster of long-term players who can win."
I see. Who can forget your trade of Miguel Cabrera for absolutely nothing? Is that what you mean?
The truth of the matter is that you have probably pissed off Giancarlo Stanton to the point where you are going to probably end up having to trade him for much less than what his value is, or sign him for much more than what his worth is. Regardless, if you and your minions had any sense, and if you learned anything from the Cabrera fiasco, you would sign the man-child to a long-term contract extension immediately, even if you have to overpay. You should have brought another hitter to protect him in the lineup immediately. You should have already also invested in at least one veteran quality starter and added some bullpen help.
"The simple fact is that we don't have unlimited funds, nor does any baseball team or business."
The Marlins did, in fact, lose tens of millions of dollars last season. However, in the previous six seasons, according to Forbes magazine figures, the team’s combined profits were $198 million and the value of the franchise grew by over $200 million as well. The numbers are not completely accurate because, in fact, according to the team’s financial documents, they paid money to Double Play Company, a company run by Mr. Loria and Mr. Samson, a management fee. Basically, in addition to the profits and the increased equity, you were paying yourselves more money just to own the team.
You and your baseball minions could learn a HUGE lesson from the team on the other side of the state of Florida. How do the Tampa Bay Rays manage? They play in a stadium that should be condemned, one that fans hate to go to, yet their players are happy, and their manager is among the best, if not the best, in the business. The Rays’ major league roster is stacked, and their minor league system is the envy of most teams. BTW, can anyone out there name the owner of the Rays?
Unless your name is George Steinbrenner, it isn’t about the owner. Mr. Loria, you are not even a small fraction of what George Steinbrenner was. NOBODY wanted to win more and hated to lose more than the late Yankee owner.
You have unfortunately not lived up to the expectations of Marlins fans and have, once again, kicked us in the face. You have blamed everyone from managers to players to the fans for your failures, and you still fail to see that you and your minions are the problem. How sad is it that you had to go out and hire a new public relations firm to fix your image? (I guess the old one was to blame for your negative image). A public relations firm, regardless of who they are, are only there to take your money and tell you what is wrong with you in words that sound good to you. They do not have enough makeup in their cosmetic bag to fix your image. Bottom line, they will not be able to convince you to run your baseball team in the proper way. They, like you, will look at it strictly as a business.
I was one of the biggest supporters in getting a stadium built and am truly happy that it finally got done, regardless of what the naysayers think. Building Marlins Park was a victory for the entire South Florida community. The unfortunate thing is that you and your minions are the ones that own the team that we want to be able to call our own.
I still believe that the underlying reason you went and cut payroll again is to sell the team. I hope that I am correct. I repeat, I was always among your staunchest supporters and was really hoping that you would succeed in making this a winning team. However, you have not acted in the best interests of the team, only to your best interests.
Marlins fans want an owner who wants to win and hates to lose ... championships and games, not just money. The baseball fans in South Florida do not trust you. The community does not believe anything you say and they do not believe that you or any of your minions have the ability, the capacity, or the desire to field a competitive team now and in the future. Unfortunately, history has shown that to be the case. For that, SHAME ON YOU.
THE ANSWER TO TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION: The Miami Dolphins have a Ring of Honor at the Seven-Names Stadium to honor past players, but they have only retired three numbers in their history. Who are the Dolphin greats whose numbers have been retired?
The Fins have retired three numbers - Bob Griese’s #12, Dan Marino’s #13, and Larry Csonka’s #39.
Don’t miss my two “Descarga Deportiva” segments (for the Spanish-challenged, “Sports Jam Session”) every day, Monday through Friday, at 9:25 am and 12:15 pm on Radio Esperanza, 1550 AM or on the internet on www.miradioesperanza.com.
IF YOU OR ANYONE YOU KNOW WANT TO ADVERTISE YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE ON MY RADIO SEGMENTS, PLEASE E-MAIL ME FOR ALL THE DETAILS - jerry@descargadeportiva.com
Behave yourselves, and always remember that tomorrow will bring us a brand new day.
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