Category Archives: Sports

The Jontay Thing

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Just as Monday’s entry was being written came news of the tragedy of Jontay Porter, the Columbia kid, ex-MU Tiger, fringe NBA player who is the first person permanently banned from the NBA since Jack Molinas was banned 71 years ago for betting on games he played with the Fort Wayne (now Detroit) Pistons.

The Porter case is of special interest not only because of his Missouri roots but also because Missourians might be deciding whether sports betting should be legalized in our state—and what that might mean to the confidence we have in our big-time sports teams and their games.

Alex Kirschner, writing for Slate.com says Porter “did things worse than anything Pete Rose ever got up to.”

Jeff Zilgitt of USA TODAY was equally unforgiving when he wrote, “In all of Jontay Porter’s idiocy, he provided a service to other professional athletes who might consider placing bets on games in which they are direct participants or in which they have insider knowledge to provide to gamblers. It’s almost impossible to pull it off in a world of legal, regulated and monitored gambling. It’s even more impossible when you’re as blatant as the NBA says Porter was.”

Kirschner  notes that sports leagues “make a lot of money off of people betting on their games…It’s a cash grab, yes.  But from the leagues’ perspective, it’s also a payment in exchange for tolerating certain risks. Sports leagues profit from betting but they are also terrified of it.” 

 Porter, he says, committed two sins and flirted with a third.  He disclosed privileged information to bettors and manipulated in-game outcomes. In Porter’s case, he took himself out of a game early so he would not meet projected performance levels.  The third circumstance that terrifies leagues, says Kirschner is outright throwing of games. “The single easiest way to threaten a league’s multibillion-dollar business is for people to doubt that they’re watching a game left to chance…If that goes, everything could go.

Porter is only 24 years old. Kirschner says his career is in the dumpster because he has been involved in the biggest betting scandal involving a player since sports wagering was legalized in this country in 2018. “If the Black Sox were a 10 on the scandal scale,” he writes, “Porter probably is a 6 or 7.”

Zilgitt darkly predicts this will happen again. “Someone always thinks they can beat the system, and maybe someone can but not Jontay Porter and his simple attempt at trying to make extra money. It’s inevitable, just as it was inevitable it happened in the first place.” Porter, who has spent most of his pro career in the NBA’s minor league, was being paid $410,000 this year to play for the NBA’s Toronto Raptors. The league investigation says he made $22,000 on the bets he placed on the game from which he removed himself, claiming illness.

The “idiocy” that Ziglitt attributes to Porter is explained by Kirschner who writes that the kid used the gambling companies that partner with the pro leagues to place his bets—-and those bets are monitored by the leagues. “If Porter were collaborating with underground bettors and bookies, his activity would have gone undetected,” he wrote.

In Kirschner’s view, pro sports teams are just asking for this kind of problem.  Sports wagering companies are aggressively advertising their “services,” leading to greatly expanding participation in betting. He bluntly observes, “A bigger pool of bettors means a bigger pool of potential crooks. In a subtle but real way, the NBA courted the Porter scandal.”

Pro sports leagues fought against sports wagering until the U. S. Supreme Court legalized it nationwide in 2018.  Once it was legalized, the leagues had no choice but to get in bed with the betting industry.  Pessimists might be forgiven for wondering if they’ll stay on their separate sides of the bed.

And whose reputation is damaged by this scandal?  Not the gaming industry.  It’s sports and those who play them.  A player has been banished for life. Pro sports worries whether its fans think its product is genuine and honest.

Zilgitt quotes NBA Commissioner Adam Silver saying the Porter case “raises important questions about the sufficiency of the regulatory framework currently in place, including the types of bets offered on our games and players.” Zilgitt notes Silver has advocated federal regulation of sports wagering and suggests outlawing or limiting certain kinds of bets.

Not considered by either columnist is what role state regulatory agencies can play or should play in terms of disciplinary actions against casinos that handle such bets or wagering companies that process them. In this case, the hammer has fallen on the player, deservedly so, but those who took, paid, and processed his bets appear to be facing no penalties.

Missouri’s pro sports teams are gathering signatures to get a statewide vote on a constitutional amendment legalizing sports wagering.

The proposal mirrors bills introduced in this year’s legislative session that grievously disadvantage the state and the programs that rely on gambling income for their budgets.  The Missouri Gaming Commission has warned that the legislation pushed at the Capitol by gaming interests does not raise enough revenue for the commission to adequately regulate sports wagering. Nor does it do anything to punish the betting industry that produced the measley $22,000 that Porter won.

“Measley,” as in how little he gained compared to how much he has thrown away.

The Porter scandal is a tragedy for him and for sports in general.  How will Missouri voters see the issue now that one of our own has become a self-induced victim of a system we are being asked to approve?  He might be the first but nobody expects he will be the last.

If Missourians approve the proposition, will they also undermine trust in the games that they love?  How many Porters are needed before we wonder about every missed free throw, every error, every missed tackle, every overthrown pass, every wide shot on goal?

(If you want to read the full articles on which we’ve based two entries):

Jontay Porter NBA betting scheme is a lesson in stupidity (usatoday.com)

Athletes beware: Jontay Porter NBA betting scheme is a lesson in stupidity (msn.com)

Sports: Norm’s In; Going Opposite Directions; New AD on the Horizon? And a Few More

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(NORM)—Former Missouri Tiger basketball coach Norm Stewart finally is getting his place in the Hall of Famous Missourians at the State Capitol.  The bust will be unveiled at 1 p.m., May 1 in the House Chamber. It later will be moved to the rotunda, joining more than three dozen other busts of famous Missourians.

Stewart turned 89 in January.

His teams rang up a record of 731-375 in 38 seasons as a head coach, 634 of them at his alma mater.

(BASEBALL)—One of our teams finished last week at 13-9.  The other one finished at 9-13, with some folks remembering last year when the team started 10-24.

(KANSAS CITY)—The 13-9 record isn’t the only statistic that shows how much the Royals’ season is a turnaround from last year. Here’s another one:

The Royals were held without a run by Baltimore on Sunday, their first shutout of the year. Last year they failed to score fifteen times.  Seth Lugo took his first loss and gave up his first home runs of the year after winning three straight to start his season and not giving up a homer in 41.1 innings.

Kansas City is led this year by catcher/first-baseman Salvador Perez, who starts this week hitting .333 with six homers and Bobby Witt, Jr., at .300. The pitching is among the best in baseball with a 3.18 ERA, which normally would be an outstanding year for an individual, let alone a team.  The pitching continues to carry the team, which is batting a cumulative .237, Perez and Witt notwithstanding.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals on theother hand are 9-13.   Wilson Contrares has the longest hitting streak in Major League Baseball, 14 games, at the end of the playing week.  Shortstop Masyn Win and Contreras are above .300 at the plate but the ‘Birds as a team are hitting only .219. But with an offense like that, the pitching staff’s 3.95 ERA, solid thought it be in today’s game, isn’t good enough.

The Optimist Award for 2024 goes to Sonny Gray, the pitching ace who says the Cardinals are going to turn things around big-time soon. Gray is doing his part, going 2-0 without an ERA and an 11-0 strikeout to walk ratio in his first two starts. Sunday, a dozen of the 19 outs he got were strikeouts. He did give up his first walk of the year and his first home run and that was enough for the Brewers in a 2-0 shutout.

(FOOTBALL)—As we were going to press (as they used to say in the journalism biz), reports were coming out that the new Athletic Director at the University was going to be Laird Veatch, the AD at Memphis for the last five years.

It’s a return for Veatch, who supervised fund raising for the athletic deaatment, 2000=2002. He later was the general manager of Mizzou Sports Properties in 2003, coordinating external media operators for Learfield Sports, which has multimedia rights with Tiger sports teams.  His first big job, other than lining up all of the NIL deals, will be raise half of the money for the $250 million dollar make over of the north end of Memorial Stadium.

(BATTLEHAWKS)—A big offensive day for the St. Louis Battlehawks coupled with a solid offensive day gave them a 32-17 win over the Memphis Showboats and a 3-1 record. St. Louis again led the UFL in attendance with 31,575 people in the Dome.

‘Hawks quarterback A. J. McCarron threw the ball an all-time high of 45 times, completed 35 of them for 222 yards and three touchdowns. Running back Jacob Saylors rushed for 103 yards. The defense gave up only 127 yards and let Memphis convert only one of ten third and fourth down attempts.

(Playing with Engines)

(INDYCAR)—Nobody INDYCAR “makes fuel” as Scott Dixon does.  He proved it again with his win at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Dixon went about 50 of the race’s 85 laps without refueling and had to hold off Josef Newgarden, who was closing the gap with ten laps left before   Newgarden was hit from behind by Colton Herta’s car.Herta went on to finish second, about one second behind Dixon.

The win extends Dixon’s record of having at leat one victory to twenty consecutive years.

(NASCAR)—The “big one” didn’t happen until the field was roaring toward the checkered flag at Talladega Superspeedway. With cars crashing ahead of him, and more crashing behind him, Tyler Reddick kept his foot on the floor and steered out of harms way to the win.

The crash was triggered when pole sitter Michael McDowell tried to block Brad Keselowski but touched Keselowski’s car at 200 mph and turned into the wall.  Reddick let the wrecking cars move out of his way while he slipped Keselowski for the win.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen adds the trophy for the Chinese Grand Prix to his shelf, posting a 13 second victory over runnerup Lando Norris.

(Photo Credit: Bob Priddy)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Stadium Thing

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Here’s a sand-in-the-underwear situation for you.

Owners of our big-time sports teams—the Royals, the Chiefs, the Blues and the Cardinals (and our two pro soccer teams)—want you and me to reach into our pockets to pay major parts of the costs of building new stadia or upgrading old ones for them.

The Royals and the Chiefs overlooked a critical issue as their effort to extend the Jackson County sports tax was trounced by voters recently. The Cardinals are overlooking the same issue with reports that they will be seeking state support for the updating of Busch Stadium III (although team president Bill DeWitt III says such a report is “premature.” :

None of them has mentioned how many millions of dollars they will make from sports wagering. None of them has given any indication that they could use that money instead of taxpayer funds for their new projects.

It is a failing that might not bode well for the teams and the casinos that want to put a sports wagering proposition on the ballot later this year, a proposal that hugely disadvantages the state and the programs that years ago the casinos promised could be funded with taxes and fees from legalized gambling.

Would it not make sense to ease voter worries about city and state subsidies for stadium construction and improvements if the teams committed to using the first few years of the giant profits they expect from sports betting for their stadium projects instead of expecting a tax handout from the citizens?  

 Why should the legislature give any team that will profit from sports betting any funds from state taxpayer pockets?  Why should the legislature lessen financial support for, say, mental health services, veterans homes, education, senior services programs, and nursing home support so sports teams that soon will be divvying up hundreds of millions of dollars a year from people thinking they can consistently beat game-day odds don’t have to use those funds?

Opponents of sports wagering might be able to make a lot of hay out of this oversight by the teams and the casinos.  It’s an election year. If you are a voter, you should ask your candidates if they favor taking money away from state programs to build or maintain playing fields while the team owners and the casinos rake hundreds of millions of dollars in lost consumer bets into their pockets instead of investing them in stadium projects in their home cities?

You should ask those questions.  And if your candidate says the sports teams should be allowed to pick your pocket with a tax while lining their pockets with gambling revenues, you should look for another square on the ballot to fill in.

These two issues are joined at the hip and voters, especially those in the home areas of our major league teams, should hold their legislators and their sports teams accountable.

 

Sports: A Soccer Record; Blues Play Out the String; Battlehawks in the Fight; Daniel in the Booth?; and a Little Baseball and a Little Racing.

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by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(SOCCER)—-It’s “football” everywhere but here where it’s “soccer.”  But an American-football-sized crowd packed Arrowhead Stadium last weeend to watch a soccer game.

The crowd of 72,610 is the largest soccer crowd in Missouri history and the third-biggest crowd for a stand alone match in Major League Soccer history.

Unfortunately, the match, on the 28th anniversary of the first MLS soccer match at Arrowhead Stadium, ended poorly for Sporting Kansas City. Inter Miami beat SKC 3-2.

Soccer fans are likely to see some comparable crowds in a couple of years when Arrowhead plays host to four group stage games during the FIFA World Cup competition. It also will host a round of 32 matchup and a quarterfinal match.

(SPEAKING OF “FOOTBALL”)—Chiefs coach Andy Reid has emphasized he’s in a “wait and see “ mode when it comes to wide receiver Rashee Rice, who is in a heap of trouble in Dallas after he crashed his Lamborghini in a 120-mph freeway race with another guy. The other guy was Teddy Knox, a football player now suspended from the SMU team. Both left the scene before seeing if anyone was hurt in four other cars that got caught in the crash. Rice faces eight charges.

Reid says the Chiefs are waiting for “the law enforcement part of it to take place.”  He has talked to Rice but won’t say what was said.

The Chiefs are starting their voluntary offseason program but Rice will there only by Zoom.

Will Rice take part during in-person drills? Reid sayd the team is “just going to take it day-by-day here as we go.”

On Rice’s future involvement: “We’ll just see how it goes. I want to keep gathering the information from law enforcement people…”

Does the organization trust Rice’s decision making? “As long as he’s learning from it, that’s the important part of it. We’ll take it from there and see what takes place.”

(A FORMER CHIEF)—Chase Daniel, former Missouri Tiger Quarterback who had a 12-year NFL career in backup roles with several teams, including the Chiefs and the Saints, who won Super Bowls with him on the sidelines, is one of 24 people who took part in the NFL’s annual Broadcasting and Media Workshop, a three-day bootcamp for aspiring NFL broadcasters, last week.  He has been hosting a YouTube shw in which he analyzes NFL plays and players. Participants were given a chance to “call” a game on radio or television and to do a simulated in-studio analysis.

Before we move away from football:

(KA-KAW)—-That is the sound of a Battlehawk, or at least the sound a St. Louis Battlehawk fan makes during a UFL game, especially if the ‘Hawks’ take a lead or get a win, which they did last weekend against the San Antonio Brahmas, in San Antonio.

The Battlehawks are 2-1, one of four teams with that record in the eight-team spring football league. The Birmingham Stallions are the only undefeated team.

‘Hawks running back Jcob Saylors, ran for 62 yards and a TD. Hakeem Butler had a half-dozen catches for 87 yards and a TD. Quarterback A. J. McCarron was 19 for 27, throwing to eight targets.  He ran for one of the touchdowns in the 31-24 win.

The Battlehawks had fewer total yards, fewer first downs, and were far behind in possession time but they made up for those shortcomings with efficiency: converting five of nine third downs and and their only fourth-down attempt. And placekicker Andre Szmyt was good on field goals of 44, 43, and 46 yards.

(BASEBALL)—A look at stats for the first two weeks might tell us a little big why the Kansas City Royals are off to one of their best starts ever and why the St. Louis Cardinals are kind of wandering.

The Royals ended the week Sunday night with a 10-6 record, a half game behind Cleveland in their division. They’re getting solid pitching with a staff ERA of 3.04 and a team batting average of .250.

The Cardinals are struggling to get their offense going at the same time they’re pitching is going.  The staff ERA is 3.,92. But the team batting average is only .230.  Paul Goldschmidt, who struggled all spring, still struggles at the plate: .193, one homer, seven RBIs.  Rookies or near-rookies Victor Scott (.098) and sophomore outfielder Jordan Walker (.178) aren’t much help.  Together they are 25 for 153.  The Redbirds are last, again, in their division, 7-9 but already four games behind the Brewers.

(INJURIES)—A key player for the Kansas City Royals, catcher/first baseman Salvador Perez is out indefinitely with a groin and hip injury suffered in Sunday’s game against the Mets. The team says he’s day-to-day. He was held out of last night’s game against the White Sox.

The Cardinals say Tommy Edmund and Dylan Carlson have resumed “baseball activities.”

(HOCKEY)—The St. Louis Blues played their last home game of the year last weekend. They’ll put away the skates and the pucks for the 2-23-24 season after their finale Wednesday night against Dallas. A late-season comeback ended up seven points short of Las Vegas for the last wildcard slot.  A winning season at 43-33-5, pending the outcome Wednesday night but short for the second straight year.

(AROUND AND AROUND: RACING—Chase Elliott ended his 42-race winless NASCAR streak during the weekend, coming from a 24th-place start and outrunning the field for eight extra laps, two overtime sessions because of late-race cautions.  Brad Keselowski, who started 22nd, was right behind Elliott with William Byron, Tyler Reddick, and Daniel Suarez rounding out the top five.

INDYCAR resumes its points chase next weekend in downtown Long Beach, then goes to the Indianapolis road course two weeks later to kick off the Month of May activities leading up to the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500.

FORMULA ONE will see if it continues to be Max Verstappen’s playground next weekend with the Grand Prix of China in Shanghai.

Sports A Tipping Point for Women’s Basketball; A Pro Football Attendance Record 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

Normally we would be talking baseball and wrapping up the hockey season at this time of year. But we start with a national championship and a football attendance record that should attract the attention of the National Football League.

(WOMEN’S BASKETBALL)—-The ferocity of play in women’s basketball, led by the record-setting play of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, and the record television audiences for the last three games of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, has created a whole new audience for the sport.

Why?  Because it’s more fun to watch.  And because it’s more than three-point shots and showboat dunks.

We have a national champion women’s team here in Missouri.

Easily overlooked because of the NCAA tournament has been the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.  And St. Louis University has become part of that magical season.

Coach Rebecca Tillett has led her Billikens to the WNIT championship with a 69-50 drubbing of Minnesota in the season finale.  The team showed toughness by winning its first five tournament games (four on the road) by a total of 21 points before polishing off Minnesota by 19. The margin had reached 25 before Tillett started running in her subs. The Billikens hit eleven three-pointers and were led by Kayla McMakin with 20 and Peyton Kennedy with 19. Kennedy was the tournament’s MVP.  The defense held Minnesota to a 3-23 performance beyond the arc

St. Louis University finished with a 22-18 record after splitting 18 Atlantic Conference games. But in the conference post season tournament, they upset nationally 10th- ranked George Washington, number two VCU, and number six Rhode Island.

Minnesota finished 20-16.

The championship marked the conclusion of a remarkable turnaround for the Billikens. They were 11-17 on February 21 after losing to Fordham. Their 11-1 run after that brought them the first WNIT championship in school history and the first in Atlantic 10 history.

This was Tillett’s second season at SLU. Last year, her team went into the post season with a 7-16 record before winning the A10 postseason tournament and getting an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament where they lost to Tennessee.

Tillett says this year has been a “tipping point” for women’s basketball. “It’s always been great. But now everybody knows it’s great. Everybody can see it. You are seeing fans become enamored with the way women play and compete.”  She says she’s “grateful” that her Billikens are part of that history.

(BATTLEHAWKS)—Fans of the St. Louis Battlehawks of the  United Football League continue to make a great case for the NFL to consider St. Louis as a place for an expansion team or a team looking for a new home.

More than 40,000 fans watched Battlehawks kicker Andre Szmyt hit a 22-yard field goal as the clock ran out to give the ‘Hawks a 27-24 win over Arlington.  The attendance in St. Louis almost equalled the total attendance of all four of the UFL’s season openers—almost 46,000. The crowd also set a record for professional spring football.

Running back Mataeo Durant set up the winning kick with a 41-yard bolt that gave him 104 rushing yards for the day.  Quarterback A. J. McCarron was 19 for 29 passing, 248 yards as the Battlehawks evened their record at 1-1.  The league has a ten-game schedule.

(BASEBALL—ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals’ rebound from last year’s forgettable season has produced the team’s first four-game sweep since 2021.  M. J. Melendez’s two-run homer in the seventh inning Sunday keyed a rally that led the Royals to a 5-3 win over the White Sox.  The White Sox are 1-8 so far this year, tied for the second-worset season start in team history.  The Royals are now 6-4 and open a series at home against Houston tonight.

(BASEBALL—CARDINALS)—The St. Louis Cardinals have split ten games so far this year. The pitchers’ 4.66 ERA ranks the staff 22nd among all pitching staffs in the league. That might explain why they’re 5-5 heading into tonight’s game against the Phillies in Philadelphia.

Sonny Gray finally will get his first regular-season start for the Cardinals tonight against the Phillies.

The Cardinals became the first team beaten by the Miami Marlins Sunday.  The Marlins savaged the Cardinals with two three-run homer in the first inning to get their first win of the season after a record nine straight season-opening losses.

—-Now, about the folks who have roaring good times:

(NASCAR)—William Byron picked up his third win in eight races this year, leading Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott to the first 1-2-3 finish in HMS history. The win was the 29th for HMS at Martinsville, a record for most wins at a single NASCAR venue ever and it adds to the distinguished start of Hendrick’s fortieth season in NASCAR’s Cup series.

Hendrick wasn’t at the race to enjoy the celebration. He had had a knee replaced earlier in the week. Larson’s second-place finish was enough for him to pass Martin Truex Jr., for the regular season points lead.

(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR runs its second points race of the year next weekend on the streets of Long Beach.

(FORMULA 1)—Back to things as usual for Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing, as he ran off with a win at the GP of Japan.  He joins Michael Schumacher as the only drivers to win the Japanese Grand Prix three times in a row. He has won 22 of the last 26 Grand Prix races and is shooting for his fourth straight Formula 1 championship.

 

 

Sports: A Big Vote; A Crash; Two Wins; A Closing Rush

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by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(STADIA)—It’s election day in Kansas City and the future of the Royals and the Chiefs might be determined.  The election is on the continuation of a special sales tax used to build, renovate, or keep up the places the Royals and the Chiefs play.

Baseball season has finally OFFICIALLY begun.

—but not well for our major league teams.  Both could snag only one win in their first weekend series.

(KANSAS CITY—The Royals had three solid starts against the Twins had no offense in the first game and a blown save in the second game. But the third game was a Royals offensive display.

Starters gave  up just two runs in 19 innings in the series.

Cole Ragans set a Royals record on opening day with nine strikeouts in six innings. He gave up two runs and that was one more than the Royals scored.  Ragans, who was impressive after a midseason trade last year, broke the opening day strikeout record set by Wally Bunker in 1970 and tied by Danny Duffy eight years ago. But the Twins won 4-1.

The Royals wasted a good start by offseason acquisition Seth Lugo in their second game. He and Twins starter Joe Ryan hooked up in a pitchers duel through six innings.  Lugo struck out four, walked one and allowed just two hits.  Ryan retired the first ten Royals he faced before giving up a double to Bobby Witt Jr., in the sixth. Reliever Steven Okert gave up a single to M. J. Melendez to give the Royals a 1-0 lead. But the Twins tied the game in the eighty and got four more in the ninth to win it 5-1.

Brady Singer gave the Royals their third quality start Sunday with seven shutout innings and ten strikeouts, giving up just one walk, and three hits. Salvador Perez’s three-run homer in the first inning was all he needed but the Royals pile on eight more runs, four of them coming on additional homers, to rack up an 11-0 win, their first victory of 2024.  It was the first five-homer game at home since July 22, 2017. It was the 25th game in club history to feature five home runs.

Michael Wacha’s first start for the Royals was a no-decision in which he lasted five innings and gave up only three hits. Unfortunately they all came in the fourth inning and resulted in three Baltimore runs that tied the game.  The Orioles won 6-4 last night on a two-run walk-off homer by Jordan Westburg, his first career walk-off hit. Bobby Witt Jr., and Salvador Perez both homered for the second straight game.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals also avoided a sweep in their season-opening series against the Dodgers but could have won twice with better bullpen performance in the final game of the series.  They had the Dodges down 4-1. But in the eighth, pinch-hitter Max Muncey homered with a man on to give the Dodgers the 5-4 lead that they protected in the ninth.

Center fielder Victor Scott II showed flashes of his potential in the series. He’s on the roster because of injuries to some of the Cardinals’ outfielders.  In the finale of the series Sunday, he was on base three times and scored twice. Starting pitcher Steve Matz gave up only five hits in in five and two-thirds innings, to go with two runs.

The Cardinals won the middle game of the three game set with Paul Goldschmidt’s ground out in the tenth inning bring home the winner in a 6-5 game. The Redbirds had taken a 5-3 lead by scoring all of their runs in the seventh thanks to some Dodger mishaps—a hit batter, a balk, and a catcher’s interference.  Lance Lynn was good for four innings in his first outing for the Cardinals in seven years. He did not return after a 35-minute rain delay.

The Cardinals opened a series last night against their former manager, Mike Schildt, in San Diego. Kyle Gibson shut down the Padres on four hits through seven innings while the Cardinals feasted on five Padres pitchers for 14 hits in a 6-2 win. Wilson Contreras and Brendan Donovan had their first homers of the season.

Cardinals officials say Lars Nootbar could be back in a few days. In a simulated game during the weekend, he batted four times and got in five innings of work. He’ll probably get some playing time at Memphis in midweek before coming off the IL Thursday.

Pitcher Sonny Gray reportedly will come off the IL in about a week.

(FOOTBALL)—The UFL season has opened in a stunning way for the St. Louis Battehawks, who lost to the Michigan Panthers on a last-second 64-yard field goal by someone who hasn’t kicked a field goal since high schools.

The Battlehawks had a comeback 16-15 lead when Michigan’s Jake Bates got a kick-three with three seconds left.  The Battlehawks had scored two touchdowns in the last quarter to take the lead.

The kick by Jake Bates caused some NFL eyes to pop open. The Detroit News has reported some NFL teams already have contacted him. He can’t sign with anybody until the UFL season ends June 2.

(ATTENDANCE)—The UFL drew far fewer people to its four opening weekend games than watch NFL games.  The Battlehawks-Panthers game drew 9,444 grandstand people. The other games ran the total to 45,918, a number likely to be bigger next weekend when the Battlehawks play at home. Last year St Louis led its league in attendance.

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs have signed a new backup quarterback—Carson Wentz, who gets a one-year deal to replace former Missouri QB Blaine Gabbert who has entered free agency after going 18 for 35 in passing with no touchdowns and three interceptions but getting his second Super Bowl ring. He got his first one as Tom Brady’s backup at Tampa Bay.

Wentz was Matthew Stafford’s number two guy with the Rams last year. He has a Super Bowl ring from his time with the Eagles.

0-0-0-0-0

Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice has lawyered up after a six-car crash in Dallas during a freeway race between a Corvette and a Lamborghini.  Nobody was seriously hurt but it appears Rice and the other driver ran from the scene without learning if anyone had been hurt. His lawyer says he’s  cooperating and “will take all necessary steps to address this situation responsibly.”  Police think Rice was driving the Corvette.

A spokesman for the Chiefs has told KCMO Radio the team will “react accordingly” after it has the facts.

(BLUES)—The St. Louis Blues are trying to put together a late-season run that will let them slip into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  But their loss to the San Jose Sharks during the weekend pushed them closer to the brink of missing them.

They bounced back last night with an overtime win in Edmonton. Brando Saad got his 25th goal of the season 2:09 into the overtime period to pull the Blues within three points of the Los Angeles Kings for the final playoff spot.  The Blues have gone 8-2-1 in their season-closing rush The Blues have seven games left.  The Kings lost to the Jets last night and have eight games left.

(BASKETBALL: BEARS)—Cuonzo Martin is back in Missouri, at Missouri State. He’s been there before. Martin last coached at the University of Missouri and was fired after two winning seasons out of five and a 78-77 record.

Martin led the Missouri State Bears for four years before leaving after the 2020-2011 season and a record of 61-41 that included the school’s only regular season Missouri Valley Conference championship. He has a five-year deal at $600,000 a year with bonuses.

(BASKETBALL: TIGERS)—Mizzou is keeping Robin Pingeton as its women’s basketball coach although then-Athletic Director Desireé Reed-Francois said Pingeton needed to get the Tigers back to the NCAA Tournament to keep her job.

Reed-Francois is gone. Pingeton is back for her fifteenth season although her team finished 11-19 this year.

Pingeton is paid $400,000 a year base salary. In her fourteen seasons she has taken the Lady Tigers to the NCAA Tournament four times, the last appearance being 2019, and to the Women’s NIT six times.  She’s 236-200 in her tenure at Mizzou.

Now, the circle sports:

(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin has captured his second win of the season, a second in three weeks, but he has several critics who say he cheated.

NASCAR has a line at which points the leading car can accelerate toward a green flag on a restart. Numerous observers think that Hamlin sped up before getting to the line, gaining an advantage over Martin Truex, Jr., that he was able to hold to the checkered flag.

Hamlin had taken the lead coming out of the pits after the final caution flag and said after the race, “I wasn’t going to let them have an advantage that my team earned on pit road.”

Truex had led 228 of the 407 laps including 54 in a row before the final caution with two laps left.  Joey Logano and Kyle Larson slipped past him on the final laps.  Chase Elliott was fifth, just ahead of Christopher Bell who had started 29th.

(INDYCAR)—More testing has been run on the hybrid power system that INDYCAR wants to start using after the Indianapolis 500. Thirteen drivers from six teams ran 988 laps, more than 2400 miles, on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Two other teams, Penske and Andretti Global, practiced with the regular powerplants, which will be used on the road course race at the start of May.

(F1)—Formula One returns to action next weekend with the GP of Japan.

 

Heading North, Injuries, and Football is Back

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(BASEBALL)—The Rites of Spring in Arizona and Florda are finished.  Major League Teams are heading back to real-world weather and games that count.  Here’s who will line up along the base lines in St. Louis and Kansas City at the end of this week for the first real games.

(CARDINALS)—Two key guys are on the injured list, opening up slots for a couple of other guys to be part of the first game. Center Fielder Tommy Edman and Right Fielder Lars Nootbaar won’t be available.  Manager Oliver Marmol has ended questioning about whether Dylan Carlson will be a starter by saying, “yes.”  Carlson has had a solid spring, leading the team in homers and runs batted in.  His ankle on which hehad surgery last  year has healed and he’s going to be every-day in the outfield.  Joining him in the starting outfield will be Jordan Walker and Alec Burleson, Matt Carpenter, and Brandon Crawford at various times.

Not making the big club after an impressive spring is Victor Scott II. Marmol and his coaches think he will benefit in the long term from getting a lot of playing time in Triple-A. It won’t be a surprise if we see him in The Show during the season, however. Scott batted .316 in Florida, stole four bases, and played solidly in the outfield.

For now, Michael Siani will be the fourth outfielder. He was taken from Cincinnati’s waiver list in the off-season. He hit .297 in spring training games.

Miles Mikolas will be the opening day starter with ZackThompson (in place of Sonny Gray whose hamstring needs a little more time), Lance Lynn, Steven Matz and Kyle Gibson filling out the five-man rotation.

The bullpen needs some firming up.  Keynan Middleton starts the season on the IL. But the Cardinals will have Riley O’Brien, Ryan Helsley, Andrew Kittredge, and Giovanny Gallegos available from the right-handed side with Matthew liberatore and JoJo Romero likely to handle the left-handed relief. That leaves two relief spots open with three guys in contention—John King, Ryan Fernandez, and Andre Pallante.

(ROYALS)—Royals starting pitching has hit a bump in the road just as the team was heading north.  Starter Michael Wacha, pitching his last inning of spring training ball in an intra-squad game, took a liner off his pitching hand. He was going to have X-rays on his middle finger.

Wacha signed a two-year, 32-million dollar free agent contract in the off-season and is being counted on to be an anchor in the re-structured pitching rotation.

The other big-money free agent signed during the off-season, Seth Lugo, looked ready to go in his stint in the game. He threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings.

Kansas City, as the Cardinals, hopes its new-look lineup turns things around from 2023.  Manager Matt Quatraro made the day Saturday for Matt Sauer, Dairon Blanco, and Nick Loftin when he told them they were on the opening-day roster. None of them have ever experienced a major league opening day.

Loftin is a utility player in the infield and the outfield. He’s 25, played nineteen games in the Bigs last year, hit .323. He’s considered the Royals’ second-ranked prospect by MLB.com.

Blanco, who is 30, impressed the team with his speed last year and his work as a defensive replacement.  He went 24 for 29 in stolen bases, hit three homers and batted .258 last year. He wants to get more than forty steals this year.

Sauer has never pitched above Double-A ball. He’ll start in the bullpen. The Royals claimed him in the Rule 5 draft from the Yankees last year. He had a good spring in Arizona, throwing in eight games and recording 13 K’s and rang up a 2.53 ERA.  He has to stay on the roster all year or the Yankees can claim him back for $50,000.

The Royals will have some people on the injured list to start the year. Second baseman Michael Massey who has had some lower back tightness issues. Relievers Carlos Hernandez’s right shoulder impingement, Jake Brentz’s left hamstring strain, and Josh Taylor’s left biceps soreness will have them on the sidelines on opening day. Wacha’s status at the time of this posting had not been determined.

Backup catcher Sandy Leon, who signed a minor league deal in January, has been released so he can shop for a slot with another club. He’s 35, a career .208 hitter who is known best for his glove work.  He was brought in as a third-stringer behind Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin. The signing of Austin Nola as another catcher crowded Leon off the roster. He hit just .118 in the CactusLeague

(XROYALS & XCARDS)—Opening day cutdowns have brought some former Cardinals and former Royals players back before the public.  Third baseman Mike Moustakas, now 35, was one of 31players to opt out of their minor league contracts at the end of spring training. Moustakas had been signed by the White Sox but hit only .195 in camp.  He was a three-time all-star for the Royals and split last year between the Rockies and the Angels, finishing with a .247 average in 386 plate appearances.

It’s a similar story for former Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong, who was released by the Orioles after signing a minor league deal with them during the winter.  He’s 33 but hit just .183 for the Mariners and Dodgers last year. He was only two points better in spring training.  He has indicated he’s through if he doesn’t get a major league deal. “I don’t plan on going down to the minor leagues after this,” he told MLB.com. “Whatever happens happens.”

Wong, not known as someone reluctant to express his mind, was critical of the Orioles for sending Jackson Holliday down for the start of the year. Holliday is the son of former Cardinals standout Matt Holliday.  Wong has suggested that the demotion was a matter of baseball business with the Orioles delaying the start of young Holliday’s career long enough that they could get another year of service time from him before he qualified for free agency. Wong says the kid is “a stud” who is gonna be an incredible player.”  Holliday is 20. If the Orioles don’t call him up before May, they’ll gain the extra year of control.

(FOOTBALL)— The St. Louis Battlehawks of the new UFL open their season Saturday against the Michigan Panthers in Detroit, and the feeling in camp has been upbeat with Quarterback A. J. McCarron returning from last year when he led the now-defunct XFL in completion percentage, passing-efficiency, and touchdown passes.

Wide Receiver Marcell Ateman, who will be playing his second year with the Battlehawks, says McCarron has had a “fire camp,” and has been on the same page with all of the recievers, including two all-XFL players Hakeem Butler and Darrius Shepherd.

(NASCAR)—William Byron is the first multiple winner of 2024 in the Cup Series, leading the field home at the Circuit of Americas road course near Austin, Texas.  Byron started on the pole and led two-thirds of the laps in the race, holding off Christopher Bell at the end. His victory is the 28th on road courses for Hendrick Motorsports, a dozen more than any other team.

Bell cut Byron’s ten-second lead with ten laps left to seven-tenths of a second at the end. Sophomore driver Ty Gibbs racked up his fifth top ten finish in the six races this year. Gibbs is now in second place in the point standings and is crowing teammate Martin Truex Jr., who is ahead by only five points.

(INDYCAR)—There was a time in INDYCAR history when green cars were considered bad luck. Then guys from Formula 1 such as champions Jack Brabham and Jim Clark arrived at Indianapolis in green cars with engines behind the drivers and changed everything.

Alex Palou won a lot of green with his green car at IndyCar’s non-points Spring for the Purse event at The Thermal Club in California—$500,000 worth of it by outrunning the field in the 20-lap finale of the event.

Some teams opted to conserve their tires in the first half of the final run but Palou went full out for all twenty laps.  Colton Herta, who ran more than 90 seconds behind Palou in the first half of the segment, used his fresher tires to charge through the field to finish fourth behind Palou, Scott McLaughlin, and Felix Rosenqvist.

INDYCAR races next on April 21 at Long Beach.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen’s exit on the second lap of the Australian Grand Prix made the race Carlos Sainz’s to lose—and he didn’t. Sainz was the only non-Red Bull driver to win an F1 race last year and is the first to do so this year.

Verstappen’s exit robbed him of a chance to tie the record set last year of winning ten Formula 1 races in a row. He dropped out because of a rear brake failure that led to him pitting with his brakes on fire, his first DNF in two years.

(photo credit: INDYCARNation screenshot)

 

SPORTS:  One Last Disappointment; The Injury List; The Journeyman Quarterbacks; Axes Fall; Tires do, too 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet contributing editor

(mizz)—All year long, the Missouri Tigers have had at least one disastrous scoreless stretch  that robbed them a chance for a basketball win. One last time, they had another one.  This time they broke their fans’ hearts by waiting until the bitter end.

They had taken the lead early in the second half, not an unexpected event given the trend all year, and the held it well past the mid-point—which WAS kind of unexpected. They fought off Georgia surges and went up by seven points when Sean East II scored off a rebound to make it 59-52 with 3:39 left.

Those were the last points of the season for the Tigers.  Georgia ran off twelve unanswered points to slam the door on Missouri’s hopes.

Missouri scored just six points in the last 6:25.  They missed their last seven shots and had a turn over on an in-bounds pass that was turned into a quick Georgia basket.

The season ends 8-24 with Missouri 0-for-2024, losers of 19 straight SEC games, including the conference tournament first-round exit.

Now we wait to see how the portal changes everything.  (zou)

(AXES)—Travis Ford, briefly a Missouri Tiger before going back to Kentucky to finish his college basketball career, was fired by St. Louis University hours after the Billikens had lost to Duquesne in the second round of the Atlantic Ten Conference Tournament.

Ford’s team were 146-109 in his eight seasons. But they made it to the NCAA Tournament only once and were never seeded higher than fourth in the post-season conference tournament.. The Bills were 13-20 this year, 5-13 in the conference. He is the third-winningest coach in program history. He has been the highest-paid employee at SLU for several years at more than $2 million a year.

This might be the end of coaching for Ford, who’s been in the biz for 27 years. “The game’s been very good to me. Now it’s time to do something else,” he said after the firing.

Ford went to SLU from Oklahoma State where he also spent eight seasons before being fired.

He played a year for Norm Stewart, in 1989-90, where he made the Big 8 All-Freshman team. But he returned home to Kentucky to finish out his career with the Wildcats. His teams at five universities were 491-366.

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Another Ford also has been shown the door with a winning record—but not the right kinds of wins—Dana Ford at Missouri State, in Springfield.

The Bears were 17-16 this year but only 8-12 in the Missouri Valley and were knocked out of the Arch Madness Tournament in the quarter-final round.

His six-season record at Missouri State was 106-82 with a conference recordof 64-48. His team went to the NIT once.

Missouri State was his second head coaching job. He’d done four years at Tennessee State before moving to Springfield. His overall coaching record is 163-146.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals have tamped down a little of the speculation that manager Oliver Marmol won’t last by giving him a contract extrension, This season was to be the last in his original three-year deal.  Terms haven’t been publicly announced but it’s thought his new contract is good through ’26.

The injury report is a mixed bag as opening day nears.  Pitcher Sonny Gray has thrown off the mound for the first time since leaving his first spring training game with a hamstring tweak. He reported no pain in a 20-minute bullpen session.  But Marmol says he will miss pitching on opening day. He says Gray might not require a stint on the injured list “and could potentially pitch later on the first road trip of the season.”   The new opening day pitcher will be Miles Mikolas.

The news is less good for three other guys.

Word came out Saturday that Keynan Middleton, one of the off-season pickups to bolster the bullpen, has a strained arm and will miss opening day. Middleton who can throw consistently close to triple digits, spent last year with the White Sox and Yankees.  He’s been in three games this spring, getting a couple of K’s and allowing two hits. He’s been shut down for ten days and might miss the first couple of weeks of the season.

Tommy Edmund’s rehab has been shut down for at least a week as he reported some pain in his right wrist as he took part in batting drills. If he starts the season on the IL, he could be replaced by rookie Victor Scott II, who is having a solid spring.

Lars Nootbar likewise might start the season on the injured list. Manager Oliver Marmol says he’s making progress with his injured ribs but his return to full play remains uncertain.

(ROYALS)—The Royals have named Cole Ragans as their opening day starter.  It’s just nine days away. The Royals open at home against the Twins.

Ragans had a comeback year last season, returning from his second Tommy John surgery. He pitched strongly for the Royals, showing a fastball toughing 97 mph and posting a strike rate of 10.6 per nine innings. He was the American League pitcher of the month last August when he won three out of four, rang up an ERA of 1.72 and had 56 strikeouts in 36 2/3 innings. Only Dennis Leonard, in June, 1977, has had more strikeouts in one month than Ragans had.

Overall, he had a dozen starts and posted a 2.64 ERA.

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Three new names have been added to the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame—two of them executives.

Outfielder Bo Jackson, dare we say “legendary” outfielder?—is joined by General Managers Cedric Tallis and John Schuerholz on this year’s list.

Jackson is considered the greatest two-sport athlete in pro sports history with eight years in MLB (five with the Royals) and four partial years in the NFL, not playing until baseball season was over. He was a .250 career hitter with 141 home runs (32 one year for KC) and an arm that people still talk about.  His most famous play was a one=handed grab of a ball off the left field wall, a turn and throw from the warning track that stunned everybody:

(7) KC@SEA: Bo Jackson’s cannon gets Reynolds at home – YouTube

Nobody was more surprised than Reynolds:

(7) HAROLD REYNOLDS: THE BO JACKSON THROW – YouTube

Before a hip injury ended is NFL career, he played 38 games for the Raiders, averaged 5.4 yards per rushing attempt and 73 yards-plus per game.

Tallis was the Royals’ first General Manager when they were formed as expansion team. He acquired the players who were the foundation of the Royals first great generation—Brett, Otis, Patek, Rojas, Mayberry, McRae, Wilson, Leonard, Busby, and Splittorff, among others. He also created the Royals Baseball Academy that produced Frank White and UL Washington. He died in 1991.

The Royals took Schuerholz away from Baltimore to help develop the Royals’ farm system. He took as GM in 1981 and added players such as Saberhagen, Danny and Bo Jackson, Seitzer, Appier, Montgomery and Tartabull.  He went to Atlanta in ’91 after building the team that won Kansas City’s first World Series championship in ’85, and was the architect there behind five pennants for the Braves. He was elected to Cooperstown in 2017.

(EXMIZZ)—Drew Lock has become the latest Missouri football quarterback to become a journeyman signal-caller in the NFL.  He has signed a one-year deal with the New York Giants, his third team in six seasons (three seasons in Denver, the last two in Seattle). He’s been in 28 games during that time, started 23, is 9-14 as a starting quarterback, 28 touchdowns and 23 interceptions. He has a chance to start if expected starter Daniel Jones hasn’t come back from ACL surgery last November.

He joins Blaine Gabbert as the only Tiger quarterbacks in the NFL. Gabbert has built a ten-year career, mostly as a backup after he fizzled as a starter at Tampa Bay. Gabbert has played for six teams and won his secnd Super Bowl ring this year with the Chiefs (he won his first one as Tom Brady’s backup with the Buccaneers). Gabbert has been in 69 games, 49 as a starter with a 14-35 record. 51 TDs and 50 interceptions.

The third Missouri quarterback to build a long career in the NFL as a backup was Chase Daniel, won a Super Bowl ring with the New Orleans Saints. Daniel played 74 games for for six teams and was 2-3 as a starter with nine TDs and seven interceptions. He was out of the NFL last year. (EXZOU)

(FOOTBALL)—We already know something about the way the first season of the new United Football League will finish up.

In St. Louis.

The United Football League has announced its first championship game will be played in St. Louis at the domed stadium June 16.

The announcement is a reward for St. Louis Battlehawks fans who led the league in attendance last year with more than 35,000 fans per game.  The Batlehawks came up one game short of playing in the XFL championship last year.   The XFL and the USFL merged during the offseason. The league’s first game will be March 30.

—Blessed are those who go around in circles, for they shall be called wheels—

(NASCAR)—“I’ve never run a race like that. I hope I never have to run a race like that again,” said fifth-place finisher Kyle Larson after Sunday’s race on the short track at Bristol. He wasn’t alone in those feelings because the concrete surface seemed to eat tires.

A spokesman for NASCAR, senior VP for Innovation and Racing Development had a different take. He called it “one of the best short-track races I’ve ever seen.”

The difference in perspective might be the difference between watching and driving.

The record 54th lead change of the race belonged to Denny Hamlin, who passed teammate Martin Truex Jr., in the closing laps.  Only three other drivers finished on the same lap as Hamlin and Truex, the smallest number of cars on the lead lap since Dover, twenty years ago. Sixteen drivers led at least one lap, tying a track record set in 1989.

The racing during the stages and in the final run for the checkered flag became a tire management contest as tire wear was far worse than Goodyear had predicted.  It was so severe that NASCAR decide midway into the race to give every team an additional set of tires.

The win is Hamlin’s 52nd, tying him for 13th on the wins list.

Goodyear admitted after the race that  tire wear was not up to standard.  A spokesman said the fall-off in tire wear was ‘too drastic.”  He says Goodyear will do extensive research why so many tires failed or were showing threads when changed during pit stops.

(FORMULA 1 AND INDYCAR BOTH HAD THE WEEKEND OFF.)

SPORTS: A Season Ending With a Whimper, not a Roar; Jones Stays; Training Camps; and Newgarden stars hot.  And a teenage sensation. 

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by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS, JONES)—Chris Jones has said all along, even during last year’s holdout, that he wanted to retire a member of the Kansas City Chiefs. Just two days before the beginning of the free agent scramble, it became more possible with Jones signing a five-year extension, front-loaded for the first three years to the tune of $95 million, guaranteed. His agents say he’ll be the highest-paid defensive tackle in NFL history. The total package is expected to be worth $160 million.
Jones is a five-time Pro Bowl player and a two-time all=pro. He has 75.5 sacks in his eight-year career, and earned an extra million dollars by racking up 10.5 of them last season despite missing the season opener.

(CHIEFS, AMPUTATIONS)—The coldest game in Arrowhead Stadium history is proving tragically costly for some of the fans who were there. Kansas City’s Research Medical Center says some of those fans have undergone amputations of fingers and toes because they suffered frostbite. Hospital officials say the number is likely to increase in the next month as “injuries evolve.”
Whether the Chiefs bear any legal lability for holding the game despite warnings the windchill would be in the minus-20 range is not known.

(CHIEFS—BURNER)—One of the things the Chiefs did NOT have last season was a receiver fast enough to blow past the defense, as Tyreek Hill did for the before going to Miami. Texas wide receiver Xavier Worthy raised Patrick Machomes’ eyebrows last week at the Scouting Combine when he ran a record 4.21 forty-yard dash.
Mahomes is one of a handful of NFL quarterbacks who send him congratulations. And Worthy says he’d love to go to the Chiefs. It’s been reported that he pushed the Chiefs last year to pick Rashee Rice in the second round. A big question, however, is whether he will still be available when the Chiefs get to choose.
The Chiefs, at this point, have seven picks in this year’s draft.

Let’s shift from the boys of winter to the boys of spring:

(CARINALS)—Injury updates:
Pitcher Sonny Gray has done some long-tossing (120 feed) and is doing agility drills and could start throwing bullpen sessions this week if his recovery from a hamstring injury continues. Whether he’ll be the starter in the season opener in a couple of weeks will be determined later.
Looking doubtful for the season opener is Lars Nootbar, who has four broken ribs. The team will closely watch him for the next couple of weeks. He is able to do minimal work.
Whether Tommy Edman will be recovered enough from off=season wrist surgery also is up in the air. If he isn’t, look for rookie Victor Scott II to come north with the team.

(ROYALS)—Salvador Perez appears likely to see more action at first base this year. He made his first start at first during the weekend. He says he still loves catching, “but I try to play first base to help my team (field) the best lineiup we can get that day.”
The opportunity to play first opened up last year when Vinnie Pasquintio wen on the DL for surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder. Perez started 21 games at first base last year/
Veteran reliever Tyler Duffey, who is a non-roster signee during the winter, has revealed that he had a cancerous mole removed from his left shoulder last week. He says all testing since then has come back negative. He threw a scoreless inning against the Cubs before having the surgery. He’s been cleared for light baseball activities for almost a week.
Former Royals pitcher Brad keller has signed a deal with the White Sox. He was on the IL for most of last year with a shoulder impingement. He’s back on the shelf because he’s showing “symptoms associated with thoracic outlet syndrome,”

(miz)—Tomorrow night could be it for this year’s Missouri Tiger men’s basketball team. They meet Georgia in the first round of the SEC tournament and the betting is that they’ll finish the season with their 19th loss in a row and their 24th loss of the year.
Missouri’s last regular-season game againt LSU was symbolic of the frustrating year Mizzou has had. The tigers led 35-29 at the half and led 45-41 with 14:26 to go in the game. But in the next ten minutes, LSU ran past Missouri to take a 21-point lead, fueled by a 14-0 run, another typical feature of a Tigers game this year.
The Tigers stormed backto within a shot of tying the game but again, couldn’t get stops and lost a game 84-80.
Missouri has gone winless in conference play for the first time since 1908 when they were 0-5 in the Missouri Valley Conference. They were 8-10 overall that year.
Eleven of Missouri’s 18 conference losses were by sindle digits. In each of those games, the Tigers went several minutes without scoring while the opponent took the lead or built a lead that Missouri could not overcome when it woke up.
One of those single-digit losses was to Georgia. The Bulldogs started the losing streak with a 75-68 win.
In truth, not much was expected of Missouri this year in the conference—although it was more than we got. The pre-season polling predicted the Tigers would finish ninth. No Missouri players were listed as pre-season all-conference players on the first or the second teams.
Missouri, Vanderbilt, and Arkansas were the only teams to finish the regular season scoring fewer points that their opponents.
No Missouri player was the SEC player of any week this year. Sean East finished with the fifth highest scoring average in the conference, 17.3 and had the second-best field goal percentage. He also ranked third in minutes played—No Missouri player finished in the top 20 in rebounds. He also was third in most minutes played per game: 32.57.
Missouri finished last in offensive rebounds, 34.08. Florida led the league with 45.38. The Tigers were 13th in defensive rebounds. A team with three 7-footers finished last in the league in total rebounds.

(MIZ)—The football team, in spring practice, got some good news with the signing of a veteran quarterback to back up—and, perhaps, push—Brady Cook. Missouri will be the third stop for Drew Pyne, who is 8-3 in his starts at Notre Dame and at Arizona State. He won eight of his ten starts at Notre Dame when he threw for 2,032 yards, with 22 TDs and eight interceptions. Should he decide to stick around at Missouri he’ll have three years of eligibility and could challenge Sam Horn, who was presumed to be the QB-in-waiting until he tore up his pitching arm and had Tommy John surgery. He is not expected back next season. (ZOU)

Speeding right along—

(INDYCAR)—-IndyCar open its 2024 season with Josef Newgarden dominating the field on the streets of St. Petersburg, finish eight tens of a second ahead of Pato O’Ward, Scott McLaughlin, and Will Power. Power, McLaughlin, and Newgarden are teammaes with Penske racing, giving that operation three of the top four finishing positions to start the year.
The only time Newgarden gave up the lead was when he made pit stops.

He started from the pole and led 92 of the 100 laps. The win is his 30th, breaking a tie with former Penske driver Rick Mears for 13th on the all-time IndyCar wins list. IndyCar has its all-star race in two weeks. The $1 Million Challenge at The Thermal Club will be the the next action for these teams. Their next points-paying race will be on the streets of Long Beach on April 23.
The Thermal Club is an exclusive racing-oriented private club in California. The exclusive club requires purchase one of the 70 luxury villas (minimum cost, about $2.3 million) overlooking he circuit. There is a $!75,000 initiation fee.
(

NASCAR)—Christopher Bell, who saw his chances for a Cup championship disappear at Phoenix Raceway lasta fall, locked himself in to one of next fall’s playoff spots with a win in the desert.
Bell roared back from 20th place on the last restart forty-six laps from the end, to take the lead when Martin Truex had to pit for tires on lap 240 of the 267-lap race. Tyler Reddick finished second, four-tenths of a second back, with defending Cup champion Ryan Blaney third and Ross Chastain rounding out the top five.

(FORMULA 1) Max Verstappen won his ninth race in a row, the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia. But the attention was focused on teenaged British driver Ollie Bearman, who finished seventh, one spot ahead of sevent-time F1 Champion Lewis Hamilton.
Bearman, a Formula 2 driver who climbed into Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari when Sainz became ill, was two months short of his 19th birthday, is now the youngest British driver to start an F1 race. He’s the first Englishman to race in Formula 1 for Ferrari in 34 years.
Verstappen has now won 19 of the last 20 Grands Prix.

 

SPORTS: A Look at the New Arrowhead; Tigers Eye Unwanted Record; Baseball, Hockey, and the Future of an Indy Car

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(STADIA)—The decision on whether Jackson Countians will support a new baseball stadium for the Kansas City Royals and a massive overhaul of Arrowhead Stadium is less than a month away. The decision could affect the futures of the two teams in the Kansas City metro area.

Construction of the new baseball stadium downtown and the subsequent destruction of Kauffman stadium will clear a lot of land for the Chiefs to re-develop around a 21st century Arrowhead Stadium.

The Chiefs have released a video of the redesigned Arrowhead area. Here are some screenshots:

And there will be new sideline and end zone suites—

Estimated cost of the improvements: $800 million.  The team-owning Hunt family says it will kick in $300 million with proceeds from the forty-year continuation of the present 3.8-percent sales tax raising the rest. Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt says the team won’t sign a new 25-year lease on the stadium without the funding to re-invent Arrowhead, which is now 55 years old.

The Royals’ new stadium and the baseball business complex around it is estimated to cost $200-milllion.

(miz)—The Missouri Tigers continue slouching toward the end of their season with only two more chances to get a conference win.  Their loss to Ole Miss on Saturday makes them the first SEC team to lock down its seeding in the post-season tournament.  Missouri is guaranteed the last-place seed.  They’ll play their final home game of the year tonight against Auburn and finish up the regular season next Saturday against LSU.

Ole Miss was just the same song, sixteenth straight verse. In this case, they let the game get away from them when Mississippi went on a 22-3 run in the first half, and not even a 52-point second half could overcome the usual cold first-half spell that has typified this season.  Missouri has lost 16 in a row.  The Tigers are now 8-21, the seventh team in school history to lose twenty or more games, tied for the third-most losses in MU history. If they lose their two remaining regular conference games and a tournament game, they’ll set a new school record with 24 losses.  The present record, 23, was set in the 2014-15 season and died in the 2016-17 season. (zoo)

(CARDINALS)—Uh Oh…..

The first significant possible hiccup in the Cardinals plans to bounce back from their terrible 2022 season has hit.  Sonny Gray, penciled-in as the opening day starter, left his second outing of the spring early yesterday with an apparent hamstring injury.  He was scheduled to go three innings but left, with a trainer, four outs early. He’ll be evaluated day to day. In his inning and two-thirds yesterday, he gave up one hit, and had oen strikeout but had faced only the minimum of five batters. .

Everybody’s in the house for the Cardinals.  All forty players on the major league roster are under contract, including those with less than three years of service who are not eligible for arbitration. Saturday was the deadline for all players with less than three years of service to agree to deals for 2024. If they had not, the team would set the salary.  The team announced on Saturday that the remaining 22 players had agreed for this year.

(ROYALS)—Former Royals shortstop UL Washington died yesterday. He was 70.  He was with the Royals for eight seasons.  UL wasn’t an abreviation for anything. It was his name. You-ell.

We’ll always remember him because of his toothpick. Others recall him the same way, the player who made it okay to play with a toothpick in his mouth.

Back when the Royals had an academy to develop players, he was the third graduate to make the team (the most famous being Frank White, then Ron Washington, not related to You-ell).

Team historian Bradford Lee says UL and Frank White became the first all-African-American double play combination in American League history.

He was traded to Montreal after the 1984 season so he missed getting the Royal’s first World Series Ring but he was a key player on the Royals first American League pennant-winning season in 1980. He finished his 11-year major league career three years later.

(BLUES)—Crunch time is here for any hopes the St. Louis Blues have of making the National Hockey League Playoff. They start the week in fifth place in their division with a lot of ground to make u to get to fourth.  The Blues have not missed the playoffs two years in a row since 2008. They’ve been in the playoffs ten time in the last dozen years and have missed them only ten times since their debut season of 1967.

The Motorsports—

(INDYCAR)—We might be seeing a redesigned IndyCar in about three years. It will replace the current Dallara DW12 chassis that will have served  the series for fifteen years by then. Mark Miles, the CEO of Penske Entertainment that owns the series, has told Indianapolis reporters a decision about going ahead could come relatively soon.

It would be powered by a second-generatin hybrid powerplant that is to make its debut later this year. Miles hopes the change will help recruit another engine manufacturer who will join Chevrolet and Honda.

(NASCAR)—Kyle Larson outran Tyler Reddick in the closing laps to pick up the win at Las Vegas.

It was his 24th career win and his third in Vegas. He dominated the race statistically but had to hold off Reddick for the last 27 laps after a restart. Reddick got to within a tenth of a second but Larson beat him to the finish line by a car length.

Ryan Blaney was third with Ross Chastain completing a spirited drive from the back of the field coming home fourth.  He had to start from the rear because part of the wrap—the big sponsor decal that covers the car—had come loose wand had to be replaced.  He also ncurred a speeding penalty on pit road.

Larson is the third different driver to win the first three races of the year. But Chevrolet is the only manufacturer to be in victory lane so far this season.

(FORMULA 1)—This season has started much as 2023 ended, with Max Verstappen dominating the field at the Bahrain GP.  Teammate Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz were more than twenty seconds back.

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(Photo credits: Kansas City Chiefs, Bravestarr Cards; Bob Priddy (Brickyard, 2023)