Sports: Chiefs Look Chiefly; Texas Visits; Simmons stays; Ilinois leaves; SLU isn’t Cleveland State; and Baseball’s Youngest All-Stars. 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—-The Chiefs handled the New York Jets and ended their 1-2 doldrums since their off-week with a 35-12 win over the young New York Jets. The Chiefs put the game away in the second half as Patrick Mahomes came back from the first-half elbow injury and Kenneth Walker added another 100-yard game to his year.

Kansas City’s defense held the Jets to just four field goals in the 35-12 win. Mahomes wound up with 247 yard passing. Walker added 143 on the ground. The defense came to life with five sacks of Jets QB Geno Smith.

Travis Kelce caught four passes for 72 yards and scored his third career touchdown. By the end of the game, he had caught 9,365 yards of passes thrown by Mahomes. That broke a record for most yards by a quarterback-receiver combination.  The Chargers’ Phillip Rivers connected with Antonio Gates for 9,352 to set the previous record.

Mahomes’ elbow appeared to bend awkwardly when he was tackled for a loss and he left the field holding his arm.  But he got some medical help on the sideline, threw a few practice passes and pronounced himself fit to play and went back in.  Monday, he was listed as day-to-day by Coach Reid.

The Chiefs expect a stiffer test next weekend against Atlanta.

(MIZTEX)—-Missouri’s loss to Texas has knocked it out of the top 25 in both polls with an even tougher opponent coming next week.

The game was tied at 20 going into the third quarter. Texas scored with five minutes left and Missouri was driving for the tie when quarterback Austin Simmons hit his favorite target near the first=down markers only to have Cayden Lee take a big hit and the ball pop out to be claimed by Texas’ Graceson Littleton. Littleton ran the ball back to the six yard line and Texas quickly scored in the closing minute to make the score 34-20.

The officiating crew left Columbia with few friends after a game that left Coach Eli Drinkwitz holding in his feelings lest he be fined for unloading on them. “If I say what I want to say, I’m going to get fined until I don’t have any retirement, and I’m not going to do that because I’m not going to blame the officials. That’d be disrespectful to Coach (Steve) Sarkisian and his team.”

But the athletic department wants the conference to review the officiating in the game. Mizzou officials and fans are particularly irked by a third down ruling that a seemingly incomplete pass by Texas quarterback Arch Manning actually was a fumble recovered by Texas. The ruling let Texas retain control of the ball and a few plays later get a touchdown.

Drinkwitz protested strongly on the field. Fans booed.  SEC broadcasters in their booth at Memorial Stadium were critical of the ruling and conference announcers Aaron Murray and Matt Schumacker, who were going the Saturday night game between Oklahoma and Florida questioned it.

That did not set well with Commissioner Greg Sankey who told Paul Feinburg on his show, “I am highly disappointed in announcers and their criticism, and they’re wrong. Some of the worst officials in America are those in the announce booth. We have officiating experts who I turned on a game on Saturday, who was just flat wrong. And what that creates is this narrative that we’ve done something wrong, and that is unacceptable to me, and we have to address that. We’re going to be wrong.  We’ve made announcements where we own it. We’re going to have debates about judgment calls. But somebody on a Saturday night who’s announcing a game between Oklahoma and Florida, going back to something that happened at noon that he’s never called and asked a question about, and being critical is unacceptable in my mind.”

The Columbia Daily Tribune reported the only major conference that does not allow airing of audio and live video from its replay booth is the SEC which also does not allow a reporter to question officials about controversial decisions.

Veatch told the conference, “This experience has reinforced my belief that our lack of transparency in the replay booth, particularly when other conferences have taken steps to provide it, allows for an environment of speculation and mistrust. Together with President Choi, we will be strong advocates for that change within the SEC this offseason.”

Sankey says there are logistical issues connected to letting viewers hearing and seeing the replay booth discussions. But he noted the NFL doesn’t allow viewers to sit in on the replay discussions.

He said the conference would “figure out’ how to do it correctly.

Missouri is now 6-3 with a tough row to hoe ahead—number 2 Georgia next week and number six Kentucky and a finale against Oklahoma.  The Tigers are assured of at least a minor bowl game and might still salvage a later December game with an upset of one of the ranked teams and a win against Oklahoma. Oklahoma beat Florida Saturday to get to 5-4.

Tiger quarterback Austin Simmons has announced he’ll be back in Columbia next year, unless he’s not.  His new contract with Missouri lets him enter the NFL draft if he chooses to do so.

Through the Texas game, he’s 175/283 for 2,204 yards, 18 touchdowns and only two interceptions. The Tiger offensive line has allowed nine sacks of Simmons through nine games.

(MIZILL)—Missouri has an important hole to fill in its 2027 and 2028 season created by the cancellation of games by the University of Illinois. The Tigers now have to find a new power conference opponent but Athletic Director Laird Veatch says, “We are exploring all available options.”

Illinois and Missouri still have games scheduled against each other in 2029 and2035, which will be Mizzou home games. They’re scheduled to play at a neutral site in 2-33 and in Urbana in ’34.

llinois, which last played Missouri a football game in 2010, reportedly prefers games against Notre Dame in those years.  The SEC rules say teams have to play nine conference games and at least one opponent from one of the power conferences each year.

(MIZBB)—After whipping Cleveland State in the season opener by sixty points, the Tigers basketball team learned it has some distance to do before it’s ready for prime time.  The St. Louis University Billikens whipped them 90-84.  It was the first time the two teams had met in 25 years.

The Bills kept the Tigers at bay with a barrage of three-pointers, going 14/25 in the game and holding a five point lead, or more, most of the game. Missouri was only 8 for 24 from deep but what did them in was the inability to score in close. Missouri missed 16 of their 27 layup shots.

(MIZSIUE)—The Tigers flourished against a far more inferior team last night, beating Southern Illinois-Edwardsville 96-58.  Jason Crow Jr.’s 34 points set a scoring record for freshmen.

(CARDINALS)—Baseball will announce its Louisville Silver Slugger Awards a week from today. The Silver Slugger Award is an annual acknowledgment handed out to the top offensive players at each position in baseball. The award began in 1980 recognizing the top hitters at their positions.

Alec Burlison is in the running for a second National League silver bat, this time as a first baseman. He made it the first time as a utility player, the first time the award has been given in that category. This year he’s nominated as a first baseman. He let the majors with 116 runs batted in, hit 26 home runs (a career high). His competition is Milwaukee’s Jake Bauers, The Giants’ Rafael Devers, and Matt Olson of the Braves. Burleson had the best batting average and highest RBI total of the four, was second in OBP and tied for third in homers.  No other first baseman had a better slugging percentage in road games—.534.

(AZSTARST)—Two Cardinals made it to the Arizona Fall League All Star Game although Tai Pete was the only one to play. Reliever Tekoah also was on the squad after a solid bounce-back season from Tommy John surgery. He pitched 9.2 innings and struck out 13 and gave up no runs.

Pete finished the game 0 for two with a strikeout. But he drew a walk and stole a base.  For the season he hit .328 in 16 games and tied for the league lead in triples and steals. He finished second in the home run derby with fifteen.

Roby, returning from Tommy John surgery, had allowed zero runs in three starts, with 13

Three Royals players made the game. Zion Rose led off for his squad, walked but got picked off and struck out a couple of times.  Angeibel Gomez hit .293 in the regular season but fanned both times up in the All-Star Game.  Pitcher Justin Lamkin threw seven pitches, six of them strikes, in a 1-2-3 inning.

(CARDSCOACH) —The Cardinals hope Joel McKeithan can produce better hitters next year than Brant Brown did  this year and in 2025. McKeithan had been the assistant hitting coach for the White Sox.

The White Sox made the playoffs this year and McKeithan’s work with the younger players is considered one of the reasons they did. The Cardinals, on the other hand, saw several of their younger players call off from their 2025 numbers.

The Cardinals also have former players John Jay and Daniel Descalso on their staff. Both reportedly are being considered for the open manager’s job with the Houston Astros.

If there is baseball next year, spring training will begin on Friday, February 19 for all thirty teams.

One last round on the track—

(NASCAR)—It’s over for NASCAR this year. Ryan Blaney won the last race of 2026 and Kyle Larson won his third championship, becoming the seventh driver to win that many and the eleventh to win at least three. (Richard Petty, Jimmie Johnson, and Dale Earnardt had seven each and Jeff Gordon had four).

Larson had an average season until the ten-race runoff for the championship. He started it with a win at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis and added two more wins and a pair of runner-ups.  He went into the final race in Miami with a comfortable cushion. His 12th place finish at the end gave him a lead of 49 points over Christopher Bell.

Blaney found his way to first place with two laps to go, getting past six-time winner Tyler Reddick with two laps left. Reddick held onto second. It’s  Blaney’s fourth win this year. Six-time winner Tyler Reddick was second in the race.  Denny Hamlin, who won the regular 26-race season came in third in the final standings after finish sixth in the race.

It was a mediocre year at best for rookies.  Connor Zilisch, who dominated NASCAR’s second-tier series last year, finished 19th in the race and 33rd in the overall standings and was named the Cup Series Rookie of the Year.

(photo credits:  Simmons—Mizzou; Larsons– Chris Graythen/ Getty Images/NASCAR)

 

 

The Twilight Of Donald Trump

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As usual, Donald Trump blames everything and everyone except himself for the blue wave—some have called it a tsunami, a “bluenami,” someone has said, giving us a new political word that will become tiresome on second use. Regardless, it overwhelmed Republicans all the way down from Congress to legislatures and maybe to some county elections.

Trump claims the wave would not have materialized if he had been on the ballot. It seems, however, that this election indicates a majority of politicians and citizens strongly disagree with him. It’s interesting to see the number of high-ranking GOPers who now are citing Trump’s policies and actions with which they never previously disagreed as reasons for voter repudiation.

Trump told FOX News he will accept the results but not the blame. In one interview he said, “I don’t like to consider it a defeat for me; I wasn’t on the ballot. No matter how good the president is, you lose.”

As usual, he did two things. He lied and he avoided taking any responsibility for failure.   He, his policies, and his personality WERE on the ballot.  In fact, during some of his campaign “admire me, forget the candidate” speeches he urged the crowd to imagine he WAS on the ballot.  He will never admit it publicly and we wonder if he is capable of admitting in privately that he IS largely responsible for his party’s political disaster last Tuesday.

But his party cannot make a case that Trump alone is its scapegoat.  The Republican Party’s loyalty to him ultimately led to its ballot box disaster.  They gave him the ship of state and watched quietly as he ran it hard aground.

Various news agencies are reporting that Republicans finally realize their silent acquiescence to his demand for redistricting to protect his congressional majority was a mistake.  But loyal party members cannot ignore that they lacked the courage to tell him “no.”  That and the war and its impact on energy prices which tend to be felt at the gas pump and the grocery store alike and in the diesel prices for farmers and truckers, his nonsensical tariffs, his self-serving schemes became part of the many albatrosses around GOP necks far down the ballot.

Vice-President Vance tiptoed around the issue in a lengthy social media post:

“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance said. Trump also expressed no regrets and said he’d do it again, given the circumstances that he claims exist.  And Vance, ever loyal, left a couple of words out of his explanation.  What he could have said was “The reason we lost is President Trump’s war….”  But he couldn’t bring himself to go that far.

Trump’s colossal ego was on full display at every campaign stop in the last month before the election. The rallies were never about promoting the candidate or candidates. He babbled more about himself and made tasteless non-jokes that he thought showed him to be a charming fellow.  Frankly, we’re surprised more Republican candidates didn’t ask him to stay away.

He says he’ll work with the big Democrat majorities, claiming he has “lots of friends that are Democrats…I’ve already spoken to some of them.” He has not told us who are the ones he claims to have spoken to and as we write his, no Democrat has mentioned receiving any calls.

His now former chief of staff said Trump will keep being Trump, advocating cutting taxes and kicking out aliens.  He has indicated that he’ll rule with vetoes and executive orders.

His appointment of Stephen Miller as his new chief of staff sustains that opinion.

Democrats are in their strongest position ever when it comes to impeaching him a third time and the possibility of removal seems brighter because there’s no reason for Republicans to protect him.  Democrats also have the power to block appointments to fill key vacancies. One of the vacancies might be Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who is contemplating retirement. He’s 76.

If Alito takes that course, it might be best if he does it now.  Trump is going to need all the time he can get to argue for confirmation of Alito’s successor. Hoping the Senate Democrats will let Alito’s successor sail through confirmation are woefully misplaced.

An important question, though, is whether impeaching Trump a third time should be the Democrats’ highest priority. While that lengthy and contentious process goes on, Trump can be doing a great deal more damage.

It will be interesting to see how Republicans try to wash the Trump tar from their hands in the next two years.  Will he be invited to their national convention in ’28?  Probably.  It would be a mistake to let him speak after 10 a.m., though.

Here in grassroots country, we will see how far down the list of state and local government offices Trump’s negatives continue to be felt in 2028.  Voters might remember those who did Trump’s bidding and aside from that, tried to make outlandish changes to the Missouri Constitution.  How the Republicans, with their shrunken majorities in both the Missouri House and the Missouri Senate behave in the next two years could determine whether the majorities shift.

Donald Trump has displayed long coattails that benefitted his party.  Now we wait to see if his party will be comfortable in his coattails for the next two years both in Washington and in Jefferson City.

The Radio Sport

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Harry Caray and Jack Buck, Jack and Mike Shannon, Mike and John Rooney.  Buddy Blattner and Denny Matthews and Denny’s successors for 50 years—–

No matter where you grew up, the voices of the guys in the booth brought you word pictures of the great summer game.

There have been ghosts in boxes telling us about baseball and news of our town and the world since Harold Arlen sat in a box seat behind home plate at old Forbes Field in Pittsburgh on the afternoon of August 5, 1921 and described over KDKA how the Pirates came from behind to beat the Philadelphia Phillies 8-5, thanks to six strong innings by relief pitcher Jimmy Zinn.

But listen to former Miami Marlins executive David Samson who says on his podcast that nobody needs baseball on the radio anymore.

“The difference between TV and radio is disappearing before our very eyes. We don’t need baseball on radio anymore. The only reason we have baseball on radio is so people can feel better about what baseball means to them.”

And what is wrong with that?  What’s wrong, he says, is radio. It’s no longer the medium it was. He’s terribly correct about that.  But it‘s still a medium that is worth a lot of money in the buying and the selling of stations. Not according to Samson.

“Here’s the thing about radio today.  It’s totally changed. There’s no money in radio. If you’re on AM radio right now, well, let’s just say that you ought to be simulcasting. You ought to be on YouTube. You ought to be a podcast because money in AM radio has pretty much disappeared.

“What teams do is they buy time on their radio stations. Sometimes they own their radio stations, not a good business. They buy a block of time, and then they go out and sell ads. They literally either outsource it to a company, or they have a sales force themselves trying to sell radio ads. Plus, they produce their own radio, and guess what? It’s not very profitable. It’s like a nightmare.”

Baseball on radio, he maintains, is for “old people”

And when us old people go toes up, radio baseball dies, too.

Barrett Media, which reports on radio news, sports, and the music industry, records Samson saying, “Baseball and radio goes together like peanut butter and jelly. It goes together like cookies and cream. You require to have baseball and radio because everybody hasn’t died yet who grew up listening to baseball on the radio. But guess what? That generation is going to die at some point. Then you will have people who are older, who they grew up on their device, listening through the internet, listening to the audio of the video.”

He forecasts that radio will “go the way of Kodak and Blockbuster” but “the voices will find a different way to get into your brain because you have a different way of engaging with content.”

Radio has re-invented itself many times in its long history. Yes, AM radio is in the process of committing suicide with its emphasis on profits over service to the community, incessant yacking that talks but doesn’t educate or report. He didn’t criticize the FM dial which is where we are more likely to find the Cardinals and the Tigers and the Chiefs and the Royals.

ESPN announcer Jorge Sedano counters that it’s always going to be important “to have a broadcast that’s friendly for those in vehicles.”  He says those in the broadcast booth whose performances in the Theatre of the Mind are practicing “an art form in itself,” and he pointed to those who are not “interested in what’s best for the fan, just for the bottom line.”

That is exactly what is wrong with radio generally. It’s run by people who see stations as properties, communities as markets, and local voices as expendable.

Can radio survive as an over-the-air medium?  Not as long as it gives people no reason to tune in, not as long as it makes no effort to be the voice of the community, not as long as I can roam the dial and hear the same people prattling on about the same thing, none of which is useful to living in my community, none of which tells me what’s happening in city hall, the county courthouse, the schoolboard, or what the high school football team did last night.

But people will always want to hear someone tell a story, whether it’s considered local news, or whether it’s somebody describing a sporting event with the skills of putting someone in their car or in their kitchen in the stadium or in the fieldhouse.

But what do I know?  I’m one of Samson’s “old people” facing eventual mortality disability.

Prominent baseball philosopher Annie Savoy once said, in part—.

I believe in the Church of Baseball. I’ve tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I’ve worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball… I prefer metaphysics to theology. You see, there’s no guilt in baseball, and it’s never boring.

Even more important is the comment from famous author Terrance Mann:

“The one constant through all the years…has been baseball.  America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game — it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.”

And radio has helped it be all of those things, a “constant” that is “never boring.”  The John Rooneys and the Denny Mathewses will be doing their thing for this great game, somehow, long after David Sansom and I have left the field.

 

Sports:  Hardy’s Back; Tiger Basketball is Back; Chiefs are Backing Up

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(MIZZ)—Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz now has the same problem he had last year—one of the nation’s leading ball carriers  and a guy who is almost as good.

Jamal Roberts ran for 100 yards for the fifth time this year, 138 in this case, against Arkansas.  But the biggest cheers came when number 29 came on the field in the first half. Although Ahmad Hardy, who led the nation in rushing last year, only ran a few plays, his mere return adds a new dimension to the Missouri rushing game.

Missouri, as expected, won over Arkansas.  34-10. Hardy had two carries in the first half for five yards. He came back for one play in the fourth quarter and broke it for 37 yards.

It was his first game contact since he was shot in the leg in May. “My body is fully healed, so it’s nothing different. … Everybody has been there every day, literally from coaches to staff to the players. Everybody has been real supportive and I’m taking heed to that.”

Missouri (6-2. 3-2) now faces a three game gauntlet against ranked teams Texas, Georgia, and Kentucky before closing out the regular season against Oklahoma.

Missouri is up to 19th in both major polls after the Arkansas victory.  Texas is 10th and 11th. Georgia is second in both. Kentucky ranks 7th and 8th.   Oklahoma is 4-4 after losing Saturday to 23rd ranked South Carolina 42-25.

(MIZBB)—While many folks will be getting election returns tonight, the Missouri basketball team will be playing its first game that counts.  They’re against Cleveland State and on Friday night they’ll play St. Louis U.  The Tigers dropped their final exhibition game 90-81 against UNLV. Freshman Jason Crowe Jr., showed he’s he real deal, with 25 points, six assists and three steals.

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs gave one away Sunday, giving up an 11 point lead in the last quarter with Harrison Butker missing a 54-yard crucial field goal that, in the end, forced the Chiefs to try for a touchdown instead of what could have been a winning field goal as the clock expired.

The Chiefs thought they had pulled it out, nonetheless, with 15 seconds left when Mahomes hit Rashee Rice for a touchdown. But right tackle Jaylon Moore was flagged on the play for a false start, forcing the Chiefs back to the five yard line where Mahomes was sacked to end the game.

Denver 28, Chiefs 24 in a third straight unimpressive game that dropped the Chiefs a half-game behind the Broncos in their division lead.  It is only the third time in 83 games that a Patrick Mahomes team has lost a game in which they led by double digits going into the fourth quarter.

Denver bottled up Kenneth Walker, holding him to 69 yards on 21 carries. Patrick Mahomes passed for 321 yards and all three Chiefs’ touchdowns—and thought he had a fourth one until the flag came out.

The win put Denver quarterback Bo Nix in the record books while just in his third season. It was his 15th game-winning drive and his 12th fourth-quarter comeback since come into the NFL in 2024. He has tied NFL records in both categories for quarterbacks in their first three seasons.

(CARDINALS)—No Gold Gloves for the Cardinals this year.  Three players, J. J. Wetherholt, Masyn Winn and Mike McGreevey had been nominated.

The Redbirds have cut reliever Ryne Stanek. Who was in seventy games this year and was solid after the All Star break. Stanek is a St. Louis native who went to high school near Kansas City. He had two saves and led the team with 26 holds in 62.2 innings. He finished with a 4.06 ERA, pitching his best in the last half of the season: 26 innings, 3.12 ERA, holding opposing hitters to a .198 batting average.

(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals had four finalists for gold gloves. None of them made it either—Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino, Michael Massey and Nick Loftin.

Next—blessed are those who go around in circles for they shall be called racers.

(NASCAR)—Kyle Larson has all but won the NASCAR Cup Championship for the third time but he’s going to have to race a little bit in the season finale next week in Miami to lock it up.

William Byron won Sunday’s race at the “paper clip,” Martinsville Speedway which is known for its long straights and tight curve at each end. Byron has never led as many laps in a race as he did Sunday—362 of the 500.

Larson, who finished 9th, will go next week’s race with a 67 point lead over Christopher Bell and a 70-point lead on regular-season point’s leader Denny Hamlin. The most points anyone can get in one of these races is 76.  All Larson has to do is win nine points next week to clinch the title for a second year in a row.

(NASCARCAR)—Stellantis says it will field a couple of Dodge-badged cars in NASCAR’s Cup Series next year. Kaulig Racing will carry the Dodge name in the Daytona 500.  Dodge last competed in the Cup series in 2012 with Brad Keselowski winning his only championship.  Dodge has competed in the truck series for several years.

(INDYCAR)—Washington is out; Barcelona is in for 2027’s IndyCar season. The first IndyCar Grand Prix of Barcelona will be next July 18.

It’s the first time IndyCar has run in the country that is the birthplace of reigning champion Palou and will the first IndyCar race outside north America since James Hinchiliffe won a street race in Sao Paolo, Brazil in 2024.

It also is the first time since 2007 that IndyCar invades traditional Formula 1 territory. The last time the series ran in Europe was 2007.

Penske Entertainment President Mark Miles calls the signing of the multi-year agreement “a monumental day for our sport.”

(FORMULA 1)—Kimi Antonelli finished only third behind two previous F1 world champions, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, but it was good enough for him to join them in the long list of champions.

He’s only twenty years old, three years younger than the previous youngest F1 champion, breaking Sebastian Vettel’s record by three years. Vettel won the championship in 2010.

He also is first Italian driver in 73 years to win the championship and only the third Italian to wear the crown.  Unlike Alfa Romeo driver Giuseppe Farina, who won in 1950, and Ferrari’s Alberto Ascari in 1952 and 1953, Antonelli did not drive an Italian car.  He is in his second season with Mercedes.

(Illustration credits; Arkansas celebration—Mizzou Athletics; Chiefs-Broncos— MTMV Sports: Byron—Bob Priddy at Indianapolis 2026; Barcelona–IndyCar

 

Start/Stop the Steel 

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President Trump’s steel tariffs are supposed to spur a steel industry renaissance in the United States.  He has bragged about the nation’s biggest-ever steel plant that will be built in Iowa but it doesn’t appear his tariffs have meant anything to a 120-year old steel company a day’s drive away in Wisconsin. Or the 25-year old steel plant across the river from St. Louis.

Earlier this year, Alton Steel announced it was closing, the company has announcing it’s going to sell its 381-acre plant site to a developer—–

—that is going to build a 200-megawatt data center there. And that’s just a start. TerraWatt is talking about building five data centers there that will add up to a one-gigawatt operations.

One might think such a project would generate a ton of jobs.  Nope. TerraWatt says fifty people could produce only FIFTY fulltime jobs.

Then there’s Trump’s big plans for Iowa and no plans for Wisconsin.  We’re not sure the creating of the big steel plant makes up for the problems Iowa farmers who voted for him two years ago are facing thanks to his various ill-considered policies.

Is he just spreading more bovine by product around to keep his Republican congressional majority?  For somebody who has no concept of agriculture, he is one of the world’s great byproduct spreaders. Maybe THE best.

Will the new steel plant provide jobs for workers who will get his $5,000 checks for voting for the GOP tomorrow.?

While he was Trumpeting great things for Iowa, reporters were telling about some folks in neighboring Wisconsin who were hearing Taps for their jobs in the steel industry.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Maynard Steel is shutting down after twelve decades in Milwaukee.  Sales dropped by about one-third last year and the company is losing more money this year.  At one time it had 725 workers. The newspaper says the 77 remaining employees will lose their jobs and their health care benefits on December 4.  A court-appointed receiver will sell the company’s assets after that. The company cites “business and industry circumstances” as reasons for he closure.

Maybe Trump needs to go to Milwaukee where he can perform the same miracle he performed in Indianapolis ten years ago when he saved all those jobs at the Carrier Air Conditioning plant.  Except he didn’t. The deal actually saved only about one-third of the jobs. Not mentioned in the Trump/Pence bragging about the deal was the Carrier went on to close a Carrier plant in another Indiana City, costing 700 more workers their jobs.

A little more than a year later, Carrier reported it was moving more than 600 other jobs to a new factory in China. In the end, Carrier moved more jobs out of Indiana than it kept.

Maybe the workers in Milwaukee can find jobs at the planned $15 billion big beautiful steel plant Trump has proclaimed will be built in Iowa, “the largest steel plant ever built in the United States,” proclaimed our President. His Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick said there was no doubt the plant would be built.

But it won’t be built by an American company.

There also is doubt, at least for now, about when the plant will be built. Trump said the plant already was under construction. Iowa TV station KWQC did some digging after thae announcement and found no significant property transactions this year in Lee County, where President Trump says it will be. No permit applications had been submitted.  No detailed plans had been sent to county authorities. Definitely no plant is being built right now, Trump notwithstanding. Some property owners, however, say a real estate agent has been snooping around.

Maynard Steel employees will have to go a long time without paychecks and health insurance if they think they can move to Iowa and get steel industry jobs.

Some skeptics think the announcement was a campaign stunt.  Critics think the original plans were for the plant to be built in Minnesota where Mesabi Minerals is developing a big mine and mill operation in the Mesabi Iron Range up north. The project has been delayed, the company complaining the delay is because of 2017 dispute involving a rival who cites “anti-competitive conduct” and charges Mesabi with antitrust violations.

The Des Moines Register has reported Mesabi and its parent company, Essar Group, have a troubled financial history (www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/10/01/mesabi-metallics-company-iowa-steel-plant-trump/92036812007/) in this country and in Canada.

Reporter Tyler Jeff has written, “In India, Business Today reported a few years ago that the Essar Group was one of the country’s most indebted companies and “notorious” for defaults dating back to 1999, when Essar Steel failed to pay $250 million to international creditors. In addition to the bankruptcies at the company’s U.S. and Canadian subsidiaries, the Essar Group restructured debt in Canada three times.”

He says the company has sold billions of dollars in assets and now has a big loan from a Russian state-owned financial institution behind its plans to mine taconite in northwest Minnesota and then transport it about 500 miles to Iowa’s southernmost county (Keokuk and Fort Madison area) for processing.

Once more, Trump seems to be doing something nice for somebody in Russia.

Trump’s announcement caused great excitement in Iowa, naturally.  It came at such a convenient time, too. One of Iowa’s seats in the U. S. Senate is very much in play this year with a Democratic challenger threatening to flip the seat now occupied by Joni Ernst, who is not seeking a third term.  The most recent poll shows Democrat Josh Turek, a state representative, and Congresswoman Ashley Hinson are close in a state Trump carried by 13 points two years ago. The Suffolk University poll says one-fourth of the voters Hinson has lost say her support of Trump is the reason.

So is Trump’s grand announcement just an effort to hold on to the traditionally red state of Iowa?   Or is it the real thing?  A Russian-financed Indian company with a rugged background is going to put $15 billion dollars into a steel plant about 500 miles from the place where the ore is mined.

The steel industry is changing but Trump’s campaign promise to return the industry to the United States certainly have an odd twist to it.

A Russian-financed company from India and the acquisition of U. S. Steel by Nippon Steel of Japan seem to be an odd way to go about  Making America Great Again in terms of the steel industry.

Will this deal turn out to be what Trump says it will be?  Or is it just another Carrier case?

He seems to be big on India and Japanese ownerships in the steel industry and doing favors for Russians. But for a 120-year old company in Milwaukee?   Where is he for those folks?

Maybe they don’t count because Minnesota is a blue state. And soon to be out of work steel company workers in Wisconsin and already out of work and already-unemployed steel workers in the St. Louis aren’t worth any attention when he’s desperately trying to keep Congress red.

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Notes From a Quiet Hill 

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(Being various wry comments I don’t have the energy to write more about)

I have come to the conclusion that Donald Trump is the most destructive force to hit Washington, D. C. since the British burned the Capitol in 1815.  The East Wing, the Rose Garden, the Kennedy Center, a garish arch in the middle of the dignity of Arlington, the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, destruction of stately old trees in his quest for a golf course he doesn’t and won’t own—-

What vehicle best represents Donald Trump.?  A bulldozer, but it’s a close race with a manure spreader.

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Nothing like a 40 degree windy morning to make a convincing argument that summer’s gone.

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One of the loneliest sights at this time of year is a park board baseball diamond.

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Nancy and I don’t stock up on trick or treat candy and we often hide out when costumed urchins are going round and demanding people give them sugary rewards for doing nothing more than knocking on the door.  Sometimes we have gone to movies but the last time we did that, the sound was so loud that I turned to her midway through and said, “I can’t wait to see this on television so I can turn the volume down enough to know what they’re saying.”

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One year in college when my roommate and I forgot about Halloween and kids came knocking, we sent them away with the only thing we had.  Several moms and dads probably wondered later who gave them slices of baloney.

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We’ll be watching returns election night to see how far down the ballot the blue wave rolls in Missouri, particularly to see if the grassroots citizens eliminate the Republican two-thirds majority in one or both chambers.  Majorities are fine. Two-thirds promotes arrogance and laws that require rejection sometimes.

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My monthly guest column for the Jefferson City News-Tribune on Sunday refers to the ballot next Tuesday as a “Hypocrisy Ballot” because one proposed amendment asks voters to ban something another amendment proposes.

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If you were having trouble putting food on your table, would you open a 401K that will never benefit you.  Or your great grandchildren.  Or theirs?  That’s the sovereign wealth proposal, offered at a time when the state budget office is warning agencies to expect at least ten percent reductions in their budgets for the next fiscal year.

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Drove to Linn the other night for a River Region Library board meeting.  If I hadn’t traded in my points from Nancy’s grocery shopping for cheap gas a day earlier, I would have tanked up in Linn, where the prices were about twenty cents cheaper.

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Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend.  It began as a system to conserve coal during World War I. We borrowed the idea from England.  Why conserve coal?  Well, in those days our steamships were coal-powered. The trains that moved war materiel and troops were steam=powered and coal fired.

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As we grudgingly admit that summer is gone, we sometimes ponder the seasons as defined by author Kurt Vonnegut in a 1978 graduation speech at Fredonia College in New York. Four seasons, he said, make no sense.  We should have six.

To him, spring was May and June. July and August constitute summer. September and October are autumn. The next two months, November and December, are “Locking.” They are pre-winter but people start locking down to stay warm. Winter is January and February. Unlocking happens in March and April.

In a few days we will enter Locking. We’d probably fire up the fireplace for he first time if we could.  In our new place we just turn it on.  It has three speeds.  I’m not sure which is more exciting—our fire place or he YouTube videos of a fireplace.

The cats are fascinated by our fireplace, by he way.

Sports: Chiefs collapse; Bolton Record;  Tiger BB starts, etc.

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—Seattle’s coach says his Seahawks “conducted a clinic” in their 20-3 win over the limited them to fifty plays (Seattle had 69) and kept the ball for eleven more minutes than Kansas City had it.

The Chiefs never were able to establish a rhythm as they went three for eleven on third downs and accumulated only 213 total yards.

Sixteen rushing plays netted the Chiefs only 41 yards. Kenneth Walker III gained 36 of those yards but it took him 14 carries to get them.

Harrison Butker’s season continued to struggle on field goals, missing two more. He’s 11 for 16, almost twenty percentage points below his career average.

Patrick Mahomes was 19 for 32 passing but his longest completion was only 19 yards. He finished with 165 yards.  But for the first time in his 152-game career, says ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Chiefs never got to the red zone.

The Chiefs after a lackluster win against the Chargers and the failure on both sides of the line in the loss to Seattle meet Denver next weekend. Face Denver next weekend. The loss marked a historic low for Mahomes, whose offense failed to reach the red zone even once.

 

CHIEFS2)—Every time former Missouri Tiger Nick Bolton makes ten or more tackles in a game, he’s breaking his own record set against the Chargers. Sunday night he did it again, this time against the Seattle Seahawks with eleven more. It’s his 27th ten tackle (or more) game. Former Chiefs Derrick Johnson held the previous record at 25. He was with the Chiefs for thirteen years. This is Bolton’s sixth year.

The Seattle game was the fourth time this season that he has racked up ten or more tackles in a game. The Seattle game he had 59 total tackles, including 24 solo tackles this year.  He broke the record in his 79th game.  He now has 671 career tackles , 391 of them solo takedowns.  He’s had a half-dozen sacks, three forced fumbles and a handful of interceptions. He’s been inand 4.5 stuffs.

(MIZ)—Missouri meets Arkansas for the Tigers’ first game after their mid-season break. They’re still in the top 25 but lost a position in each of the major polls.  Arkansas is 3-4, Missouri is 5-1 and needs one more win to be bowl-eligible.

(MIZBB)—Dennis Gates’ team picked up an exhibition win against a quality opponent, 71-67 against Kansas State, in Manhattan.  Missouri had a 14-point lead in the second half but went dry for six minutes before holding off the Wildcats.

Freshman Jason Crow finished with 21 points to lead all scorers.  Mark Mitchell, who will play as long as the courts let him play this season, was scoreless in 16 minutes on the floor.

One more exhibition game, against Cleveland State a week from tonight in Mizzou Arena.

(CARDINALS)—A couple of St. Louis Babybirds are tearing up the Arizona Fall League, which is headed into its closing days. Tai Pete, who was in double-A last season

Peete is the first AFL player to triple in fourth straight games in more than 25 years. In his first eleven games in Arizona he has hit .348 with one homer, six RBIs, seven stolen bases and four doubles to go with his four triples.

Also particularly impressive is relief pitcher Tekoah Roby who unscored on in  9.2 innings. He’s given up no runs and has a 13-1 strikeout to walk ration.

(ROYALS)—Royals catching prospect Brooks Bryant, who spent much of the summer on the injured list is showing good power in Arizona.  In his first six games he has homered three times (he hit that many in 33 games in single-A this past regular season). He is showing Caglianone-type distance with his blasts.  He was hitting .296 in those first six games, sporting a .704 slugging percentage. He also is learning how to play first base. He seldom played that position  before going to the AFL.

Motoring along—

(NASCAR)—Kyle Larson didn’t lock up his third Cup championship at Talladega Sunday, but his dramatic run to the finish line puts him on the verge.

Larson surged from 11th place on the last lap to win by 41-hundredths of a second over teammate William Byron. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Ross Chastain were running under the same blanket to finish third and fourth..  With two races left, he has a 73-point lead over Denny Hamlin, the regular season points leader. Christopher Bell, who started the day only five points behind Larson, crashed early and is now third, 74 points out, and Chase Briscoe who had launched a late season charge of his own, was caught up in one of the big crashes and trails by 77.

{Photo Credits: Bolton—Reddit; Peete—Facebook; Talladega finish—Sean Gardner, Getty Images)

MEMO 

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To: J.D. Vance

From: Me, concerned citizen

If you have not already started—although I am sure you have—you need to be thinking of how you would serve as the interim President of the United States until the 2028 elections and how you might deserve to be considered for an extension.

I am sure you have watched your boss’s deteriorating poll numbers and the inter-party defections, especially among those Republicans who hope to resurrect their own candidacies for the House or the Senate by turning on President Trump. Unfortunately, theirs seems to be a case in several instances of “Too soon old; too late smart.”

You are, I am sure, cognizant of the possibility that the blue wave will continue to build and have started thinking of what would happen if Democrats and some badly-disillusioned Republicans provide the needed votes to let President Trump transition to being a fulltime golfer.

What will you do or advocate doing to separate yourself from a President you have so slavishly followed for a couple of years but who now is a lead weight for the party?

You’re in a tricky position. You know you cannot be Trump 2.1 after the Original Trump is banished if you want the job fulltime in 2028 or not to face the same removal movement that deposed him sooner.  Two years is a short time to wash the Trump stain from your credentials and to create a new you-image.  You will inherit what is charitably called an international train wreck. You must be thinking how to end military and tariff wars without a total admission of grievous error but acknowledging serious mistakes for which you will accept no blame while emphasizing the things you will do to promote national and international healing.

Remember this: A mob, having enjoyed the thrill of hanging one, might not be satisfied with hanging only one.  The crowd might still be quite restless when you make the oval office your own. You must be thinking and assembling others from outside the present executive team who will find ways for you to look good digging out from under the rubble of this president’s disaster.

Renewing domestic and international trust and respect in such a short time might be beyond your best efforts, but it is important that you tell us what you will do if you are going to make sincere efforts and achieve some improvements.

If doing what you have to do means throwing Trump under the bus to join all of those he has thrown there, so be it. You must be prepared to show a major shift not only in ideology but also in style. You are, after all, the Hillbilly Eulogy guy, not the rich big city guy whose life experience has been far from your own and has no relation to the lives of most Americans.

You must be carefully lining up cabinet members who are not amateurs in their roles. Some of those replaced by the current administration might be good choices to return and be your guiding team. Start now to establish back-door relationships with Iran, China, North Korea, Russia and Israel that could be useful after you are sworn in as the successor to President Trump.

Make plans to dump the FCC Chair who seems all too willing to be the mini-Trump in the war against the media. In fact, you should announce as soon as you are in office that the war against the media is over, that you recognize the importance of a free and independent media, that the role of the media is not to be your friend and mouthpiece but to be an observer and when necessary be a critic.

Make your new Director of Homeland Security someone one with a Spanish surname and put ICE on ice.

Make a personal commitment to give late night talk show hosts something to talk about other than you. But understand that making fun of people in power is a very old matter of human nature. Poking fun at politicians probably began before written language was created.

Be strict with yourself about this: Nights are for sleeping. Days are for talking and acting. Do not try to mix the two. Remember that verbal temperance even in disagreement is more likely to engender respect than irrational attacks will.

If you wish to call someone a derogatory name, do it in your shower, not in public.

Find someone who knows and has the respect of and for the military to be ready with a mop, a broom, and a carpet cleaning system to replace Pete Hegseth. It should be someone who doesn’t measure military competence in terms of color, gender, or testosterone level. Before he goes, report on HIS testosterone levels.

Have somebody with some honor in the medical field replace Health Secretary Kennedy, who undoubtedly will complain he is a victim of a conspiracy. Admit he’s right and then vaccinate yourself from his influence.

Don’t be afraid to keep some of the competent people President Trump accidentally appointed to top positions. Would Rubio be more effective without Trump above him?  Of course, letting him stick around leaves him poised to be one of your challengers in the 2028 primaries.,

Prepare a list of executive orders to immediately roll back Trump’s plans for—

—-well, just about everything he has proclaimed.

Be thinking about the points you will earn with the public by cancelling the EgoArch, by restoring a sane board to the Kennedy Center, and announcing you are ending all efforts to etch the name Trump on any buildings he did not earn the right to rename, which would be none.

And restore the proper names to one of the Great Lakes and to The Gulf.

You’ll need to emphasize that you are not trying to erase President Trump’s name from history but are restoring our history to its accurate place in telling  ALL of the nation’s story, including his. Do not volunteer to speak at the dedication of his presidential museum and lie-brary.

Unsticking yourself from Trump might be difficult because of the tar baby he has been. But you need to give it your best efforts. Otherwise, your long-term future in what is left of the White House will be brief.

Retire attack dogs such as our Senators Schmitt and Hawley to a political kennel. You don’t need their kind to be distracting the public from the good works you do to restore a modicum of confidence in our country.

When President Trump was elected in 2016 without my approval, I was among the many who hoped he would grow into the office. But he has proven accurate an observation President Woodrow Wilson made: “Every man who takes office in Washington either grows or swells, and when I give a man an office, I watch him carefully to see whether he is growing or swelling.”

President Trump is an example of one who swelled excessively and constantly. And look what it got him. Hire people who won’t be afraid to tell you before it’s too late that you’re looking a little puffy.

Good luck with your contingency planning. Do not be wasting time in making preparations. Your future is at stake, by 2028 if not sooner.

Citizen Bob

First Christmas Catalogue

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I should have expected it.  A few weeks ago I was at Sam’s Club and there already were Christmas decorations on display.

Right next to a 10-foot high skeleton to put in your front yard for Halloween.

(We have some folks in our neighborhood who leave their skeleton up year around. They dress it as Santa Claus for Christmas.  I think during the summer it had a bandanna and one of its bony hands was holding a plant-watering can.)

Our first Christmas catalogue arrived last week.  Maybe it was the second one after the Vermont Country Store.

Well, it was ONE of the first.

One of the things for sale in some of the Christmas catalogs is t-shirts.

Think about that.

It’s December, headed to the worst month of the year, January, and they’re peddling t-shirts!

Most of them in this particular catalog have clever things but one must be careful spending too much time reading them when worn by certain people, if you get my drift. We get some catalogs that have t-shirts that I am embarrassed to see people wearing in public. They’re the kind that you wear only to a boisterous late  party that ends with a lot of people driving home who shouldn’t be driving.

A lot of the more civilized t-shirts focus on family and pets and soft stuff like that. This catalog was long on family values.

“My secret ingredient is TAKEOUT” says the first one.  Another quotes a non-religious scripture: “I’m Cold  Me 24:7”

Here are some other messages, personal billboards that we can wear, if you will.

In my defense, I was left unsupervised

Some see a weed. Others see a wish

Baking is my favorite sport

Sarcasm: It’s how I hug

A day without a book is like (just kidding, I have no idea)

Books: the original hand-held device

Fishing rods are like potato chips. You can’t have just one

Engineer: solving problems you didn’t know you had in ways you can’t understand.

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup

Being a trophy husband is exhausting.

I survived the 60s twice

Emotional support husband. Do not pet

Either you love dogs or you’re wrong.

If you think I’m short you should see my patience

Being a functional adult everyday seems a bit excessive

Underestimate me. That’ll be fun

Often mistaken for an adult because of my age

I don’t want to go through things that don’t kill me but make me stronger anymore

It’s weird being the same age as old people

Bigfoot saw me, but nobody believes him

Glossary of Engioneering terms: Percussive maintenance (whack it with your fist); high impedance air gap (it’s not plugged in); Cycle power to the panel (turn it off, then on again); Thermally reconfigured (it melted); Kinetic disassembly (it blew up)

Just because I’m awake doesn’t mean I’m ready to do things

Please be patient, I’m form the 1900s

The garden is calling and I must go

(for the next day):  Dirt nerd

90 percent of being married is yelling, “WHAT?” from the other room

When I woke up this morning I had no plans to be AWESOME. This just happened.

Medicine heals the body. Dogs heal the soul

My birthstone is a block of cheese

I’ve lost my mind. I’m pretty sure the kids took it

Always hike in groups. Bears like options.

There are several plaques but my favorite one says. “Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning, the devil says ‘Oh crap. She’s up!’”

(The catalog in this instance is called “Signals,” and it comes to many people who support public broadcasting.)

 

Sports: Toothless Tigers, Adequate Chiefs, Kicker Kicked Out; Mitchell and Gunn, Are In, For Now

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs remain undefeated after a workmanlike 22-6 win over the still-winless San Diego Chargers. The Chiefs are 5-0, undefeated in three games in the AFC West. The Chargers.  The Chargers are still looking for their first win after six games.

The Chiefs take on the Seatle Seahawks next weekend in Seattle. The Seahawks, with Kenneth Walker III on their side, won the Super Bowl this year. They’re split their first six games. Walker is now in the red and yellow, leading the league in rushing and giving a dimension to Kansas City’s offense that it hasn’t had in several years.

Parick Mahomes went 23/29 for 272 yards and one interception. The game was one of the rare times he did not pass for a touchdown. Walker added 128 yards to his year’s producito on 19 carries. He scored twice. He’s averaging 6.2 yards per carry—537 yards so far.

Harrison Butker was three for four in field goals; he has yet to hit one from 50 or more yards out. He missed half of his extra point tries.

(MIZBOO)— Saturday was one of those any give Saturdays.

We’d like to see the Ole Miss scouting report on the Missouri Tigers. They had them cold.

Missouri was not upset—Mississippi was a top-10 team–but the beat down the Tigers took was surprising. Clearly, Ole Miss had figured out a way to bottle up Missouri’s rushing game and how to riddle the Tiger Defense with both runs and passes. Missouri got the first three points of the game. Mississippi got the next 31, let Missouri runners get only 34 yards and kept the Tigers from scoring on ten straight possessions.

Missouri assisted in its misery with a badly kicked field goal and an interception at the goal line. The missed second-quarter field goal was the last time Missouri made it to red zone until the last part of the game when the goal line interception happened.

The Tigers ground game was grounded. Runners gained only 39 yards. The Tigers converted only six of 17 third downs, most of which were long. On average, Missouri was third and 7.8.

“You’ve got to figure out how to score,” said coach Drinkwitz, who also thought Missouri never got into “the rhythm of the game.”  The defense did but it wasn’t until the third quarter. But, “offensively, we were just pressing, we were pressing, we were pressing and we just weren’t able to do it.”

The loss might not be as severe as it seemed at the end of the game because Auburn upset #1 Georgia and #14, Unranked Florida toppled 7th ranked Texas, Tennessee beat sixth-ranked Alabama. LSU, ranked 22nd, dumped 16th ranked Mississippi State.

Missouri drops to 2-2 in the conference, one of eight teams with two losses. Georgia, Kentucky, and Texas have one loss apiece. Alabama and Florida are 3-2. Missouri, LSU, Auburn, and Mississippi have split their four games. Texas and Oklahoma are 1-2.

Arkansas (3-4) is next up for Missouri after the bye week. Then it’s Texas and Georgia. Kentucky and Oklahoma will finish the season for Missouri.

(RATINGS)—ESPN dropped Missouri out of its top 25 after the loss to Mississippi but the AP and the Coaches put them back where they were two weeks ago—21st and 22nd.

(MIZHARDY)—Coach Drinkwitz says Ahmad Hardy still hasn’t started the two-week ramp-up to get on the active Tiger roster and he’s tired of being asked when Hardy will be ready.  Hardy is still in rehab for his off-season gunshot wound as Missouri heads into the seventh game of its 12-game season.  Drinkwitz says he’ll let everyone know when Hardy starts practicing.

It appears the earliest Hardy could be back would be for game ten.  As far as we know, Drinkwitz has not been asked bout red-shirting Hardy.

What Hardy’s role will be if he does come back this season is a matter of speculation with the emergence of Jamal Roberts, who ranks second in the national rushing statistics—by just seven yards.

(KICKED OFF)—Harrison Mevis, who stabilized the Los Angeles Rams’s field goal  kicking last year, has lost his touch…or his golden foot….and his job.  Mevis missed two field goals in last week’s Rams loss in overtime to the Buffalo Bills and the day afterwards, the Rams booted him off the team. He missed two field goals in a 37-34 Rams loss. The second one would have been a game winner. The second one, in overtime, was blocked.

Mevis, who was 12 of 13 last years is only five for nine this year and missed on 7 of 9 kicks from and 3 of 7 from forty yards or more. The Rams have called Blake Grupe off the practice squad to take his place.  Grup, who also has played for the Saints and the Colts is 18 of 27 in field goals in his career.

The Rams got one field goal out of his replacement, Blake Grupe, before Grupe injured a knee tackling a runner on a kick return. He had kicked a 44-yard field goal to give the Rams a 3-0 lead without ten minutes left in the first quarter. He’d been signed off the practice squad when Mevic was let go.

Grupe was the fifth kicker for the Rams in their last 57 games.

(MIZBB)—Tiger forward Annor Boateng has been ruled out for the season as he recovers from a knee injury suffered last January when he slipped going tor a dunk. Coach Dennis Gates thus has an opening in his lineup for Mark Mitchell if Mitchell keeps his court permission to play a fifth year.

Mitchell had committed to spend his fifth year with Kentucky before deciding to return to Missouri where he made the SEC All conference team twice. Nonetheless, a judge in Kentucky has ruled, for now, that he is eligible for a fifth year and has issued an injunction against the NCAA that sought to sideline him.

Gates, who testified for Mitchell in his most recent court case, says he did not discuss the return with Mitchell but he’d be glad to get him back. He said at the SEC Media Days, “When we were 0-19 (in 2023-24), that young man stepped foot on our campus, and the last two years, we were able to go to the NCAA Tournament. Call it what you may—sure, we lost in the first round the last two years—but I’ll always be here for Mark Mitchell, man. Without a doubt. That’s what it’s about. It’s not about using these young people; it’s about stepping foot in lockstep with them, every step of the way.”

Another NIL transfer, C. J. Gunn, has won his court case to be on the roster.

Gates says he did talk to Mitchell but did not recruit him to return. “When you have a kid for two years, you don’t have to recruit anybody. … When you do things the right way, you don’t have to recruit. You just hold your arms open and give them a hug when they return.”

(SOCCER)—We rarely cover pro soccer in these columns but when a record is involved, it’s particularly newsworthy. The St. Louis Soccer Club played to a scoreless draw against the Vancouver Whitecaps last Wednesday to remain unbeaten for 21 straight games, breaking the record of 19 by the Red Bull New York team in 2016. . The tie also guaranteed St. Louis will be in the playoffs. St. Louis is 14-6-9 overall.  The streak has guaranteed St. Louis a spot in the MLS playoffs.

(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals have released some new views of their intended downtown baseball park. The project location is a partnership with Hallmark Cards, owners of Crown Center, near the proposed ballpark. The Kansas City architectural firm, Populous, is designing the stadium.

The new four-deck stadium built on part of an 85 acre space that will include a ballpark district (for example, Ballpark Village in St. Louis).    that also will include residential and entertainment space will hold 34,000 fans, about four-thousand fewer than fit into Kauffman Stadium. There will be space for about 3,000 more to stand.  About two thirds of the fans will be shaded by a canopy.

The stadium actually will be in a big hole in the ground. Builders will have to carve a 90-foot deep hole in he Kansas City limestone before actual stadium construction can start.

It will have a lot of fountains, a reference to “The City of Fountains” that Kansas City calls itself.  The city owns 48 fountains with more than 150 additional ones in private hands. The city says it has more fountains than any other city except for Rome. Fans will be able to ride streetcars to get to it. Groundbreaking is expected next June. The Royals’ lease on the K runs out in 2031.

Cost: $1.9 billion.

To the Track—-

(NASCAR)—Tyler Reddick, the hottest driver in NASCAR at the start of the season is heating up again just in time to make the chase to the Cup Championship hotter as the season roars to its end.  Reddick won the first three races of the year and added two more to go five for the first nine. Since then he has settled back into the field.

 

Reddick won his first race since April 19 at Kansas City and when he led the field across the finish line in Phoenix Sunday he went from 114 points out of the lead to just 56 behind Kyle Larson with three races left in the season. He still has six drivers ahead of him, though.

Christopher Bell, who finished fourth, also closed on Larson, is only five points back.

Larson was never in the picture. His car never ran well at Phoenix and he eventually finished 24th after a blown tire send him into the wall.

Ahead next week is unpredictable Talladega, always a crap shoot for everybody.

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(INDYCAR)—Alexander Rossi and Alex Palou, the test drivers for IndyCar’s new chassis due to go into serious competition in 2028 wrung out the new deal on the Sebring Road Course last week. Rossi was in a Chevrolet-powered car. Palou’s engine was a Honda.The runs were the first for the IR-28 chassis on a rough road course after early tests on the smooth asphalt at Indianapolis. The Sebring runs were the first durability runs intended to learn how the cars handled under extended street-course conditions.

Perhaps as an indication of what’s to come came while Palou was on the track at the same time other drivers were doing some off-season tire testing with the current cars.  Palou “accidentally” passed Kyle Kirkwood in one of the current cars.  His runs also showed a weakness in the new car when a fueling system cropped up. It was quickly fixed.

(Photo credits:Palou and Kirkwood—Chris Owens, IndyCar; Ole Miss wins—Instagram; Royals Stadium—Populous