By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
(MIZBB)—The Missouri Tigers have won 13 straight at home. But, most important, they have won two SEC games in a row and are in the top half of the conference standings.
Missouri got a big lead Saturday against Vanderbilt and then fought off repeated comeback efforts in the last five minutes, winning 75-66 in a game not settled until the last minute.
Mark Mitchell had 19 points. Anthony Robinson had 15 and Caleb Grills late hot hand kept the Commodores from pulling in front.
Missouri is now 13-3. So is Vanderbilt but Mizzou is 2-1 in conference play. Vanderbilt is 1-3.
Another challenge from a ranked team comes up Tuesday when the Tiers are at Florida, a top ten team.
(BOWLING)—The prestige of the SEC took a beating during the bowl season. In six games with Big Ten schools, the conference went 1-5.Missouri’s 27-24 win over Iowa was the only SEC win over a team in the conference that is dominating the playoffs.
(CHIEFS)—The rested and healed (as much as possible) Kansas City Chefs will play the Houston Texans in the divisional finals Saturday afternoon 3:30 game on ESPN. It’s a return trip to Arrowhead Stadium for the Texans, who lost there less than a month ago 27-19. Buffalo and Baltimore will decide who goes to the next round.
(BASEBALL)—It’s arbitration time for MLB—
Royals: Pitcher Michael Lorenzen was not up for arbitration but the Royals signed him to a $7 million deal. He was a key in the Royals’ stretch run last year. He’ll make$5.5 million this year and $12 million in 2026 unless the Royals give him a $1.5 million buyout. He gets bonuses that will raise his salary to seven-million if he hits certain performance levels.
The Royals have avoided arbitration with six players who signed one-year deals: Kyle Isbel, J.J. Melendez, Kris Bubic, Hunter Harvery, Carlos Hernandez, and John Schreiber.
The Royals earlier signed pitchers Michael Wacha.
Cardinals: Paul Goldschmidt has gone to Yankee Stadium for 2025 after six years in St. Louis. But he sent a full-page farewell message in the Post-Dispatch to the fans:
“Thank you for accepting me as one of your own. Thank you for the cheers. Thank you for sticking with me through the ups and downs.
“Most importantly, thank you for the relationships and memories, which will stick with me for a lifetime! It was an honor to wear the Cardinals uniform and do my best to carry on the tradition built by so many before me.”
Still with the Cardinals, among other players, is starting pitcher Miles Mikolas, who had a disappointing year in 2024. He recently told an interviewer, “Part of me feels like I owe the people of St. Louis some better baseball. If this is my last year there, and we know it could be, then I want to pitch well enough that it feels like, hey, we want you to come back. Let’s keep this going. No one wants at the end for people to say ‘good riddance.’”
This year will be the last year of his three-year, $56 million contract extension. When he talks about pitching better, he’s referring to the last two years when his combined ERA has been 5.04/
Set to earn $16 million for a team shedding payroll, Mikolas is one of four veterans, all of them former All-Stars, who have no-trade clauses and can reject any attempt the team makes to move them (and their contract) elsewhere. The Cardinals did not approach Mikolas about his preference, but the Jupiter, Florida, native shared it with the Post-Dispatch earlier this offseason and echoed Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras in his wish to remain in St. Louis despite what the team is advertising as potential withdraw from contention for a youth movement.
As far as arbitration goes—the Cardinals have signed ace reliever Ryan Helsley. But they haven’t signed Andre Pallante, Lars Nootbaar, and Brendan Donovan.
Motoring along:
(NASCAR)—NASCAR remains embroiled in the antitrust suit against it questioning its charter policies.
In an apparent effort to add more star-power, the sanctioning body has announced a major change for the Daytona 500. It has a new “open provisional starting” spot that guarantees “world class drivers who enter a NASCAR Cup Series race” will be guaranteed a starting position even if they’re too slow to make the regular 40-car field. The first potential beneficiary might be 4-time Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves, who has a deal to drive a car for Trackhouse Racing at the Daytona 500. If Castroneves can’t make the field in qualifying, the starting lineup will be increased to 41.
Among the other new rules is one that targets people such as Kyle Larson, who missed the Charlotte 600 mile race in may because of weather. He ran the ran-delayed Indianapolis 500 and arrived in Charlotte after the race that night had been stopped for rain. It was called off before Castroneves could get into his regular Hendrick Motorsports ride. Larson had to petition to be allowed into the championship playoffs because he missed that race. The new rule says any waiver that lets a driver into the playoffs although he has missed a race, will mean the driver will forfeit current points and any playoff points he might accumulate before the playoffs. There are exemptions but competing in a rival series race instead of a NASCAR race will be costly.
(INDYCAR)—An expanded schedule is not certain but is appearing more likely as negotiations continue for prospected street races in Mexico City and in Denver. Penske Entertainment President Mark Miles tells Motorspot.com that IndyCar’s talks are progressing:
“A new race isn’t added until everything’s done right, contracted for and all of that follows on us being convinced that we would have the right partnerships or promoters in the right markets. It’s too early to declare victory on any of the possibilities that you mentioned, but it is true that both of those markets are a work in progress. Look, if we land one of the two for as early as 2026 that’d be terrific, along with Arlington…
“We’ve said we look forward to opportunities to partner with really strong partners like the Cowboys and the Rangers. We’ve said we want to be in some more hot, new urban markets. So, you lay all that out, it allows us to be quite intentional about where we look and I think articulating it has caused some to call us. So, I hope that the progress will continue to accelerate.”
Miles is talking about plans next year for the Grand Prix of Arlington, near Fort Worth. The first race is planned for March 2026 on a 2.73-mile road course will be built near stadiums used by the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and baseball’s Texas Rangers.