Did you know Missouri has another professional football team?
We’ve pretty much forgotten about arena football, the game from which Curt Warner vaulted into the NFL to become a Super Bowl-winning quarterback with the St. Louis Rams and a member of the NFL Hall of Fame.
Actually there are at least four leagues that play football in small arenas. The Goats are part of the Arena League. The others are:
Arena Football 1
Indoor Football League
National Arena Football League
The St. Joseph team is moving from Kansas City for this season. AND:
Travis Kelce and his brother, Jason, are the new principle owners of the Goats.
Actually, they are principle owners of Garage Beer and Garage Beer has a major ownership share of the team. It will play its first home game of the new season next Saturday in the city’s Municipal Auditorium against the Duluth Harbor Monsters.
Other teams in the league are the Harbor Monsters, Eau Claire Axmen, Hot Springs Wiseguys, Iowa Woo, and the Ozarks Lunkers (based in Springfield).
The Goats came into existence two years ago. They are named in honor of political boss Tom Pendergast’s Kansas City faction, known as “the Goats.” Pendergast and his family controlled Missouri Democratic Party politics for decades before he went to prison for tax evasion in the 40s. One of the things he did was push for building Kansas City’s Municipal Arena that was buit with lots of Pendergast concrete.
“Goats” won out over some other proposed names—Kings (after the NBA team that was in Kansas City for several years), Ribs (for the city’s well-known barbecue reputation, and the Potholes (which is self-explanatory). The team finished 7-1.
Will the team go over in St. Jo? Think about this: The Missouri State High School Activities Association lists 45 high schools that play 8-man football. By our count, 33 of them are within an easy drive of St. Joseph. Indoor, or Arena, football games are played on a field 50 yards long, 85 feet wide, surrounded by padded walls. Teams have 15-player rosters and field seven players at a time.
Sadly, we have to report the Goats lost their first game of the year, 54-50 to the Springfield Lunkers on a last-play-of-the-game touchdown set up by a pass interference call on the previous play.
Indoor, or Arena, football actually is a series of leagues ranging in size from three teams to twelve teams.
Arena Football 1
Indoor Football League
National Arena Football League
Arena League
The St. Joseph team is in the Arena League.
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Well, as long as we’re here, let’s do our weekly sports review:
—and let’s stay with football for a bit.
(BATTLEHAWKS)—The St. Louis Battlehawks have wrapped up their regular season 8-2 after taking down the D. C. Defenders 13-8. The Defenders are 6-4 and the teams will have a rematch for the XFL Division Championship next weekend. St. Louis won the game 13-8.
(BASEBALL)—The Cardinals and the Royals open a three-game series tonight with the Cardinals coming off their best May (19-8) since 2013 and their best month since August of 2022. They won six of their last ten and are second, within four games of the Cubs.
The Royals won only four of their last ten and come into the series 31-29. They’re 8 ½ games behind Detroit, in fourth place but only two games out of second place.
The offense-seeking Royals have called up their top minor leaguer, Jac Caglianone, for his first taste of big league pitching. Only one MLB team has hit fewer home runs so far than the Royals, who have 34. The Rockies, who are 9-50, have kept more balls inside the walls than the Royals. The saving grace for the Royals so far is their pitching—the fourth best in the major leagues with a 3.13 ERA.
How would you react when you’ve been told you’re going up to the bigs?
https://www.si.com/mlb/royals-prospect-jac-caglianone-heartwarming-reaction-big-league-call-up-father
Caglianone has shown impressive power in his games in AA and lately in Triple-A while he’s learning to play the outfield.
The Cardinals’ counterpart is J. J. Wetherholt, who was drafted one slot behind Caglianone last year. He hasn’t made the progress tht Caglianone has made offensively and there’s no position available for him on the present roster. He’s a middle infielder and the Cardinals are full at those positions.
(MIZ)—Missouri Tiger basketball has become such big stuff that the team needs a general manager. That is Tim Fuller whose responsibilities are described as, “help with strategic planning and roster construction with an emphasis on alumni engagement, agent relations and NIL optimization.” The appointment is something of a homecoming for Fuller, who was an associate head coach for five years including 2012 when Missouri finished third-ranked nationally after a 30-5 record and a Big 12 championship.
Last season, he was an assistant coach at Providence, under former Tiger Kim English, one of he key players in that 2012 season. Mizzou Coach Dennis Gates says the appointment will give him more time to coach instead of taking time away to do the things Fuller will supervise now.
Speaking of big wheels—-
(INDYCAR)—This is shaping up to be the breakout year for Kyle Kirkwood, who already has recorded two wins and six top ten finishes (although only five count), swept to the win on the streets of Detroit. He earlier won on the streets of Long Beach. He and Alex Palou are the only drivers to win an Indycar race this year.
He finished sixth at Indianapolis but was demoted to 32nd after his car flunked post-race inspection.
All four of Kirkwood’s career wins have been in street races.
He took the lead from Foyt Racing driver Santino Ferrucci with 22 laps left ad held on to win despite damage to one of his front wings. Ferrucci’s runner-up finish was the best finish for Foyt on a street course since Takuma Sato was second at Detroit a decade ago.
Kirkwood teammate Colton Herta came home third.
Alex Palou, the Indianapolis 400 winner, wrecked on a restart but still has a strong lead in the points.
The next race for Indycar will be within driving distance of most Missourians will be at the World Wide Technology Raceway across the river from St. Louis.
(NASCAR)—Ryan Blaney, the 2023NASCAR champion, has guaranteed he’ll be in the running for his second title with his win at Nashville.
Blaney has had strong runs throughout the season so far but hasn’t been able to hold leads down the stretch—until Nashville, where he led 139 of the 300 laps and beat Carson Hocevar to the finish line by almost three seconds.
NASCAR heads to Michigan next weekend.
(FORMULA 1)—McLaren’s Oscar Piastri beat teammate Lando Norris to the finish line in the Spanish Grand Prix with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc getting the other podium finish.
(picture credits: Kirkwood—USA Today, Junfu Han; Goats—Facebook; Blaney—Bob Priddy)