“There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.”
The truth in that observation by newspaper humor columnist Erma Bombeck many years ago was carried out in our sports venues in the past several days.
In baseball, the World Series ended in laughter for the Dodgers and great pain for the Blue Jays, an underdog team that carried a dream of baseball superiority into the into the final two outs of the seventh game when the Dodgers’ Miguel Rojas hit a game-tying homer in the ninth inning, the first such blast World Series history. Scintillating defensive plays forced the game into the eleventh when the Dodgers got the winning run and the silent Toronto crowd realized their hopes for their first championship in 32 years were dead.
In football, the Chiefs played their way out of the playoff picture, for now, falling once more to the Buffalo Bills in Bufalo 28-21, dropping to 5-4. There was a time when Patrick Mahomes was unique and a unique offense generated points by the hands full. But the game has caught up with them. Joe Burrows at Cincinnati and Josh Allen at Buffalo also started displaying magic. Last year it was clear the rest of the league had caught up to the Chiefs in terms of talent and innovation. Last year’s run to the Super Bowl for the Chiefs was a matter of breaks. This year the breaks aren’t coming but opponents have adapted to the KC style and have gathered talent to be a stronger match for Kansas City. Burrows still is out with a turf tow problem but Allen was the superior quarterback with a better team last Sunday.
The thin line between laughter and pain was no better carried out in sports last weekend than in the NASCAR race at Phoenix Sunday. Denny Hamlin, desperate to win his first NASCAR Cup championship in his 22-year career, wanting to win it for his dying father, had command of the race with only a couple of laps to go when a flat tire by one of his competitors for the title, William Byron, that sent his car into the wall and brought out a caution flag. While several drivers hit the pits for two tires, Hamlin’s crew gave him four—-a decision that put him eighth for the restart, with several cars between him and rival Kyle Larson—-too many to work around in those last two laps.
Larson finished third in the race and won the championship without leading a single lap in the final race, a circumstance that might emphasize the demands for NASCAR to change its playoff system after Joey Logano’s championship last year in which he got into the playoff field on a tecnicalty.
Hamlin, who started on the pole and led 208 of the 319 laps, got back to fifth. “We were 40 seconds from a championship. It’s just unfortunate,” Hamlin said. “…It’s just, gosh, you work so hard. It’s just this sport can drive you absolutely crazy because it’s just that sometimes speed, talent, all that stuff just does not matter.”
Someone who can appreciate Hamlin’s situation is Carl Ewards, who saw his championship hopes vanish in a late-final race collision, and left racing, feeling that he had accomplished all of his personal goals in driving a race car at its maximum level, and realizing he wanted to live a fully life after racing with all of his physical and mental faculties intact.
Hamlin earlier this year signed a two-year contract extension that he says will be his last contract, motivated by some of the same things that Edwards cites—-wanting to leave the sport on his terms.
Ryan Blaney won the race but he wasn’t among the final four that fought for the title in the last race of the year. Blaney won his championship in 2023.
And finally, this week brought an end to the Andretti family’s hopes that one of them would win another Indianapolis 500. Marco Andretti, grandson of 1969 winner Mario, announced that he would not be back for a 21st 500 and would retire from racing at age 38 to spend time with his daughter, his outside-racing ventures, and writing a memoir he’ll call “Defending the Dynasty.”
Marco (on the right) with father Michael and grandfather Mario, finished second once and third three times in the 500. Father Michael, in fifteen 500s as a driver was second once, third twice. Mario ran twenty-nine 500s was the runner up twice and crossed the finish line in another race.
In 1992, when Marco was five, the Andrettis were the first family to have four drivers competing in the same racing series.
Jeff, John, Michael and Mario. Michael and Jeff were Mario’s boys. John, who died in 2020, was the son of Mario’s brother, Aldo.
Next years race will be the first 500 since 1954 without an Andretti in it. The four Andrettis combined for 79 starts in the Indianapolis 500. They finished in the top ten 32 times, in the top five 16 times, ran second four times and third six times. John also competed in NASCAR for seventeen seasons.
John was the first driver to try to do “the double,” competing at the Indianapolis 500 and then running the 600-mile race at Charlotte that night. He was tenth at Indianapolis and was 36th at Charlotte after dropping out with engine trouble just past the halfway point.
Michael hold the record for the driver leading the most laps (431) in the 500 without ever winning. However, as a team owner, his drivers won six 500s.
(MIZFB)—The football Tigers had the weekend off, an important bye for their new starting quarterback, true freshman Matt Zollars, who finished the Vanderbilt game after the ankle injury to beau Pribula. His backup will be reshirt junior Brett Brown, who came back to Missouri in September.
Zollars showed outstanding composure in finishing the game 14 of 23 for 138 passing yards. One of the passe was for a game-tying touchdown. His last one, as time ran out, was compoete to the six-inch line. It would have sent the game into overtime.
The Tigers are at home against third-ranked Texas A&M Saturday afternoon. They’re now 6-2 with four regular season games and a bowl game left as they try to win ten games in a season for an unprecedented third straight time. They’ll go into the game ranked 17th and 19th in the polls.
(MIZBB)—Missouri’s basketball season opened with a win on the road, 88-67, against Howard University.
Seven-foot Center Shawn Phillips dominated on the inside with a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds—Missouri outrebounded the Bison 47-28.
Freshman Guard Jayden Stone came off the bench for 13. Transfers Luke Norweather and Jevon Porter combined to match Phillips’ totals. Anthony Robinson II had eight points, four assists, and three steals.
The women’s team opened at the Hearnes Center with a 78-71 win over Central Arkansas. Shannon Dowell had 21 points and a dozen rebounds. Jordana Reisman also had a double-double for Missouri with a dozen points and ten rebounds.
(MORE BASEBAL)—The best-fielding shortstops in major league baseball are from Missouri. The Cadinals Masyn Wynn and the Royals Bobby Witt Jr., have been awarded gold gloves, the first of the off-season awards presented.
Wynn is the youngest gold-glove winner in Cardinals history at 23 years and 191 days. That breaks the record of third baseman Ken Reitz, who was 24 years, 96 days in (can it be so long ago?) 1975. He is the 100th GG winner in Cardinals history. He’s the fourth shortstop to win it (Edgar Reneteria, Ozzie Smith, and Dal Maxwell). He had only three errors in 501 chances this year.
Witt has won two of the gloves. Also winning a Gold Glove teammate and third baseman Maikel Garcia, who joins George Brett as the only Third Basement gold glovers in Royals history.
(FREE AGENTS)—The end of the World Series is the beginning of the free agent and trade season. Royals outfielder, and former Cardinals outfielder, Randal Grichuk declined a $5 million mutual option yesterday and is in the market for a new team. The Royals also have exercised their $1.5 million buyout option for pitcher Michael Lorenzen, another mid-season addition who made 26 starts and one relief appearance and posted a 4.64 ERA.
The Cardinals and Mike Mikolas are parting ways. He is the only free agent listed in the first batch out.
(Photo credits: Chiefs vs. Bills—Paramount Plus; Three Andrettis—USA Today; Four Andrettis—RACER; Kyle Larson—Bob Priddy at Indianapolis)