(MIZ)—When your university has more than five times the number of fulltime employees than the other school has students, it should not be a surprise that your football team would be able to put 74 players on the field for at least one snap when the two teams meet. The Post-Dispatch and its analytical partner, Hudl IQ counted 41 defensive and 33 offensive players who got on the field against Arkansas-Pine Bluff Thursday night.
UAPB has 1,868 students. MU has more than 11,000 employees in Columbia.
The victory over the overmatched Lions didn’t move Missouri in the polls. They remain 25th headed to the Kansas game in Lawrence Friday night.
Kansas beat Long Island University 51-6. LIU has slightly more students than KU has staff members.
(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs finally are going to let Patrick Mahomes play a football game—next Monday night, the season opener against the Broncos at Arrowhead. But one of his main protectors is out –left tackle Josh Simons. He’ll probably be replaced by undrafted rookie free agent Kahlil Benson.
Simmons’ rookie season last year was cut short with injuries. He was in only eight games last year after coming off a national championship season at Ohio State. He has a lower back injury.
Benson, who was with the Indiana national champions last year, has been competing with Jaylon Moore for the right tackle job during camp. Moore will stay on the right side and Benson will shift to the other side.
(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals started this week needing to make up four games on the Arizona Diamondbacks in the last 18 games of the regular season to make it to the playoffs. It’s a distant possibility, but a real chance to play better than .500 baseball this year. A dozen wins will give them their best record since they went 93-69 in winning their division championship in 2022.
They started the week 72-72 with the first of six games against the Giants, who 59-85. They took two out of three from the Rockies during the weekend.
The Diamondbacks are 76-68.
The latest youngster brought up from the minors to make an impressive debut was pitcher Cooper Hjerpe, who came out of the bullpen to throw four innings, strikeout six and not allowed any baserunners. He is only the second pitcher in MLB history to throw four or more hitless innings with six or more strikeouts. The only other one is former MU Tiger Max Scherzer. He’s been a starter throughout his career but will fill a reliever’s role for the rest of the year.
The Cardinals have lost Hunter Dobbins for the rest of this year and probably most of next season. He had right elbow surgery for the second time last week and has a one-year recovery period ahead of him.
He also had elbow surgery in 2025.
Dobbins had eight starts and three relief appearances this year and hits the shelf with a 3.67 ERA.
(ROYALS)—The Royals and the Diamondbacks waited until the tenth inning for all the fireworks. Noah Cameron and relievers held the D-backs scoreless through nine before Arizona scored five in the tenth in the Labor Day Game. The Royals got back four of those runs before the final out.
Cameron continued his late-season excellence with six innings of shutout ball, striking out seven and allowing only three hits. Arizona blew the game open against Craig Kimbrell with five in the tenth. Kansas City clobbered Gerardo Cabrillo with three earned runs in one-third of an inning and picked up another score before Dennis Santanna put out the fire.
The Royals flew into September after going 16-11 in August, thanks to Cameron and teammate Joe Caglionone who were the Ameircan League Pitcher and Player of the month, respectively, for August. This is first time the Royals have won both awards since Brett Saberhagen and George Brett won it in July, 1985, the year of the Royals’ first World Series win.
Cameron, in five August starts, allowed only seven runs in 33.2 innings including his complete game shutout against the Dodgers on August 16. He had a 1.87 ERA for the month. He led the American league by lasting an average of 6.2 innings per game.
Caglianone stormed through August, hitting .411 with six home runs and 33 other hits and 26 runs batted in. The performance upped his season average to .282, with 23 homers, 26 doubles, and 67 RBIs.
Another reason for optimism as the Royals wind down their season is rookie catcher Carter Jensen, who has started 83 games as Salvador Perez works his way through a sore elbow. He has set a Royals record with six leadoff home runs, a team record. Coming into September, he was hitting .252 with 38 extra base hits including 21 home runs.
On to the track:
(INDYCAR)—It’s all over for IndyCar for 2026. Scott McLaughlin won his first race in the last 37 starts in the final race of the year and celebrated his win while Alex Palou was getting his fifth championship trophy in the last six years.
McLaughlin dominated at Laguna Seca, starting P1, leading 87 of the 95 laps and beating Kyle Kirkwood to the finish line. Former Indianapolis 500 winner to lead Kyle Kirkwood across the line. Alexander Rossi finished third for his first podium finish of the year. A second Penske driver, David Malukas, ran fifth for his third straight top five finish. He had four finishes in second place but will have to wait until next year to get his first win.
Kirkwood finished second in the race and overtook Christian Lundgaard for second in the point standings. Lundgard was the only driver to complete every lap of every race this year—all 2,557 of them. He’s only the sixth driver in all of IndyCar history to do that.
The race ended Scott Dixon’s 25-year career with Chip Ganassi Racing. He posted 58 wins and won six championships with Ganassi. He’ll have a new team next year. Only A. J. Foyt has more wins and more championships than Dixon.
The season might be past but the future of IndyCar will be on track for a couple of days this week. Alex Palou and Alexander Rossi will test the 2028 IndyCar prototype at Indianapolis tomorrow and Thursday, giving the new chassis it’s first high speed workout after road-course tests earlier.
The series also will have a new engine formula in 2028. The expectation is that the new car will break long-standing speed records, particularly at Indianapolis where Arie Luyendyk’s one lap record of 237.498 and a four-lap qualifying run at 236.986.
(NASCAR)—Christopher Bell picked a fine time to get his first win of the year and his first win at Darlington—the first of the 10 races that will decide the Cup Championship.
Bell’s four tire final pit stop helped him take the lead from Kyle Laron, who had gambled and stayed out while others went to the pits, with eleven laps left. Ty Gibbs and pole sitter Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney also got past Larson.
Regular season points champion Denny Hamlin finished 18th after a late-race incident with Michael McDowell..
Gibbs drove from 28th to second, just over one second behind Bell. Pole sitter Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson completed the top five.
Bell’s win ends a 33-race winless streak that has included seven second-place finishes. His win and Hamlin’s poor finish has cut Hamlin’s early points lead in half.
Round two of the playoff races will be next Sunday at St. Louis—-actually, Madison, Illinois, just across the Stan Musial Bridge at World Wide Technologies Raceway.
(Photo Credits: Hjerpe—PJ Maigi; Players of the Month: MLB; McLaughlin @ WWTR—Rick Gevers; New car—IndyCar; Bell at Indy—Bob Priddy)