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Sports: Tigers Gut One Out; Chiefs Showing What a Healthy Team Can Do; And a Cinderfella Story in NASCAR)

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor;

(CHIEFS—-We seldom see one NFL team dominate another one as completely as the Kansas City Chiefs overwhelmed the Las Vegas Raiders Sunday. The final score of 31-0 with five minutes left in the third quarter was enough for Coach Andy Reid to pull many of his starters.

By then, Patrick Mahomes had throw for 286 yards and three touchdowns, two of them to the newly-returned Rashee Rice.   He completed passes to nine different receivers.

The Chiefs scored on their first five possessions and racked up 434 total yards. The Raiders ran only thirty plays, the fewest in more than two daces by an NFL team. They had only two first downs by plays and one on a penalty, and totaled only 91 yards of total offense.

The Chiefs had a 21-2 advantage in first downs. They had a 275-51 edge in yards, and that includes six meaningless yards that Jeanty gained on the final run of the half. And the Chiefs became the first team since at least 2000 to start a game with three TD drives of at least 80 yards, allowing them to consume nearly 21 minutes of the first half. At the end of the game, they had controlled the ball for more than 42 minutes.

The shutout was the first by the Chiefs’ defense in ten years.

(MIZFB)—The Missouri Tigers played one of those games where both teams had a chance to put a dagger in the other team’s hopes but neither team could put the other one away.

So they played an overtime. And then they played another one before, at last, Missouri got the first big break, and the winning touchdown on a three-yard run by quarter back Bo Pribula and a second break with a sack of Auburn quarterback Jackson Arnold to end the second overtime and let Missouri walk wearily away with a 23-17 win.  Missouri goes to 6-1 and is now eligible for an early December bowl.  How late in December they will play depends on their next five games. Auburn lost its fourth straight game after three season-opening wins.

For the second straight week, the other guys’ defense stopped Ahmad Hardy from any ground-gobbling runs, holding him to an average of less than three yards a carry although he did power his way to two short-yardage touchdowns.

Things don’t get any easier next week when the Tigers are on the road against Vanderbilt. The Commodores are no longer the conference door mat. They beat then 10th ranked  LSU Saturday to also reach 5-1. It will be another match of ranked teams. Vanderbilt has climbed to 10th in the AP sportswriters poll. Missouri is up two slots to 15th.  In the Coaches poll, Vanderbilt is 12th and Missouri is 14th.

(MIZEAST)—Former Tiger standout guard Sean East has signed with the Utah Jazz after spending a year with the Edmonton Stingers in the Canadian Elite Basketball Leag. He started 25 games, average more than 23 points a game, almost five assists and more than 4 rebounds each game.

East was a Tiger for two years and averaged 17.6 points per game in his second year, 2023-24, a down year for Missouri but a solid year for East, who led the team in scoring and assists and was the team leader from outside the arc. (ZOU)

(BASEBALL)—Until the World Series is over and the big time wheeling and dealing starts, the Arizona Fall League is offering a chance to see into the long-term future.  The Cardinals have nine players considered among their best in the minors: Five are right-handed pitchers: Chen-Wei Lin, Randel Clemente, Darlin Saladin, Tyler Bradt, and D. J. Carpenter. There are two outfielders: Travis Honeyman and Miguel Ugueto. Catcher Graysen Tarlow rounds out the group.

There might be some guys with better shots next spring to come north with the team, but the Fall League is giving the front office a chance to evaluate others with possibilities—

Some observers put Lin near the top of the field although he had a mediocre season at Springfield (AA). He made 15 starts but gave up more than six earned runs a game. He walked 37 batters in 46 innings but had 61 strikeouts. He’s from Taiwan, stands 6-7 and

Another one high on the evaluation list is Darlin Saladin, a starter/reliever this year who split his starts and his relief appearances equally through 26 games with High-A Peoria. 94.2 innings, 4.85 ERA. But they like his live arm.

Travis Honeyman missed all of the 2024 season but came back to hit .284 in 289 at-bats. The Fall League will give him mor at-bats to build on those numbers. He played in both LowA and High A ball last summer.

Then there’s Randel Clemente, right-hander from the Dominican Republic. He’ll be 24 soon who climbed through three levels of the minor leagues before finish the year at Springfield.

(ROYALS)—The AFL will give Royals catcher prospect Blake Mitchell is a non-roster invitee. He suffered broken wrist bone that shortened his minor league season. He missed spring training and had a setback that lasted until July 8. But in 2024 he was the George Brett Hitter of the year for the Royals farm system. He struggled in the batter’s box this year but the team liked his place discipline that saw his chase low and away pitchers only 20 percent of the a time. He walked almost 22 percent of the time although he had a 34% swing and miss percentage.

The Royals also will be watching shortstop prospect Daniel Vazquez who hit .260 for the Quad Cities last summer.

Outfielder Carson Roccaforte was the Frank White Defensive Player of the Year for the Royals. He hit .290 for Double-A Arkansas this year.

Four pitchers are in the fall league for Kansas City.  Left-hander Hunter Owens had some injury problems this year but when hew as healthy he had a 3.80 ERA for Nothwest Arkansas (AA) with 107 Ks in 94 2/3 innings. He’s 6-6.

A.J. Causey throws from the right side, a former University of Tennessee reliever who looked awfully good in High A ball—73 1/3 innings, 75 strikeouts. He had a whiff rate of better than 40%.

Right hander Dennis Colelran already has had Tommy John Surgery. He was a reliever for the first time this year who went 66.1 innings with 72 strikeouts and a 2.,85 ERA in three levels of work this year.

Right hander Dennis Langevin started the season on the injured list and only made 14 apperances but they were impressive enough to get him an invited for baseball in the desert.

And righty Logan Martin, who was a starter in High A Quad cities this year. 78 strikeouts in 91.1 innings. 3.45 ERA.

Now, from fastballs to fast cars:

(NASCAR)—A year ago at this time, Chase Briscoe was with a dying team and uncertain about his future. Today he’s with one of the premier teams in the sport and in two weeks will be one of four drivers running for the NASCAR Cup.

Briscoe’s survival of Talladega and his last-lap pass that brought him the win that puts him in the final four, along with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin.  In the usual Talladega Superspeedway last turn scramble for the finish line, Briscoe beat Todd Gilliland to the checkered flag by .145 of a second.

The leaders coming into the green-white-checker two lap shootout began with William Byron and Kyle Larson on the lead row.  Larson ran out of fuel on the final lap after Bubba Wallace had grabbed the lead but Briscoe got to the front and took Gilliland and Ty Gibbs with him to the finish line ahead of Wallace.

The win is his third this year, the fifth of his career.

Next weekend is the last race to set the four-driver final championship field. More than 35 drivers will crowd the small Martinsville track with six drivers fighting for the last two spots in the Championship race at Phoenix in a couple of weeks.

Briscoe drives one of the two cars on the circuit sponsored by Misouri businesses.  Johnny Morris’s Bass Pro Shops sponsors his car.  Anheuser-Busch backs the car driven by Clay Chastain.

(INDIANAPOLIS)—2018 Indianapolis 500 winner Will Power made his first race at Indianapolis since losing his ride with Roger Penske and moving over to Andretti Global for the 2026 IndyCar season.  But his return was in a Mercedes-AMG competing in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, an eight-hour endurance race on the Speedway road course.  He was one of three drivers in the car, joined by fellow Australians Kenny Habul and Chaz Mostert.  It was Power’s first sports car race in 22 years.

“I have been meaning to do, and wanting to do, some GT racing for some time,” Power said ina pre-race interview.”It’s different, and I’ve wanted to feel it and see how I go. This is a good start at a track I know, and if I do a good job and if I like it, I’d like to do some more.”

The race was stopped for two hours by lightning in the area.  Power and his teammates were running fourth at the end but wound up sixth after taking a 30-second time penalty for unauthorized work being done in the pits during the stoppage.

Another IndyCar veteran, Connor Daly, was part of the team that finished fourth

(Photo credits: Missouri vs. Auburn t-shirt: JNJ Apparel Store; Briscoe: Bob Priddy; Power at Indianapolis; Richard S. James, RACER Magazine.)

 

 

Keep Them Ignorant and Pay the Cost

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I was in Romania a little more than a year after the Iron Curtain fell and the people of Romania revolted against one of the most oppressive regimes that had been behind it. The Romanian Revolution was part of a historic period when unrest boiled over in several former Iron Curtain Countries that were still controlled by dictators—-it was the same year of the Tiananmen Square Protests in China that did not turn out as well.

In December of 1989, a church leader’s speech against the government triggered huge protests in Timisoara, which led to a military crackdown under Premier Nicolai Ceausescu (Chow-chess-kew).  He made a speech from his palace, which wasn’t too far from the hotel where I later stayed, and from the Hall of the People where I lectured and interacted with young journalists wanting to learn how to be free journalists.

The crowd at Ceausescu’s speech began booing and chanting “Timisoara!”

The military turned on him. Ceausescu and his wife, who also was the Deputy Prime Minister were driven out of the palace and captured by some of the angry citizens. They were take into some woods near Bucharest and shot to death on Christmas.

A new government took over. The death penalty was abolished. An election was held the next May and the new government was overwhelmingly approved and quickly moved to enact democratic reforms.

While I was there, Moldova declared its independence from the Soviet Union. I remember seeing people sitting in their cars listening to reports of what was happening in their neighboring Soviet satellite, now a free country.  It was of particular interest because many of the people in Moldova are of Romanian ancestry.

Romania joined NATO in 2004 and the European Union in 2007.

I have thought often of the people of Romania—and of Poland, where I did seminars in Warsaw after traveling from Bucharest—as I have watched Ukraine hold on against Vladimir Putin’s major effort to reassemble the USSR and I know from those long-ago days that the people of Romania and Poland are living with uncertainty, knowing that if Putin wins in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania and Poland might be next.

All of this is the long way around another impression I had in Bucharest, where my hotel, still displaying bullet marks in its stone walls, once was a nice hotel in the pre-Communist times but now was reminiscent of a 1950s hotel that had never been updated.  My room had a big square television set, black and white, and there were only two or three channels, all former government-run stations, none of which told viewers much about the outside world or even about Romania.

Were it not for a small Radio Shack shortwave radio I had brought with me to listen to the Voice of America, I would have been ignorant of what was happening in Romania and Poland, in Europe, and in the word. The Iron Curtain was down. But the window of open information was still being opened.

You will understand, then, why I watch the Trump administration’s increasing efforts to choke off the free flow of information and discussion in this country whether it is by threatening broadcast licenses or the recent despicable action by the Secretary of Defense (Sorry, Donald, I’m not going to use your word for the department any more than I am going to call the Gulf of Mexico by the name  you demand it be called).

A few days ago, somebody posted this sign in the correspondents’ corridor near the Pentagon press room.  

“Journalism is not a crime.”  To Pete Hegseth and his boss, Donald Trump, it would be, complete with prison sentences, if they could get away with it.  And it would not surprise me if Trump someday accuses a particularly persistent reporter doing the job reporters must do in a free society with treason or some other crime.

Trump heartily endorses Hegseth’s ban on reporters doing stories questioning what he says and does, and banning those who do not agree to be just a mouthpiece for Hegseth’s part of the administration. “I think he finds the press to be very disruptive in terms of world peace,” said the man who calls people such as me “enemies of the people.”   He went on, “The press is very dishonest.”

Only one news organization is now accredited by the Pentagon, The One America News Network, an organization that wants to curry a lot of favor with Trump.  Even other networks that lean more to the right  such as FOX, the Washington Post, and NewsMax  have refused to abide by Hegseth’s rules to limit the flow of information to only that which is politically favorable.

It’s another effort to keep the people at large ignorant not just of what is happening but who is making it happen, often for their own great benefit.

The thing about trying to repress journalism in this country is that it just makes journalists work harder. But if Trump/Hegseth think they can control the flow of information to the public in this country, they are mistaken. We will learn of their increased militarism at home and abroad no matter how many press room doors are closed in however many places.

Trump knows his policies have turned many of his supporters away from him. Newsweek reported last week that every swing state—-the ones he constantly interrupts his speeches to brag about carrying in ’24—is now against him. He’s -8 in Wisconsin, underwater by five points in Michigan, down by three in Nevada and North Carolina. He’s minus-2 in Pennsylvania and Arizona and minus-1 in Georgia.

You might not like to listen to or see CNN or MSNBC or any of the three over the air major networks and I’m not saying you should like them. But this nation was great long before the MAGA crowd came along and decided greatness should be determined not by the people but by one person. And he seems determined every day to burnish his future credentials as the worst president in American history. Taking abusive steps to shut off any reporter questioning his administration’s actions or his personal statements will not go well.

It is never good to poke a Tiger with a stick.

The swing states are sending a message that Trump can bluster about and lie about his own magnificent popularity. But a lot of people aren’t buying his garbage anymore.

We aren’t going to see an Army revolt and military overthrow of our government, as has happened in many countries but we have to ask how far he can push our military without the first blowup.

He’s not going to be taken to the woods, Ceausescu-style.  But the people are stirring; many are up-to-here with this man and his cronies.  The “No Kings” movement is growing. His polls are tanking. He is deathly afraid that a measure of political justice will be brought down upon him after next year’s elections, which might bring a measure of political justice down on a political party that, like Ceausescu’s loyalists, pays the price for blindly following and defending him.

He will do anything to keep journalists from their rounds, from questioning his policies, his actions, his intimidations, his lies, his business dealings as President, his character–

He will fail.  Dictators always fail. I saw the past, the present, and got a glimpse of the future in those days in Romania and in Poland. It is in my mind as I watch our president’s grasp for absolute power and the people’s growing disgust of it.

Our system provides for a peaceful overthrow of a tyrant. History shows the people will use whatever means their system gives them to do just that.

Carl Sandburg:

The people will live on.
The learning and blundering people will live on.
They will be tricked and sold and again sold
And go back to the nourishing earth for rootholds,
The people so peculiar in renewal and comeback,
You can’t laugh off their capacity to take it….

Time is a great teacher.
Who can live without hope?

…In the darkness with a great bundle of grief
the people march.
In the night, and overhead a shovel of stars for
keeps, the people march:
“Where to? what next?”

The poem is called “The People, Yes.”   We must find strength in one another to resist the worst that he can do.  He wants us to forget that long ago this country placed its faith in the concept that government flows from the consent of the governed.

But in this darkness with our great bundle of grief, we know and more are coming to know and the people are starting to march, for we are “the people so peculiar in renewal and comeback.”

That is the spirit behind the “No Kings” protests.

And neither National Guard troops invading other states nor goons from ICE snatching people from our streets can stop that march.

It has become, to borrow a phrase from another purpose and another time, “too big to fail.”

 

Vanity of Vanities. All is Vanity

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This phrase, drawn loosely from the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes, came readily to mind the other day when word got out that the U. S. Mint has been ordered to plan production of one-dollar coins –apparently illegally—promoting our President.

If only he deserved such an honor, or ever will.

His self-absorption and self-promotion know no bounds. Previously, he had mused on how great it would be to make him the equal in stone of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt. He believes he can jawbone his way to a peace prize he is massively unqualified to receive.  Now there is this proposal:

We aren’t sure what he means when he has “In God We Trust” as part of his image. He does have a pretty elevated image of himself but this much?

The Treasury Department apparently is on the verge of producing these things. Samples have been circulated within the Mint’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing and “set-up” coins have been ordered stamped.  Those are practice coins that make sure the new coins are properly designed  when they go into production.

Not that it matters to Trump, but some people believe the coin violates part of an 1866 law.  “No portrait or likeness of any living person shall be engraved or placed upon any of the bonds, securities, notes or postal currency of the United States,” it says. The provision was recently removed from the Treasury Department’s web page.

Reports in the public press note that the first Trump administration reversed a Treasury Department  plan to take Andrew Jackson off the $20 bill and replace him with the image of 19th century Black civil rights leader Harriet Tubman. Trump called the plan “pure political corruptness.”

The creation of the Trump Dollar had not been known until The Treasurer of the United States, Brandon Beach, posted on social media draft images of the coin—which will be legal tender going into circulation next year.  The blog site Defector.com quotes a Treasury Department source saying the usual process for creating such commemorative coins takes months and includes a review by the Citizens Coin Advisory Committee that last met on September 16 without any indication such a coin was in the works.

This coin proposal was whipped from nothing into pre-production, says the source, in four days—September 29-October 2.

Commemorative Coins also are supposed to be approved by Congress.  Congress hasn’t heard anything about this plan.

The Treasury Department put out a statement to USA TODAY puffing about the “historic leadership” of President Trump and saying, “While a final $1 dollar (our faithful editor hopes you will pardon the department’s redundancy) design has not yet been selected to commemorate the United States semiquincentennial, this first draft reflects well the enduring spirit of our country and democracy, even in the face of immense obstacles.

Nine years ago, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco underlined the ban on living persons appearing on our currency: “To avoid the appearance of a monarchy, it was long-standing tradition to only feature portraits of deceased individuals on currency and coin. That tradition became law with an 1866 Act of Congress.”

The Legal Institute at the Cornell Law School cites federal law: 31 U.S. Code 5112—“No coin issued may bear the image of a living former or current President.”

Congress passed a collectible coin law in 2020, during Trump’s first term authorizing the issuance of five different designs of commemorative coins for the nation’s 250th birthday. The Congress said one of the coins should honor a woman and others may honor innovators and Native Americans. There’s nothing about a President hijacking the idea.

Well, we all know of Trump’s disdain for the Constitution, the Congress, and the Federal Reserve. And we all know that he idolizes himself above all others who as individuals or as groups put him deep in their shadows in all kinds of criteria.

USA Today columnist Rex Huppke encapsulated the situation well, writing—

“The planned coin will be a commemorative,  presumably commemorating how everything is perfect now that Trump is president again! Perfect, as long as you disregard the fact that the government is shut down, National Guard troops are being dispatched to cities Trump diesn’t like, U. S. citizens ae routinely eing rounded up by masked and warrantless immigration agents inflation and food prices are rising, electricity prices are rising, the job market is weak, the president’s poll numbers are tanking , [and] Republicans are doing everything to avoid releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files, and the 79-year-old Trump himself doesn’t seeme entirely tethered to reality.”  

Perhaps while his Treasury Department prepares to stamp thousands of these coins honoring him, it also can stamp out his own Nobel Peace Prize Medal—with his profile from the coin replacing that of Alfred Nobel.  Better yet, create the Trump Peace Prize that he can award to himself, much the same way he consistently wins the club championship at Mar-a-Liego. That’ll show those stuffy people in Stockholm a thing or two.

Or maybe he can arrange to ship a few thousand of these coins to his subjects to be used to pay his tariffs on many of the things he has arranged for his peasants to pay more for.

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Sports: Mizzou Not Quite Good Enough; Roundball is ‘Round the Corner; Battlehawks Live to Fight Another Season and Other Good Stuff 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZFB)—The Missouri 15-game home stadium win streak is over. The six-game home stand is done. And the hard part of the season is facing them.  But they served notice in their 27-14 loss to Alabama Saturday that they will be reckoned with.

Alabama had one more clutch play than the Tigers had and got the big stop it needed with time falling off of the clock to leave Columbia with a 27-24 win.  Alabama, ranked 8th coming into the game, now has three straight wins over ranked opponents.

Missouri had a chance to get a tying field goal, at least, or get a last-minute touchdown at best. But Alabama got its second interception of a Beau Pribula pass to end it.

Alabama controlled Missouri’s running game as well as the clock, holding Ahmad Hardy to 52 yards on a dozen carries, snapping a 7-game streak in which Hardy had gained at least 100 yards. Alabama had the ball for 17-minutes longer than Missouri had it, a reversal of he usual Missouri game this year.

Tide quarterback Ty Simpson lived up to his credentials with three touchdowns, going 23 ogf 31 despite a lot of pressure from the Tiger defense that got to him four time for sacks and applied pressure fourteen times.

Coach Drinkwitz said afterwards he was “disappointed because we had an opportunity.”  But Missouri was only one for ten on third downs

Missouri plays its first road game of the year next weekend against Auburn and follows that with Vanderbilt, which went into the weekend as a top-20 team. They have another week off on November 1 before facing Texas A&M, which started the weekend at number 5 in the polls, Missisisippi State, their first game against Oklahoma since leaving the Big 12 (Oklahoma was 6th last weekend and then finishing against Arkansas.

(MIZPOLLS)—The Alabama-Missouri game provided slight changes in the national rankings for both teams.  Alabama moved from 8th to 6th in both polls. Missouri dropped from 16th to 18th.

(MIZBB)===Basketball season is a little more than three weeks away for the 2025-26 edition of the Missouri Tigers. Central Arkansas is the first potential victim on November 3 with Tulane three days later and Arkansas State on Veterans Day.

The annual game against Illinois is December 10. The SEC season begins with a game against Texas on New Year’s Day.

Missouri has a half-dozen returning players: Guards Anthony Robinson II and T.O. Barrett, Forwards Mark Mitchell and Trent Pierce, 7-5 center Trent Burns (who was on the bench all year last year) along with Jacob Crews and Annor Boateng. They’re joined by transfers and freshmen Javon Porter, Shawn Phillips, Aaron Rowe, Sebastian Mack, Luke Norwether, Jayden Stone and Nicholas Randall.

(CHIEFS)—-The Chiefs are fun to watch again and they’re expected to look even better next week when Rashee Rice returns from his six-game suspension.  Kansas City whipped previously-unbeaten Detroit last night and the Lions didn’t like it so much that a fistfight broke out as the teams shook hands after the game.

One of the hands was the fist of Lions safety Brian Branch who slugged Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith, starting a brief scrum, quickly broken up with nobody hurt.  All of the players were still in full uniform, including helmets.

https://x.com/i/status/1977574469624635558

The Chiefs now have evened their record at 3-3 with a game against the Raiders next Sunday. Detroit falls to 4-2.

The Chiefs controlled the highest-scoring team in the NFL up to this point.  They played all four quarters without a penalty.  They took away the ground game, holding Jahmyr Gibbs to only 65 yards. But it took him 17 carries to get that much. And quarterback Jared Goff had only 203 yards passing.

Mahomes ran for a touchdown and passed for three more, giving him 302 passing TDs in 139 games, faster than anyone in NFL history. It took Aaron Rogers 147 games.

(BATTLEHAWKS)—The St. Louis Battlehawks, the most popular team in the United Football League have survived the league’s latest realignment.

The UFL will remain a eight-team league but the Columbus Aviators, Louisville Kings, and the Orlando Storm are new. The Arlington Renegades will be the Dallas Renegades next spring wile the Houston Roughnecks will become the Houston Gamblers.

They replace the Memphis Showboats, Michigan Panthers, and the San Antonio Brahmas.

The Birmingham Stallions and the DC Defenders join the Battlehawks in keeping their names and their cities.

That’s the roar of the crowd part. Now, the other roar—

(NASCAR)—You are looking at the eyes of Denny Hamlin, who has won more races than any driver without a NASCAR Cup championship. But now he can see it. He’s the first driver to earn a spot in the final runoff race for the title in just three more races.  Three weeks from now, he will have a one-in-four chance to make his dream come true.

He also can see the end of his career. It’s coming after two more years because he doesn’t want to linger as a back-marker.  He hasn’t said it, but others will agree that he has earned he right to have a year as champion before he hangs up the helmet for good.

He’s 44, old for athletes in top-level competition and he knows it.  But behind those eyes, the competitive fire still burns strongly and his stirring fight to claim the win at Las Vegas on Sunday shows it.

It was the 60th of his career, moving him into a tie with the retired Kevin Havick for tenth on the all-time wins list.  Next up is Kyle Busch, with 63.

Hamlin started from the pole but did not lead the race on the first lap. In fact, h led only eight of the 267 race laps, including the last four.  He started sixth with fourteen laps left after the final caution period, got past Chase Briscoe with four laps left and claimed an emotional victory that he dedicated to his father, who is facing health issues.

The win is Hamlin’s sixth of the year, the most of any Cup driver.

(INDYCAR)—The last time David Malukas drove at World Wide Technology Raceway, he was driving for A. J. Foyt’s team, one of fourteen leaders in the race (he led 67 of the 260 laps, the most laps led by any driver) although he ultimately finished twelfth.

Last week he was back but was driving one of the elite cars in the IndyCar series—the #12 Penske car that had been handled by Will Power for seventeen years. Power’s contract was not renewed for 2026, after driving the 12-car to an Indianapolis 500 win in 2018, two season championships and 42 wins. Malukas using the fall Firestone tire testing sessions to get comfortable in the car.

The test at World Wide Technology Raceway was his first drive in the car since inheriting the Power seat. “It was incredible…I’m trying to keep my composure, but it’s very difficult to do.”  He turns 24 this week. Four years ago he got a test session in a Penske car on the Indianapolis Speedway road course and referred to it as “a Rolls Royce of IndyCar.”

He’s been in IndyCar for only four years, starting with Dale Coyne Racing, where he gave he team three podium finishes.  A slow-healing broken wrist from a mountain biking accident short-circuited his career with the Arrow McLaren team. He did get in ten races with Meyer Shank last year before joining the Foyt team, which had a technological relationship with Penske.

He finished second to Alex Palou at Indianapolis last May.

Power, meanwhile, is branching out. Next weekend he will drive his first sports car race but he’ll do it on familiar territory. He’ll be one of three drivers of a Mercedes-AMG in the eight-hour GT Challenge race on the Speedway road course. He might be in a new kind of car but he’ll be driving on familiar territory. He had five wins on the road course while driving for Penske.

He quickly moved to Andretti Global after leaving Penske and hopes to build on his IndyCar record of 71 poles and 45 career victories, which puts him third on the all-time list.

Several IndyCar drivers have moved to sports cars during the off-months, as have several NASCAR drivers.  Fellow 500 winner Scott Dixon will race in the 10-hour finale of the IMSA Championship season next weekend.

(Photo Credits:   Helmet–The Business Journal; Eyes—Bob Priddy; Malukas–IndyCar;  Schedlue–Mizzou)

The Bunny, the Bully, And A Sing-Along 

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It has been more than 46 years since a bunny has made headlines such as this—when President Jimmy Carter saw a swamp rabbit swimming his way and either splashed water on it or hit it with his canoe paddle to keep it away.

It was a minor thing, really, but you know how the press is. The Associated Press broke the story and the commentators and comedians started having a field day with Carter fending off a “killer rabbit.”

Now we have Bad Bunny lined up to do the halftime show at the Super Bowl, the first male Latin performer to do that show, and the MAGA crowd is having a cow.  Especially Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

When President Trump was asked for his reaction he offered his usual, “I never heard of him. I don’t know who he is” response, which he has used too often for us to count to deny knowing people he knows. “I don’t know why they’re doing it, it’s like crazy. … Then they blame it on some promoter that they hired to pick up entertainment. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous,” he continued.

Interesting, isn’t it, that it’s ridiculous to hire somebody he never heard of?

So, for him as well as for those of us of his well-advanced generation, here’s some information about BB and why the MAGA crowd has its undies in such a knot:

He’s 31 years old, a performer from Puerto Rico (real name: Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) who has made Spanish rap music popular worldwide. He’s been a star for almost a decade. From 2020-2023 he was the world’s most-streamed artist on Spotify. His sixth studio album, described as “a love letter to Puerto Rico and his heritage, was number one on the Billboard Top 100 albums earlier this year.

He’s also a WWE pro wrestler and a former 24/7 champion, which—if he weren’t Puerto Rican—might entitle him to take part in the 80th Trump birthday celebration wrestling matches at the White House.

Earlier this year he wrapped up a 23-performance tour of Latin America, Europe, Japan, and Australia—but not the United States because of concerns that ICE would pounce on fans going to his shows.

And that is what has smoke coming out the ears of some MAGA people, including Noem who has proclaimed that her ICE agents will be out in force at the Super Bowl.

In an interview, it was clear that she has become a graduate of the Trump School of Nonsense: “I have the responsibility for making sure everybody who goes to the Super Bowl has the opportunity to enjoy it and to leave, and that’s what America’s about. So yeah, we’ll be all over that place. We’re going to enforce the law. So, I think people should not be coming to the Super Bowl unless they’re law-abiding Americans who love this country.”

As for the NFL, she spouted this head-scratcher: “Well, they suck and we’ll win, and God will bless us and we’ll stand and be proud of ourselves at the end of the day, and they won’t be able to sleep at night because they don’t know what they believe. And they’re so weak, we’ll fix it.”

Huh?

Her intelligence deficit was mirrored by MAGA influencer Tomi Lahren on her podcast interview with The Hill’s Krystal Ball (yes, Krystal Marie Ball is her real name), when Lahren asked Ball what she thought about whether BB was a good choice for the halftime show.  Ball admitted she didn’t know much about him but that he “seems like a great American artist, so sure.”

That’s when Lahren put her foot in it. “He’s not an American artist, but—”

Ball: “He’s Puerto Rican. That’s part of America, dear.”

Huff Post reported Lahren plunged ahead and criticized BB’s criticism of ICE only to have Ball remind her, “America agrees with him on that…A majority of Americans think ICE has gone too far. They’ve watched videos of, like, 79 year old business owners being slammed to the ground and their ribs broken by ICE. So I think the American people are probably on board with that message at this point.”

The best retort Lahren could offer was, “Whoever you’re talking to, I’m sure is. I’m not so sure the rest of the country is.”

Well, the fake news just reports fake polls, you know, and you shouldn’t pay attention to them.  It’s better, after all, to believe the First Golfer, who says he’s so popular that nobody has ever seen anything like it, to quote one of his favorite phrases.

Also chiming in is longtime Trumper Corey Lewandowski, now an adviser in the Homeland Security Department (If you can’t give a favorite ego-feeding supporter a specific job at the public trough, you can always make them an “advisor.”), who called the BB announcement “shameful” and charged Bunny “just seems to hate America so much.”

Lewandowski is lying. BB doesn’t hate America. But he doesn’t want his fans put in the sights of ICE agents emboldened by Lewandowski’s boss.  Bunny told i-D magazine, “There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the U. S. and none of them were out of hate.” He recalled he had performed “successful” and “magnificent” concerts many times and has “enjoyed connecting with Latinos who have been living in the U.S.”

The whole incident has become great fodder for internet denizens.

Trump’s antagonism toward Puerto Rico is widely known. When he tried to fire three members of a board that oversees the territory’s financial management, a federal district judge ruled he had likely violate constitutional due process rights and federal law.

Last year, a comedian at a Trump fund raiser referred to Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage.” Trump’s reaction to Tony Hinchcliffe’s comment was the usual: “I don’t know him, someone put him up there. I don’t know who he is.” But he didn’t repudiate it.

He told a Puerto Rican native at a campaign roundtable in Pennsylvania, “We helped you through a lot of bad storms. I’ll tell you we really had some bad ones. You remember you were there when I brought the hospital ship against everyone’s advice and we got it there and took care of a lot of people. But I think no president’s done more for Puerto Rico than I have.”

Few viewed his visit to Puerto Rico some nine days after Hurricane Maria in 2017 as anything more than “insulting,” as San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz,  a “PR, 17-minute meeting.” They remember that he threw paper towels to a room crowded with victims hoping for something much more important, a “terrible and abominable” image that “does not embody the spirit of the American nation.”

“They had these beautiful, soft towels. Very good towels,” he recalled on a Trinity Broadcasting Network interview. There was a crowd of a lot people. And they were screaming and they were loving everything. I was having fun.”

He visited only one small part of the island for a short time—-and then piled insult on insult by minimizing what was facing those people who needed a whole lot more than paper towels. “Every death is a horror,” he said, “but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina and you look at the tremendous—hundred and hundreds and hundres of people that died, and you look at what happened here, with really a storm that was just totally overpowering, nobody’s ever seen anything like this.”  He belittled the storm by noting there had been only sixteen confirmed deaths. Mayor Cruz said Trump showed no interest in reaching out to suffering Puerto Ricans.

About that hospital ship: Reuters reported the Pentagon did not dispatch it until three days after defeated presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Twitter that Trump and his Secretary of Defense James Mattis “should send the Navy…to Puerto Rico now. These are American citizens.” Further, the Inspector General in the Housing and Urban Development saw calculated  that the administration had withheld about $20 billion in hurricane relief after the island was hit by Hurricane Maria in 2017.

MSNBC talked to the Executive Director of Deadline Hollywood, Dominic Patten, who says Noem’s comments and the MAGA World’s reaction to the Super Bowl choice is rooted in three things—a hatred of capitalism (“Bad Bunny’s a big star; he’s going to make a lot of money for the NFL”), ignorance (“They might want to remember that Puerto Rico IS part of America”), and “a bit of the loser syndrome” (BB’s criticism of ICE).

As far as Noem’s claim that the NFL sucks, is weak, and “won’t be able to sleep at night because they don’t know what they believe,” Patten responds, “The NFL don’t care. The NFL is the NFL. They’re the biggest game in town.” Digit elevated.

The Super Bowl halftime show is organized by Roc Nation, founded by rapper Jay-Z, considered the “live music entertainment strategist for the NFL.”  The show is sponsored by Apple Music.

“Let’s also not be naïve,” said Patten. The NFL and Jay-Z knew exactly what they were doing. They decided to poke the paper bear and they’ve done a very good job of it.”

Well, the paper bear has decided to let loose with a jingoistic growl (We’ll save you the effort of looking up “jingoism,” by citing Britannica’s definition: “an attitude of  belligerent nationalism, adherence to the rightness or virtue of one’s own nation, society, or group, simply because it is one’s own.”). Turning Point USA. Charlie Kirk’s creation, has announced it is going to host “The All -American Halftime Show” as an Bunny alterative. It is taking an online survey of what music its adherents want. The first choice is “Anything in English,” a cheap shot at BB, who performs in Spanish.

It is clear that Mr. Bunny, although a native of a United States territory, just isn’t American enough for the TPUSA/MAGA crowd.

What do you want to bet that the song getting the biggest crowd reaction at that alternate even will be Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA.

Tell you what—let’s look at the lyrics.

If tomorrow all the things were gone
I’d worked for all my life

(Such as the freedom to express an opinion without someone in an Army uniform pepper-spraying me or some goon in a mask and without a warrant yanking me into a white van and hauls me to a crowded lockup while my terrified family wonders where I am)

And if I had to start again
With just my children and my wife
I’d thank my lucky stars
To be livin’ here today

(unless my wife and our children who were born here are being deported to some secret and awful place.)

‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom

(unless I want to read a banned book, visit a museum that tells the truth about our history, or go to a national park that doesn’t have oil wells sticking up from the ground.)

And they can’t take that away

(Oh, yes they can. And they’re trying for more.)

And I’m proud to be an American
Where at least I know I’m free

(as long as I buy into the right kind of religion, don’t have a funny sounding name, think the 2020 election was stolen, and believe all I need to prove my Americanism is to wear a red baseball cap with the right letters on it)

And I won’t forget the men who died
Who gave that right to me

(Sixty-five thousand Puerto Ricans served our country in World War II including the seven Medina brothers known as “The Fighting Medinas,” and Agustin Ramos Calero, known as the “One Man Army,” who won the Silver Star and 21 other medals and decorations. About fifty were killed. About 48,000 Puerto Ricans served in Vietnam. About 350 were KIA and five earned the Medal of Honor.)

And I’d gladly stand up
Next to you and defend her still today

(Even if you think I should not be allowed to perform a Super Bowl halftime show.)

‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land
God bless the USA

(I agree.  I love this land as you do. But I think Abrham Lincoln had his priorities straight when he purportedly said, “I do not boast that God is on my side; I humbly pray that I am on his.”

One of the immediate reactions to the Turning Point announcement was to have Bad Bunny throw paper towels into the crowd to make a political point that would remind the audience of the Trump visit.

But that would be lowering himself to their level.

Here’s what would be incredibly classy and what would at the same time send a powerful message:

(Here, let’s sing the song together:

Si mañana todas las cosas se hubieran ido–If tomorrow all the things were gone
He trabajado toda mi vida—I’d worked for all my life
Y tuve que empezar de nuevo—And I had to start again
Sólo con mis hijos y mi esposa—With just my children and my wife

Agradeceré a mis estrellas de la suerte—I’d thank my lucky stars
Vivir aquí hoy—To be livin’ here today
Porque la bandera sigue en pie por la Libertad—Cause the flag still stands for freedom
Y no pueden quitarlo—And they cant take that away

Y estoy orgulloso de ser americano—And I’m proud to be an American
Donde al menos sé que soy libre—Where at least I know I’m free
Y no olvidaré a los hombres que murieron—And I won’t forget the men who died
¿Quién me dio ese derecho?—Who gave that right to me

Y con mucho gusto me levanto—And I gladly stand up
Junto a ti y defiéndala todavía hoy—Next to you and defend her still today
Porque no hay duda, amo esta tierra—Cause there ain’t no doubt, I love this land
Dios bendiga a los Estados Unidos—God bless the USA

Just between thee and me, I’d love to hear Bad Bunny sing this song in Spanish at the end of the halftime show, maybe while the words were on the big scoreboard screens so the audience could sing along. That would be delicious.

MAGA is too young to remember Jimmy Carter and how embarrassing and foolish a person can appear to be if they think a bunny is dangerous.

Preserving the Truth of History

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A few days ago, I went to Springfield to speak at the annual meeting of the National Trail of Tears Association.

The Association represents the volunteers who preserve the heritage of the trail and of the forced removal, 1831-1838, of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole and the Muscogee (Creek) Nations from their ancestral homes in the southeast to what is now eastern Oklahoma.

Various sources indicate 55,400-64,275 people were removed. Before the caravans reached athe place that President Jackson said would let them “cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community,” ten to 12,800 had died.

This is how the speech concluded:

It has been an honor to speak to this group at this time in our history when a concerted effort is underway to treat a lot of things as if they never happened —and when a 21st Century Trail of Tears is tragically underway, another time when people who are considered “as unqualified residents near civilized communities” are being sent off to uncertain futures in strange lands.

I wonder, as we look back 200 years to commemorate the Trail of Tears and to honor those who were forced to travel it, as well as those who showed those travelers mercy, if our descendants 200 years from now will look at the mass deportation program the same way we look at the Trail of Tears. Or the Trail of Death*.

As Chief Hoskin** noted last night, on March 27th, President Trump signed an executive order he called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” by ordering the rewriting of it so that embarrassing moments would be wiped from the public telling of our heritage.

It appears no historic site will be immune to his efforts to, as he put it, “restore Federal sites dedicated to history, including parks and museums, to solemn and uplifting public monuments that remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing.”  

Have no doubt about what this is.  It is more than an executive order. It is a declaration of cultural war on the people of this nation, and the nations within this nation.

I am not sure that reminding Americans “of our extraordinary heritage” is consistent with effort to whitewash reality.

He also referred to “ideological indoctrination of divisive narratives that distort our shared history,” or, at least, his warped view of it. He appears not to understand that truth is not “ideological indoctrination.”

He complained that “the widespread effort to rewrite history deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame, disregarding the progress America has made and the ideals that continue to inspire millions around the globe.” 

He is right…but he is right about himself.

The danger is that such rewriting of history can be little more than returning to a past where societal divides were deeper, where acts of national shame were more acceptable, and the progress we have made that inspires millions around the world is wiped out.

I want to hear how he and his enablers can sanitize the smallpox blanket.

I want to hear how the destruction of the friendly Wampanoags and King Phillip’s War is “ideological indoctrination.

I want to hear how they can describe Sand Creek, Washita, and Wounded Knee as “consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect union.”

I want to know how the subjugation of the Apaches, the story of Chief Joseph, and the betrayal of Red Cloud is an “unmatched record of advancing liberty.”

How did the Indian Boarding School lead to “human flourishing.”

How the markers of the Trail of Tears are “uplifting public moments.”

I want to know which is more sacred: The Chinese-published Trump Bible with the lyrics of “Proud to be an American,” or Black Elk’s prayer on Harney Peak to the Great Mysterious One.***

That is why we cannot allow stories such as the Trail of Tears to be rewritten, with truth being excised by a person with limited or no appreciation for the work this organization does and what it stands for.

A President who threatens actions against professional sports teams unless they start calling themselves Redskins and Indians again will never understand the nobility of the kind of cause this group advocates..

Some politicians only seek the truth to distort it for their own ends. Greatness does not flow from distorted truth that hides our flaws, but—instead—flows from protecting the truth so we may grow beyond those flaws.

That is what museums are for. That is what historic sites and parks are for and that is what historical organizations are for—to remind us that this country is not a finished work, that it does not become better, let alone greater, by ignoring our past mistakes, our nation’s wrongs, and those who lived them and worked to correct them.

One reason to study history is to understand that greatness is created by today’s honesty about yesterday facts—and understanding that truth, not the obscuring  of it, builds a stronger people.  And a stronger people are a free-er people than demagogues and despots want us to be. 

A nation that hides its truths will not become great. REVEALING the truth is what gives a nation the opportunity to be better than before.

That is our responsibility, our challenge, as historians.

Others might fear us because of that. But we must never fear them.

We must never allow ourselves to be silenced—-for history is the nation’s conscience and we must never abandon the search for the truth in it.

We cannot escape history.  Indeed, our challenge today is to save it, to fight those who would rewrite it for their own benefit.

Reveal the truth, preserve the truth, speak the truth, BE the truth—and our nation will remain free.

*The Trail of Death crosses north Missouri, the path the Potawatomi Nation followed to what became Kansas when they were removed from their ancestral lands in Indiana and Illinois. It was a much smaller group but an estimated 40 of the 859 participants died en route.

**Chuck Hoskin Jr., is the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, the largest Native American Nation, with 45,000 citizens.

***You can learn about each of these issues with internet searches.  I recommend a YouTube video of the speech of Black Elk, described by narrator John G. Neihardt, a personal friend and biographer who described Black Elk as the “last of the great Sioux Indian Holy Men.”)

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Sports:    Chiefs Stumble to Third Loss; Mizzou Faces First Elite Challenge; Missouri State Moves to the Big Time, etc.   

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by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—It’s being called “a miracle touchdown” in Jacksonville,. Florida today. It’s considered a disaster by many Chiefs fans in Kansas Cityu—and elsewhere. Mistakes and a dozen penalties cost the Kansas City Chiefs their third loss in five games this year last night against the Jacksonsville Jaguara.  The Jags, down by four, benefitted from an out-of-bounds kickoff by Kansas City with less than two minutes left that gave them a short field.  Quarterback Trevor Lawrence turned a potentially fatal stumble after the snap into a touchdown with 23 seconds left to put the Jaguars up 31-28.  The Chiefs got a solid return on the kickoff but were flagged for another penalty—holding in this case—that challenged their ability to get the ball close enough for a field goal attempt to tie.

The game featured two goal line plays, one by each team, that kept the score from being higher.  Lawrence’s attempt to dive over his line for a first-half touchdown was short circuited when the ball was knocked form his hands and recovered by the Chiefs. Later, as the Chiefs were on the verge of a touchdown, when Jacksonville’s Devin Lloyd picked off a potential Patrick Mahomes touchdown pass and took it 99 yards the other way for a score.

The win is Jacksonville’s first over Kansas City since 2009. The loss equals Kansas City’s total for all of last year, including the Super Bowl.

Jacksonville is now 4-1. The Chiefs are 2-3.

The last time Kansas City started 2-3, the Chiefs finished 14-6 with an overtime loss to the Bengals in the AFC championship game.

(MIZ)—The Missouri Tigers head into their most important game of the year next weekend fully rested after a weekend off, their upcoming opponent being Alabama, which ended Vanderbilt’s winning streak last weekend and moved to 8th in both major polls. Missouri will go into the game 14th.

Look for a battle of poised veteran quarterbacks with Alabama led by Ty Simpson, whose composure in the last couple of minutes in the first half of their games has gained attention.  He took the Crimson Tide on an 87-yard march in the last two minutes of the first half to get a halftime tie against the Commodores. It was the fourth time he has led the team to a TD in the last minute of the first half.

One of the things Alabama has to do is limit Ahmad Hardy, the nation’s rushing leader with 730 yards. He also leads the nation with 46 missed tackles, fifteen more than Kewan Lacy of Ole Miss.  His nine touchdowns rank second in the country for running backs.

Missouri is number two in the SEC in scoring—45.2 points per game. On defense, the Tigers lead the nation in total offense—only 203.8 yards per game. They rank third in stopping the ground game (62.4 yards per game and they’re third in allowing only 141.4 yards passing.

Although they’re playing at home for the sixth straight time, they’re listed on the early line as underdogs by a little more than a field goal.

(MIZRECRUITS)—The Tigers recently picked up a couple four-star players recently by picking Arkansas’ pocket.  Linebacker J.J. Busch, who had committed to Arkansas, has flipped to Missouri. Running back Terry Hodges, an Arkansas native, has signed to come north. They will join Hardy and Jamal Roberts, who are eligible to be back next year. (ZOU)

(MOSTATE)—Missouri State left the Football Championship Subdivision for the big-time Football Bowl Subdivision this year and is part of Conference USA .

The NCAA counts 136 schools in that subdivision.  The latest rankings put Missouri State 115th. The Bears are competitive within their conference although things get difficult if not ugly when they try someone far up the ladder—as they did last week against 26th ranked USC.

Southern Cal rolled over the Bears 73-13, racking up 597 yards in total offense while Missouri State could get only 65 yards rushing and 159 yards passing.  The Bears are now 2-3 with a win over Tennessee-Martin, an FCS school, 42-10 and another win over Marshall (ranked 121st in the NCAA FBS rankings) 21-20.  Other than USC, their losses have come 28-10 to SMU, ranked , 42nd and 27-22 to Western Kentucky, ranked 67th.

Ahead are 134th ranked Middle Tennessee, New Mexico State (110), Liberty (117), UTEP (122), Kenesaw State (107) and Louisiana Tech (87).

(BASEBALL)—Wheeling and dealing and free agent courting officially begins when the World Series ends but new management in St. Louis and a disappointing mediocre season in Kansas City has all kinds of speculation and proposed trades being suggested that we’re not going to get into.  When a deal is struck or a trade is made, we’ll talk about it.

Now the hot wheels stuff—

(NASCAR)—Joey Logano, who got into the final rounds of the NASCAR Cup Championship last year on a technicality and then won it despite being far back in the regular points system, is back in the final eight again despite being a calculated tenth in regular season points.

Logano got past Chastain as Chastain sped toward the finish line in reverse.  The two had been tied or separated by only a couple of points as the race on the Charlotte Roval (the road course inside the oval) wound down.  Denny Hamlin got in front of Chastain in the closing series of turns and when Chastain moved to reverse the order, the two collided on the last corner, spinning Chastain backwards.  He got his car in reverse and backed across the finish line a matter of feet before Logano, who had been trailing, got there.

Chastain blamed himself for being in the situation because of bobbles during pit stops. Hamlin indicated he did not know Chastain’s circumstances and was racing for his own position when he incident happened.

So Logano is in and Chastain is out and the best he can finish in this year’s system will be ninth.

We’ll have to wait and see if this incident becomes part of NASCAR’s discussion of changing he way the playoffs are determined or if here will be playoffs in the future or whether the driver with the most points after thirty-six races is crowned champion.

THE WINNER of the race was Shane Van Gisbergen, who has swept all five of NACAR’s road races this year. He will not, however, advance to the eight-driver field racing for the title although he is tied with Denny Hamlin for most victories this year. Van Gisbergen was eliminated after the first three raises of the cut-down series.

Still standing as NASCAR heads to Las Vegas for the first of three races that will reduce the championship field to four for the final race of the year next month in Phoenix are Denny Hamlin—who leads all active drivers with 59 career Cup wins but no championships in his 21-year career—Ryan Blaney, the 2023 champion; Kyle Larson, who won in 2021; William Byron; Christoper Bell; Chase Elliott, the champion in 2020; Chase Briscoe; and Logano who won last year and in 2018 and 2022 before winning his third championship last year.

Among those who missed the cut are two-time champion Kyle Busch (2015, 2019) and Brad Keslowski (2012).

(INDYCAR)—2019 Indianapolis 500 winner Simon Pagenaud, whose driving career ended with a crash in 2023 that left him with a severe concussion issue, is back in the cockpit—a simulated one.

Pagenaud is the official simulator driver for the new Cadillac Formula 1 team that takes to the track next year.

It’s important work as the team develops the elements necessary for a new race car to be competitive, including cockpit design and ergonomics, simulated aerodynamic influences—even braking systems, power steering, and tire settings. He says his role gives him “a feeling of being useful and bringing in my expertise, something that was missing somehow since my accident.”

Pagenaud was the third French driver to win the 500, the first since Rene Thomas in 1914. Another French driver, Jules Goux, won a legendary race in 1913 during which he and riding mechanic Emil Begin consumed four bottles of champagne (each bottle being about 4/5 of a quart) in the six-hour and 35 minute race. Goux’s set a still-standing record by finishing more than thirteen minutes ahead of the second-place driver.

Gaston Chevrolet won the race in 1920. Although he was born in France, he was an American citizen when he won the race.

Pagenaud’s winning margin was slightly more than two seconds ahead of Alexander Rossi.

(Photo credits: Pagenaud, Logano, Van Gisbergen—Bob Priddy; Cadillac F1—autoracing.com; Missouri State–NCAA)

 

 We are Victims of Trump’s Absurd Tariffs

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—-and I am furious.

(My monthly guest column on the editorial page of the Jefferson City News-Tribune addressed this topic yesterday but of necessity it was much shorter and somewhat less candid, perhaps because I had lowered the steam pressure after starting on this version.)

There must be a reason why the highly-praised Wharton School that President Trump attended has never invited him back as a speaker. I wonder if anyone has investigated to find out who wrote his papers for him or even took tests for him.

His favorite course must have been Bankruptcy 101 and he must have slept through class every day the word “tariff” came up. The graduation program for his class does not list him for any honors and just has his name among all of the other graduates.

Stop me before I tell you what I really think.

Here is a story some nice people in a gentle English town. Stay with us. By the time we are finished the story will be about a person in a big American town who puts the “bully” into the ;political phrase “bully pulpit.”

(The phrase began with Theodore Roosevelt, one of the four faces on Mt. Rushmore, a monument he thinks he should—something even less possible than him winning the Nobel Price for Peace.)  TR used the word “bully” as an adjective for “wonderful” or “superb.”

Sorry about that. We have wandered off the path.

Grasmere, a village of about 4,500 people in England’s Lake District, has been known for decades as the home of numerous poets, writers, artists, philosophers and other notables.

Poets William and sister Dorothy Wordsworth described it as “the loveliest spot that man hath ever found.”

William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner) are considered the founders of English Literature’s “Romantic Age.” Coleridge is said to have “muttered stanzas” of the Rime” while walking about the countryside nearby. The Wordsworths lived for a few years in Dove Cottage, where Coleridge also lodged for a time.

The Dove Cottage is still there as is The Swan, an inn where William sometimes dined with the famous poet Walter Scott.

More recently, Gordon Matthews Thomas Sumner had a home there. The world knows him better as the musical artist, Sting.

Perhaps better known than the poets, philosophers, and other notables who have lived there is Beatrix Potter, who gave the world Peter Rabbit and his friends. She also lived in the Lake District.

It was a coolish, dampish English day when we were there and we didn’t get to spend as much time as we wished, but that’s a penalty we paid for trying to hit some of the highlights of three countries—England, Wales, and Scotland in two weeks.

We had our lunch at the Grasmere Tea Room, ate outside on that pleasantly cool afternoon. I think we had Paninis, having a desire to break from fish and chips (we call them French Fries here). But we had been warned of interlopers that we were told were particularly aggressive that day—Jackdaws, a relative of crows and ravens. They liked to snatch food from tables.

Grasmere is, as is the case with many European communities, an old place, one where a 200-year old building is still relatively new.  We have avoided describing it as “picturesque” because we imagine the locals have heard their town referred to that way and it has become cloying to them.

And “quaint” is a condescending word, too, so we didn’t use it.  We liked Grasmere. It’s one of several small places we visited that we’d like to return to, despite the Jackdaws.

To the ancient Celts, Jackdaws were sacred birds that nested in church steeples, symbolic church guards. Like their Crow and Raven relatives, they are considered quite intelligent. We kind of thought the one perched on the back of a chair about twenty feet from our table was scheming to poach some of our lunch. But we kept a sharp eye on it and never let it have a chance.

What has all of this to do with Trump’s politically silly and nationally-damaging tariffs? We have vented about this in earlier posts but this time it’s personal.

Our excellent tour guide, Charlie Reader, gave us something else for which Grasmere is widely known.

We each got a couple of hand-wrapped gingerbreads. And we loved them.

More than 170 years ago, Victorian Cook Sarah Nelson began making gingerbreads in her 17th century home, using her “secret recipe” (that is still secret).  Grasmere Gingerbreads are a cross between a cake and what the English call a biscuit—a cracker to us.

Sarah’s secret recipe now is guarded by Joanne and Andrew Hunter, third generation owners of the business which still operates from Sarah’s house. I wish we had known of the gingerbread house before we left the town—and had the time to visit it.  But bus tours being bus tours, we had to be on our way after lunch.

The BBC has provided some looks at Sarah’s story and the wonderful products she created.

Bing Videos

Bing Videos

When we got home, I decided to secretly order a dozen of these gingerbreads to be delivered to our home each month. It was going to be a surprise Christmas present for Nancy but the surprise fell though when Diane Gallagher (probably) called from Grasmere and Nancy answered the phone. “There’s a lady from Grasmere on the phone asking for you,” she announced before listening to the conversation. Diane was calling to confirm the order.  The first order came in the tin you see here. Subsequent orders have come in hand-wrapped paper packaging and are refills for the tin.

Each month we have looked forward to finding our little package by our front door about the 10th of each month.  But on September 5, we received a note from Diane announcing the package had been shipped three days earlier but she understood “there have been delays at Customs and your parcel is due for delivery today.”

Then she wrote:

We believe the delays are because the US Government has now abolished the exemption for any parcel under a value of $800 from import duties.  This may mean that you will be liable for import duties on delivery of the parcel.  We are still trying to find out exactly what this will mean in monetary terms, but have reason to believe that for the next six months there will be a flat fee of $80 per parcel being sent from the UK. 

Eighty dollars on a $30 package!!!

This is the results of Donald Trump’s ill-advised removal of the “de minimis” exemption for small packages from foreign countries. Packages worth less than $800 were exempt from tariffs until August 29 when he decided even the smallest item would cost a lot more.

The Universal Postal Union says postal deliveries from around the world to the United States dropped by EIGHTY PERCENT within two weeks after our economic genius President scribbled his name on the bottom of his executive order.

We were supposed to take delivery on Wednesday, September 10. Instead we got a “reschedule” notice from UPS telling us, “UPS is preparing your package for clearance. We will notify you if additional information is needed.”

Diane told us it would be okay to refuse to pay the duties. Afterward the company could tell the UPS to destroy the parcel and the amount remaining on our order would be refunded.

The order from Grasmere was held up for the better part of a week before it cleared customs in Louisville, Kentucky (why Louisville, we don’t know), and was to arrive at our house on Wednesday, September 10.

We decided to pay the duty because the folks in Grasmere had produced the gingerbreads and had shipped them to us in good faith but we decided to have them hold onto the rest of our funds until our country regained this small part of its sanity and allows something so benign as Grasmere Gingerbread to be shipped to Missouri without a duty or a tariff that our President is unable to admit punishes his own citizens.

Trump says his tariffs will force foreign manufacturers to build factories in this country. I am quite sure that Joann and Andrew Hunter are not going to establish a gingerbread manufacturing plant in this country because of this petty policy.

But if you are accumulating evidence of how idiotic Trump’s tariff policy is working, we offer this observation as a good example.

We are puzzled by the whole tariff/duty business even more because while we were waiting for our gingerbreads to trickle through the customs bureaucracy, we found a book on our doorstep that we had ordered from a company in Delhi, India.  It took only ten days from the day I ordered it for it to arrive. I ordered the book on September 5. The company in Delhi gave it to FedEx on the tenth and five days later it was on my doorstep. Clearly, somebody in the customs office was asleep at the switch.

The gingerbreads?  They were mailed on September 2, three days before the book was ordered and eight days before the book was shipped.

On Friday, September 25, we got a notice from UPS:

The status of your package has changed.

Exception Reason: The customs clearance has failed and the shipment is abandoned

UPS told us on September 10 that the package was being prepared for clearance. We were to be notified if more information was needed.  We were not notified of anything until the message that Grasmere Gingerbread package apparently is such a threat to our national security that it would be dangerous for it to be shipped from Louisville, Kentucky where it has been losing its freshness for three weeks.

We got a new note from from Diane;

On 18th September we asked UPS to destroy the parcels that had not cleared Customs, but it appears that this has not yet happened for all parcels.  As well as the severe delays through Customs, it appears that parcels valued at less than £20 are incurring import duties of just under $70, which is just not viable.  For these reasons, our directors have taken the decision to suspend shipping to the US and Canada temporarily. 

I am very sorry about this. 

UPS told us:

Exception Reason: Package cannot clear due to customs delay or missing info. Attempt to contact sender made. Package has been disposed of.

Amazing. After all these months, UPS told us the reason UPS apparently could not get a straight answer from the customs people about the reason—it’s either “customs delay” or it’s “missing info.”  What missing info?   We are unlikely to ever learn why there was a delay and what information was missing in this shipment that wasn’t a problem earlier.

It’s a little package of a dozen Gingerbreads, for God’s sake!!!

It’s disgusting. But our president has taken “disgusting” to unprecedented levels in so many things.

I have notified Diane of our sincere apologies for the embarrassment this administration is. I wish we could go back to that beautiful part of our world to do it in person—-

—because he is creating so many things to apologize to the world for.

Is it too late for Wharton to ask for its diploma back?

(photos by BP. Gingerbread by the Grasmere Gingerbread Co., videos from the BBC)

A New County 

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We’ve commented in the past about whether some of our county names should be changed to honor more contemporary heroes—and maybe reject some scalawags who we learn from history weren’t really worth honoring in the first place.

More than 110 years ago a distinguished Missouri politician introduced a bill to change the name of one of our counties.

We discovered his suggestion among our clippings.  It’s part of a column from the Taney County Republican, January 30, 1913

The column began, “Until a few years after the war, the city of St. Louis was the seat of St. Louis County. When, by authority of an act of the legislature, the voters of the city and the county adopted the ‘scheme and charter.’

“St. Louis became a separate jurisdiction, a county within itself, under the name ‘The City of St. Louis’ and the county became known as ‘the County of St. Louis.’ The county seat was established at the city of Clayton and a courthouse was erected on land donated by a citizen of that name. It has never since had any legal connection with the city of St. Louis, although comparatively few of the people of the State know yet that St. Louis is not in St. Louis County.

“Deeds and legal documents intended for county officials and courts and lawyers are often mailed to St. Louis and important legal documents affecting property and persons in the city of St. Louis are often mailed to Clayton. The confusion created by the use of name St. Louis for the county has been a source of annoyance for many years to both city and county.”

He proposed renaming St. Louis County “Grant” County, honoring the Union General and later President who once lived there and married into a prominent family, the Dents. “There was a time when name of Grant was not popular in that county,” said the newspaper. “But that day has passed.”

“The name of the famous general to whom Lee surrendered is more honored than any other name connected to St. Louis County. No name could be more appropriate for St. Louis County than the name of Grant. If the name of that county is ever changed, it should be called Grant. That it eventually will be changed is hardly to be doubted.”

We know, of course, that his bill didn’t make it.  One reason is that Michael McGrath didn’t make it, either.  It’s an interesting proposal, too, because it came from a former Confederate soldier.

His name means nothing to most of those who labor in the halls of the Capitol now.  But in his time, Michael McGrath was a political power.  And his influence is still felt in Missouri government today.

He was the Secretary of State who created the Official State Manual, known colloquially as “the Blue Book” but called when first published in 1878 “Almanac and  Official Directory of  Missouri.” It contained all of the information about state government in 72 pages.

McGrath was born in 1844 in Ballymaloe Civil Parish, County Cork, Ireland and was raised on a farm and educated in a parish school.  He went to the National School in Kinsale, a small village in the southeast corner of Ireland where he studied to be a teacher.  He became one at age 16.

(Kinsale is the home to a lot of famous people we Americans have never heard of except for William Penn, the founder of the colony of Pennsylvania.  Nearby is Old Kinsale Head, a piece of land jutting into the Atlantic that has a lighthouse and the remains of an old castle.  About eleven miles out to sea from Kinsale Head, the liner Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk in 1915.)

He was among the thousands of Irish citizens driven to this country by the Great Potato Famine and general civic unrest in Ireland, arriving after a nine-week voyage in New Brunswick in 1850 and immediately gong to Maine before going to New York a few months later in 1851. He was convinced to come to Missouri by reading The St. Louis Republic in the Astor Room New York City Libray. He arrived here in July, 1856.

Just two days after his arrival, his good handwriting landed him a job with the St. Louis County Recorder.  After declaring himself a Democrat, he was hired as a a deputy clerk in the criminal court in 1861. He served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War but signed a loyalty oath at the end that let him take a bar examination and become a lawyer.  He was a clerk in various city and court offices until he was elected Secretary of State in 1874.

He served fourteen years, a term in the office not exceeded for a century when Jimmy Kirkpatrick served five four-year terms.

He got into the newspapering business, owning and operating an Irish-oriented paper, The Celt, and the Sedalia Democrat. He also was a major stockholder of the Jefferson City Tribune.

He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1912 but he died shortly after taking office on January 28, 1913 “after a brief illness.”  He was 79 and had had heart trouble and problems with bronchitis.

Michael Knowles McGrath is an unfortunately forgotten figure in Missouri history.

St. Louis County is still St. Louis County. But Grant County is a pretty good idea for someplace. Surely a legislature that is always willing to make a fourth-grader’s dream come true by choosing a new state symbol could devote as much time to assessing whether some famous person has worn out his welcome with one of our counties.

(Photo Credit: State Official Manual, 1913)

 

Sports: And Suddenly, it’s Over for Baseball; Tigers and Chiefs Looking Good

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—It’s interesting what the Chiefs can do with a little speed in the lineup. The return of Xavier Worthy and his deep threats helped the Chiefs rack up their highest points total in two years in a 37-20 win over the Baltimore Ravens. The Chiefs have evened their record at 2. It also is the first time since week twelve of last year that they have run up 30 points.

Worthy had five catches for 83 yards and he added 38 more on two carries in his first game since his shoulder injury at the start of the year. Patrick Mahomes threw for four touchdowns and became the young4est player ever to throw for 250 touchdowns.

The game was a milestone for Coach Andy Reid who has become the first NFL coach to coach more than 200 regular season games for two franchises. He was 130-93-1 in fourteen seasons in Philadelphia. He’s 145-55 with Kansas City. He also is the only coach to win 100 or more games with two franchises.

The Chiefs have a Monday night game next week with the Jacksonville Jaguars who have opened 3-1.

(MIZ)—The Missouri Tigers took care of business against the University of Massachusetts in their homecoming game Saturday with a 42-6 win that puts them 5-0 with an off-week ahead to get ready for the Alabama Crimson Tide squad that upset Georgia last weekend.

The win Saturday has moved the Tigers up one slot in the coaches poll, to 18th. The Tigers also moved up one place in the AP poll, to 19th.

Recruiting—

Mizzou has picked up a couple of top-level defensive recruits, one of them a big takeaway from an SEC rival. Micah Nickerson had verbally committed to Mississippi State but less than a week after watching Missouri beat South Carolina, he decided to be a Tiger. He’s a four-star defensive end, 6-5, 215, considered the 43rd defensive end in the nation for the class of 2026.

Adding to the class is Hutchinson Community College DE Demarcus Johnson, the top junior college player in the country. He’s a 6-7 edge rusher.

(MIZBB)—Hard to believe…but basketball season is upon us. The new team already is on the court. The Tigers held their first official team meeting on September 22 and the first official practice was the next day. “Fight plus Focus” was the theme for the first workouts.

Here’s an interesting video of the beginning of the pre-season:

Bing Videos    (ZOU)

(BASEBALL)—For those who struggle to stay alert for the playoffs unless the Royals or the Cardinals are involved, this is it. After 162 games in eight months, the long winter already is settling in and only hope for a warmer future will get us through the cold and gray months ahead.

Our teams were mediocre at best all year long, a disappointment in Kansas City, unsurprising in St. Louis

(CARDINALS)—The season ended with a whimper for the Cardinals who lost six of their last ten games to finish six games under .500.  John Mozeliak is now history and Chaim Bloom will take a shot at rebuilding the team for 2025.

Two big names have indicated they might soften their no-trade stances. Nolan Arenado says he is willing to expand his list of teams for which he’d like to play. And Sonny Gray feels the same way.

Losing Arenado might not be too traumatic. His glove ass still good and he only struck out 49 times in 401 at-bats. But he hit only .237 with a dozen homers and only 52 RBIs.

Gray, however, was the biggest winner on the pitching staff at 14-8 despite his 4.28 ERA and 201 strikeouts. He tied for fourth in the National League in wins (the top NL pitcher had only 17), ranked sixth in strikeouts per nine innings (more than 10), led the league with 5.3 Ks for each walk, and was eighth in innings pitched (180.2)

But we might have seen he last of players such as fan favorite Lars Nootbar (.234 with as many hits as strikeouts—119 each—in 509 at-bats), Jordan Walker III (.215, with only 78 hits and 126 strikeouts), Victor Scott (.216, with 107 Ks in 396 at-bats), and Nolan Gorman, with 136 strikeouts in only 351 at-bats).

Bloom might be looking for more punch for a team with a .245 team BA and 1,321 strikeouts in 5433 at-bats. Only one NL team had a worse batting team batting average–.242. All of that being said, it should be noted the entire NL batting average this year was .247 and the batting champion, Trea Turner of the Phillies, set a new major league record for the lowest highest batting average for the season, .301. Eric Burlison and Brendan Donovan were sixth and eighth with averages of . 290 and .287.  Luis Arraez of the Padres had the most hits—only 181. But was a big year in MLB for home runs with Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies beating Shohei Ohtani 56-55 to win that contest.

Gray finished six games over .500. Michael McGreevy showed great possibilities by going 8-4 in 17 games with a 4.42 ERA.  The team was six games UNDER .500 although those two were ten ABOVE.  Ryan Helsley had 21 saves before leaving. The rest of the bullpen staff combined had that many.  Miles Mikolas surely is gone (8-11, 4.84, gave up 29 homers in 31 games). Andre Pallante (6-15, 5.31) and Matthew Liberatore (8-12, 4.21) didn’t live up to expectations. The Cardinals used 24 pitchers this year who had a combined 4.29 ERA and allowed 179 home runs in 162 games.

(ROYALS)—The Royals won six of their last ten to finish 82-80 but  missed the wild card slot by five games. Salvador Perez and Vinnie Pasquantino became the first Royals teammates to hit 30 homers and drive in 100 runs each.

Six American Leagues batted above .300 with Aaron Judge’s .331 topping the list. The Royals’ Maikel Garcia was ninth at .286. Bobby Witt led the major leagues in hits with 186 and in doubles with 47. He was fourth in triples. Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh set several records as he led the league in homers with 62, becoming the seventh player to hit 60 or more, breakking Mickey Mantle’s record for switch hitter homers,  and breaking Salvador Perez’s record of 48 for catchers.

As a team, the Royals hit .247, three points above the league average. The Athletics led the league at .252.

Royals pitchers had a combined ERA of 3.73.  Rookie Noah Cameron was impressive with a 2.99 ERA in 24 starts. The only other Royals rookies to finish their rookie season are Paul Splittorff with a 2.68 in 1971 and Kevin Appier, who finished 1990 at 276.

The Royals look to 2026 with a strong core pitching staff with Cole Ragans looking impressive in his last appearances of the year after coming off the injured list. Seth Lugo is solid, Michael Wacha pitched better than his losing record shows, and then there’s Cameron.

The season didn’t turn out as well as KC fans had hoped, given the playoff appearance last year. But the Royals look to 2026 far less unsettled than the Cardinals do.

Going around—

(NASCAR)—A furious final two laps at the Kansas Speedway finished with Chase

Elliott finding the right holes to go from eighth to victory lane and into a guaranteed position in the final eight drivers eligible for the Cup.

Elliott wove his way through a gaggle of fiercely-competing Toyota drivers to put his Chevrolet in the lead by a victory margin of less than seven-hundredths of a second over Denny Hamlin who seconds before had been in a fierce fight for the lead with Bubba Wallace. Hamlin finished second with Christopher Bell third.  Chase Briscoe, who started form the pole for the ninth time this year, was fourth and Wallace wound up fifth.

Hamlin drove the last segment of the race and held the lead until the last pit stops in which a problem with the jack slowed tire changing and put him sixth for the final run. He had worked his way to third and when Wallace and Bell were battling each other, Hamlin slipped past them into the lead. But as he and Wallace battled, Elliott slipped underneath them, the fifth lead change in the last two laps.

The series moves to the road course inside the Charlotte Motor Speedway next weekend. Shane Van Gisbergen, who fell out of the championship field last week, has eon the last four road course races,

(NASCAR FUTURE)—Here’s a name to watch: Connor Zillisch. He’s just 19 year old and won his ninth race of the year on Saturday at Kansas, still racing with a broken collarbone.

(INDYCAR)—It sometimes takes a while for the winner of any sport’s most important event to fully absorbe the importance of what they have done.  The realization recently came to Alex Palou, the winner of this year’s Indianapolis 500 when he sat in a sculptor Willam Behrend’s studio in Asheville, North Carolina as his face emerged from clay.

Alex Palou, 2025 Indianapolis 500 race winner, during the formal sitting with William Behrends for creating the silver image on the Borg-Warner Trophy at William Behrends Studio on Sept. 18, 2025, in Tryon, N.C.

The clay bust will be used to cast in sterling silver a tiny image of Palou’s face that will be placed on the Borg-Warner trophy that is permanently held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His image will join those of Ray Harroun, who won the first 500 in 1911, Tommy Milton, who became the first driver to win two of the races in 1923, Louie Meyer, who in 1936  became the first to win three of the races—and who started the tradition that Palou followed this year of celebrating the win with a drink of cold milk—and A. J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr., Rick Mears, and Helio Castroneves, the only drivers to win the 500 four times.

Eight winners of the trophy at the Indianapolis start/finish line: Front row (L-R) Will Power, Josef Newgarden, Scott Dixon, Takuma Sato. Back row: Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter Reay. Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya

“To know that I can come to the (Indianapolis Motor Speedway) Museum in like 40 or 50 years, or wherever that trophy is, and see my face and hopefully remember the memories I’ve created this year, it makes it super special. I know my name and face will be there forever,” he said during the carving session.

For as long as sterling silver and the Borg-Warner Trophy exist, Alex Palou’s face will be part of it and the racing history it preserves.

There’s other stuff going on with IndyCar in the off-season—

The latest Formula One driver to check out an IndyCar is Mick Schumacher, wo will make test runs at the Speedway on October 13.  Schumacher is the son of seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher, who won five races when Formula One ran the Indianapolis road course in the early 2000s. He’ll test a car owned by Rahal Letterman Lanegan Racing. He has been running in the World Endurance Car circuit the last couple of years.

Although Alex Palou dominated the series this year with eight wins and 13 podium finishes, a record number of drivers finished in the top three places in the seventeen races this year.

IndyCar’s Curt Cavin records that it has been a decade since so many drivers posted podium finishes in the series. This year, 16 of the 27 regular series drivers had at least one change to spay the campaign, including Scott Dixon who had his 145th top-three, extending his record.

Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard, celebrated six times. Kyle Kirkwood was on the podium three times this year, each time on the top step.

David Malukis will move into Will Power’s seat with Penske racing next year. Power has moved on to Andretti Global. He drove for Foyt Racing this year. Foyt has a technical alliance with Penske and it had been assumed that Malukis would move to Penske after Power’s contract expired. Malukis finished second in the Indianapolis 500 in May.

Indycar will be back on March 1st with its traditional season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.

(Photo Credits: Scott R. LePage, Indycar; Borg Warner, Trophy; Bob Priddy, Elliott)