Sports: The Sports Society Page; The top 100 in the NFL; The Three W’s as All-Star Selections, and our weekly dose of speed.

Posted on July 7, 2026 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

This has been the most famous kissing photo in New York history—Alfred Eisenstadt’s image of a sailor and a nurse celebrating in Times Square the end of WWII. Now there’s a rival (although, not really. It’s just an image inspired by historic one.)

For the society-watchers, here are some details reported by various media of the wedding of the year so far, the Swift/Kelce nuptials held in a quaint little chapel called Madison Square Garden:

The officiating officer was comedian Adam Sandler whose 2025 movie sequel Happy Gilmore 2 included a cameo by Kelce, whom Sandler called “a gentle, nice guy, and funny as hell…a great actor and a real human.” He told TIME magazine Swift is “incredible” and “ridiculously nice to his children.” They didn’t have a lot of maids of honor and male counterparts. Her brother, Ausin, was “man of honor,’ and Kelce’s brother, Jason, was the best man.

VARIETY reported Kelce’s boss, Andy Reid found the advice given the couple by Sandler to be “really touching.” (Sandler told them, “Kiss every chance you have. Every day. Whether you’re going to bed or going to work. Whenever, go ahead and kiss her.”)

An immediate honeymoon does not appear to be on the horizon, according to knowledgeable Swift-Kelce constant observers.

So, it’s official. The All-American jock and the homecoming queen are no longer just a couple. They’re a MARRIED couple. We hope they have the strength to endure the heat of the spotlight and the expected tabloid headlines forecasting the worst.

Now we can get on with the less important stuff.

(CHIEFS)—-CBS Sports has put out a list of the 100 best players in the NFL. Kelce isn’t on it but the Chiefs have three percent of that list—Parick Mahomes, center Creed Humphrey, and Defensive Lineman Chris Jones. Mahomes is number 7 on the list, Humphrey 23^rd, and Jones is 62nd.

The list was put together by CBS’ Pete Prisco, who has covered the NFL for thirty years. He says of Mahomes, who was number one last year, “He’s still one of the best – if not the best – quarterbacks in the league.”

Humphrey, who allowed zero sacks and only seven pressures in 708 pass-blocking snaps last year “was the best center in the league again last season, displaying the ability to move people in the run game and excel in pass protection. Patrick Mahomes has to love having him as his center.”

Jones’ 63 quarterback pressures last year ranked him third in the NFL. He was 18^th on last years list and Prisco comments, “He’s not the player he was a few years ago, but he’s still capable of being a force inside. The sack numbers have declined in recent years, and he hasn’t had double-digit sacks since 2023.”

His top five players are Rams Defensive End Myles Garrett (whose 23 sacks last year set a new record), Rams QB Matthew Stafford, the MVP last year, Bills QB Josh Allen, Cincinnati WR Ja’Marr Chase, and Bengals QB Joe Burrows, who, like Mahomes, missed a chunk of games las year with an injury. The only other player rated above Mahomes is Detroit Offensive Tackle Penel Sewell

(HARDY)—The most recent report on Missouri Tiger running back from Coach Drinkwitz is that he is ahead of schedule in recovering from a gunshot wound to his leg but he still has a lot of recovering to do.

His situation has not kept him from being listed as a pre=season All-American by the Walter Camp Foundation. On the list with him is Kewan Lacey of Ole Miss, who started his college career at Mizzou before transferring in 2025.

The Tiger PR machine reminds us we are about 58 days away from the first game of the 2026 season opener with Arkansas Pine Bluff.

(UFL)—Almost two dozen players from the recently-finished United Football League season have been given a chance to make a National Football League roster. Two of them are from the St. Louis Battlehawks—receiver Hakeem Butler, who led the league receiving yards, and Corner Back Sean Fresch Jr. Both are going to get looks from the Denver Broncos.

Baseball—-

(ALL-STARS)—We are a week away from baseball’s All-Star team. Missouri’s teams have one position player starter, Kansas City shortstop Bobby Winn, and one reserve position player, Jordan Walker of the Cardinals.

Royals starting pitcher Michael Wacha, a former Redbird, is on the AL pitching roster. Wacha is 5-6 for one of the worst teams in baseball this year. He’d have a much better record if he had better run support from a generally punchless lineup. His ERA is a decent 3.45. He has 91 strikeouts in 114.1 innings. He leads the league in innings pitched.

As always, there are those whose absence sparks some comment. The biggest might be former Cardinals pitcher Sonny Gray, who leads the American League in wins, at 10-1 and is second in ERA (2.61) to Tampa Bay’s Nick Martinez, who also didn’t make the AL roster.

Gray’s teammate from St. Louis also with the Red Sox, first baseman Willson Contreras, might make the team after all because chosen starter Vladimir Guerrero Jr., is having back issues and says he’ll sit out.

The Cardinals’ only representative on the National League All-Star roster is outfielder Jordan Walker, who ways he was near tears when manager Oliver Marmol announced to the team in the locker room that Walker had made the squad. Marmol says, “Part of the message wasn’t so much just the fact that he’s produced over three months, it’s three years of perseverance to get to this point.”

Cardinals first baseman Alec Burleson is not on the National League roster although he started this week tied for third on the RBI list (four behind Jordan Walker’s 67). Some also think St. Louis DH Ivan Herrera should have made the team. He had ten homers and 58 RBIs at the start of this week.

The game is a week from tonight. It’s the 96^th one. The American League leads 48=45 with two ties. The game will be in Philadelphia.

Moving along with those who move along—-

(NASCAR)—Joe Gibbs Racing rolled up a 1-2-3 finish at Chicagoland last weekend with Chase Briscoe outrunning Christopher Bell with Denny Hamlin getting the best view of their last lap fight.

Hamlin started from the pole

Briscoe, Bell, and Hamlin were joined by four other Toyotas in the top ten, the best 1=10 finish in Toyota’s history in NASCAR Cup races.

Briscoe’s remark in victory lane, “I feel so American winning in the Bass Pro Shop’s Red, White, and Blue car, 4th of July weekend, 250 years,” while driving a Japanese-badged car might seem a little odd to some. However, Toyota’s larges Camry manufacturing plant in the world is in Georgetown, Kentucky, where it had been producing cars for 38 years.

(INDYCAR)—The IndyCar title chase has tightened with Pato O’Ward’s win at Mid-Ohio ahead of teammate Christian Lundgaard, the first time Arrow-McLaren has finished 1-2 in its long IndyCar history.

O’Ward got past Lundgaard, who was headed for his second straight win, when Lundgaard went wide on a turn and O’Ward got under him. He stretched the lead to almost a full second at the end. At one time he had a 2.5 second lead on Lundgaard but ten laps later, with ten to go, the lead had been whittled to a second and a half.

O’Ward has ten wins in the series on nine different tracks and is only the second driver to win ten or more games for the team since Johnny Rutherford picked up 18 driving for the team 1973-79.

Kyle Kirkwood joined O’Ward and Lundgaard ont he podium. Points leader Alex Palou finished fifth and saw his lead over Kirkwood to shrink to still-substantial 56 points after eleven of the 18 races IndyCar will run this year.

(Photo Credits: Times Square Kiss—Google Images; Wedding—JJ’s House; Walker, Witt and Wacha—MLB; Briscoe—NASCAR; O’Ward—Bob Priddy at WWTR

Sports: Baseball Midseason, More Tiger Signings, More Speed

Posted on June 30, 2026 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BASEBALL)—Major League baseball passed the midseason mark last weekend with both of our teams getting bounce-back wins.

The Cardinals seem to have played themselves out of the playoff picture with seven losses in nine game before taking a 2-1 in from the Marlins Sunday. Kyle Leahy won for the first time since mid=May and Bryan Torres provided the offense with a two-run homer Sunday.

The Royals, after a 22-1 mauling by the White Sox also avoided a series sweep by beating the White Sox 5-4. That gave them a split in their last ten games but still left them with the worst record in the American League. Only the National League’s Colorado Rockies are having a worse season at 33-51 while the Royals were 35-50 at week’s end.

(MOMOVESON)—Former St. Louis Cardinals executive John Mozeliak has a new job, moving on to become interim general manager of the Los Angeles Angels.

(ONTHEFARM)—Redbirdrants.com has checked on four Redbirds sent down to Memphis to find themselves.—Nolan Gorman, Yohel Pozo, Thomas Saggese, and Victor Scott II.

Scott started hot with nine hits and four steals in his first six games. In the next seven he had just three hits, stole no bases and struck out 11 times.

Gorman, who headed to Memphis via Florida after striking out half of the time in St. Louis struck out his first four times in Memphis before getting his first hit but has continued to have strikeout problems although he did hit two home runs and walking three times. Blaze Jordan is doing well enough in The Show that there appears to be little rush to get Gorman back in St. Louis.

Saggese’s batting average remans in the low 200s but has walked more times than he has fanned.

Pozo caught ten of his first fifteen games in Memphis but he has to contend with the play of Leonardo Bernal who is a catcher-first baseman and might be a victim of a numbers game.

(MIZZFB)—The Missouri Tigers continue mining home state talent with the latest commitment coming from four-star running back Kingston Miles of St. Louis, who originally committed to Auburn. He plays high school ball for St. Mary’s, the school that has produced current Mizzou running back Jamal Roberts and former Tiger wide receiver Kevin Coleman Jr., who was drafated in the fifth round of this year’s NFL draft.

Six of the states ten top-ranked players in this recruiting cycle now have committed to Missouri.

Kansas City offensive lineman Kyler Kuhn, a four-star, player at St. Pius X, has joined Miles. He’s a 6-3 280 pounder.

Others who’ve committed in recent days are a pair of three-stars: Cornerback T’ari Miller from Miami and Jaylen Hill, an 6-5, 295 pound offensive tackle from the state of Louisiana.

Motoring along—

(INDYCAR)—Two Indianapolis 500 winners’ off-the-track situations might signal a significant change in the IndyCar lineup for 2027. One definitely will.

Speedcafe is reporting that the deadline has passed for Chip Ganassi Racing to have exclusive negotiating rights to keep six-time series champion Scott Dixon, leaving him free to talk to other teams. The Dixon-Ganassi combination has been a constant in IndyCar since 2003.

Ganassi’s exclusive negotiating window with Dixon recently lapsed, allowing the Indianapolis 500 winner to speak with other teams. Arrow McLaren has been mentioned as a possibility. Dixon is 45 and has one Indianapolis 500 win to his credit. He has led more laps in the Indianapolis 500 than any other driver—709. The most laps led by any other active driver is Will Power’s 145.

The winner of this year’s Indianapolis 500, Felix Rosenqvist, says he has taken an offer from a rival team, speculation suggesting the Andretti Global arm of Arrow McLaren, and will move on from Meyer-Shank racing at the end of the year.

Rosenqvist had been with Arrow McLaren before moving to Meyer Shank two years ago. Meyer Shank minority owner Helio Castroneves, a four time 500 winner, says the team has started talking with rookie Caio Collett, a Brazilian driver for A. J. Foyt’s team. Collett has had some impressive performances this year although his overall results have been poor.

Team co-owner Jim Meyer told the Indianapolis Star that a decision will come later whether to go with a newcomer or a veteran-ish driver is the correct direction to take, saying, ” Ultimately, we’re all trying to figure out how to consistently beat Alex Palou right now, to be honest with you. So however we think we can do that best is how we’re going to look at that.”

(NASCAR)—-Shane Van Gisbergen how stands just one win away from tying Jeff Gordon’s record of winning nine Cup road races. Van Gisbergen fought off a determined late challenge from Chase Briscoe to win at Sonoma.

The race was the last on a road course this year. Van Gisbergen’s win puts him 14^th in the points standings, two slots above the cutoff point for drivers wanting to be among the ten that will race for the season championship. Two former champions, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano (a three time champion) are having less than mediocre seasons and rank 18^th and 20^th.

Eight races remain before the championship runoff begins.

The points standings have a new number one for the first time since Tyler Reddick won the Dahytona 500, the opening race of the season.

Denny Hamlin’s 26^th place finish gave him enough points to be one ahead of Reddick, who lost four laps early that he could never get back. He finished 36^th, last, in the race.

(Picture credits: Cardinals—Chris Creamer’s Sports Logo Page; Royals—Pinterest; Dixon at Indianapolis—Rick Gevers; Rosenqvist at the bricks—Bob Priddy; Van Gisbergen at WWTR-Priddy)

Sports: Avoiding a Sweep, Getting Out of Jail, and Surprise Winners on the Track

Posted on June 23, 2026 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BASEBALL)—The Kansas City Royals missed getting their first sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals at home in 25 years, but they still won the three-game series. The final game, Sunday, was great for the spectators even though the Royals lost it.

St. Louis 12, Kansas City 10.

Eight home runs. 28 hits. Neither starting pitcher made it to the third inning. A combined dozen relievers followed them to the mound.

Cardinals rookie J. J. Wetherholt had two of the home runs, drove in three runs and scored three times. With one of his two home runs Wetherholt tied an obscure record by a largely forgotten Redbird. His third leadoff home run tied a rookie record set by Bo Hart 24 years ago.

Who?

Bo Hart had a roaring start to his big league career in 2003 when he broke Kirby Puckett’s record by hitting .460 in his first ten games. He finished the season with four homers, to leading off. But a month into the 2004 season he was sent down and never came back to the bigs.

The Cardinals had lost four in a row. The Royals had a three-game winning streak.

(CHIEFS)—Rashee Rice has finished his thirty-jail sentence that started shortly after his knee surgery. His time in jail meant his rehabilitation program could not be fully implemented. He also missed the voluntary offseason workouts and the mandatory minicamp practices.

Rice is in the last year of his four-year, $6.5 million rookie contract. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent next March unless the Chief slap a “franchise” tag on him to keep him through ’27.

(HARDY)—Latest word on Tiger running back Ahmad Hardy is that he’s been hard at work on a Stairmaster in the Tiger Training facility rebuilding the strength in his left thigh after a gunshot wound requiring emergency surgery. Coach Drinkwitz says he’s making good progress but it’s too early to determine if he’ll be in playing condition for the season opener in a little more than a month.

(NFL)—It has been seven years since the NFL has held a supplemental draft. Players have to make themselves available for it—Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsbey has announced he’ll turn pro instead of wrestling opponents about his eligibility after a gambling conviction.

The draft allows teams to submit bids and choose the rounds they want to enter. The first round of bidding is open to non-playoff teams with six or fewer wins. If no team enters from that category, non-playoff teams with more than six wins go next. Playoff teams are last, based on their most recent records. If a team wins a player, the team forfeits the equivalent pick in the next year’s draft.

The supplemental draft is kind of an auction. It’s held only when eligible players have put themselves on the market. This will be the fiftieth year since the draft began and only 46 players have been taken.

Jalen Thompson, chosen by the Cardinals in the 2019 draft, is the last player was taken.

—-On the Road Where Mistakes Make Losers and Surprise Winners—

(INDYCAR)—-IndyCar defending champion Alex Palou started from the pole at Road America and was running second when he was caught speeding on pit road and forced to do a drive-through penalty that set him back far enough to take him out of contention. He was able to salvage fifth.

The bigger story was Christian Lundgaard, who started 12^th and whose left front wing was damaged in a first lap tangle with Scott Dixon incident that forced him to the pits for repairs and dropped him to last place, 25^th. He made it to the lead on the 43^rd of the race’s 55 laps before gibing way to Josef Newgarden for four laps and Marcus Amstrong for 18. But Lundgaard got past Armstrong to lead the last seven laps including a final lap shootout coming out of caution. Davis Malukas finished second for the third time this year.

The last time an IndyCar driver went last-to first was in 2024 when Alexander won the Grand Prix of Monterey.

(NASCAR)—A unique NASCAR Race Sunday produced a special result and seemingly provide a positive answer about whether the series can run a street-course race on a military base.

The cars snaked through the 3.4-mile naval base course in San Diego, California with part-time driver Corey Heim getting his first Cup victory. Bubba Wallace, who lost a wheel early in the race rallied back to second.

Road racing ace Shane Van Gisbergen, who had the fastest qualifying run, was taken out in a multi-car crash about halfway through the race.

Heim, 23, who was running only his sixth Cup race of the year and only the 13^th in his young career. He’ll move into a fulltime ride next year as a teammate of Tyler Reddick, the current points leader, and Wallace.

(Picture credits:Heim—Instagram; Hart—Fanatics Collect; Rice—KMBC TV; Lundgaard at Indy—Rick Gevers)

Sports: Catching up on Some Missourians; Smith, Anonube, Porters in Brooklyn, Seattle; and other sports

Posted on June 16, 2026 by bpriddy

by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(WHEREARETHEYNOW)—Aldon Smith, one of the University of Missouri’s greatest linebackers, died Saturday in a friend’s truck. The cause of his death has not been disclosed. He was 36 and had dealt with various legal problems that cost him his career.

Smith reportedly had blown his NFL millions and was delivering pizzas with a friend when he died. When he was straight he was one of the best defensive backs in the NFL—his first two years with the 49ers. But drug tests in 2014 led to a nine-game ban. The team dumped him after several DUI arrests. He was picked up by the Raiders who kept him for nine games before cutting him. He was out of football before the Cowboys brought him back in 2020. He was in all sixteen games but did not return in 2021.

Former Missouri Tiger Tucker McCann has been released by the Battlehawks. He had kicked well (10 for 11 in field goals with some beyond fifty yards and a long one of 58) and 6 for 7 on PATS. But he was sidelined by a pre-game injury in week five. There is some speculation that his release from the IR might be because he’s caught the eye of an NFL team.

Jontay Porter, whose possible NBA career was ended after just 37 games in The Show and a career largely in the development league by his gambling, played a couple of games for the United Basketball Leagues Seattle Superhawks this spring. The team won the league championship with only one loss but without Porter except for the brief appearance.

Porter was convicted in the gambling case and had been scheduled for sentencing last December 10 but the sentencing was delayed. As far as we know he is in federal custody and still is awaiting sentencing. Prosecutors want him to go to prison for 41-51 months although he could get much more. The Los Angeles Times reports his case remains part of a multi-million dollar investigation of NBA players and gambling.

He had a triple-double in his debut with the Superhawks in which he set a league rebounding record. But he played only one other game finished averaging 26.5 points, 18.5 rebounds and 9.5 assists per game.

Older brother Michael Porter has wrapped up his first season with the Brooklyn Nets, making it the best year of his seven-year career, one of the few bright spots for a team that finished 20-62. In 52 games, he averaged 24.2 points on 46% shooting from the field, 7.1 rebounds and three assists. Porter suffered a left hamstring injury that cut short his year after 52 games.

And then there’s Ogugua Anunoby, or “O.G.” as everybody knows him, the Jefferson City High School product who is part of the NBA champion New York Knicks and who will forever be the hero for tipping in the winning basket in the Knicks’ epic comeback in game for the the NBA finals. That basket overshadowed the other 31 points he scored that night to put New York up 3-1 against the Spurs, who wrapped things up Saturday with another comeback win in San Antonio.

Anunoby is one of the great misses for the University of Missouri. He graduated from Jefferson City High School in 2014 and received scholarship offers from Indian, Georgia, Iowa, George Mason and Ole Miss, but not from the Tigers, coached then by Kim Anderson. He chose Indiana, played a couple of years there and went to the NBA.

In 2014, while a senior at Jefferson City High School in Missouri, Anunoby received scholarship offers from several schools, including Indiana, Georgia, Iowa, George Mason, and Ole Miss Wikipedia. Missouri was among the schools that contacted him, but he ultimately chose Indiana University over them. In 2017, he was the 23^rd overall choice in the NBA draft, taken by the Toronto Raptors.

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs are comfortable with their draft choices and other personnel that they could let tackle Wanya Morris go to the Atlanta Falcons for a sixth-round 2027 draft pick. The Chief also are giving the Falcons a seventh-round pick. The general feeling is that the Chiefs are not giving up much but they’re not getting much either.

Morris started only 16 games in three years for Kansas City and posted below-average numbers for a starter.

(UFL)—The United Football League has crowned the Louisville Kings their 2026 champion. The Kings, who defeated the St. Louis Battlehawks to make it to the United Bowl, beat the DC Defenders 27-20. They finish the season 7-4. DC United finishes 6-5. The Kings lost their first three games of the year but won seven of the remaining eight games.

(BUTLER)—Battlehawks receiver Hakeem Butler has earned another shot at an NFL career. The UFL’s Offensive Player of the Year has signed a contract with the Denver Broncos.

Butler has been the UFL Offensive Player of the Year twice in three seasons. He missed a game and the team changed quarterbacks twice but he still let the league with 641 yards receiving with an eye-opening average of 22.1 yards per catch, a league record, this year.

He finished just eleven yards short of his team record, with nine catches for 30 or more yards including a 75-yard touchdown bomb against the Defenders in the third week of the season.

Butler is 30, stands 6’5” went to school at Iowa State where, as a junior he had 60 receptions for a school record 1,318 yards. He opted out of his senior season and was a 2019 fourth-round pick of the Arizona Cardinals. He also had brief stints with the Panthers, Eagles, Steelers, and Bengals and also played in the CFL.

BASEBALL

(CARDINALS)—The St. Louis Cardinals finished their week winning seven of their last ten and being in a playoff position if the season ended now. They’re five games behind the Brewers in their division and seven games above .500.

But they’re not standing pat.

In the last ten days, they’ve sent Victor Scott II to Memphis and activated Nathan Church. They finally sent Nolan Gorman and Hunter Dobbins down while moving first baseman Blaze Jordan to the big league roster along with right hander Chris Roycroft. They made roster sace for Jordan by moving third baseman Ramon Urias to the 60-day DL. He has problems with his right elbow. And they’ve added left hander Nathan Shinn to their system. He had been with the Lake Erie Crushers of the Frontier League.

(MONDAY)—Dustin May settled for a one-hit complete game against the Padres last night. The Redbirds won the game 3-0. May didn’t allow a base runner until he issued a walk in the seventh inning. It’s his first complete major league game in 71 starts. He’s now 5-6.

May is the first Cardinals starter since June 27, last year when Sonny Gray one-hit the Guardians.

In all of Major League Baseball this year, there have been only nine complete games and six individual shutouts.

(RECORD)—One of Albert Pujols’ records with the Cardinals has been broken. Ivan Herrera’s two home runs against the Twins on Saturday five him 21 pinch-hit homers by a Cardinals designated hitter. Pujols had 19.

(TROUBLE DOWN ON THE FARM)—The city council in Memphis is arguing about whether the city should put five-million dollars into the stadium where the Cardinals top minor league team plays. A city council budget committee has refused to commit the five million the team wants for “mandatory essential life-safety overhauls, HVAC requirements, and…MLB facility compliance.

The city is involved because it bought the stadium twelve years ago to keep the Cardinals from moving the franchise and in doing so assumed the obligation to cover major improvements. The team pays the bills for all operating expenses including utilities. The Cardinals pay the city only $30,000 in rent but tourist experts say the city benefits in total economic activity because of the stadium to the tune of almost $120 million.

There are five years left on the lease.

(ROYALS)—The Royals and the Angels are tied for the worst record in the American League—29-43. The Royals are ten games out in their division. The Angels are in a better position because they’re in a division in which only one team is above water—the Mariners who are only 37-36.

The Royals ended their latest losing streak at four by beating the Astros Sunday. They’ve had three six-game losing streaks and the season isn’t half done.

The Royals are generally punchless and have had inconsistent bullpen all season.

Sam McDowell, who covers the Royals for The Kansas City Star, has noted the team that was 26^th in the league in scoring last year is scoring the fewest runs this year in all of major league baseball, that in their last 223 games (all of last year and so far this year), the Royals have scored three or more runs in an inning only 74 times. Four guys the team counts on for offense, Bobby Witt Jr., Salvatore Perez, Vinnie Pasquantino, and Maikel Garcia are hitting well below their averages from 2025.

On top of that, Pasquantino has been put on the ten-day DL with a broken wrist bone. Seth Lugo is due off the list this week after taking a line drive off his forehead last week. Outfielder Kyle Isbell is on the ten day DL with a foot injury.

The “good” news is that Kris Bubic has started his rehab at Omaha. Second baseman Jonathan India has been moved from the ten-day to the sixty-day disabled list with left shoulder problems.

The Royals start a series tomorrow night against the Washington Nationals.

Now: Cars

(INDYCAR)—IndyCar heads to its longest race track to start the second half of its season next weekend. Driver and crews finally got a little off-track time since the race a week ago near St. Louis, but they’re headed to Road America at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for the first of the nine remaining races on the schedule—three more ovals and six more road courses including the inaugural race through the D.C. Mall on the July 4^th weekend.

The circuit is four miles, with fourteen turns, and held its first race 71 years ago. The race will be 55 laps, about 221 miles.

Alex Palou, who leads the series points chase, has won three of the last four events there. Starting near the front is almost mandatory for anyone hoping for a win. Nobody who has started 14^th or lower has won an IndyCar race at Road America.

The championship this year would be Palou’s fourth, third in a row. It’s his to lose as he heads into the last half of the season up on Kyle Kirkwood by 49 points and 68 more than David Malukas.

-0-0-0-0-0-

IndyCar is mourning the loss of Paul Reinbol, half of the Dreyer & Reinbold racing team. He was 65. He had built on his success as a car dealer in Indianapolis to run cars in the 500 for a quarter century. Oriol Servia had he team’s best finish in the 500 when he came home fourth in 2012. Drivers for the team have led laps in four of the last six races and the team has had entries. Last year, Ryan Hunter Ray had the lead in a D&R car with 31 laps left when he ran out of gas chasing his second 500 title.

(NASCAR)—For the first time in his two-decade career, Denny Hamlin has won three races in a row. Sunday’s win at Pocono was his eighth at the track and the 64^th of his career, breaking a tie with Kyle Busch.

Christopher Bell and his crew gambled on fuel and lost, big time, when Bell had to pit with five laps left. Bell, racing with a wrist broken in a crash last week, wound up 26^6h.

Points leader Tyler Reddick, who won five races early in the season but who has struggled to find podium finishes since, finished second to Hamlin but sawhis early-season 100 point lead shrink to only a dozen.

NASCAR takes to a road course next weekend on a naval base in California.

(FORMULA 1—Seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton won his first race since joining the Ferrari team at the start of 2025. His win pulls him to within 41 points of Kimi Antonelli, a teenage F1 sensation who car dropped out with mechanical problems. Hamilton wants to become the first F1 driver to win eight world championships.

Sports: Re-nesting the Birds; Bring Home a Chief; The Four-Point Field Goal; Consequential Track Wins.

Posted on June 9, 2026 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BYE REDBIRDS BYE)—The Cardinals have welcomed back Noot and Nathan to the big nest and have kicked Victor Scott II down to Memphis after low-offensive production in the first couple of months of the season. Nathan Church came off the DL for last night’s game. Lars Nootbar had a solid outing in his return after months of recovery from heel surgery.

The moves can set up an outfield of Church in left, Jordan Walker in center and Nootbar in right. That leaves Nelson Velasquez to rotate in on offense and provide power off the bench.

Scott still isn’t showing he can consistently hit big league pitching. He was sent down with a .194 average, two homers and nine RBIs. Church, on the other hand, has played 45 games with five homers, 18 RBIs and a .247 average.

Nootbar returned Sunday with a two-run game-winning homer against the Reds.

(ROYAL PAINS)—Two key members of the Kansas City Royals are hurting and as this is written, their reappearance in the lineup is uncertain.

Bobby Witt has a right knee that is giving him more trouble as the season wears on. He left the field om the Seventh inning Sunday. Manager Matt Quatraro says its “nothing acute” but it got worse as the game wore on. Witt has not missed a game this year.

Royals catcher Salvador Perez has missed the last couple of game after getting hit by a pitch on his right thumb. Outfielder Jac Caglianone left the game with a sore shoulder after hitting the wall. Maikel Garcia will move to shortstop if Witt spend some time off the field. The Royals have rookie Carter Jensen ready to go behind the plate if needed. He’s played 34 games there this year, five more than Perez, who has spent some time at first base.

Although Perez’s overall batting performance is down this year, he and Witt are tied for the team lead in homers with nine. He’s also just five home runs behind the team record for career homers, now held by George Brette, who had 317.

On the good news side, there’s Kris Bubic who began his rehab assignment today in Omaha. He’s been on the 15-day DL with left elbow soreness. He had Tommy John surgery three years ago and missed the last half of last year with a rotator cuff strain. He had a pretty good season going with a 4.11 ERA and 51 strikeouts in 50.1 innings. He had four quality starts in nine outings.

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs are bring back a former teammate who might be able to help a young cornerback corps. NFL Insider reports the chiefs have signed L’Jarrius Snead to a one-year, potential five-million dollar contract.

The Chiefs cornerback group going into fall camp is their number eight overall draftee Mansoor DeLane, holdover Nohl Williams, and free agent Kader Kahou

The Chiefs traded Snead to the Tennessee Titans in 2024. The Titans signed him for four years, $76 million but he was in only a dozen games in the two seans there and was released in the offseason. He intercepted ten passes in his four years with the Chiefs and was on two Super Bowl winning teams.

(BATTLEHAWKS)—The St. Louis Battlehawks have fallen out of the UFL playoffs in the first round, falling to the Louisville Kings, arguably the hottest team in the league, or one of them. Louisville lost its first three games and has won seven of eight since then, the latest being 29-20.

The win puts the Kings in the United Bowl, the league championship game, against the DC Defenders. Louisville blasted one of the league’s best defenses with two touchdown runs of 50 yards or more. It is the third straight year the Battlehawks have lost a chance to play for the league championship.

St. Louis won the statistical game, with double the Louisville first downs (22-11), ran 75 plays to the Louisville’s 42. But their offense, one of the league’s weakest, didn’t get the ball across the goal line enough. They led 20-18 going into the last quarter.

But Louisville got the touchdown and then kicker Tanner Brown nailed down the win with a 63 yard field goal. The UFL gives field goals longer than 60 yards four points.

St. Louis finishes the year 6-5.

A different kind of running game:

(INDYCAR)—IndyCar reached the halfway mark of its18-race season and the halfway point of its six-race schedule for ovals just before midnight at World Wide Raceway, just across the river from St. Louis. The race was delayed twice—almost an hour, total, for brief sprinkles of rain.

The Track is a friendly place for Penske driver Josef Newgarden, who won there for the sixth time in eleven races at the track Sunday night. It’s his second win this year.

Newgarden is IndyCar’s ovalmeister, with fifteen of his 34 career wins coming on ovals, two of them at the Indianapolis 500. He still wears a fiberglass boot because of a leg injury suffered in this year’s 500, although he takes it off for driving.

He finished about seven-tenths of a second ahead of Marcus Ericsson (on the left on the podium) and almost two seconds ahead of Christian Rasmussen (right). The finishes by Ericsson and Rasmussen are their bests this year.

Ericsson led more than twice as many laps as any other driver—Newgarden—114-53 of the 260 laps on the mile and a half track. But it was Rasmussen that Newgarden had to get past after close racing for several laps after the last stoppage.

McLaughlin made a spirited charge toward the front on the restart on Lap 234, climbing from ninth to fifth in just four laps. But the Kiwi and the other cars that pitted for tires didn’t have enough traction from the fresher rubber or speed to challenge the top four down the stretch.

The race was hotly contested all night long with 268 passes for position in he 260 laps, a track record.

Points leader Alex Palou started on pole for the fourth straight race but tried to stretch his fuel one lap too far. He coasted into his pits with a dead engine that then refused to re-fire. He finished 17^th, two laps down but he still has a substantial lead on Kyle Kirkwood, who finished sixth.

Newgarden’s win puts him into a ninth-place tie with Al Unser Jr., on the all-time Indycar wins list. A. J. Foyt is number one with 67, eight more than Scott Dixon, who finished 12^th Sunday night.

(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin’s 63rd career win—the second time in two weeks that he’s gone from last to first—was emotional one because it lifted him into a ninth place on the all-times Cup wins list with Kyle Busch. His fourth win of the year ended with him turning a victory lap while holding a black flag with the number 18 on it—-Busch’s number for most of his racing career before his death a couple of weeks ago. Hamlin and Busch had been teammates at one time.

Hamlin had the top qualifying speed but had to start last among the 37 cars because his team made some adjustments in his car after qualifying.

Points leader Tyler Reddick failed to finish and leads Hamlin by only 52 points now.

The race had eleven caution flags, a race record.

(Photo credit: Bob Priddy)

Sports: I Got the Fever; Going Opposite Baseball Directions; Playoff Football; Detroit and Nashville for Speed

Posted on June 2, 2026 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BEFORE WE GET STARTED): There is the NBA and then there is basketball and it is being played by women.

We took in our second Indiana Fever game when we were in Indianapolis recently, chance to watch Sophie and Caitlin play—Sophie is kind of considered Caitlin’s enforcer—and again were greatly impressed by the intensity of the women’s game and the fact that people of normal height but extraordinary skill worked the ball, set up plays, had tremendous assists, fierce blocks, and ran up 90 points in four ten-minute quarters.

And the pregame! Tiger fans, get a load of this (anytime you see someone wearing number 8, it’s former Tiger Sophie Cunningham)

Now, on to regular business

(BASEBALL)—Neither of our major league baseball teams was much to talk about this week. The Cardinals muddled along and the Royals sank deeper into mediocrity. In fact, the Royals dropped to a season-worst 15 games under .500 with their sweep by the Rangers, making Kansas City losers of 16 of their last 19 including two straight sweeps and four overall. Manager Matt Quartaro was at least honest when he said, manager Matt Quatraro said Sunday. “I mean, we didn’t play well enough to win a game.”

The Royals were 10-18 in May. Four of their pitchers are out with injuries and the the offense isn’t showing much spark heading into June. They began the new week with the second-worst record in the American League (Detroit is a half-game behind them.)

The Cardinals took the rubber game of the series with the Cubs Sunday night to hold onto second place in a division in which every team is playing better than break-even ball. They’re five games over .500 but trail the Brewers by four and a half at the start of a new week.

They opened a series last night against the Texas Rangers who are managed by Cardinals fan favorite Skip Schumaker, who played in St. Louis 2005=2012.

(DOWN ON THE FARM)—-A rarity, maybe it’s history—for minor league baseball happened in Springfield Saturday afternoon when Jurrangelo Cinintje, obtained in a winter trade and now the number for player in the Cardinals pipeline, started for the Springfield Cardinals.

He struck out Wichita Wind Surge outfielder Garrett Spain twice.

He did it once throwing right-handed and once throwing left-handed. He wasn’t too spectacular otherwise—three runs, three hits and a walk.

He’s 23, has made ten starts this year and is 3-2 with a 5.21 ERA

(BATTLEHAWKS)—-The St. Battlehawks go into the first round of the UFL playoffs at 6-4 after Friday night’s upset by the Dallas. 20-16. They had clinched a home field first round playoff spot a week earlier.

Dallas had lost six in a row before finishing the regular season with the victory. St. Louis helped he Renegades get the win by turning the ball over four times in eleven possessions (1 fumble, two interceptions and a 3-and-out).

The Orlando Storm go into the playoffs 8-2 with the Battlehawks at 6-4. The Louisville Kings are 5-4, and the DC Defenders are the four-seed with a 5-5 record.

The first round playoffs next weekend will match Orlando and DC and St. Louis against Louisville in the Battledome, as it’s now called. The ‘Hawks beat the Kings 16-3 earlier.

The Kings started the season 0-3

On the track—

(INDYCAR)—The streets of Detroit hosted IndyCar one week after the spectacular Indianapolis 500 and this this time, the driver who started P1 finished in the same position

—a familiar face: Alex Palou. If he pulls off a win next weekend at World Wide Technology Speedway, he will have won half of the last 26 IndyCar events. He’s four out of eight this year. He’s well on the way to his fourth straight series title, up by 62 points over Kyle Kirkwood, the runner up, three seconds behind.

He led 71 of the 100 laps and took the lead for the final time on lap 69 when Kirkwood pitted.

(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, and Chase Briscoe were three-wide at the start of the last lap at Nashville but, as one long-ago broadcaster put it, “it was a wreck that didn’t happen….and Hamlin had the momentum coming off of the last turn.

Hamlin began the race on the pole but jumped the start and was sent to the back of the 38-car field. He fought his way back for the 62^nd victory of his career. He is now only one win behind Kyle Busch, who ranks ninth on the all-time Cup list.

(picture credits: Palou at Indianapolis—Bob Priddy; Battlehawks—Instagram; Pitcher—Springfield Daily Citizen)

Sports: Hardy Update; Winning and Losing Streaks end in Same Game; Biggest Weekend for Speed.

Posted on May 19, 2026 by bpriddy

by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(AHMED)—A suspect in the shooting of Missouri running back Ahmad Hardy has been caught in Paducah, Kentucky. Rashodrick Harris is being extradited to Mississippi to face two charges of aggravated assault. Authorities say additional charges might be added.

Three people taken into custody at the shooting site have been released.

Hardy has moved to a Columbia hospital after surgery in Mississippi on leg wound. He already has started physical therapy and could be released from the hospital this week. Coach Drinkwitz says Hardy’s status for the 2026 remains uncertain.

(MIZZPORT)—South Dakota guard Jordan Crawford is the fifth, and likely last, portal player to join the Missouri Tigers for next season. He’s 6-3, spent two years at College of Charleston then a year at Eastern Kentucky and was at South Dakota for the last season. He’s listed as a redshirt senior. He averaged 14.4 pointa game for the Coyotes last year and shot 37% from three.

Three Tigers last year are still without a new home court for the next season: Sebastian Mack, Jacob Crews, and Jevon Porter. Porter and Crews need hardship permits that will let them play.

(BILLSPORT)—The St. Louis University Billikens have restocked after losing most of their team that finished with the best record in school history. Several players have stayed and they’ll be joined by 6-7 guard Yousaf Ahmad, who comes south from Canada. Others players coming to St. Louis through the portal are Alon Michaeli, moving east from Colorado, and Elijah Stron, who’s moving west from South Carolina.

The Billikens lost Bobby Availa, their big mane in the middle. They’re hoping 6-11 freshman Sheek Pearson can step in. He was red shirted with Marquette last year.

They’re also picked up home town guy Jamison White, a 6=7 high school recruit from Vashon High in St. Louis.

Baseball:

(ROYALS/CARDINALS)—The Kansas City Royals broke their six-game losing streak Sunday against the Cardinals

The Royals are struggling with several injuries, perhaps the biggest one is starting pitcher Cole Ragans, who was put on the 15-day disabled list with a left elbow problem May 8. His return is uncertain although Kansas City Star reporter Jaylon Thompson says Ragans threw thirty pitches in the bullpen Sunday and felt good. But the teams is still deciding its next steps in his return.

Stephen Kolek shut down the Cardinal Sunday to end the Royals’ six-game streak. The Cardinals’s Masyn Wynn left the game in the seventh inning. He’s listed as day-to-day after tweaking his knee running to first base to avoid a double play.

The Royals have lost seven of their last ten games and have fallen out of a challenging position in their division. In fact, at 29-27, they’re last. Only two teams have fewer wins.

The Cardinals are eight games over .500 and only a game and a half behind the Cubs.

Football:

(BATTLEHAWKS)—The clock ran out on the St. Louis Battlehawks with the ‘Hawks two years away from tying the score against the Houston Gamblers. The 23-16 loss is the first home loss for St. Louis since the third game of last year and keeps them from locking up a playoff spot.

There are two games left in the UFL season before the top four teams go into a playoff. The Battlehawks are tied with the DC Defenders for second place in the league at 5-3. Orlando leads at 6-2.

The teams will face each other again on Thursday night in Houston.

The Big Motorsports Weekend:

Indianapolis 500 plus 600 miles and Charlotte and F1 in the picturesque streets of Monte Carlo.

(INDIANAPOLIS)—Alex Palou will start next Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 in the same place that he finished last year’s race—first. But the starting field behind him is less settled than it appeared to be Sunday.

Palou finished a tense Sunday with a run of 232.248 to win his second pole at the 500. He was the only driver to top 232 mph in the last round of qualifying, edging another former winner, Alexander Rossi, by .1726 of a second for the four-lap run. David Malukis, in his first 500 as member of the team owned by Speedway owner Roger Penske, starts from the outside of row one.

Felix Rosenqvist, who had led the qualifiers through the earlier rounds, was disappointed by his final run, which will start him fourth.

Then things changed.

The 33-car lineup for the race start was changed hours after the Palou’s qualifying run when post-qualifying inspections found unauthorized modifications to the cars of rookie Caio Collet and Jack Harvey.

Collet, who had qualified tenth and Harvey, who would have started 20^th, have been sent to the back of the field to 32^nd and 33^rd place for the start of the race.

A three-car crash yesterday as drivers adjusted their cars for racing trim destroyed one car and badly damaged another.

Rossi spun on the second turn and demolished the car he had qualified for the second starting position. He was taken to a hospital a short distance from the track but he was reported to be awake and in “good spirits” when removed from his wrecked car. Pato O’Ward, who was following Rossi, spun into Rossi’s car and badly damaged the car he had qualified for sixth starting position. A third driver, Romain Grosjean, scheduled to start 24^th, also spun trying to avoid the other two.

Multiple Contenders Crash in Indy 500 Practice

Two-time winners Josef Newgarden (who will start a disappointing 23^rd) and Takuma Sato (starting 12^th) had the top laps during the practice session that was shortened because of the crsh and because of rain.

Rossi, O’Ward, and Grosjean will have a chance to get their cars into racing trim one more time. The last practice before the race will be Friday.

(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin won NASCAR’s annual all-start race, a non-points contest that means one-million dollars to him and his crew.

He and the other Cup driver will run NASCR’s longest race Sunday evening, 400 laps, 600 miles on the Charlotte oval.

One member of the starting field will be Katherine Legge, the only woman driving in the Cup series this year, although she’s a part-time entrant. She will start 26 in the Indianapolis 500 that afternoon and fly to Charlotte for the race that night. She’ll be the first woman to try “the double.” She will be the sixth driver to try to run 1100 miles on Memorial Day Sunday. Tony Stewart is the only driver to finish both races on the same day—in 2001 when he was sixth at Indianapolis and third at Charlotte. Other drivers who’ve tried are John Andretti, Robby Gordon (who tried five times), Kurt Busch, and Kyle Larson.

(FORMULA 1)—Formula One’s race will be through the glamorous streets of Monte Carlo on the same general circuit as the one used in 1929 for the first race.

(Photo credit: Palou—IMS)

Sports: One More Tiger; Good Mahomes News; Baseball is Looking Good–and May Racing

Posted on May 5, 2026 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZZOUPORT)—The latest new Missouri Tiger basketball player is guard Kennard Davis, a St. Louis Vashon product coming over from BYU. He’s a 6-6 small forward who spent a year at Southern Illinois and two more at Brigham Young where he averaged 8.6 ppg last year.

247 Sports ranks Missouri’s recruit class this year as the 11^th best in the country.

Three guy’s on last season’s Missouri roster remain unemployed—Sebastian Mack, Jacob Cruz, and Jevon Porter. Porter remains in limbo because he needs a medical hardship designation to play next year.

(CHIEFS)—The news is getting better about Patrick Mahomes’ recovery from his knee injury. The Chiefs are saying he might reach his goal of being ready for the season opener in September. In fact, Coach Andy Reid is holding out the possibility that he could be involved in the OTA’s May 26-28.

Reid has told ESPN, “He is in a good position to be able to do some things. If he can do some things, [he will]. Phase 2 remember, there’s no contact and there’s no offense versus defense. “It’s Phase 3 that you get into that… he’s in a position where he can do everything, I think.”

Some videos have been circulating showing Mahomes dropping back and throwing passes.

Just in case he’s not ready, the Chiefs picked up former LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier in the draft.

He’s eager to see what he can learn Mahomes: “I’m so excited to be in a room with those guys. Coach Reid and his unbelievable offensive mind and obviously sitting behind Patrick and getting to learn from him, hopefully steal some things from him and see the game through his eyes.”

The Chiefs also have added Justin Fields who has seen NFL snaps with the Bears, Steelers, and Jets.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals have hit the 20 wins mark a week earlier than last year even though they came up short against the Dodgers in their final game of their series, the loss ending a four-game Dodger losing streak and a six-game Cardinals winning streak, but still giving the Cardinals a series win. Dodgers’ starter Justin Wrobleski is now undefeated in five decisions.

The loss went to Dustin May, who drops to 3-3.

Cardinals pitching shut down Dodgers’ star Shohei Ohtani who went hitless during the series and finished without a hit in four straight games. That’s his longest hitless streak since he went five game in 2022 while playing for the other Los Angeles team.

The Redbirds started the week with a 6-3 win against the Brewers. Both teams had 11 hits.Milwaukee scored twice in the ninth to make it close. Kyle Leahy went 6.1 innings and gave the up the first of the by Brewer’s run.

(ROYALS)—The Royals swept the Mariners to wrap up their week and doubling the number of road games they’ve won this year. They’re now 6-15 on the road. Kris Bubic ran his record to 3-2 with seven solid innings, allowing Seattle its only run, giving up only four singles. The save went to Daniel Lynch, his first of the year. The sweep has run the KC record to 15-19, going 7-3 in their last ten games.

Their game Saturday saw the Royals become the eighth team in MLB history to win a game although Royals batters fanned 17 times, got no walks, but still put together a 3-2 win.

Seth Lugo (7IP, 2R) kept Kansas City close and added another distinction to the game when he struck out Randy Arozarena on a curve ball clocked at 67.8 mph, the slowest strikeout pitch by a non-position player this year. But it was only the second slowest of his career.

The Royals started this week 2½ games behind the Guardians and the Tigers in a division in which those are the only teams above .500—by one game. ]

Michael Wacha, who threw only 60 pitches in the first six innings—tying a personal record—held the Guardians at bay last night. He left after 7 and, allowing only four hits and two runs.

Now, something that’s faster than a Seth Lugo curve:

(NASCAR)—Chase Elliott outran Denny Hamlin in a four-lap shootout at the Texas Motor Speedway to get his second win of the year. The win makes Elliott the second multi-winner this year, joining Tyler Reddick, who has won half of this year’s races (5). Reddick finished fourth behind Alex Bowman, who had his best finish since recovering from vertigo that sidelined him for four races earlier.

The win moves Elliott into second place in the standings behind Reddick and Hamlin. Reddick leads by more than 100 points as the series moves into the second quarter of the racing year.

(INDYCAR)—No racing but plenty of running on the big oval at Indianapolis this week as IndyCar started preparing for the 110^th 500 on Memorial Day Weekend. The two days of practice allowed rookies and returning veterans who don’t normally run the full schedule to complete their drivers tests or reviews and start getting their cars set up for qualifying on May 16-17. The Race is on the 24^th. The last day of practice so crews and drivers can get their cars in race trim will be “Carburation Day” on Friday the 22^nd.

(Carburation Day is a throwback to the distant times when the cars really used carburetors. The last carbureted cars in the 500 competed in 1963, the Lotus-Fords of Jim Clark and Dan Gurney.

The first car with fuel injection was Bill Vukovich’s Fuel Injection Special that was sidelined while leading with less than ten laps left in 1952. Vukovich won with the car the next two years. This is the way it looked the year he won for the second time. It was the first car I ever photographed at the Speedway—with my Brownie Hawkeye camera that captured only a blur. (This is a diecast model of it, though).

The two days of testing topped out at relatively moderate speeds—rookie Caio Collet turned a lap at better than 226 mph. By the time qualifying weekend rolls around the fastest cars are likely to be at about 235.

(ZANARDI)—Racing lost one of its great competitors a few days ago with the death of Alex Zanardi. He never ran in the 500 because he competed in the era when open wheel racing had split into two competing camps. Zanardi won the Championship Auto Racing Teams title for two of the four years he competed. A horrendous crash in 20001 that cost him both of his legs ended his career—for a while.

Dissatisfied with the prosthetic legs on which he walked, he designed a custom legs that would let him get back into a race car. He was able to drive a race car using only hand controls and eventually got back into racing cars. And he won races.

More remarkably, he became a four-time Olympic champion. He won four gold medals at the Paralympics in London and Rio de Janeiro in handcycling and the triathalon. F

He was 59.

(FORMULA 1)—Formula 1 returned to the track last weekend after cancelling a couple of its races in the Middle East war zone. Mercedes teenage sensation Kimi Antonelli won his third straight. He’s the youngest driver in F1 history to win a race—19. He won the Miami Grand Prix last weekend. He’s 19.

(Photo credits: Vukovich car—Bob Priddy; Zanardi–the Independent)

Sports: Lots of Chiefs Draftees and Other Things.

Posted on April 28, 2026 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(TIGERSDRAFT)—Here’s a sign of the times for college football.

Six Missouri Tigers were chosen in the NFL Draft for the second time in three years. That ties a record for most draftees from a single class since the league cut back to seven rounds of the draft in 1994. Six Tigers from the 2009 and 2015 teams—Gary Pinkel was the coach then—established the record. The only other time in school history this has happened under current circumstances was two years ago.

These six raise the total NFL draftees from Missouri to fifteen, the most for any three-year period since the NFL merged with the AFL in 1970.

In 1981 when the NFL went twelve rounds, seven Tigers were picked.

None of the six in this draft was a home grown Tiger. All six were NIL carpetbaggers.

The top Mizzou draftees, defensive end Zion Young and linebacker Josiah Trotter went in round two, Young to the Baltimore Ravens (45^th choice) and Young to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (choice 46).

Two other guys were drafted in the third round with Green Bay taking defensive tackle Chris McClellan and the Rams taking right tackle Keagen Trost. They were choices 77 and 93, respectively.

Day three saw wide receiver Kevin Coleman Jr taken in the fifth round (#177) by the Dolphins and cornerback Toriano Pride Jr., (#220) by the Buffalo Bills.

Missouri has had seven draft picks in a class before. In 1981, when the NFL Draft lasted 12 rounds, the Tigers sent seven players to the NFL as draft picks.

(RELATED)—A lot of people, Tiger fans included, were surprised that Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia, a runner-up for the Heisman Trophy, didn’t get drafted. He certainly look pretty Heismanish when the Commodores played our Tigers. He’s the first Heisman runner-up to go undrafted since nobody wanted Iowa’s Brad Banks 23 years ago. He’s the first Heisman finalist since Jordan Lynch form NIU in 2014 to go undrafted. Both buys wound up playing in Canada.

(CHIEFSDRAFT)—The Kansas City Chiefs went aggressive in the NFL draft, trading places to get the people they most wanted. They haven’t had a first round pick 2017, they year they took Patrick Mahomes.

The Chiefs went shopping for a cornerback in the first round, trading with the Bears to move up from 9^th to 6^th in the first round. They snagged LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane. They hope he’ll plug a hole created by the losses of Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson to the Rams. With their second pick in the first round, they went to Clemson DT Peter Woods.

Round two: They took Oklahoma edge rusher Mason Thomas, a choice that surprised some analysts, one of whom forecast the choice could “go down as one of the biggest surprises in recent Chiefs draft memory” because he is “an undersized, bendy defensive end,” the kind of guy defensive coordinator Steve Spagnola likes.

They had no choice in the third round but in the 109^th player picked, in round four, was Oregon small cornerback Jadon Canady who also can play safety. Nebraska running back Emmett Johnson was the fifth-round pick (#161). He also catches passes. A second choice in the fifth round was WR Cyrus Allen of Cincinnati who, some analysts think, has some special teams talent.

Nothing doing in the sixth round so their final choice (#249) was LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, who is considered a “developmental pick.”

“This is the first time the Chiefs have picked in the top 10 since dealing up for Patrick Mahomes in 2017, and the first time they’ve gone into a draft day with a top-10 selection since Andy Reid’s first year in Kansas City (’13), when they held the No. 1 pick,” Breer wrote. “That, to me, is why GM Brett Veach has been so active looking at both moving up and potentially moving down. This is a rare opportunity for the Chiefs that might not come along again for some time. I think if Kansas City moves down, then Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq will be on the radar.”

UDFA: Houston Cornerback Zelmar Vedder, Sand Diego State CB Bryce Phillips, Oklahoma RB Jadyn Ott, Louisville OT Pete Nygra, Iowa Safety Xavier Nwankpa, Miami LB Wesley Bissainthe, Wyoming TE John Michael Gyllenborg, Cincinnati WR Jeff Caldwell, DT Cole Brevard of Texas, CB D’Arco Perkins-McAllister from Louisiana-Monroe, Duke edge rusher Vincent Anthony Jr., LSU guard Josh Thompson, and Toledo LB Anthony Dunn. Other UDFA signings: Virginia Tech RB Terion Stewart, Iowa DL Ethan Hurkett, Michigan DT Damon Payne

The Chiefs also are going to look at several guys in their spring rookie minicamp: Temple receiver Kajiya Hollawayne, Montana CB Kenzel Lawler, Pittsburgh OL Jeff Persi, safety Desshon Singleton of Nebraska, Washington WR Omari Evans, WR Jacob DeJesus of Cal, Charlotte LB Shay Taylor, USC WR Jaden Richardson, three guys from UConn—Punter Connor Stutz, LB Donovan Branch and TE Louis Hansen—and Tennessee Tech S Tim Countras, Washington kicker Grady Gross, Rice DL Blake Boenisch, LB Colby Taylor of West Florida, K-State S Gunner Maldonado, Liberty DB Brylan Green, three guys from Pitt: CB Rashad Battle, S Javon McIntyre, TE Justin Holmes; Eastern Kentucky DB Jaheim Ward. An offensive tackle from the International Player Pathway program, Felix Lepper, has been invited to the camp.

One other UDFA—in an intriguing move, the chiefs picked up E. J. Smith, who played for Stanford and for Texas A&M. His four-year college stats are nothing to write home about: 207 total carries, 969 yards, nine TDS. He also caught passes for 470 yards and another touchdown. Sometimes it’s the pedigree more than the statistics that makes someone worth a look. E. J. Smith is the son of Emmitt Smith, the NFL’s all-time rushing leader.

He has a tough row to hoe if he ever gets to see much playing time. The Chiefs, remember, signed Kenneth Walker, the star of this year’s Super Bowl. They drafted Nebraska running back Emmett Johnson and picked UDFA Jadyn Ott from Oklahoma.

For most of these guys, this is just a cup of coffee in an NFL locker room. A few might make the practice squad. Most will hope for a long shot chance with another team. Look for some of these names on the UFL rosters in the next season.

Speaking of the UFL:

(BATTLEHAWKS)—The St. Louis Battlehawks, who had split their first four games of the season, went on the road to play the undefeated Orlando Storm last weekend—and dominated the Storm in the first half, storming to a 25-0 lead. The defense held Orlando to just 29 yards of offense as Orlando went just 3 of 14 on third downs. Orlando got 14 points in the third quarter and a field goal in the fourth, but St. Louis emerged with a 25=17 win.

The Battlehawks played without former Mizzou kicker Tucker McCann, who aggravated a quadriceps injury during warmups. Punter Ryan Sanborn was the fill-in. He got a couple of field goals in the first half but missed a couple of PATs.

The Battlehawks are 3-2 now although they have been outscored 112-116. Orlando and DC lead the league at 4-1. St. Louis plays Louisville Thursday to wrap up a three-game road trip. Louisville is 2-3.

(MIZZPORT)—Missouri hasn’t seen the last of T. O. Barrett. They’ll have to deal with him at least twice in the next season when they play Vanderbilt. Ant Robinson II has signed with Florida State. Jacob Crews and Sebastian Mack are still waiting for calls and Jevon Porter hasn’t heard if he’ll get a redshirt.

The portal closed on the 21^st with Missouri still having three slots to fill. As of now, six players from the last season will be back: Trent Pierce, Trent Burns, point guard Aaron Rowe, forward Annor Boateng (whose season ended early with an injury), forwards Luke Norwether and Nicholas Randall

The Baseball.

(CARDINALS)—The St. Louis Cardinals spent last week sinking back toward .500 and started this week 14-13 after wasting an outstanding pitching performance from Michael McGreevey. The offense got him two runs but the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead.

The crusher came from Seattle’s Rob Refsnyder, who challenged a called third strike and got it overturned—-then ripped a JoJo Romero pitch 412 feet over the fence to give Seattle the 3-2 win.

The Cardinals have not been below .500 this season.

(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals scored six runs in the last two innings, with Lane Thomas’ walk-off three run homer in the ninth to snatch a win away from the Angels 11-9 Sunday. The win completed a sweep of the Angels and upped their record to 11-17.

Joe Caglianone had tied the game in the ninth with a two-run shot. The Angels got a run in the to of the tenth before Thomas ended it.

Starter Seth Lugo had a rugged outing. He went 6.1 innings but gave up seven earned runs on 14 hits.

The Royals started the week having climbed into a tie with the White Sox for last place in the division. They were only one game behind the Twins in their bid to escape the cellar in a competitive division in which the leading teams are only one game above break-even—Cleveland and Detroit are only 15-14.

Movin on to Moving On Sports—

(NASCAR)—-What to talk about after the first race of the year at Talladega? The “big one” that involved 26 of the forty cars in the field? The continued criticism of this generation of race cars? Carson Hocevar’s first Cup win? His victory celebration?

The wreck was not the biggest of the big. The record is 28 cars that got tangled up in October of 2024.

Carson Hocevar’s first Cup win is memorable not only because he survived racing at Talladega and the way he held competitors at bay for several closing laps, but especially for his unique way of celebrating. Hocevar, one of the tallest drivers in NASCAR at 6’4” tall, figured out how to work his clutch and throttle while sitting outside of his window, waving at fans. Some folks worried he was endangering himself but NASCAR apparently liked it.

Hocevar has a ton of charisma, is a 23-year old Michigander who was the rookie of the year in the Cup series in 2024. He’s been racing since he was twelve.

He got through the big wreck without damage to his car, drove into contention in the third phase of the race, dueled with Chris Buescher, for the last 37 laps.

Hocevar took the lead from Buescher on lap 151 of the 188 lap race. Buescher took it back on 156 but gave it up to Hocevar for laps 1570169 before surging back into the lead for 151=165. Hocevar held it for 166. Buescher was in front 167-172 before Hocevar led two and Buescher took the led for lap 175. Hovercar led two, Buescher one before Hocevar led two more. Buescher was in control for four laps before Hocevar pulled ahead for two laps. Buescher got his last lead on 187 but Hocevar got him at the end and won by .112 seconds.

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(MODRIVERS)—-Missouri drivers in NASCAR have been hard to find in the last few years, but two drivers we’ve followed are going to be putting on the helmets and strapping into cockpits this summer.

Joplin native Jamie McMurray and sometime Missourian Clint Brawner (who hails from Emporia, Kansas—just across the border from Missouri–has had a place at the Lake of the Ozarks, thus earning him consideration as an adoptive Missourian) will each drive a truck race for Kaulig Racing this summer

Kaulig is bringing Dodge back to the sport under the Ram pickup truck label. Bowyer will drive the truck at Dover on May 15. McMurray will be in the truck at the inaugural road race at the San Diego naval base June 19.

Both Bowyer and McMurray at part of the FOX sports broadcast crew that covers Cup races. Bowyer won ten Cup races in his career and likes the short tracks. Dover, he says, is “a beast—concrete, tight and unforgiving.” McMurray has seven Cup victories including the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 in the same year, 2010. He has road racing experience, co-driving the winning car in the 2025 Daytona 24-hours.

(INDYCAR)—The Indianapolis 500 is guaranteed to have the traditional 33 starters this year with an entry from A.J. Foyt’s team to be driven by Katheirne Legge who will make her fifth start in the race.

Legge brings back her sponsorship by a cosmetics company and has new support from General Motors, one of the two engine suppliers for the series. Legge’s best start in the 500 is from 29^th. Her best finish is 22^nd.She’s the tenth woman to compete in the race and holds the one-and-four lap qualifying records for a woman driver, more than 231 mph.

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IndyCar runs on the Indianapolis Speedway road course next weekend then begins the buildup for the 500.

Sports: Portalizing; MLB Teams on Different Roads; Winners (Again) on an Oval and on Streets

Posted on April 21, 2026 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MUMENBBPORT)—Chiefs Practice; The portal popped wide open for incoming Mizzou basketball players during the last week.

(KC Chiefs)—The Kansas City Chiefs have started their offseason training program—and, yes, HE is there.

Patrick Mahomes “can go to meetings. He can lift, do all that,” said Coach Andy Reid.. That’s the phase he’s in right now,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “We’ll just see. Kind of play it by ear. See where he’s at. He’s doing great, but we’ve just got to be smart with this thing.”

Mahomes is still talking about being ready for game one with no restrictions.”

All the Chiefs are doing is strength and condition programs, rehab work, and team meetings. The sessions go for a couple of weeks. Mahomes is expected to take part in some of the second phase—three weeks of on-field walk-throughs (no contact).

After that are six workouts the week after the Memorial Day weekend and then June 1-3. Still no live contact although the offense will square off against the defense. A minicamp is scheduled for June-11.

The Chiefs had had to alter their workout schedules a little this year because World Cup soccer games will be held at Arrowhead Stadium.

The NFL hasn’t announced its schedule yet but the first games won’t be until the second week of September. It will have been about nine months since Mahomes wet out with his knee injury.

As long as we’re talking football—

(BATTLEHAWKS)—Former Mizzou placekicker Tucker McCann gave the St. Louis Battlehawks an early lead against the Washington Defenders but the ‘Hawks couldn’t get key stops throughout the game and dropped to 2-2 for the year, losing 28-22 when Washington intercepted a possible game-winning catch on their own three yard line.

McCann his field goals of 51 and 26 yards and added a third one to keep St. Louis close but the Battlehawks couldn’t complete the last-minute comeback.

(MUMENPORT)—The pieces are starting to fall into place for Dennis Gates’ 2026-2027 squad.

The Tigers have picked up three big additions in the last week.

Small forward/wingman Jemier Jones, who will be a sophomore. He’s 6-6, 218 and coming in from Providence. He averaged about 12 points a game for Providence last year, shot 57% from the field and 39% from three-point land and made almost two thirds of his free throws. . He’s considered a four-star transfer who finally is going to Missouri—which had made him an offer coming out of high school. There’s another link to Missouri: his coach at providence was former Missouri favorite Kim English. English, was fired at Providence, has joined the coaching staff at the University of North Carolina.

Also coming in is Tennessee’s Jaylen Carey, a beefy (6-8, 267 pounds) forward/center, a basketball gypsy who already has played at James Madison, Vanderbilt, and Tennessee. He’s expected to complement center Trent Burns, the 7-5 junior whose development produced a lot of backup minutes in the recent season. Carey started eight of the 37 games he played for the Volunteers last year when he logged about half of the minutes per game. He averaged almost eight points and six rebounds a game.

The most delicious acquisition was Bryson Tiller. who abandoned Bill Self and the great KU field house to play in Columbia next year—and maybe for two years after that (but don’t count on it in these NIL days.

He’s a 6-11 and 240 pounds with a wingspan of 7-feett-3-inches. He averaged about eight points a game in 35 games as a freshman last season. He scored 13 points, had five blocks and five rebounds when KU belted the Tigers in Kansas City in December. He’s another guy Coach Gates didn’t get at the start but didn’t give up on.

Tiller calls Gates “a standup guy,” and he told The Kansas City Star, “I trust in him as a person first and foremost, and I trust in the plan that he has. He wants to use me in all assets and all facets of the court — on the wings, on the perimeter, inside, outside. So I just feel like I have a lot of trust in that plan, and it’ll be great.” He appears to be a candidate to be Mark Mitchell’s replacement.

Trent Pierce and Trent Burns have agreed to stay with the Tigers.

As of last night, only Anthony Robinson of the departing Tigers had found a new team. He signed with Florida State.

(MIZZWMNPORT)—The Lady Tigers have lost five players to the portal: Ma’Riya Vincnt, Shannon Dowell, Hannah Linthacum, Chloe Sotell and Lisa Thompson.

The first replacement is Michigan shooting guard McKenzie Mathurin, 5-10, a former McDonald’s All-American who played about nine minutes a game for Michigan in her first year of college. Former Lady Tiger coach Robin Pingeton had made her an offer in 2024 but she took Michigan instead.

She was in 25 games for the Michigan team that made the Sweet 16, averaged 3.5 ppg including 15 against Penn State. She hit about 39% of her three point shots.

Joining her in the early moves to Springfield is Missouri’s Hannah Lithacum, who sat out last year with injuries.

(MOSTATEWMNBBPORT)—Seven Lady Bears from 2025-26 have rambled on. But their replacements already are in the den. Hanna Linthacum is leaving Missouri after playing 62 games and moving to the Missouri Bears, one of several new players who will take the court next fall in Springfield. She’ll be joined by Zoe Canfield, coming over from Kansas. After three years at Arkansas-Little Rock, Faith Lee is moving to Springfield. She averaged more than 12 points a game last year on 39% shooting. She scored 20 against the Lady Bears last December, almost half of her team’s points.

Victoria Dixon spent her junior year at Houston Christian where she started three of her 27 games. A pickup from Pittsburg State is Maycee James who spent two years at the community college level before one injury-shortened year at Pitt State.

(BILLIKENSMENPORT)—The St. Louis Billikens have a number of roster slots to fill because of graduations—and the exit of forwards Brady Dunlap and Kalu Anya. But three guys who made all-conference teams are to provide a solid foundation: Amari McCottry, Trey Green, and Kellen Thames. And six others also are staying. The retention rate for a mid-major school such as SLU is considered to be pretty special. The top five non-seniors will be back with a team that set a school record for wins this year—29—and won the A10 regular season championship.

(BILLIKENSWMNPORT)—The first two signees for Billiken’s women’s coach are Peyton Olufson and Evelyn Shane.

Olufson , a 5-8 point guard, will join Saint Louis from Incarnate Word Academy, which holds the nation’s longest high school girls basketball winning streak at 141 games. She is a three-time state champion, a 2024-25 first-team All-Conference selection, and a 2025 All-District honoree. Last season, she averaged 7.1 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 2.97 assists for the Red Knights.

Shane is a six-footer from Ursuline Academy where her teams set a new school wins record and two district championships. She has topped 1,000 points and is the school’s leading scorer.

BASEBALL:

(CARDINALS)—So far, the team that Chaim built appears to be golden. Sports Illustrated has noted that their sweep of Houston during the weekend has given them their best start IN EIGHT YEARS. They finished the week with a five-game winning streak that put them at 13-8, a record not seen since 2018. Unlike forgettable recent years, they have yet to fall below .500.

The streak ended last night against the Marlins, 5-3.

The strong start is being led by young players, some of whom—Jordan Walker in particular—have started to bloom.

But playoffs are not to be seriously considered this early. In fact, every team in their division is above break even, as of Sunday night.

(ROYALS)—The Royals, on the other hand, are the worst team in the American League. The Yankees swept them last weekend.

Manager Matt Quatraro: “Everybody’s frustrated. Nobody wants to have a start like this. But it is early, mid-April, and we play better baseball, that’s what’s in our control. If we’re able to do that, we’ll dig ourselves out. There’s way too much talent in there. There’s way too many high-character guys in there.”

Kansas City hoped Cole Ragans could end the losing streak at six Sunday, but he lasted only 4.1 innings, gave only four hits but eight walks, a career high. The Royals started the week as losers of ten of their last dozen games, the last seven in a row. They have now lost eleven straight games to the Yankees going back to the 2024 playoffs.

Last night, the Royals wasted an outstanding performance by Seth Lugo, who held the Orioles to one hit and, thanks to Jac Caglianone’s homer, who left with a 1-0 lead. But things fell apart quickly after that. The Royals lost the game in the 12^th inning 7-5 to run their losing streak to eight, the longest since 2023. They had 14 hits and had the bases loaded in three innings but cold not score in any of those innings. Reliever Alex Lange gave up the grand slam homer in the 12^th that gave the Orioles the win.

Speedworld

(NASCAR)—Tyler Reddick now has a handful of wins and a historic start to the year. His fifth win in the first nine races equals Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s record set in 1987.

The result was a major disappointment to Denny Hamlin who came out of the (presumably) last round of pitstops with a four-second lead. Reddick ran him down before brushing the wall and giving the lead back to Hamlin. But a spin on the white flag lap by Cody Ware led to a restart. Kyle Larson got the jump and led a lap before Reddick got past him for the lead on the last lap and got to the flag a tenth of a second ahead of Larson. Hamlin finished fourth giving up another position to Chase Briscoe.

Reddick started from the pole for the fifth time this year and has won every race from that position except the season-opening Daytona 500.

(INDYCAR)—Alex Palou has checked off one of the other big races on the IndyCar schedule, the Long Beach Grand Prix.

Felix Rosenqvist led all the way until the last round of pit stops when Palou’s Ganassi team was three-quarters of a second faster than Palou’s guys, and put their driver out front for the final laps. Palou now has won three of the five races this year, 11 of the last 22, and heads to Indianapolis where he is the defending 500 champion.

Palou has moved to a 17 point lead as he looks for his fifth IndyCar championship.

(500)—The field for the Indianapolis 500 has been guaranteed its 32^nd car.

Jacob Abel, from Louisville, Kentucky, failed to make the field last year. His family-owned team has put together a sponsorship deal and has an engine supplier. Abel Motorsport last made the 500 field with R.C. Enerson in 2023.

Efforts are underway to put together another team-engine-driver-sponsor combination to enter a 33^rd car, which would guarantee a full starting field.

Practice for the 500 begins on May 12 with the race, as usual, on Memorial Day weekend.

Photo credits: Tiller—Instagram; Jones and Kerry—X, Mathurin—U of Michigan; Earnhardt and Reddick—NASCAR; Palou leads—NTT IndyCar Series screenshot; Abel—Abel Motorsports)

Bob Priddy

A journalist's random observations

Category Archives: baseball

Sports: The Sports Society Page; The top 100 in the NFL; The Three W’s as All-Star Selections, and our weekly dose of speed.

Sports: Baseball Midseason, More Tiger Signings, More Speed

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Sports: Re-nesting the Birds; Bring Home a Chief; The Four-Point Field Goal; Consequential Track Wins.

Sports: I Got the Fever; Going Opposite Baseball Directions; Playoff Football; Detroit and Nashville for Speed

Sports: Hardy Update; Winning and Losing Streaks end in Same Game; Biggest Weekend for Speed.

Sports: One More Tiger; Good Mahomes News; Baseball is Looking Good–and May Racing

Sports: Lots of Chiefs Draftees and Other Things.

Sports: Portalizing; MLB Teams on Different Roads; Winners (Again) on an Oval and on Streets

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