Category Archives: baseball

Sports: Chiefs Look Chiefly; Texas Visits; Simmons stays; Ilinois leaves; SLU isn’t Cleveland State; and Baseball’s Youngest All-Stars. 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—-The Chiefs handled the New York Jets and ended their 1-2 doldrums since their off-week with a 35-12 win over the young New York Jets. The Chiefs put the game away in the second half as Patrick Mahomes came back from the first-half elbow injury and Kenneth Walker added another 100-yard game to his year.

Kansas City’s defense held the Jets to just four field goals in the 35-12 win. Mahomes wound up with 247 yard passing. Walker added 143 on the ground. The defense came to life with five sacks of Jets QB Geno Smith.

Travis Kelce caught four passes for 72 yards and scored his third career touchdown. By the end of the game, he had caught 9,365 yards of passes thrown by Mahomes. That broke a record for most yards by a quarterback-receiver combination.  The Chargers’ Phillip Rivers connected with Antonio Gates for 9,352 to set the previous record.

Mahomes’ elbow appeared to bend awkwardly when he was tackled for a loss and he left the field holding his arm.  But he got some medical help on the sideline, threw a few practice passes and pronounced himself fit to play and went back in.  Monday, he was listed as day-to-day by Coach Reid.

The Chiefs expect a stiffer test next weekend against Atlanta.

(MIZTEX)—-Missouri’s loss to Texas has knocked it out of the top 25 in both polls with an even tougher opponent coming next week.

The game was tied at 20 going into the third quarter. Texas scored with five minutes left and Missouri was driving for the tie when quarterback Austin Simmons hit his favorite target near the first=down markers only to have Cayden Lee take a big hit and the ball pop out to be claimed by Texas’ Graceson Littleton. Littleton ran the ball back to the six yard line and Texas quickly scored in the closing minute to make the score 34-20.

The officiating crew left Columbia with few friends after a game that left Coach Eli Drinkwitz holding in his feelings lest he be fined for unloading on them. “If I say what I want to say, I’m going to get fined until I don’t have any retirement, and I’m not going to do that because I’m not going to blame the officials. That’d be disrespectful to Coach (Steve) Sarkisian and his team.”

But the athletic department wants the conference to review the officiating in the game. Mizzou officials and fans are particularly irked by a third down ruling that a seemingly incomplete pass by Texas quarterback Arch Manning actually was a fumble recovered by Texas. The ruling let Texas retain control of the ball and a few plays later get a touchdown.

Drinkwitz protested strongly on the field. Fans booed.  SEC broadcasters in their booth at Memorial Stadium were critical of the ruling and conference announcers Aaron Murray and Matt Schumacker, who were going the Saturday night game between Oklahoma and Florida questioned it.

That did not set well with Commissioner Greg Sankey who told Paul Feinburg on his show, “I am highly disappointed in announcers and their criticism, and they’re wrong. Some of the worst officials in America are those in the announce booth. We have officiating experts who I turned on a game on Saturday, who was just flat wrong. And what that creates is this narrative that we’ve done something wrong, and that is unacceptable to me, and we have to address that. We’re going to be wrong.  We’ve made announcements where we own it. We’re going to have debates about judgment calls. But somebody on a Saturday night who’s announcing a game between Oklahoma and Florida, going back to something that happened at noon that he’s never called and asked a question about, and being critical is unacceptable in my mind.”

The Columbia Daily Tribune reported the only major conference that does not allow airing of audio and live video from its replay booth is the SEC which also does not allow a reporter to question officials about controversial decisions.

Veatch told the conference, “This experience has reinforced my belief that our lack of transparency in the replay booth, particularly when other conferences have taken steps to provide it, allows for an environment of speculation and mistrust. Together with President Choi, we will be strong advocates for that change within the SEC this offseason.”

Sankey says there are logistical issues connected to letting viewers hearing and seeing the replay booth discussions. But he noted the NFL doesn’t allow viewers to sit in on the replay discussions.

He said the conference would “figure out’ how to do it correctly.

Missouri is now 6-3 with a tough row to hoe ahead—number 2 Georgia next week and number six Kentucky and a finale against Oklahoma.  The Tigers are assured of at least a minor bowl game and might still salvage a later December game with an upset of one of the ranked teams and a win against Oklahoma. Oklahoma beat Florida Saturday to get to 5-4.

Tiger quarterback Austin Simmons has announced he’ll be back in Columbia next year, unless he’s not.  His new contract with Missouri lets him enter the NFL draft if he chooses to do so.

Through the Texas game, he’s 175/283 for 2,204 yards, 18 touchdowns and only two interceptions. The Tiger offensive line has allowed nine sacks of Simmons through nine games.

(MIZILL)—Missouri has an important hole to fill in its 2027 and 2028 season created by the cancellation of games by the University of Illinois. The Tigers now have to find a new power conference opponent but Athletic Director Laird Veatch says, “We are exploring all available options.”

Illinois and Missouri still have games scheduled against each other in 2029 and2035, which will be Mizzou home games. They’re scheduled to play at a neutral site in 2-33 and in Urbana in ’34.

llinois, which last played Missouri a football game in 2010, reportedly prefers games against Notre Dame in those years.  The SEC rules say teams have to play nine conference games and at least one opponent from one of the power conferences each year.

(MIZBB)—After whipping Cleveland State in the season opener by sixty points, the Tigers basketball team learned it has some distance to do before it’s ready for prime time.  The St. Louis University Billikens whipped them 90-84.  It was the first time the two teams had met in 25 years.

The Bills kept the Tigers at bay with a barrage of three-pointers, going 14/25 in the game and holding a five point lead, or more, most of the game. Missouri was only 8 for 24 from deep but what did them in was the inability to score in close. Missouri missed 16 of their 27 layup shots.

(MIZSIUE)—The Tigers flourished against a far more inferior team last night, beating Southern Illinois-Edwardsville 96-58.  Jason Crow Jr.’s 34 points set a scoring record for freshmen.

(CARDINALS)—Baseball will announce its Louisville Silver Slugger Awards a week from today. The Silver Slugger Award is an annual acknowledgment handed out to the top offensive players at each position in baseball. The award began in 1980 recognizing the top hitters at their positions.

Alec Burlison is in the running for a second National League silver bat, this time as a first baseman. He made it the first time as a utility player, the first time the award has been given in that category. This year he’s nominated as a first baseman. He let the majors with 116 runs batted in, hit 26 home runs (a career high). His competition is Milwaukee’s Jake Bauers, The Giants’ Rafael Devers, and Matt Olson of the Braves. Burleson had the best batting average and highest RBI total of the four, was second in OBP and tied for third in homers.  No other first baseman had a better slugging percentage in road games—.534.

(AZSTARST)—Two Cardinals made it to the Arizona Fall League All Star Game although Tai Pete was the only one to play. Reliever Tekoah also was on the squad after a solid bounce-back season from Tommy John surgery. He pitched 9.2 innings and struck out 13 and gave up no runs.

Pete finished the game 0 for two with a strikeout. But he drew a walk and stole a base.  For the season he hit .328 in 16 games and tied for the league lead in triples and steals. He finished second in the home run derby with fifteen.

Roby, returning from Tommy John surgery, had allowed zero runs in three starts, with 13

Three Royals players made the game. Zion Rose led off for his squad, walked but got picked off and struck out a couple of times.  Angeibel Gomez hit .293 in the regular season but fanned both times up in the All-Star Game.  Pitcher Justin Lamkin threw seven pitches, six of them strikes, in a 1-2-3 inning.

(CARDSCOACH) —The Cardinals hope Joel McKeithan can produce better hitters next year than Brant Brown did  this year and in 2025. McKeithan had been the assistant hitting coach for the White Sox.

The White Sox made the playoffs this year and McKeithan’s work with the younger players is considered one of the reasons they did. The Cardinals, on the other hand, saw several of their younger players call off from their 2025 numbers.

The Cardinals also have former players John Jay and Daniel Descalso on their staff. Both reportedly are being considered for the open manager’s job with the Houston Astros.

If there is baseball next year, spring training will begin on Friday, February 19 for all thirty teams.

One last round on the track—

(NASCAR)—It’s over for NASCAR this year. Ryan Blaney won the last race of 2026 and Kyle Larson won his third championship, becoming the seventh driver to win that many and the eleventh to win at least three. (Richard Petty, Jimmie Johnson, and Dale Earnardt had seven each and Jeff Gordon had four).

Larson had an average season until the ten-race runoff for the championship. He started it with a win at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis and added two more wins and a pair of runner-ups.  He went into the final race in Miami with a comfortable cushion. His 12th place finish at the end gave him a lead of 49 points over Christopher Bell.

Blaney found his way to first place with two laps to go, getting past six-time winner Tyler Reddick with two laps left. Reddick held onto second. It’s  Blaney’s fourth win this year. Six-time winner Tyler Reddick was second in the race.  Denny Hamlin, who won the regular 26-race season came in third in the final standings after finish sixth in the race.

It was a mediocre year at best for rookies.  Connor Zilisch, who dominated NASCAR’s second-tier series last year, finished 19th in the race and 33rd in the overall standings and was named the Cup Series Rookie of the Year.

(photo credits:  Simmons—Mizzou; Larsons– Chris Graythen/ Getty Images/NASCAR)

 

 

The Radio Sport

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Harry Caray and Jack Buck, Jack and Mike Shannon, Mike and John Rooney.  Buddy Blattner and Denny Matthews and Denny’s successors for 50 years—–

No matter where you grew up, the voices of the guys in the booth brought you word pictures of the great summer game.

There have been ghosts in boxes telling us about baseball and news of our town and the world since Harold Arlen sat in a box seat behind home plate at old Forbes Field in Pittsburgh on the afternoon of August 5, 1921 and described over KDKA how the Pirates came from behind to beat the Philadelphia Phillies 8-5, thanks to six strong innings by relief pitcher Jimmy Zinn.

But listen to former Miami Marlins executive David Samson who says on his podcast that nobody needs baseball on the radio anymore.

“The difference between TV and radio is disappearing before our very eyes. We don’t need baseball on radio anymore. The only reason we have baseball on radio is so people can feel better about what baseball means to them.”

And what is wrong with that?  What’s wrong, he says, is radio. It’s no longer the medium it was. He’s terribly correct about that.  But it‘s still a medium that is worth a lot of money in the buying and the selling of stations. Not according to Samson.

“Here’s the thing about radio today.  It’s totally changed. There’s no money in radio. If you’re on AM radio right now, well, let’s just say that you ought to be simulcasting. You ought to be on YouTube. You ought to be a podcast because money in AM radio has pretty much disappeared.

“What teams do is they buy time on their radio stations. Sometimes they own their radio stations, not a good business. They buy a block of time, and then they go out and sell ads. They literally either outsource it to a company, or they have a sales force themselves trying to sell radio ads. Plus, they produce their own radio, and guess what? It’s not very profitable. It’s like a nightmare.”

Baseball on radio, he maintains, is for “old people”

And when us old people go toes up, radio baseball dies, too.

Barrett Media, which reports on radio news, sports, and the music industry, records Samson saying, “Baseball and radio goes together like peanut butter and jelly. It goes together like cookies and cream. You require to have baseball and radio because everybody hasn’t died yet who grew up listening to baseball on the radio. But guess what? That generation is going to die at some point. Then you will have people who are older, who they grew up on their device, listening through the internet, listening to the audio of the video.”

He forecasts that radio will “go the way of Kodak and Blockbuster” but “the voices will find a different way to get into your brain because you have a different way of engaging with content.”

Radio has re-invented itself many times in its long history. Yes, AM radio is in the process of committing suicide with its emphasis on profits over service to the community, incessant yacking that talks but doesn’t educate or report. He didn’t criticize the FM dial which is where we are more likely to find the Cardinals and the Tigers and the Chiefs and the Royals.

ESPN announcer Jorge Sedano counters that it’s always going to be important “to have a broadcast that’s friendly for those in vehicles.”  He says those in the broadcast booth whose performances in the Theatre of the Mind are practicing “an art form in itself,” and he pointed to those who are not “interested in what’s best for the fan, just for the bottom line.”

That is exactly what is wrong with radio generally. It’s run by people who see stations as properties, communities as markets, and local voices as expendable.

Can radio survive as an over-the-air medium?  Not as long as it gives people no reason to tune in, not as long as it makes no effort to be the voice of the community, not as long as I can roam the dial and hear the same people prattling on about the same thing, none of which is useful to living in my community, none of which tells me what’s happening in city hall, the county courthouse, the schoolboard, or what the high school football team did last night.

But people will always want to hear someone tell a story, whether it’s considered local news, or whether it’s somebody describing a sporting event with the skills of putting someone in their car or in their kitchen in the stadium or in the fieldhouse.

But what do I know?  I’m one of Samson’s “old people” facing eventual mortality disability.

Prominent baseball philosopher Annie Savoy once said, in part—.

I believe in the Church of Baseball. I’ve tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I’ve worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball… I prefer metaphysics to theology. You see, there’s no guilt in baseball, and it’s never boring.

Even more important is the comment from famous author Terrance Mann:

“The one constant through all the years…has been baseball.  America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game — it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.”

And radio has helped it be all of those things, a “constant” that is “never boring.”  The John Rooneys and the Denny Mathewses will be doing their thing for this great game, somehow, long after David Sansom and I have left the field.

 

Sports:  Hardy’s Back; Tiger Basketball is Back; Chiefs are Backing Up

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(MIZZ)—Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz now has the same problem he had last year—one of the nation’s leading ball carriers  and a guy who is almost as good.

Jamal Roberts ran for 100 yards for the fifth time this year, 138 in this case, against Arkansas.  But the biggest cheers came when number 29 came on the field in the first half. Although Ahmad Hardy, who led the nation in rushing last year, only ran a few plays, his mere return adds a new dimension to the Missouri rushing game.

Missouri, as expected, won over Arkansas.  34-10. Hardy had two carries in the first half for five yards. He came back for one play in the fourth quarter and broke it for 37 yards.

It was his first game contact since he was shot in the leg in May. “My body is fully healed, so it’s nothing different. … Everybody has been there every day, literally from coaches to staff to the players. Everybody has been real supportive and I’m taking heed to that.”

Missouri (6-2. 3-2) now faces a three game gauntlet against ranked teams Texas, Georgia, and Kentucky before closing out the regular season against Oklahoma.

Missouri is up to 19th in both major polls after the Arkansas victory.  Texas is 10th and 11th. Georgia is second in both. Kentucky ranks 7th and 8th.   Oklahoma is 4-4 after losing Saturday to 23rd ranked South Carolina 42-25.

(MIZBB)—While many folks will be getting election returns tonight, the Missouri basketball team will be playing its first game that counts.  They’re against Cleveland State and on Friday night they’ll play St. Louis U.  The Tigers dropped their final exhibition game 90-81 against UNLV. Freshman Jason Crowe Jr., showed he’s he real deal, with 25 points, six assists and three steals.

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs gave one away Sunday, giving up an 11 point lead in the last quarter with Harrison Butker missing a 54-yard crucial field goal that, in the end, forced the Chiefs to try for a touchdown instead of what could have been a winning field goal as the clock expired.

The Chiefs thought they had pulled it out, nonetheless, with 15 seconds left when Mahomes hit Rashee Rice for a touchdown. But right tackle Jaylon Moore was flagged on the play for a false start, forcing the Chiefs back to the five yard line where Mahomes was sacked to end the game.

Denver 28, Chiefs 24 in a third straight unimpressive game that dropped the Chiefs a half-game behind the Broncos in their division lead.  It is only the third time in 83 games that a Patrick Mahomes team has lost a game in which they led by double digits going into the fourth quarter.

Denver bottled up Kenneth Walker, holding him to 69 yards on 21 carries. Patrick Mahomes passed for 321 yards and all three Chiefs’ touchdowns—and thought he had a fourth one until the flag came out.

The win put Denver quarterback Bo Nix in the record books while just in his third season. It was his 15th game-winning drive and his 12th fourth-quarter comeback since come into the NFL in 2024. He has tied NFL records in both categories for quarterbacks in their first three seasons.

(CARDINALS)—No Gold Gloves for the Cardinals this year.  Three players, J. J. Wetherholt, Masyn Winn and Mike McGreevey had been nominated.

The Redbirds have cut reliever Ryne Stanek. Who was in seventy games this year and was solid after the All Star break. Stanek is a St. Louis native who went to high school near Kansas City. He had two saves and led the team with 26 holds in 62.2 innings. He finished with a 4.06 ERA, pitching his best in the last half of the season: 26 innings, 3.12 ERA, holding opposing hitters to a .198 batting average.

(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals had four finalists for gold gloves. None of them made it either—Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino, Michael Massey and Nick Loftin.

Next—blessed are those who go around in circles for they shall be called racers.

(NASCAR)—Kyle Larson has all but won the NASCAR Cup Championship for the third time but he’s going to have to race a little bit in the season finale next week in Miami to lock it up.

William Byron won Sunday’s race at the “paper clip,” Martinsville Speedway which is known for its long straights and tight curve at each end. Byron has never led as many laps in a race as he did Sunday—362 of the 500.

Larson, who finished 9th, will go next week’s race with a 67 point lead over Christopher Bell and a 70-point lead on regular-season point’s leader Denny Hamlin. The most points anyone can get in one of these races is 76.  All Larson has to do is win nine points next week to clinch the title for a second year in a row.

(NASCARCAR)—Stellantis says it will field a couple of Dodge-badged cars in NASCAR’s Cup Series next year. Kaulig Racing will carry the Dodge name in the Daytona 500.  Dodge last competed in the Cup series in 2012 with Brad Keselowski winning his only championship.  Dodge has competed in the truck series for several years.

(INDYCAR)—Washington is out; Barcelona is in for 2027’s IndyCar season. The first IndyCar Grand Prix of Barcelona will be next July 18.

It’s the first time IndyCar has run in the country that is the birthplace of reigning champion Palou and will the first IndyCar race outside north America since James Hinchiliffe won a street race in Sao Paolo, Brazil in 2024.

It also is the first time since 2007 that IndyCar invades traditional Formula 1 territory. The last time the series ran in Europe was 2007.

Penske Entertainment President Mark Miles calls the signing of the multi-year agreement “a monumental day for our sport.”

(FORMULA 1)—Kimi Antonelli finished only third behind two previous F1 world champions, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, but it was good enough for him to join them in the long list of champions.

He’s only twenty years old, three years younger than the previous youngest F1 champion, breaking Sebastian Vettel’s record by three years. Vettel won the championship in 2010.

He also is first Italian driver in 73 years to win the championship and only the third Italian to wear the crown.  Unlike Alfa Romeo driver Giuseppe Farina, who won in 1950, and Ferrari’s Alberto Ascari in 1952 and 1953, Antonelli did not drive an Italian car.  He is in his second season with Mercedes.

(Illustration credits; Arkansas celebration—Mizzou Athletics; Chiefs-Broncos— MTMV Sports: Byron—Bob Priddy at Indianapolis 2026; Barcelona–IndyCar

 

Sports: Chiefs collapse; Bolton Record;  Tiger BB starts, etc.

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—Seattle’s coach says his Seahawks “conducted a clinic” in their 20-3 win over the limited them to fifty plays (Seattle had 69) and kept the ball for eleven more minutes than Kansas City had it.

The Chiefs never were able to establish a rhythm as they went three for eleven on third downs and accumulated only 213 total yards.

Sixteen rushing plays netted the Chiefs only 41 yards. Kenneth Walker III gained 36 of those yards but it took him 14 carries to get them.

Harrison Butker’s season continued to struggle on field goals, missing two more. He’s 11 for 16, almost twenty percentage points below his career average.

Patrick Mahomes was 19 for 32 passing but his longest completion was only 19 yards. He finished with 165 yards.  But for the first time in his 152-game career, says ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Chiefs never got to the red zone.

The Chiefs after a lackluster win against the Chargers and the failure on both sides of the line in the loss to Seattle meet Denver next weekend. Face Denver next weekend. The loss marked a historic low for Mahomes, whose offense failed to reach the red zone even once.

 

CHIEFS2)—Every time former Missouri Tiger Nick Bolton makes ten or more tackles in a game, he’s breaking his own record set against the Chargers. Sunday night he did it again, this time against the Seattle Seahawks with eleven more. It’s his 27th ten tackle (or more) game. Former Chiefs Derrick Johnson held the previous record at 25. He was with the Chiefs for thirteen years. This is Bolton’s sixth year.

The Seattle game was the fourth time this season that he has racked up ten or more tackles in a game. The Seattle game he had 59 total tackles, including 24 solo tackles this year.  He broke the record in his 79th game.  He now has 671 career tackles , 391 of them solo takedowns.  He’s had a half-dozen sacks, three forced fumbles and a handful of interceptions. He’s been inand 4.5 stuffs.

(MIZ)—Missouri meets Arkansas for the Tigers’ first game after their mid-season break. They’re still in the top 25 but lost a position in each of the major polls.  Arkansas is 3-4, Missouri is 5-1 and needs one more win to be bowl-eligible.

(MIZBB)—Dennis Gates’ team picked up an exhibition win against a quality opponent, 71-67 against Kansas State, in Manhattan.  Missouri had a 14-point lead in the second half but went dry for six minutes before holding off the Wildcats.

Freshman Jason Crow finished with 21 points to lead all scorers.  Mark Mitchell, who will play as long as the courts let him play this season, was scoreless in 16 minutes on the floor.

One more exhibition game, against Cleveland State a week from tonight in Mizzou Arena.

(CARDINALS)—A couple of St. Louis Babybirds are tearing up the Arizona Fall League, which is headed into its closing days. Tai Pete, who was in double-A last season

Peete is the first AFL player to triple in fourth straight games in more than 25 years. In his first eleven games in Arizona he has hit .348 with one homer, six RBIs, seven stolen bases and four doubles to go with his four triples.

Also particularly impressive is relief pitcher Tekoah Roby who unscored on in  9.2 innings. He’s given up no runs and has a 13-1 strikeout to walk ration.

(ROYALS)—Royals catching prospect Brooks Bryant, who spent much of the summer on the injured list is showing good power in Arizona.  In his first six games he has homered three times (he hit that many in 33 games in single-A this past regular season). He is showing Caglianone-type distance with his blasts.  He was hitting .296 in those first six games, sporting a .704 slugging percentage. He also is learning how to play first base. He seldom played that position  before going to the AFL.

Motoring along—

(NASCAR)—Kyle Larson didn’t lock up his third Cup championship at Talladega Sunday, but his dramatic run to the finish line puts him on the verge.

Larson surged from 11th place on the last lap to win by 41-hundredths of a second over teammate William Byron. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Ross Chastain were running under the same blanket to finish third and fourth..  With two races left, he has a 73-point lead over Denny Hamlin, the regular season points leader. Christopher Bell, who started the day only five points behind Larson, crashed early and is now third, 74 points out, and Chase Briscoe who had launched a late season charge of his own, was caught up in one of the big crashes and trails by 77.

{Photo Credits: Bolton—Reddit; Peete—Facebook; Talladega finish—Sean Gardner, Getty Images)

Sports:  Big Win, New Heart; New Bird and Are They or Aren’t They Tigers?

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZFB)—No letdown for these Tigers, not last weekend.  Missouri stifled Texas A&M defensively and battered them with the running game in a 27-6 win that has moved them into 13th place in both the AP and the coaches polls.  Mississippi State, next weekend’s opponent is 19th and 16.

More important than that is this:

Only The Ohio State University Buckeyes have a tougher schedule ahead of them for the rest of the season than Missouri does. The gauntlet begins with Ole Miss Saturday night. The University of Mississippi is ranked ninth. After that it’s Texas, Georgia, Kentucky and Oklahoma. Only Oklahoma and Arkansas are unranked going into this weekend’s play.

Their only common opponent is Florida which won 52-28.  Missouri goes in with a statistical advantage. Mississippi’s top rusher is Kewan Lacey who has only 230 yards. Quarter backs are within a yard of each other passing.

Here’s another interesting statistic:  Missouri’s defense has recorded 13 sacks in the second half of the games, second best in the country. Offensively, Missouri is averaging 36 points a game, Mississippi is averaging 38.

Tiger running back Jamal Roberts became only the third SEC running back in the last two decades to rush for 200 yards or more in two straight games last weekend.  He averaged better than six yards a carry.  In his last two games he has gained 433 yards.  His 828 yards puts him only seven yards behind the nation’s rushing leader, Dylan Riley of Boise State.  He had ten runs of seven yards or more.

The only two others were Derrick Henry from Alabama. and Leonard Fournette of LSU. Fornette’s NFL career was shortened to seven years with injuries. Henry is the only player to have run for 2,000 yards in high school, college, and in the NFL.

Missouri has led the SEC in rushing three of the last five years.

(MIZHEART)—One of the University of Missouri’s top signees this year probably will never play a down for the Tigers.  But he’ll be alive.

Johnnie “D. J.” Jones was diagnosed with a heart problem during freshman intake and last week suddenly was put on a transplant list.  A donor heart was located within a couple of days, and was implanted in an eight-hour operation in Columbia Wednesday night.

He went to Mizzou as a four-star prospect, 161st best player in the country, and number 16 at the offensive tackle position.

(MIZBB)—The Missouri Tigers basketball team plays its first game in ten days.  It’s an exhibition game in Manhattan, Kansas.  There’s a pretty big problem, though.

They don’t know who will be on their roster.  Two guys involved in lawsuits against the NCAA hope their eligibility for a fifth year will be granted.

The Tigers held their first Pro Day Sunday afternoon. Mark Mitchell and C. J. Gunn both took part although their lawsuits seeking eligibility for a fifth season are still in the courts.

Coach Dennis Gates wishes they had been able to decide on a fifth year as soon as last season ended but the rule that would have let them do it wasn’t made until they had moved on to pro development leagues. “My job is to make sure they’re developing and gaining the opportunity without knowing what tomorrow looks like, “said Gates.

Gunn will be in court this afternoon in Boone County asking for a permanent injunction allowing him to play this season.  Mitchell had filed earlier lawsuit in Kentucky but now has one in Boone County.

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs had a bye week last weekend. They’ll face the Chargers in the late afternoon game Sunday. The Chargers remain winless in five games. The Chiefs are 5-1).

Kansas City has brought back wide receiver Justin Watson and have signed him to their practice squad. He was with the Chiefs for three seasons, played 50 regular seasons, caught 64 passes for 1,064 yards.

(BLUES)—Hockey season has crept onto the scene while we weren’t looking.  The St. Louis blues are 2-2-1 in their first five games. They play the Ottawa Senators tonight.

(CARDINALS)—We are gaining a new peculiar bird species in Missouri.  Joining the St. Louis Battlehawks, whatever they are, next year will be the Ozarks Springbirds, another species John James Audubon never painted.

The Cardinals Double-A affiliate says it’s making the change to reflect “our city, our region, and our birds.”  The new uniforms will look like these outfits modeled by obviously excited ballplayers.  The first time the new uniforms will be used in a game that counts is next April 2.

The people behind the name change say it identifies their region, their city, and the team whose minor league system includes them.

Changing Gears:

(NASCAR)—Kyle Larson has expanded his championship points lead although he finished sixth at Charlotte.  Instead of seeing his lead cut to thirty points by Christopher Bell, had Bell won, Larson nine points and is 49 points ahead with four races to go

Bell was despondent after finishing second to teammate Chase Briscoel, who picked up his second straight win and moved from sixth to fourth in the standings. Bell finished less than three-tenths of a second behind Brisco after running him down on the last lap and drawing even on the last turn when the two touched.

Bell has finished second eight time this year. NASCAR takes its show to Phoenix next weekend.

(Image credits: Roberts—Instagram; Jones— Threads; Springbirds—MLB;

 

Sports: Two Big Wins; Poll Vaults; Life and Death in the Fast Lane

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZ)—Coach Drinkwitz wants to stay focused on the tasks ahead and not let himself or his players be distracted by transitory things such as rankings or past history.  He made it all clear in the press conference after the 25th (and hanging on by heir fingertips) Tigers crushed Florida Saturday in front of a delirious homecoming crowd.

The win brought him a national distinction: Coach of the Week.  We haven’t heard a comment from him about it but, based on his comments after the game, it’s no big deal in the larger picture for him and the team. It is his 50th win with the Tigers (50-30 now).

Drinkwitz already is the 4th winningest football coach in MU history (Pinkel 117, Faurot 101, Devine 93)

Fans can go a little nuts, however, by remembering that his Tigers had been 8-20 against top 25 teams before the big win. “This is about this game,” he said. “That’s just noise that people create on social media for no reason. Has nothing to do with anything…Nobody in our locker room could have cared less about that. I couldn’t have cared less about that. Again, that’s stuff for you all to tweet about and to make up stories about and try to create some sort of narrative about me or my program. I really couldn’t care less.”

We can’t basically disagree in terms of controlling the narrative you want to have your guys focus on in the locker room, the practice field, and the stadium turf. But the folks outside are kind of important too and they have to share those good things because they’re the ones who pack the stands and help buy the best players MU can buy and believe that a good major sports program represents the whole University—even the physics department—as a place to send your kids to.

“Every game has a life of its own. It’s people searching for crap to talk about, and it had nothing to do with this game. Each game has a life of its own, an opponent of its own, and we try to make up the best matchup that we can. And, you know, that’s the hot-take world right now. Try to find, what are things that you can poke holes in our program about? Great, that’s fine. Do what you want to do, but it doesn’t faze us any.”

No hole-poking here. Not after that game.  But the public is fickle and in one way or another has bought the right to poke holes when the promise seen in one game isn’t consistent.

Fans and players and coaches need a little time to luxuriate in what just happened—560 total yards against what was temporarily one of the ten best teams in the country while suffocating a Gators offense that was lighting up scoreboards by scoring at least 44 points in its games this year, holding the then-second leading running backs to 1.1 yards a carry. The coach for Florida, Jon Sumrall feeling “sick to my stomach with what we just did.”

(RANKINGS)—Florida still is above Missouri in two of the three big time rank outfits. ESPN has dopped Florida ten places to 15 and brought Missouri up seven slots to 18th. The Coaches poll shows Florida 15 and the Tigers 16th. The Associated Press ups Missour by eleven positions to 14 and drops Florda eight slots to 16th.

(TIGER BBALL)—The Missouri basketball team might not want to print Mark Mitchell’s jersey yet.  A Kentucky Appeals Court has dealt a setback to Mitchell and several other players who are hoping to get a fifth season on collegiate courts.

As of now, he’s out. He still can file a lawsuit in Missouri arguing he should be included in an NCAA rule adopted after the last season that players going forward will be allowed to have one. The policy excludes players who had played four seasons before the rule went into effect. Some of those involved in the Kentucky ruling already have seen some playing time for their college football team.

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs remain undefeated after surviving Las Vegas and the Raiders 30-27 but they have some lineup juggling to do before their next game. Fortunately, they’ll have two weeks to get it done. That’s two weeks for Rashee Rice to get his tweaked hamstring back in playing shape and for the Chiefs to decide on a replacement for deep threat Tyquan Thorton, who could be out for the season with a badly broken ankle.

Rice and Thornton are the numbers one and three wide receivers on the squad.  Xavier Worthy is still healthy but behind him are Jalen Royals, Cyrus Allen, and Nicko Remigio. Royals has three catches for 17 yards and a touchdown this year. Allen is a rookie who has seen little action, and Remigio has a couple of receptions for ten years and a TD.

For weeks, maybe months, there’s been speculation the Chiefs might bring back Tyreek Hill, once Patrick Mahomes’ favorite “bombs away” target.  Hill has been stuck in the free agent market until somebody decides that his severe knee injury suffered last year while with the Dolphins is adequately healed.  Michael Silver with The Athletic has reported the Chiefs have contacted Hill’s agent. There are reports that the Chiefs have contacted Hill’s agent. Silver says Hill “remains well liked within the organization.”  Videos of Hill doing beach workouts have been posted on the internet.

Keneth Walker is running for his second straight player of the month award from the NFL.  He ran for 177 yards against the Raiders including a 7-yard bolt in the third quarter, the NFL’s longest run so far, that put the Chiefs in a lead that they didn’t give up. There already are some folks thinking he might set a new NFL rushing record, breaking the 2,105 run up by Eric Dickerson forty-two years ago. He has accumulated the most yards in the first four games since Arian Foster had 539 for the Texans sixteen years ago (Foster led the NFL  with 1,616 rushing yards in 2010).

One of Walker’s more amazing stats is the number of broken tackles he’s had. 43 so far, fifteen more than Jahmyr Gibbs of the Lions has. He’s had six runs of 20 or more yards—double the number the Chiefs had in all of last year.

(BASEBALL)—Free agency doesn’t kick off until the World Series ends and the present labor contract will terminate about a month later, December 1.  One member of the labor committee is Royals CEO and President John Sherman who says “Everybody is working hard to make sure” a lockout doesn’t happen.  He says fans want revenue parity, payroll parity and competitive balance.  Major League Baseball is the only one of the four major sports without a salary cap.

He calls the Royals season “disappointing” and says he top priority is to rebuild the bullpen and stabilize the pitching rotation.

Moving right along to the people who move right along—

(NASCAR)—Chase Briscoe’s dominating win at Las Vegas has moved him into the top six in the championship points standings but Kyle Larson’s finish 1.4 seconds behind him as built is lead.

Briscoe was in charge for 175 of the 267 laps and he held Larson at bay down the stretch—as Larson had done to him the previous week at the Kansas Speedway.

Regular season points leader Denny Hamlin continued to struggle in the ten race run off. He finished 16 and trails Larson by forty points with only four races remaining in the season.

The racing next weekend will be on the Charlotte oval for the first time since 2017. Since then the fall race has been on the roval—the road course that combines an infield track with part of the oval.

(INDYCAR)—One of the biggest open rides in the series has been filled with Christian Lundgaard stepping into the Chip Ganassi car that Scott Dixon had for 24 years.

The number 9 won six championships with Dixon driving and the number also has been used for championship runs by Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, and for Alex Palou’s first of five championships.

Arrow McLaren had dropped Lundgaard because of his mediocre oval track record. It’s gotten better in each of his five years in the series and Ganassi.

Dixon is moving to Arrow McLaren after years of being sponsored by PNG Bank. A Missouri financial company will be his sponsor with his new team—Edward D. Jones, based in St. Louis.

(JOHNCOCK)—Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Gordon Johncock has died at the age of 90. Johncock, a quiet buy with a lumber company in Michigan. He also won the series championship once.

Johncock won the race in 1973, a tragic year for the 500.  The race was stretched through three days by weather and a tragic accident. He was leading on the 133rd lap when the rain came again and the race was declared official (it becomes official with the 101st of 200 laps run).  During the race, one of his teammates—Swede Savage—was fatally injured in a violent crash at the head of the pits.  A pit crew member was hit and killed by an emergency vehicle speeding out to the crash scene. A second driver, Art Pollard, was killed in a crash on the first qualifying weekend.

On the day the race was scheduled to be run, the field dissolved into a  melee of crashes, one of which critically injured Salt Walther whose car wound up upside down with Walther’s feet hanging out of the front of the wreckage. Several spectators were injured. Rain washed out any competition that day and the next day, too, before the contest finally got underway on the third day. Johncock led 64 of the 133 laps on a day that saw only one-third of the 33-car field still running.

He got a win after the full 200 laps, fighting off Rick Mears in the last 40 laps and beating him to the checkered flag by 0.16 seconds, the closest 500 finish in history at that time.

When he left racing, he really left it.  He had his sawmill in Michigan, seldom returned to Indianapolis and once said racing was a previous life—“a job”—but he later said he had another job.

(Image credits:  Drinkwitz—Saturday Down South; Lundgaard—Bob Priddy at Indianapolis; Johncock—Instagram; Finish—IndyCar.com; Briscoe–Priddy, Indy25;  Walker—KC Chiefs)

Sports: Chiefs Prevail; Mizzou Confronts Real SEC Life; The End of the Record-Setting Season

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs 24-10 win against the Dolphins Sunday was not a thing a beauty but it was good enough to give Kansas City a 3-0 start. Last year they won only six games all season long.

The Chiefs, who had given up 30 points last week, let the winless Dolphins get the first points Sunday, out gain the Chiefs by thirty yards and convert half of their 16 third-downs.. But the defense held Miami to only three more points.

Miami has the youngest starting squad in the NFL and most observers predicted the Chiefs would go 3-0 while the Dolphins are now 0-3, few thought the Dolphis defense would keep the game form being a runaway that some Chiefs fans expected.  Kansas City rolled up 334 yards in total offense but it was not until a late field goal that the Chiefs had any breathing room.

The win ties the NFL record for most wins in a quarterback’s first 15 games. The only other quarterback to go 115-35 is Tom Brady.

(MIZ)—Remember when the Missouri football team scored points in the first quarter?   It hasn’t been that long ago, only three games.  But as the Tigers get deeper into the SEC schedule and the Troys and Arkansas Pine Bluffs disappear, the specter of scoreless first quarters grows more stark—as the Tigers learned in Starkville, Mississippi Saturday evening.

Coach Drinkwitz summed things up afterward: “We’re in Week 4 of this team’s journey, and we battled on the road, had our opportunity, and didn’t get it done. So, everything in our program from the past to now is really this year’s team, this year’s journey. Battled our butt off, came up a third-and-4 and a fourth-and-four, short. So we’ll go back to work, and got a challenge this week coming up. So that’s just life in the SEC.”

Missouri lost the game because the defense couldn’t stop the other guys in the first quarter or in the last minutes and Missouri could not convert two fourth-downs.  Next up if Florida, rated as the eighth best team in the country.  Missouri is holding onto the top 25 by its fingernails.  (ZOU)

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Missouri State would have gotten a major upset if they had beaten SMU Saturday.  SMU went into the game ranked 22nd and, like the Missouri Tigers, started slowly. The Missouri State Bears scored the first ten points. SMU got the next 14 and won 34-24. The Bears are 1-3.

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Our other D-1 program, the Southeast Missouri Red Hawks,  finished with a fumble and an interception and a loss to West Florida 20-17.

(BASEBALL)—It’s done. It’s over for our Missouri teams.  It’s time to assess the 2026 seasons.  Both of our teams had poor to mediocre seasons. But both have shown some promising possibilities for next year.

The Cardinals were last at break even, 70-70, before winning only  seven of their next 22 games.

The Cardinals played 87 one-run games this year and went 43-44 in them. It’s been eleven years since they had anything like that many. Manager Oliver Marmol quipped last week, “Every game feels like the same game where it’s a one-run game. And if it’s a two-run game, the bases are loaded.”

But there were a lot of bright spots, a lot of indications some key guys have turned the corner, Victor Scott III notwithstanding.  He’s expected to be in a different suit next year.

It was a breakout year for Alec Burlison who led the major leagues with 116 RBIs, a performance putting him in elite company. His RBI total is the most for a left handed batter since Stan Musial drove in 126 in 1954.  He’s the first Cardinals player to lead the league since Albert Pujols had 118 in 2010 and the first Redbird to lead all of baseball since Joe Torre in 1971. His total is 11th all-time for a leftie in Redbird history.  He hit .280, played in all but two games and was a threat with men on base. He hit .358 in that situation with 19 extra base hits in 173 Abs with runners in scoring position.

You’ll recall he was talked up as trade bait before the trading deadline and talked openly about how relieved he was that he wasn’t moved. He wants to stay in St. Louis had has said he would be “all in” with a contract extension if one was offered.

One final footnote to the end of the season.  Jordan Walker has hit 56 home runs in his young career, all of them against different pitchers. He’s one away from the record set by Willy Adams, presently a shortstop for the Giants, who began his career in 2018. Baseball statistician Sarah Langs came up with that piece of trivia.

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The Royals won their last game, which the Cardinals did not do, but were never contenders and finished 69-93.  However, there were individuals whose performances make sure fans spend the winter thinking of what might be in 2027.

Carter Jensen’s rookie year for Kansas City that went into the record books.  His 27 home runs moved him ahead of Dodgers great Mike Piazza for most extra-base hits by a rookie catcher in Major League history.  33 doubles and two triples to go with his homers for the extra base record. He also set a major league record for most leadoff home runs by a catcher. And he set a Royals franchise rookie record for homers and extra base hits.

He finished hitting .239 with 81 RBIs and 80 runs scored.  His strikeout to walk ratio needs to improve next year from this year’s 170-65.

The Royals made some other history in the last week of the season. Salvatore Perez hit his 20th home run Thursday, setting a new team record with ten years of 20 homers or more. He broke George Brett’s career home run record earlier

But the White Sox, who won the game 9-1 became the first team to have consecutive 100-loss seasons and then make the playoffs. The Sox have reached the triple digit loss mark for three years in a row.

The Royals helped another player on another set a dubious record this year. White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery took an Anthony Gose 96-mph four seam fastball for a called third strike in the last game between the two teams this year. It tied the MLB record of 223 strikeouts. He finished the weekend with four more, breaking an 11-year old record held by Mark Reynolds, wh played for eight teams in his 13-year career.  In 2015, he hit 44 homers and drove in 102 runs for the Diamondbacks.

Montgomery didn’t appear to be particularly ashamed of he record. “It’s definitely something you don’t want your name to be a part of, But at the end of the day, you can’t be looking so much at the negative stuff. I’ve looked at a lot of the stuff we’ve all done this year and me personally, and I felt like it’s been a lot of positives. For me to really go into the dumps about what just happened and for me to be so upset about it and not try to get better in the position we’re at as a team right now, I feel would be selfish,” Although he hit only .197, finishing with only six hits in his last 77 at-bats, he hit 31 homers and had 87 runs batted in.

Michael Wacha had one of his best career years at age 35.  In his last start, Saturday, he gave u only two earned runs  in 6.1 innings in a game the Guardians eventually won 11-5. The performance gave him his first 200-inning year in his career.

—Grading the Seasons—

ESPN gave the Cardinals a grade of C for its season, saying they “weren’t a disaster in 2026, which is a good thing, considering this team could have easily gone sideways.”  Chaim Bloom’s first team as head of baseball operations had the second youngest squat of position players in MLB.

Jordan Walker finally broke out and Alec Burleson is leading the majors in RBIs, which no Cardinals player has done since Joe Torre in 1971. JJ Wetherholt showed he’s going to be a valuable player; he and Masyn Winn might both win Gold Gloves. There is more young talent on the way, too, with Leo Bernal and Joshua Baez getting a taste of the big leagues this season, and Rainiel Rodriguez, Liam Doyle and Tanner Franklin next in line.

The best thing here is that the Cardinals were at least interesting for the first time in a long time. (Even some of their recent playoff teams weren’t all that exciting.) The payroll has been trimmed to the bare bones, so there’s room heading into 2027 to address the rotation and bullpen.

The Royals got a D from ESPN:

The path to nowhere for the Royals was set early when Bobby Witt Jr., somehow scored just one run in the team’s first 18 games. He then scored three runs in a game — but then went six more runless games and didn’t hit a home run until his 29th game. This isn’t on Witt, as he’s likely to get some first-place MVP votes since he leads AL position players in FanGraphs WAR, but it’s an example of how the Royals just never got in sync all season.

ESPN calls the season “a disappointing flop” after back to back wining years.

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Former Royals pitcher Aroldis Chapman became the first relief pitcher with 1,400 or more strikeouts. Chapman was with the Royals in 2013, one of the years the team lost 100 games. He was in 31 games before being traded to the Rangers. He was 4-7 with two saves. He was dealt to the Rangers midway through the season.

He’s the fourth pitcher in MLB hsitory to rack up ten 30-save seasons, the ninth to reach 400 saves. His 105.8 mph fast ball remains the fastest pitch ever thrown in a major league game.

Chapman started the season with the Royals in 2023 before going to the Rangers. He won four of 11 decisions with two saves in 31 games, 2.45 ERA.  Royals finished 56-96 that year.

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(FREE AGENTS)—The Cardinals have nine free players who will become free agents when the World Series ends: Burlison, Andre Pallante, Nolan Gorman, Matthew Liberatore, Masyn Winn, Jordan Walker, Ivan Herrera, Pedro Pages, Kyle Leahy, and Riley O’Brien.

The Royals list is: Carlos Estevez, Jonathan India, Matt Strahm, John Means, Craig Kimbrel, and Tony Gonsolin.

(HONORS)==Before wrapping up the season, the Cardinals inducted two former teammates and a standout pitcher from another era into the team Hall of Fame.  The credentials of Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols are widely recognized.  But Bill Scherdel is part of the distant past.

Scherdel, who died in 1968 at the age of 72 still is fifth in wins (153) and fourth in games pitched (465).  He ranks sixth in starts with 243 fifth with 2,450.2 innings pitched, and his 145 complete games rank him seventh.  He was 165-146 in 514 games in his 15-year career with the Cardinals and the Boston Braves. He was part of the Cardinals’ first World Series champion team, in 1926. He retired in 1932.

Earlier this year the Royals inducted John Wathan as the newest Royals Hall of Famer. He was with the organization for ten years as a player and 47 years overall with the team. He was the manager for five seasons, going 287-270 including the 92-win season of 1989. He ranks fifth in managerial wins and he’s fourth in winning percentage (.515). He spent several years in the broadcast booth before retiring in 2022.

Speaking of the Royals broadcast booth—Denny Matthews was in the booth with Buddy Blattner when the Royals played their first game in 1969. He became the number one broadcaster in 1975.  He’s still there. Last Friday, the Royals celebrated his 8,000th broadcast of one of their games. He’s one of four announcers in all of baseball history to have broadcast games for the same team for more than 50 years. He joined the Royals HOF in 2004, was honored with the Ford C. Frick Award that puts baseball broadcasters and writers in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, and is in both the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and the Missouri Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

(MAX)—Former Missouri Tiger pitcher Max Sherzer might or might not have thrown his last major league pitch Sunday. He maintains that he’ll decide whether to try another season between now and spring training.

He’s 43 and told reporters Saturday,  “I’ve gone through ups and downs throughout the season, I get it, but I’ve gotten to the point where I’m pretty healthy. I’ve talked to everybody in my inner circle and we all kind of feel the same way. We don’t need to make a decision today. Get to the offseason and see how things unfold.”

His record has not been much to talk about in the last couple of years with Toronto when he’s been sidelined with injuries, but Sunday he went seven full innings, gave up one run, six hits, struck out seven and walked only one on 114 pitches.  In his career he’s 225-126 with a 3.29 ERA., 3,557 strikeouts and only 814 walks.  He’s ninth on the all time strikeout list.

Will he show up in February?  “I have no idea how I’m going to feel here in six months. For me, right now it’s just about being healthy, pitching in this last game and having fun with it, then seeing what happens. I really don’t have any expectations of what happens. Pitching is so much fun. You never know. Really, I have no idea.”

Scherzer, a Chesterfield native, led the Big 12 confine in ERA  (1.86) and strikeouts when he was a sophomore at Mizzou in 2005. His 131 strikeouts broke a 14-year old school record. He was the conference’s Pitcher of the Year and was a semifinalist for the Clemens Award, the college baseball’s Heisman Trophy.

He was 7-2 with a 1.85 ERA in a junior year when he had some injuries and helped the Tigers win their first NCAA regioal tournament. The Diamondbacks made him the 11th overall pick in the 2006 draft, the first time a Mizzou baseball player had gone in the first round of the draft.

(HAWKS)—-St. Louis once was an NBA town and once its team beat the great Boston Celtics for the NBA Championship.  We note the death of the leader of that team a few days ago. Bob Petit was 93.

Petit joined the Hawks after an All-American career at LSU where he averaged 27.4 points and 14.4 rebounds a game his senior year.  He was the second pick in the 1954 draft by the then-Milwaukee Hawks, soon to move to St. Louis in 1955. He became the first NBA player to score 20,000 points, was an All-Star eleven times and was the first player to be named the Most Valuable Player in the NBA, an award he won three other times..

Petit was a 6-foot-9 power forward whose worst scoring year was his last when he averaged only 22 points per game. His career average was 26.4. He scored 50 six times with a high of 57. In the 1958 championship game with the Celtics, Petit hit for 50 points including 15 of the 21 points the Hawks scored in a one-point win over Bill Russell’s Celtics.

He went back to Louisiana when his career ended and was a financial consultant .

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

(RETURN?)—Robbie Avila, the popular 6-10 center for the St. Louis University Billikens last year, has filed a lawsuit seeking a fifth year as a Billiken. He’s also asking that a judge order an expansion of the roster beyond the NCAA 15-man limit.

His lawsuit claims he’s being unfairly kept from getting NIL payments to play college basketball

The Billikens made history last year by going 29-6 for their most victories ever. They won their first round game against Georgia in the NCAA tournament but were knocked out in round two by the eventual champion, Michigan.

Avila was the A-10 Player of the Year last year. He has enrolled at SLU this year and will work on a master’s degree in leadership and organizational development.

—-Speedy Stuff—

(NASCAR)—Kyle Larson grabbed the NASCAR championship run-off by the throat just across the state line from Kansas City Sunday. His dominating run that maxed out the number of points he could get has put him 26 points up on Denny Hamlin, the regular season champion.

Larson led  235 of the race’s 276 laps, a track record. Chase Briscsoe ran him down with about thirty laps to go but developed a handling problem and Larson reclaimed the lead with seven to go and stayed on the point the rest of the way.

Larson, driving the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, started on the outside of the front row and took the early lead Yahoo Sports. He held the top spot for most of the race, but Chase Briscoe caught and passed him with 30 laps to go Yahoo Sports+1. Briscoe’s car began to get loose late in the run, giving Larson the chance to reclaim the lead with seven laps remaining NASCAR. He held it to the checkered flag, completing the win.

The win his the 34th of his career, his second win in his last three races after a 51-race dry spell. With six races left, Hamlin is his closest challenger. Christopher Bell is third but is 50 points back. Last week’s winner, Joey Logano, suffered a late tire failure, finished 20th, and drped to fourth in the standings, 67 points back.

(INDYCAR)—The annual off-season ritual for the getting the face of the winner of the Indianapolis 500 on the Borg-Warner trophy is underway for Felix Rosenqvist.

Sculptor William Behrends, who has been the trophy’s sculptor since 1990, carved Rosenqvist’s face in clay at his studio in Tryon, North Carolina. The clay image will be produced in sterling silver and permanently attached to the big trophy.

Rosenqvist’s image is unique because he’s the first winner shown with a full beard, which was a challenge to Behrends who didn’t want the beard to be the first thing people noticed when the see in the silver image. The trophy shows six winners with moustaches, the most recent being Bobby Rahal, the 1986 winner and now a team owner.

Rosenqvist found the experience a little creepy though. “I think the details are what make it come alive bBecause that’s literally what makes you, you. I think the cool thing was because we’ve all seen pictures of ourselves, but to see like a 3D version of yourself and to be able to look around and walk behind him, look out behind the ears and all the kind of things you never could do, it’s a little bit of an eerie experience.”

Rosenqvist will defend his title next May 30, the 111th running of the Indianapolis 500.

(Picture credits: Jensen—Facebook; Cardinals HOF—X; Wathan—Instagram; Matthews–Json Hanna The Kansas City Royals; Petit—Facebook; Sherzer—University of Missouri and Youtube; Larson—Bob Priddy at Indianapolis; Rosenqvist—IndyCar)

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Sports: Getting the Job Done at Arrowhead; Work To Do at Mizzou; The Last Six Games

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—Statistically, the Chiefs were all over the Colts Sunday night.  But before the game was all over, the Chiefs had to keep Indianapolis from getting a touchdown in overtime—and did, holding them to a field goal, while the Chiefs got two kicks through the uprights for a 33-30 win.

Patrick Mahomes threw for 371 yards (more than 160 more than his Colts counterpart, Daniel Jones) and Kenneth Walker ran for 117 of Kansas City’s 119 rushing yards.  Total offense; Chiefs 352., Colts 329.  Travis Kelce ran on young legs for 101 receiving yards and a touchdown. But it was Harrison Butker’s 40-yard field goal as the clock hit zero that won the game.

The win was an NFL record eighth straight overtime victory.  The Chiefs are 2-0 with a game next weekend against 0-2 Miami. The Colts are 0-2.

(MIZ)—Troy State beat Missouri everywhere but on the scoreboard Saturday night, leaving Coach Eli Drinkwitz with a long list of things that have to be shaped up before Mizzou starts SEC play next weekend against Mississippi State—which had a big win Saturday.

Missouri dropped behind Troy 10-0 before running off 24 straight points before the half. A Tiger field goal late in the fourth quarter put the game out of reach for Troy, 27-17.  Troy had the ball fifteen minutes longer than Missouri did, outgained them 323-230 and had five more first downs than the Tigers had.

Drinkwitz ticked off a list of concerns—going only 2 for 11 on third downs, the inability to complete a pass when needed (“We weren’t great throwing and catching the football. There was receivers falling down, receivers running around too deep, quarterback throwing the ball too early, offensive holding, inefficient runs off first down, inability to use play action to create separation between the second level of the defense.”)

Both Missouri and Mississippi State are 3-0.  State rallied from a 13-0 deficit against South Carolina Saturday night to win 41-34.

The unimpressive win was good enough to advance MU’s position by one slot in the national polls. The AP poll puts them 19th. Coaches have them 21st.

(FORMERTIGERS)—Former Tiger Quarterback Drew Lock played like a starter instead of a sub for the Seattle Seahawks Sunday, filling in for injured starter Sam Darnold. On the second play of the game he hit Jaxon Smith-Njigba for an 82-yard touchdown.  The two connected on two other TDs as the Seahawks beat the Arizona Cardinals 31-7.

Another Tiger QB, Brady Cook, was waived by the Jets in late August and was picked up by the Dolphins. He’s considered Miami’s emergency quarterback, to be activated if starter Malik Wilson and backup Kyle McCord can’t play.

Luther Burden III, who missed some training camp workouts with an injury, is  a Bears starters. In two games he had nine catches for 95 yards. No touchdowns yet.

(BASEBALL)—By the time we next write about baseball, the uniforms will be cleaned and put away, Busch and Kauffman Stadiums will be silent (I find few things more lonely than a baseball diamond in winter) until spring, and the playoffs will be underway involving other people’s teams.

But there’s always next year. That’s the never-ending story of the game.

The Cardinals are gone from St. Louis, their last home game something that will help fans get through the winter.  Their last six games will be on the road.  They have to win five of the six to finish at .500. Even if they don’t make it, they’ve given the Cardinals’ fans plenty to live for until the magical first day of spring training. The names of the last home game youngsters are likely to become quite familiar in 2027.

Quinn Matthews was solid on the mound against the Nationals.  The Cardinals got ahead in eht first inning with Ivan Herrera’s first homer since the All-Star break.  Jose Fermin led off the second with a double, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a single by J. J. Wetherholt.

Matthews struggled in the 6th and gave up a two-run homer to give Washington a 3-2 lead. He lasted seven innings, gave up seven hits and three earned runs.

Herrera hit his second homer in the eighth to tie the game. After Jordan Walker was intentionally walked, Leo Bernal put one in the seats 424 feet away for the lead. Riley O’Brien shut the Nationals down to end it.

The Cardinals play the first half of the rest of their schedule starting tonight in Pittsburgh. They finished the year 41-42 at home.

The Royals will play their last six games at the K, hoping to end things on a high note after being swept by the Pirates in Pittsburgh. The bullpen was the culprit again. The Royals were up 3-2 in the eighth after a pinch-hit two-run homer by Vinnie Pasquantino. But a homer by Rafael Flores Jr., gave the Pirates a 4-3 win.

The bullpen wasted another good outing by Michael Wacha who threw 113 pitches in 5.2 innings, gave up only four hits and allowed two runs.

The Royals finished the year 28-53 on the road. They’re 39-36 at home with the White Sox and the Guardians coming to town to wrap up the season.

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Not everybody is done playing baseball this fall, though. The Arizona Fall League starts October 3 and ends on Nov. 11.  A few players who hope one day to be engulfed by the cheers of the crowd as they step onto the field They’re among the top prospects of each team going to the Arizona League for another month of work and learning.

Eight Cardinals wannabes will be there—Pitchers Tekoah Roby,  Michael Watson, Brandon Clarke, Nate Dohm, and Frank Elissalt, outfielder Tai Peete, third baseman Cade McGee, and catcher/outfielder Sammy Hernandez.

Peete, on Sunday, had five hits including a two-run homer, four RBIs, a stolen base and two runs scored as Springfield won the first game in its defense of the Texas League championship. Springfield beat the Amarillo (TX) Sod Poodles 7-2 in Amarillo and will play the second game of the series tonight at home.

Roby will play his first baseball game in almost a year after Tommy John surgery last year. He has a spot on the 40-man roster, the only one of the eight with one of those prized slots. He came over from the Rangers in 2023. Pete also has had injury problems. He was able to play only 66 games in the rookie league, High-A and Double-A ball this year. But when he was healthy he flashed the kind of promise it was hoped he’s show—.296 average in 312 times at the late.

Clark, who was a big part of the Sonny gray trade with Boston, came back from an arm injury to work 29.2 innings in four levels of minor league ball, struck out 44 and showed 100 mph plus on the gun a few times.

Ellisalt will be playing after missing all of the season with an injury.

Hernandez was solid in High-A this year—65 games, .279 with an OPS of .940. McGee was in 86 games with High-A Peoria this year after being a ninth round pick in the draft earlier this year.

Dohm came to the Cardinals in the Ryan Helsley trade with the Mets. He started 13 games, relieved in 11 and had a7.43 ERA.

Watson was an undrafted free agent who was at Springfield all year, striking out 71 in 52.32 innings.

One of the most-watched Royals hopefuls will be this year’s first-round draft pick, Zion Rose. He’ll be joined by eight others from the Royals system. Rose got into 19 games in High-A, hit .268 with a homer and 14 walks. He also stole 14 bases.

A .319 batting average in Low-A by catcher Brooks Bryan earned him a trip to Arizona. He went on the IL after 33 games and three home runs.

Injuries have dogged shortstop Austin Charles who had seven homers  and a .285 average in 45 games at Quad Cities. Teammate Josh Hansell has been hurt for parts of the last two seaosns but he had 41 Ks and 25 walks on 40.2 innings.

Justin Lamkin is considered the eighth best Royals prospect. He had a strong year in High-A and Double A. He made eight starts before he went on the injured list in mid-May, went 39.2 innings, had 53 strikeouts and a 2.04 ERA.

It’s been five years since Frank Mozzicato was Kansas City’s number one draft pick, coming out high school with a big curveball.  He’s had control problems in Double-A where he had 72 walks in 71.2 innings this year and an 8.04 ERA. But in the last month of his season he appears to have gotten it together, with 30 strikeouts in 18 innings with opposing batters hitting only .121 against him.

Hiro Wyatt, also drafted out of high school (2023) did well during his second time in Low-A. Seven starts, 28 innings, 24 strikeouts and a 3.21 ERA before he was shut down in May.

The Royals had enough faith in Steven Zobac that he was put on the 40-man roster last year although he had injury problems and wasn’t too effective.  This year he made 13 starts in Double-A totaling 42.2 innings. He fanned 41 and had a 4.85 ERA. He’s considered the 14th best player in the Royals system.

Now, a sport lasting into November—-

(NASCAR)—Bristol is a short track where tempers also get short when 35 or more drivers are turning laps every 15 seconds for 500 trips around the oval and trying to get past one another.  Sometimes it doesn’t work out and the disagreement over space on track continues in the pits after the race.

Joey Logano slipped past Carson Hocevar and Ty Gibbs as they fought for the lead with five laps to go and neither could catch him as he racked up his third win of the year and 40th of his career.

Ryan Blaney dominated the race, leading 120 until his car, running a high line, dipped low to block Hocevar’s pass.  Blaney’s left rear bumper touched the nose of Hocevar’s car, sending Blaney into the wall and out of the race.

Hocevar finished third behind Kyle Larson and found himself face to face in the pits after he race with a furious Blaney (right).  Some punches were thrown but neither of these guys is much of a pugilist and crew members pulled them apart—twice.  As we go to press

NASCAR will not penalize either driver. CEO Steve O’Donnell told Kevin Harvick on Harick’s podcast yesterday, “We’re not going to encourage fighting, but what we are going to encourage is passion, right? And those are two guys — Blaney’s showing his passion, showing his fire. So no, there’s nothing coming from us in terms of [penalties]. We’ll obviously watch what happens the rest of the way, but nothing in terms of post-race penalties.”

Larson’s second-place finish and Denny Hamlin’s finish in 8th gave Larson a one-point lead in the championship standings with seven races left in the season.

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(WWTR)—Driver complaints about the narrowness of the pit road at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis after last week’s Cup race there will take NASCAR officials there this week to talk about possible changes. A pit incident in a second-tier NASCAR race left some crewmen injured. Racing Insights says the track has the second-narrowest pit lane on the NASCAR circuit—25 feet wide, one foot wider than the pit lane at Indianapolis.

(Photo credit: Drinkwitz—larrybrownsports; Peete—Cardinals; Royals—newssportslogos.net; fight— Chris Graythen, Getty Images)

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Sports:  Pat’s Back & So Are the Chiefs; Tigers Beat Jayhawks Like a Drum, Etc.

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—-Patrick Mahomes was Patrick Mahomes, Kenneth Walker III was Kenneth Walker III. The offensive line looked like a vintage line. The defense was solid and Mahomes and his rebuilt knee and the Chiefs with their rebuilt roster delivered a dominating win over last year’s division champions Denver Broncos 31-10.

Walker had more yards of total offense than the entire Broncos team.  His 173 rushing yards on 23 carries are the most for a Chiefs running back since Jamal Charles ran for 226 on December 23, 2012 (he also ran for 233 three months earlier and had a career best 259 in January of 2020).

Travis Kelce’s long catch and run moved him into second place, all-time, in tight end yardage with 13,067, trailing only Chiefs predecessor Tony Gonzalez, who finished with 15,127.

Mahomes showed no fear in running the ball when necessary and ran for a touchdown early.  Although he was a pocket quarterback most of the game, he did show he could scramble if necessary and was not limping at the end of the game.

The Chiefs meet the Indianapolis Colts next weekend. (9/18/26)

(MUKU)—Sometimes it’s interesting for fans to hear what the other coach has to say about your team after a big game.  Our coach, of course, will mix the good and the bad with his reviews of his team’s performance and Coach Drink has plenty of things to talk about the Tiger’s needing to improve. Six false starts were among the ten Tiger penalties, for example.

But the Tigers left Lawrence with the first Missouri victory there since 2001.

KU Coach Lance Leopold wasn’t happy that his team gained only 255 yards againt Missouri’s defense and succeed on only three of its fifteen third downs.  The KU defense allowed Missouri to gain an average of 6.6 yards per play to run up a total of 469 yards. The Missouri pass defense held KU quarterback Isaiah Marshall to just 13 of 30 passing and forced him into two turnovers.

Although he thought KU played “really good football game” in the first half but thoughts the Tigers “derailed us a lot.”  Although Missouri had two field goals blocked, one of which was run back for the game’s first touchdown, “a good football team is going to get themselves corrected…and they did it, especially when we gave them those short fields.”  He called the game “very deflating.”

The Jayhawks could not stop Austin Simmons because “he’s a really good football player” who found his rhythm early in the game. Simmons hit 19 of his 29 passes for 292 yards and here touchdowns.

Leopold complimented Missouri for “having a good game plan that “found ways to attack us,” The offensive line impressed Leopold, who thinks “they’ve got probably eight draftable guys” and at least one who will go high in the draft.

The rivalry won’t be renewed until at least 2031, if even then.  “It’s a good rivalry,” said Leopold…I think these are things that help make college football what it is and iat’s a special game.”

Missouri’s Drinkwitz wasn’t happy with the Tigers’ first half. “The things that we gave them were undisciplined penalties. Our special teams was not good tonight, in any form or facet, and that’s going to get cleaned up.”

The trophy since 1935 for this long-standing, but interruptible rivalry, is a drum, originally purchased by Missouri and Kansas alumni from a Kansas City pawn shop. One drum head has a Tiger on it. A Jayhawk is on the other.  That first drum is now in the College Football Hall of Fame. In the 1980s the Taos Pueblo Indians in New Mexico made a new drum as the new traveling trophy. Missouri has kept it since 2009 and has beaten the Jayhawks five straight games.  The last time that happened was 84 years ago.

The game has brought weekly SEC honors for two Tigers. Quarterback Austin Simmons and defensive lineman Daeden Hopkins  are offensive and defensive players of the week. Simmons, who has completed 75% of his passes in his first two games at Mizzou, shares his award with Texas QB Arch Manning. Pro Football Focus says Hopkins, who is only a sophomore, led the charge that pressured KU quarterback Isaiah Marhall better than forty percent of KU’s 70 snaps with eight pressures and one and a half sacks.

This week’s coaches poll moves Missouri up one place, to 22nd. The AP sportswriters rank Missouri 20th.

The Tigers play Troy University next Saturday evening in Columbia.  The Trojans have won both games this year, against Sam Houston and against Alabama State. Troy has about 14,000 students.

(BASEBALL)—Only a dozen games are left and the Cardinals have to win eight of them to finish even. They took their first step in that direction last night with a 2-1 win against the Giants who were long ago out of playoff contention and now are 62-89.  The Cardinals’ Quinn Mathews had a no hitter going into the sixth inning and left after two outs in that inning and allowing the first run and four hits. He struck out eight and walked four in the longest start of his rookie year. Alec Burlison upped his league-leading RBI total to 110 and rookie catcher Leo Bernal drove in the other one.

The Redbirds got some good news about J. J. Wetherholt during the weekend. He’s rehabbing from a wrist injury and hit off a tee Friday. He hopes to be back in the lineup before the end of the season.

Thomas Saggese has filled in for Wetherhold at second base and has impressed people since his callup from Memphis when Wetherholt went out.  He’s hitting .260 with four homers and a dozen runs batted in, a record good enough to be moved to the leadoff position.

The Royals will finish below .500 if they win all of their remaining game. They dropped to 66-84 with a series-ending loss to the Red Sox.  But a couple of guys continued their run at the Royals record books during the weekend.

Carter Jensen has tied Bob Hameline’s record for most homers by a Royals rookie.  He provided a souvenir in the outfield seats for the 14th time this year.  He also racked up his twelfth straight extra-base hit,  joining New York’s Aaron Judge for most consecutive extra-base hits by a rookie in the expansion era (namely, since 1961).

Bobby Witt needs two home runs to compile a third straight 20 homer, 40 stolen bases in a season. It will be his second time (the first was in 2023). Carlos Beltran had 26 homers and 41SBs in 2003.

We now know who is going to build the new stadium in KC.  Three companies will tame up to build the three-billion dollar roofless ball park near crown Center, downtown.  The nationally-know construction companies of Mortenson and McCownGordon will jointly serve as construction manager. J.E. Dunn will superintend the ballpark village-like development in the surrounding 85-acre site. The stadium will seat about 34,000 fans, about four thousand fewer than can watch a game at the K.

Now: Racing to the End—

(NASCAR)—Kyle Larson can quit counting how many races it has been since he won.  Larson survived intense racing marred by a track-record 18 caution flags to win the Enjoy Illinois 300 at the World Wide Technology Raceway just across the river from St. Louis. It’s his first win since May of last year, 51 races in all.

Larson finished just ahead of teammate Alex Bowman. Pole sitter Joey Logano, who led the most laps, came home third and the third Hendrick driver, William Byron was fourth. Points leader Denny Hamlin had a mediocre day but finished ninth when several drivers ahead of him crashed, many of them because their heavily-used brake rotors exploded, putting them into the wall and out of the race sometimes taking some other drivers with them.  The race was stopped twice for track clean-up.

Thirty-five percent of the race’s 247 overtime laps were run under caution leaving an average speed of just 81.47 mph. Between the yellows, however, racing sometimes was three and four-wide on the egg-shaped oval that relies of heavy braking and road course-like shifting in the turns. The 18 yellows were the most race caution periods in any Cup race this year.  The record for most caution periods in a race is 22, at Charlotte in 2005, a race that was twice as long (600 miles) as Sunday’s race.

Hamlin led the standings by a dozen points going into the race and gained a few points on last weeks’ neared challengers.  But Larson’s win shortened the Hamlin lead to nine going into next week’s short-track race at Bristol, the third stop in the ten-race series for the championship.

The race was the first to honor Kyle Busch with a new permanent trophy that honors Busch’s memory at WWTR.

(INDYCAR)—Look for several drivers wearing different colors next year in IndyCar.  The seat juggling that began before season’s end has continued in the days after. There are only 25 fulltime rides available so it’s a fairly closed society.  Here’s what’s being reported so far.

Scott Dixon was reported moving from Ganassi to McLaren some time ago.  Meyer-Shank has lost Indianapolis 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist to Mclaren. They will join with Pato O’Ward there. Jettisoned by McLaren are Christian Lundgaard, although he was third in the points chase this year, and Nolan Siegel.

Mick Schumacher is moving from Rahal Letterman Lanigan to replace Rosenqvist at Meyer-Shank. Marcus Armstrong will stay with M-S but will moved to the 60-car that Rosenqvist had this year.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan has sold one of its franchises to the returning Dreyer & Reinbold team, which quickly filled the seat with Connor Daly.

It’s a long seven months, though, before we see the realigned series take to the track in earnest again.  The 2027 season opens with the annual street race at St. Petersburg, Florida on March 7.

(Photo credits: Walker—Facebook; Drum—St. Joseph Post; Larson–Bob Priddy)

 

Sports: Seasons Begin; Seasons Winding Down; Seasons Ending 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZ)—When your university has more than five times the number of fulltime employees than the other school has students, it should not be a surprise that your football team would be able to put 74 players on the field for at least one snap when the two teams meet.  The Post-Dispatch and its analytical partner, Hudl IQ counted 41 defensive and 33 offensive players who got on the field against Arkansas-Pine Bluff Thursday night.

UAPB has 1,868 students.  MU has more than 11,000 employees in Columbia.

The victory over the overmatched Lions didn’t move Missouri in the polls. They remain 25th headed to the Kansas game in Lawrence Friday night.

Kansas beat Long Island University 51-6. LIU has slightly more students than KU has staff members.

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs finally are going to let Patrick Mahomes play a football game—next Monday night, the season opener against the Broncos at Arrowhead.  But one of his main protectors is out –left tackle Josh Simons. He’ll probably be replaced by undrafted rookie free agent Kahlil Benson.

Simmons’ rookie season last year was cut short with injuries. He was in only eight games last year after coming off a national championship season at Ohio State. He has a lower back injury.

Benson, who was with the Indiana national champions last year, has been competing with Jaylon Moore for the right tackle job during camp. Moore will stay on the right side and Benson will shift to the other side.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals started this week needing to make up four games on the Arizona Diamondbacks in the last 18 games of the regular season to make it to the playoffs. It’s  a distant possibility, but a real chance to play better than .500 baseball this year. A dozen wins will give them their best record since they went 93-69 in winning their division championship in 2022.

They started the week 72-72 with the first of six games against the Giants, who 59-85. They took two out of three from the Rockies during the weekend.

The Diamondbacks are 76-68.

The latest youngster brought up from the minors to make an impressive debut was pitcher Cooper Hjerpe, who came out of the bullpen to throw four innings, strikeout six and not allowed any baserunners. He is only the second pitcher in MLB history to throw four or more hitless innings with six or more strikeouts.  The only other one is former MU Tiger Max Scherzer.  He’s been a starter throughout his career but will fill a reliever’s role for the rest of the year.

The Cardinals have lost Hunter Dobbins for the rest of this year and probably most of next season.  He had right elbow surgery for the second time last week and has a one-year recovery period ahead of him.

He also had elbow surgery in 2025.

Dobbins had eight starts and three relief appearances this year and hits the shelf with a 3.67 ERA.

(ROYALS)—The Royals and the Diamondbacks waited until the tenth inning for all the fireworks.  Noah Cameron and relievers held the D-backs scoreless through nine before Arizona scored five in the tenth in the Labor Day Game.  The Royals got back four of those runs before the final out.

 

Cameron continued his late-season excellence with six innings of shutout ball, striking out seven and allowing only three hits. Arizona blew the game open against Craig Kimbrell with five in the tenth. Kansas City clobbered Gerardo Cabrillo with three earned runs in one-third of an inning and picked up another score before Dennis Santanna put out the fire.

The Royals flew into September after going 16-11 in August, thanks to Cameron and teammate Joe Caglionone who were the Ameircan League Pitcher and Player of the month, respectively, for August. This is first time the Royals have won both awards since Brett Saberhagen and George Brett won it in July, 1985, the year of the Royals’ first World Series win.

Cameron, in five August starts, allowed only seven runs in 33.2 innings including his complete game shutout against the Dodgers on August 16. He had a 1.87 ERA for the month. He led the American league by lasting an average of 6.2 innings per game.

Caglianone stormed through August, hitting .411 with six home runs and 33 other hits and 26 runs batted in.  The performance upped his season average to .282, with 23 homers, 26 doubles, and 67 RBIs.

Another reason for optimism as the Royals wind down their season is rookie catcher Carter Jensen, who has started 83 games as Salvador Perez works his way through a sore elbow. He has set a Royals record with six leadoff home runs, a team record.  Coming into September, he was hitting .252 with 38 extra base hits including 21 home runs.

On to the track:

(INDYCAR)—It’s all over for IndyCar for 2026. Scott McLaughlin won his first race in the last 37 starts in the final race of the year and celebrated his win while Alex Palou was getting his fifth championship trophy in the last six years.

McLaughlin dominated at Laguna Seca, starting P1, leading 87 of the 95 laps and beating Kyle Kirkwood to the finish line.  Former Indianapolis 500 winner  to lead Kyle Kirkwood across the line. Alexander Rossi finished third for his first podium finish of the year.  A second Penske driver, David Malukas, ran fifth for his third straight top five finish. He had four finishes in second place but will have to wait until next year to get his first win.

Kirkwood finished second in the race and overtook Christian Lundgaard for second in the point standings.  Lundgard was the only driver to complete every lap of every race this year—all 2,557 of them. He’s only the sixth driver in all of IndyCar history to do that.

The race ended Scott Dixon’s 25-year career with Chip Ganassi Racing.  He posted 58 wins and won six championships with Ganassi.  He’ll have a new team next year.  Only A. J. Foyt has more wins and more championships than Dixon.

The season might be past but the future of IndyCar will be on track for a couple of days this week. Alex Palou and Alexander Rossi will test the 2028 IndyCar prototype at Indianapolis tomorrow and Thursday, giving the new chassis it’s first high speed workout after road-course tests earlier.

The series also will have  a new engine formula in 2028.  The expectation is that the new car will break long-standing speed records, particularly at Indianapolis where Arie Luyendyk’s one lap record of 237.498 and a four-lap qualifying run at 236.986.

(NASCAR)—Christopher Bell picked a fine time to get his first win of the year and his first win at Darlington—the first of the 10 races that will decide the Cup Championship.

Bell’s four tire final pit stop helped him take the lead from Kyle Laron, who had gambled and stayed out while others went to the pits, with eleven laps left. Ty Gibbs and pole sitter Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney also got past Larson.

Regular season points champion Denny Hamlin finished 18th after a late-race incident with Michael McDowell..

Gibbs drove from 28th to second, just over one second behind Bell. Pole sitter Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson completed the top five.

Bell’s win ends a 33-race winless streak that has included seven second-place finishes. His win and Hamlin’s poor finish has cut Hamlin’s early points lead in half.

Round two of the playoff races will be next Sunday at St. Louis—-actually, Madison, Illinois, just across the Stan Musial Bridge at World Wide Technologies Raceway.

(Photo Credits: Hjerpe—PJ Maigi; Players of the Month: MLB; McLaughlin @ WWTR—Rick Gevers; New car—IndyCar; Bell at Indy—Bob Priddy)