Category Archives: baseball

Sports: One season fading away; Another dawning; And a possible plum race for the St. Louis area.

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals, losers of 106 games last year, are on the verge of seizing the lead in the American League Central.  They started this week with a doubleheader sweep of the Cleveland Guardians yesterday to pull withing one game of Cleveland.  Salvador Perez had two home runs in the second game, one of them a grand slam.  His six career grand slams and his 17 multi-homer games tie team records.

(CARDINALS)—Mike Schildt returned to Busch Stadium last night for the first time since he was fired by the Cardinals two years ago over “philosophical differences.”  Shildt’s Padres scorched the Cardinals 7-4.  The Cardinals drop to 65-66.  San Diego is up to 75-58.

The Cardinals have lost Wilson Contreras again. This time it’s a broken little finger because he was hit by a pitch last week. Ivan Herrera has been called up form Memphis to  back up Pedro Pages (pronounced PAW-hezz for non-Cardinal followers), who has proven himself to be a solid backup for Contreras—who has been among the team’s leading hitters since coming back from a broken arm in another HBP incident.  Was hitting .262 with 15 homers when he was hurt again.

(BASEBALL)—We have only about 30 games left in the regular baseball season. On one side of the state we have frustration. On the other side of the state we have elation. For the sport in general we are looking at an unusual situation—we might finish this season with no team winning 100 games.

Fansided.com raised the issue during the weekend.  When we checked the standings Sunday, the Dodgers had 78 wins and would have to go 22-9 the rest of the way to hit the century mark. The Yankees will have to go 23-7; the Orioles 24-6. Cleveland and the Royals and Twins have to play at a 25-6 and 28-3 to reach 100 wins.

The Cardinals are 35 games short of 100 victories this year. If they go on a 31-game winning streak, they’ll top out at 96.  They need to go 16-15 to finish at .500.

Don’t give up, Cardinals fans.  It’s doable.  Finishing .500, that is.

Fansided.com excludes the COVID year of 2020 as it points out the last year for no team winning 100 games was 2014, a year in which only six teams had 90 or more victories (the Dodgers were on top with 98). That was the year that the Giants and the Cardinals, both wild-card teams, took seven games to decide the Giants would win the World Series.

The next year, the Cardinals were the only team to win 100 games. The Cubs, with 103, were the only team to hit triple digits in 2016, the year they finally won a World Series.

While we are wallowing in statistics:  The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani has become the sixth player to steal 40 bases and hit 40 home runs in a season. His 9th-inning grand slam Friday night was his 40th home run.   He holds the record for being the fastest to reach both numbers. He has about thirty games to become the first member of the 50-50 club.

One other thing—-He threw off a mound for the first time this year during the weekend. Next year he could win his 40th game as a pitcher (assuming he doesn’t get activated before the end of this season).  He is 38-15 in five years as a pitcher with the Angels, for whom he was 25-14 before he was hurt in the 2023 season and signed with the Dodgers for ten years and $282 million.

Somebody else who had a good week last week was the Yankees’ Aaron Judge, who had seven home runs in six games and had 51 starting this week and plenty of time to break his American League record of 62 set three years ago.

And while we are talking about statistics and excellence, let’s mention some statistics and failure.  The Chicago White Sox lost their 100th game this weekend to go 31=100.  They are on track to break the modern record for most losses in a season, now held by the 1969 Mets, who went 40-120-1 in their first season.

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs have cut a dozen players to get their roster down to the 53 players permitted for the opening game of the season. The biggest “name” among them is fourth-string quarterback Ian Book a fourth-round pick of the Saints in the 2021 draft. He played for Notre Dame before signing a four-year deal worth $4.153 million including a $673,584 bonus. The Eagles claimed him off waivers in August of 2022 before waiving him in the 2023 preseason. He was on the Patriots’ practice squad briefly, tried out for the 49ers and the Bills before signing a futures contract with the Chiefs for this season. His career shows he started one game, for New Orleans, was 12 for 20 passing for 135 yards, two interceptions and no TDs. He also ran three times for six yards.

Also cut were cornerbacks Miles Battle, Kevin Joseph and Ekow Boye-Doe; Wide Receivers Phillip Brooks and Kyle Sheets, Defensive End Owen Carney, Defensive Tackle Alex Grubner, Guards Griffin McDowell and Nick Torres, Tight End Geor’quarius Spivey, and Safety Randen Plattner.

Some former Tigers:

Harrison Mevis was cut by the Carolina Panthers a couple of weeks ago, beaten out by Eddie Pineiro, now the only kicker on the roster.

Two former Tigers appear to have made the season-starting Denver Broncos roster—Cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine and (remember him?) Tyler Badie. Badie, who was 5-feet-8 and 197 pounds, was a second-team All-American for Missouri in 2012 when he rushed for 1,604 yards and caught 54 passes for 330 more yards. The Ravens picked him in the sixth round, waived him in 2022 and signed him to their practice squad.  The Broncos signed him for their practice squad at the end of ’22. He played his first NFL game at the end of last season and took a Russell Wilson pass 24 yards to his first NFL touchdown.  He signed a futures/reserve contract with the Broncos last January.

As we went to press last night we were waiting to hear the fates of other Tigers, most particularly Cody Schrader of the San Francisco 49ers. He has won praise for his work ethic but the 49ers are loaded with talent left over from their big  year in 2023 and a strong draft crop.

(THE GOLDEN DAYS ARE PAST)—Former Missouri Tiger Markus Golden, who finished his career in Columbia as one of the nation’s top pass rushers,  has called it a career after nine years in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals (second round pick in the 2015 NFL draft), New York Giants, and Pittsburgh Steelers. He had 51 sacks, 11 forced fumbles, and 343 tackles in a solid pro career.

(MIZ)—Thursday night.  First Missouri Tiger football game of the year.  Murray State Racers. Faurot Field.

The Racers have a new coach, Jody Wright, who knows what to expect from a SEC team. Last year, he was the tight ends coach at South Carolina that saw Trey Knox as a second team all-conference player.  He helped recruit the school’s recruiting class that year that was ranked 17th nationally.  He has been on the Alabama staff under Nick Saban twice, most recently as director of player personnel in 2015-2017.

The turnover in coaches and players with the Racers has made it hard for Tiger coach Eli Drinkwitz to map out a strategy for Thursday night’s game. He told reporters yesterday, “There’s really no way to watch Murray State film, they’ve got a brand new offense, defense, and special teams coordinator along with 60 new players. You can watch their schemes from last year to try to see what their players are, and so figuring out matchups is almost impossible. It comes down to us executing our plan and our schemes at a really high level.”

The Tigers depth chart released during the weekend seems to contain few surprises.

Brady Cook is the quarterback with sophomore Drew Pyne his top backup. Nate Noel or Marcus Carroll will start at running back with freshman Jamal Roberts, as their first backup with sophomore Tavorus Jones and freshman Kewan Lacy behind him. Noel gets the start.

Wide receivers are three familiar names: Luther Burden III, Theo Wease Jr., and Mookie Cooper. Mekhi Miller and Daniel Blood, a junior and a sophomore, are behind them. There is no shortage of wide receivers on the depth chart—ten of them including these guys.

Sophomore Brett Norfleet returns as the starting tight end with sophomore Jordon Harris or senior Tyler Stephens behind him. Harris is questionable for the Murray State game. He’s nursing a minor injury.

The starting offensive line looks like this:

Left tackle Marcus Bryant, a senior with Jayven Richardson, a sophomore, behind him; Cayden Green, a sophomore at left guard with freshman Logan Reichert as his backup. ; Connor Tollison, a junior, will be at center with either sophomore Triston Wilson or senior Drake Heismayer in reserve.  On the right side are senior guard Cam’Ron Johnson, ahead of sophomore Curtis Peagler, and tackle Armand Membou Jr., with senior Mitchell Walters behind him.

On the Defense:

Senior Kristian Williams and Junior Chris McClellan start at tackle. They are backed up by four players, Sterling Webb, Marquis Gracial, Jalen Marshall, and Sam Williams. Webb is a junior, Gracial and Marshall are sophomores and Williams is a freshman.

Defensive ends, depending on the situation, will be Johnny Walker Jr., a senior, Junior Zion Young or Junior Eddie Kelly with backups Joe Moore III, a senior; freshmen Jakhai Lang, Williams Nwaneri and Jaylen Brown.

Middle Linebacker Chuck Hicks, a senior, or another senior Corey Flagg, are tops on the depth chart.

Outside linebackers  will be Triston Newson or Khalil Jacobs. Newson is a senior and Jacobs is a junior. They’ll be backed up by freshman Brayshawn Littlejohn, a redshirt, and three pure freshmen: Jeremiah Beasley, Brian Huff, and Nicholas Rodriguez.

Senior Drey Norwood will be the starter at one linebacker with junior Toriano Pride or freshman Nicholas DeLoach on the other side. Their backups will be senior Marcus Clarke or Ja’Mariyon Wade, a sophomore, redshirt freshman Shamar McNeil and true freshmen Cameron Keys and Jaren Sensabaugh.

Starting safeties will be seniors Joseph Charleston or Tre’Vez Jonson. Marvin Burks Jr., a sophomore and senior Daylan Carnell with freshman Trajan Greco, junior Caleb Flagg, and Senior Sidney Williams or sophomore Phillip Roche. Freshman Jackson Hancock is in reserve.

Freshman Blake Craig will be the successor to Harrison Mevis as the place kicker with Nick Quadrini, a sophomore, behind him.

Senior Luke Bauer, who often filled this role last year is number one as the punter with sophomore Orion Phillips, behind him.

Bauer and Phillips will get the ball snapped ‘way back to them by sophomore long-snapper Brett LeBlank. Senior Trey Flint will be the long-snapper on field goals.

Look for Burden, Blood, and Wease to return punts, with Burden the top choice; Manning, Burks, and Marquis Johnson will return kicks with Johnson listed on the depth chart as number one. (ZOU)

(BEARS)—Missouri State’s Bears are in their two-year transition to the Division 1 Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). They’ll play their last year in the Missouri Valley Conference this year before joining Conference USA next year and be given full FCS status in 2026.  They open against Montana from the Big Sky Conference next weekend.  The Bears were 4-7 last year. The Grizzlies were 12-1.  The Grizzlies have had only one losing season in the last 27 years, 2012, when the NCAA ordered five games forfeited for rules violations.

So much for stick and ball sports. Here’s the Zoom Department:

(NASCAR)—A purported NASCAR race schedule leaked last week says the Cup cars will race at World Wide Technology Raceway next September 7.  NASCAR says the schedule is “not entirely accurate.”

If, in fact, that date is true for WWTR, it’s a huge step up in status for the track, which is owned independently from NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports.

WWTR is in Madison, Illinois, just across the Stan Musial Bridge from St. Louis.  The scheduling is significant because it puts the track into the NASCAR playoff schedule, a ten-race series at the end of the season that determines the championship.

One of the skeptics is Dale Earnhardt Jr., who said on his podcast last week, “How in the hell did St. Louis end up in the playoffs? I would love to know…It’s bizarre. It’s fine. I mean there’s no sort of, ‘Oh you don’t deserve this’ kind of vibe, I just wonder how that even happened.”

Earnhardt says he didn’t think WWTR would ever become one of the ten playoff tracks. He wants to hear the reason for the scheduling. “I’m wondering where the reasoning is,” he said a few days ago.

Whether WWTR is, in fact, a playoffs track, the fact is that owner Curtis Francois and his folks have taken a track that was days away from being sold and dismantled to make way for a private developer and have turned it into a first-class multi-motorsport facility.  Its events have had enthusiastic sponsor support from the State of Illinois for the NASCAR race, from the Bommarito Automotive Group of St. Louis for the IndyCar event, and Mission Foods for its NHRA Midwestern Nationals.  It is a 1.25 mile oval with long straightaways and differing radius corners at the ends, basically flat, producing a challenging facility for drivers. Fan-competitor opportunities are excellent, parking is good, access to and from interstate highways is solid, and there’s plenty of concession and stage attractions space.

Plus, it plugs a marketing gap as the only NASCAR/IndyCar track between Chicago and Nashville.

(DAYTONA)— A feel-good story emerged from the mess that was the 400-mile race at Daytona Saturday night, with the win by Harrison Burton that gave Wood Brothers their 100th Cup win in a history that goes back to

Harrison Burton outdueled veteran Kyle Busch on the final lap of an Overtime finish of Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway to score his first career Cup Series victory and the 100th for his Wood Brothers team.

Burton, the son of former NASCAR driver Jeff and nephew of former driver Ward, went into the race 34th in the standings and knowing he won’t be back with the team next year, guaranteed that he will be one of the sixteen drivers running in the ten-race playoff series that starts after next Sunday’s race at Darlington.

Speedy Thompson gave the Wood Brothers their first victory in 1960. The team hasn’t won since Ryan Blaney won at Pocono in 2017. It’s the first win for the third and fourth generation of Woods to own the team.

Burton found himself in position to win in a race that had fewer than ten unbent cars at the finish because of three major crashes, two of which saw cars go airborne as the field started the final lap.  A push from rookie Parker Retzlaff on the backstretch put him in front of Kyle Busch, who desperately needed a win to make the playoffs.  Burton held off Burton to win by five one-hundredths of a second.

Burton’s win has a huge impact on the list of drivers who will make up the championship field of sixteen. His win has knocked Bubba Wallace 21 points outside the list of 16 and Ross Chastain 27 back. Busch is too far back to climb back into the playoffs on points. For all intents and purposes,  all three—Wallace, Chastain, and Busch—must win next weekend’s final race of the regular season.

(INDYCAR)—Will Power’s win at Portland Sunday moves him a bit closer to Alex Palou’s points lead as the IndyCar season heads into its last two races, both on ovals.  Palou’s lead is still 54 points on Power and 67 on Colton Herta, however.

Power finished where he started—first—on the road course but Palou finished second, minimizing any points damage Power made.
IndyCar runs two races next weekend at Milwaukee and then closes out its season September 15 at Nashville.

(FORMULA 1)—Lando Norris has taken another bite out of the once-huge points lead Max Verstappen ran up in the first ten races in F1 this year. Norris beat Verstappen by 23 seconds on Verstappen’s home track in the Dutch Grand Prix.

Formula 1 returned to the Zandvoort circuit in 2021 and this is the first time Verstappen has no won the race.

The race is the fifteenth of 24 Grands Prix in Formula One this year. Norris now trails Verstappen by only seventy points.

(photo credit: Wood Brothers Racing)

 

 

 

Sports:  KC, STL Going Opposite Directions; Chiefs Sleight of Hand; And Other Stuff

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(Baseball)—Here it is in a nutshell.  The Cincinnati Reds swept the St. Louis Cardinals.  The Kansas City Royals swept the Cincinnati Reds. Our Cardinals and our Royals continue to surprise—the Royals by their continued steady, winning, play. The Cardinals by their inconsistent, losing efforts.

(Royals)—The Kansas City Royals are hanging onto the fourth wild card slot in the American League Playoffs despite having a better record than one of the teams headed for an automatic place.  The Royals, at 69-55 are two games better off than the Houston Astros, who lead the West Division over Seattle by four games. The Royals are third in the Central Division, three games behind Cleveland and a game behind Minnesota. They have the fifth-best record in the American League.

Cleveland, New York, and Houston are the division leaders after the weekend’s games.  Baltimore, Minnesota, and Kansas City led the wild card standings. Boston is 3.5 games behind Kansas City for the last playoff spot.

(CARDINALS)—We’ve seen this before.  The Cardinals get off to a slow start then show a flicker of hope in the early summer only to slide out of the picture.  The Cardinals are now five games behind the Braves in the search for a wild card playoff opportunity and the margin was gradually widened as the Redbirds continue to play uninspiring baseball. They’ve won only five times in their last sixteen games

It could get worse. The Brewers open a series in St. Louis tonight (Tuesday). One sports betting source gives St. Louis a 4.2 percent chance of making the playoffs.

(MIZ)—Luther Burden III has been declared a first team preseason All-American by the Associated Press, the latest in a string of honors nine days before the first game. ESPN and The Athletic also have him as a first-team All-American. He’s on the watch list for the Biletnikoff Award that does to the country’s top wide receiver after being a semifinalist last year, and he is also on the list for the Maxwell Award, given to the most outstanding player in college football (The Athletic reports that winners of the Maxwell Award have a better record as pro players than winners of the Heisman Trophy).

Last year, as a sophomore, he racked up 1,212 yards receiving and scored nine touchdowns, the last of which sealed Missouri’s win against Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. Burden is projected as a first-round NFL draft pick next year. (ZOU!!!)

(What Was That!!??!!)—The Kansas City Chiefs have lost both of their exhibition games in this pre-season, falling to Detroit 24-23 on a last-second field goal.  But what caught the eye of the fans was Patrick Mahomes’ behind-the-back pass to Travis Kelce.

Mahomes claimed after the game that it was an ad-libbed play. Kelce didn’t agree…

Bing Videos

The Chiefs played their regulars for most of the first half.

They play their third and final exhibition game of the season next weekend.

Now, the zoom stuff

(INDYCAR)—Josef Newgarden picked up a spin-and-win during the weekend in the race at Madison, Illinois, the St. Louis Gateway Arch visible behind the track administrative building in turn one.

Newgarden led only the last seventeen laps of the race but angered some of his competitors with a perceived slow start at the end of the last caution period that resulted in a four-can pileup at the head of the front straightaway that knocked out some challengers and brought out the red flag with eight laps left.

Newgarden finished 1.72 seconds ahead of teammate and pole-sitter Scott McLaughlin. Rookie Linus Lundqvist equalled his career-best finish with a third.

The race saw 676 on-track passes for position, 254 of them for position, 115 among top-ten drivers and 44 among the top five.

 

Palou now leads the standings by 59 points over Colton Herta and by 65 points over six-time series champion, Scott Dixon.  IndyCar has only four races left this year.

The race saw a record 21 lead changes, an IndyCar record at the track.  Despite Newgarden’s win, points leader Alex Palou extended his lead in the standings with a fourth-place finish.

(NASCAR)—It took two days, but a sorrowful Tyler Reddick picked up the win at Michigan International Speedway, his second victory of the year.  In victory lane, he said, “I can’t help but sit here in victory lane and think of Scott Bloomquist. Huge mentor to me, and an incredible role model and legend of dirt racing and motorsports.”

Bloomquist was killed in a plane crash last week. He was 60 years old, a legend in dirt track racing. “The last couple of days have been tough. This really helps it. This win should go for him, his family and friends,” said Reddick.

The race was stopped after 51 laps on Sunday by heavy rain.

Last week’s winner, Austin Dillon, was 17th at Michigan.  Since the controversial finish a week ago, NASCAR has allowed Dillon to keep his trophy but has penalized him enough points to drop him from 27th to 31st in points.  NASCAR also has ruled his victory will not entitle him to be in the 12-driver field for the playoffs.

Dillon had caused Joey Logano to crash on the last lap and had bumped Denny Hamlin out of the way on the way to the finish line.

Driver Corey LaJoie climbed unhurt from his car that crashed in the mid-race, slid upside down for several years before doing a barrel roll before stopping.

LaJoie unhurt in Michigan flip (msn.com)

The regular NASCAR season has only two races left before the playoffs begin. Reddick’s win has elevated him to the top of the regular season standings.  The next races is at Daytona next Saturday night  with the regular season ending at Darlington.  The last ten races will be elimination races that will leave four drivers to race for the championship in the last race of the year.

(FORMLA 1)—F1 has ten races left this year. It returns after its traditional summer break next weekend.

 

 

 

 

Sports:  Missouri Olympians and other sports

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(Our travels have kept us from posting our weekly roundup by about 21½ hours. But we wanted to pay tribute to our Missouri athletes who were in Paris and had to wait until now to find time to go through the posting process.)

(PARIS)—A few won medals. More will come home to tell their grandchildren they participated.  Let’s run down how Missourians of one sort or another did in Paris during the last couple of weeks:

Rajindra Campbell, who was part of the Missouri Southern track team for three years, 2018-2021, won the bronze medal in the shotput, representing Jamaica.  He’s the first Jamaican to win a shotput medal and the first former Missouri Southern athlete to win a medal in the Olympics.

Napheesa Collier of St. Louis, a member of the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA, was a member of the gold medal-winning women’s basketball team.

Jayson Tatum of St. Louis, a member of the Boston Celtics, won gold with the men’s basketball team.

Another gold medal went to Kansas City’s Quincy Hall won gold in he 400 meters.

Kansas City’s Chris Nilsen, a silver medalist in 2020, was 11th in the pole vault in Paris.

Freddie Crittenden II, a St. Louis native, was 6th in the 110-meter hurdles.b/

Tyler Downs of Ballwin was 8th in the three-meter springboard.

St. Louis native Brendan Miller was 17th in the 800 meter run.

Patrick Schulte of St Charles was a member of the men’s soccer team that lost to Morocco in the quarter-finals.  He’s with the Columbus Crew of the MLS.

Emily Sisson of St. Louis County was 23rd in the women’s marathon.

MU alum Karissa Schweitzer was 10th in the 5000 meters and 9th in the 10,000.

Another MU alum, Mikel Schreuders, competing for Aruba, was 26th in both the 50 and 100 meters.  He was the country’s flag bearer in the opening ceremony.

Another MU alum, Clement Secchi, competing for France in swimming events, won bronze in the 4×100 relay and was 14th in the 100 meter butterfly.

Staff Sgt. Rachel Tozier of Pattonsburg was 18th in the women’s trap shooting.—

(BASEBALL)—Both of our teams started the week with losses.  But the Royals are still in the playoff standings, two games upon Seattle.  The Cardinals are now only one game above break-even and are not a playoff team, a game and a half behind the Mets.

(FOOTBALL)—Ready or not, here it comes.  Football.  The Chiefs have played their first exhibition game, losing to Jacksonville 26-13.

We are 16 days away from the first Missouri Tiger game. The AP’s preseason poll has the Tigers 11th.

Sports with motors:

(NASCAR)—Austin Dillon won the 400-miler at Richmond but he and owner Richard Childress might be the only people happy about it.  Dillon Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin on the last lap of the first overtime session to take the win.  NASCAR says it is reviewing the whole scenario. Normally, it announces penalties on Tuesdays but it delayed any announcement this week.

(INDYCAR)===IndyCar will run is first post-Olympics race within driving distance of a lot of Missouri fans—-at Worldwide Technology Raceway just across the river from St. Louis.  It’s a Saturday evening race. Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden have won six of the eight races at WWTR since IndyCar returned to the track after a long absence. Pato O’Ward has been a bridesmaid but never a bride in his five career starts there, with top five finishes in all of the races and runnerups three times in the last four years.

(FORMULA 1)—F1 is enjoying its mid-year break—which coincided with the Pris Olympics.  The season has surprised some observers by how competitive it has become, especially in the last half-dozen races or do.

Four different teams have racked up wins this year, seven of them by Red Bull, the long-dominant team in the sport.  But Red Bull has not been the dominant force recently, with McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes moving to the front.  Red Bull drivers have seven wins. Mercedes has three (in the last four races) with McLaren and Ferrari posting two wins apiece. It is the first time since 2021 that four different teams have won races in a season. Seven drivers have posted wins this year.

 

 

Underrated Tigers; Eleven Above, Four Above; Speeding to the Olympic Break 

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(This entry has been updated to include last night’s Royals-Diamondbacks game)

(MIZ)—In a little more than three weeks (August 17), the Missouri Tiger football team gets down to the serious work of preparing for the season. The first game will be ten days later with Murray State’s Racers providing the fresh meat for the Tigers.

Murray State has a new coach, Jody Wright, their fifth coach in the last 17 years.

SEC sports reporters have given Coach Drinkwitz plenty of motivational material by calculating Missouri will finish sixth in the now-16-team conference. Only one Tiger player is on the first three offensive and defensive pre-season all-conference teams—Luther Burden III. Georgia has six players, Alabama and Mississippi have three each.

Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Ole Miss, and LSU are picked to finish higher than Missouri—which will play Alabama late in the season. But there’s some hope.  Sportswriters have correctly picked the conference champion nine times since 1992.

Each team will play eight conference games and the two teams with the highest winning percentages will play for the league championship. This is the first year since 1991 that the SEC has not had divisions.

(BASEBALL)—Our two MLB teams remain in wild card playoff contention.

Cardinals lost 2-1 yesterday in opening a three game series against the Pirates. The winning run was set up on a wild pitch that let a runner reach second and then score on a ground=ball single. They’re four games over break even and two games ahead of the Mets, second in the wild card standings.

The Royals went into last night’s game against Arizona ten games over .500, fattening up with a three-game sweep of the White Sox in which the Royals outscored the Pale Hose 17-3 and Seth Lugo picked up his first career complete game. He has run his record to 12-4.

Bobby Witt Jr., had three hits for the fourth straight game last night and the Royals hammered the Diamondbacks 10-4.  Witt was on track to hit for the cycle with a triple, double, and a home run in his first three at-bats. But he was hit by a pitch and flied out in his last two appearances.  Witt ties Johnny Damon for the second-longest stretch of three-hit games. George Brett did it for six games in 1976.

Witt is on a hot streak since the All-Star game with five extra-base hits in the last four games.  And he loves home cooking—he’s hitting .411 in Kauffman Stadium this year, the best at-home batting average in all of Major League Baseball.

Wheel sports now:

Wheel sports now:

(NASCAR)—Kyle Larson pitted about a dozen laps after other top contenders in the Brickyard 400, setting up a run to the checkered flag that had the crowd on its feet in the latter stages of the race.

Larson came out of his pit in 25th place and began to pick off the cars ahead of him as their drivers tried to stretch their fuel loads to the end. They might have made it if late crashes had not sent the race into two overtimes.  Leader Brad Keselowski had to pit one lap into the first overtime, giving Larson his big chance to take the lead…and he grabbed in going into the first turn of the two-lap shootout.

(Larson is in front, yards before the checkered flag making him the first driver this year to win four races. Pole-winner Tyler Reddick got past defending series champion Ryan Blaney to take second.)

After the race, Larson said he’s ready to return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway next May to try to become the first driver to win both the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400. He tried to “do the double” this year—racing in the 500 in the afternoon and then in the NASCAR 600-mile race in Charlotte that evening.  Rain in both cities short-circuited the effort this year. He says nothing’s in place for that to happen yet but hinted an announcement would be coming soon.

(INDYCAR)—IndyCar has seen its second race in  which one of its cars got airborne and came down on its top—and the driver walked away.

The crash that eventually involved a half-dozen cars began when Pato O’Ward spun just a turn, a potential blind spot for oncoming competitors.

All Angles: How Huge Crash Unfolded on Streets of Toronto (indycar.com)

Other cars crashed into his and the car of Santino Ferrucci used the nose of one of the cars as a launch pad, sending his car bottom-first into the catch fence before landing upside down.  Ferrucci was protected by his seat belts and by the titanium aeroscreen from serious injury.

Colton Herta ended a long losing streak by winning the race through some of the streets of Toronto. Kyle Kirkwood and Scott Dixon claimed the other two podium positions.

(FORMULA 1)—F1 has reached its midpoint with the Grand Prix of Hungary with Oscar Piastri winning his first race in the series—but only because teammate Lando Norris was ordered to let him pass him.  Lewis Hamilton was third, extending his record with his 200th podium finish.

The Hungary race is the third in a row without Max Verstappen in the tp position. He was fifth behind Charles Leclerc in a Ferrari.  Red Bull and Verstappen have dominated Grand Prix racing for the last few years but both admit that mid-season corrections by other teams have brought them back to the mortal level. He still has a strong points lead, though.

—Major motorsports competition is taking a two-week break because of the Olympics. It is not doing so because any of its drivers are competing in the games; it’s because their television partner, NBC, will be immersed in the Paris Games for the next couple of week.

(photo credit: Bob Priddy)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sports:  Sophie’s Choices, All-Star Break, the Draft, and other stuff 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

Guy sports are so…..oh, we don’t know…..routine…..just a bunch of statistics….Not glamorous.

Who cares about MLB when we have the WNBA ?

(XMIZ)—Former Missouri Lady Tiger Sophie Cunningham is turning out to be quite the glamour figure among WNBA players and quite a quotable source for sports broadcasters.

Cunnigham, who was taken by the Phoenix Mercury in the 2018 draft after an all-star career at Mizzou, got a good look at Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark last Friday—-the Fever won the game 95-86 to go 10-14 in their last home game before the Olympic break against a team that has three Olympians on it—Brittney Griner, Diana Taurasi, and Kahleah Cooper. Phoenix is now 12-11.

Clark had 20 points including a crowd-standing jumper over Griner, 13 assists and a half-dozen rebounds.

Some observers of the WNBA suggest some veteran players are jealous of Clark, an observation Cunnigham thinks is wrong. She told WSLAM radio listeners, “You see a lot of people in the public eye on the men’s side kind of having Caitlin Clark’s back, too, which is kind of surprising just because they know how physical our game has always been. But when I tell you that the narrative that we’re all against Caitlin or the vets against the rookies that needs to be squashed because it’s not like that…I’ve had my jaw broken; I’ve broken a finger; I’ve broken my nose. Everyone has stories of how physical this league really is and I think that is the main jump that people don’t understand.”

“…I don’t think anyone’s being targeted. If anything, I think we need to give her a little bit of grace sometimes because she has a lot on her plate and a lot of eyes on her. But with that, I think this is gonna be really good for her. She’s gonna be great.”

Cunningham, who does some modeling, is getting attention for some of her pre-game attire choices—such as this glam-appearance before a game earlier this month against the Dallas Wings.

And earlier this year she showed up in a hockey jersey.

She has started all  31 games at guard for the Mercury this year and is averaging 11.3 points per game.

Okay, so much for the fashion runway (that seems to lead to the team locker room).

(BASEBALL)—-It’s the All-Star break and both of our major league teams are above .500, something that is a pleasant surprise given what the Royals were (not) doing a year ago and the discouraging start of the season by the Cardinals.

We normally think of the All-Star game as the halfway point of the season….but the schedule is well beyond that.  The Cardinals have played 96 games and the Royals have played 97.

(ROYALS)—The Royals go to the break at 52-45, third in their division and two games behind the Red Sox on the Wild Card list.

They went for pitchers in the MLB draft, starting with a two-way player with their first draft pick: University of Florida pitcher/first baseman Jac Caglianone. CBS sports called him “the most fascinating player in the class, a freak show talent.”  He hit 62 homers in the last two years and struck out only eight percent of the time. The rating suggests he’s most likely to be a reliever rather than a starter if he makes it to the bigs.

High school pitcher David Shields a 6-2 lefty with three pitches that he gets for strikes. Scouting director Brian Bridges says “The sky’s the limit for him.” He was Pennsylvania’s Baseball Player. He won’t be 18 until September.

They took Tennessee pitcher Drew Beam in the third round. Beam allowed only two runs in the two College World Series games he pitched as Tennessee won its first national championship. He has four pitches including an above average change up and a fastball in the 93-95 mph range.

Round 4’s pick was L. P. Langevin, a right-handed pitcher from Louisiana-Lafayette with a 92-95 mph fastball, a slider and a changeup. He was a reliever in college who racked up 106 K’s in 62 2/3 innings with 33 walks.

Another Tennessee pitcher was picked up in the fifth round, A. J. Causey, another right-hander. Side-armer who struck out 125 batters in 91 1/3 innings

More pitchers and a catcher came in succeeding rounds: Righty Tanner Jones, a righty from Texas A&M, likely a reliever; Dennis Colleran, another righty whose ERA is not impressive (7.97 with Northeastern but he allowed no runs in the last nine of his 15 appearances;  Duke righthander Nick Conte, who’s been taken for his potential. Got in just six innings in seven games this year after missing the 2023 season with an injury but he was highly thought-of in high school and in the New England collegiate Baseball League allowed just one run in 11 1/3 innings.

North Carolina A&T catcher Canyon Brown was the ninth round choice. In his three seasons he hit .288 and in the last two years in the summer leagues he’s had a .766 OPS.  He hit .310 ith a .906 OPS for his college team this year and threw out 27 attempted base stealers.

The Royals finally picked a southpaw when they took LSU pitcher Nate Ackenhausen in the tenth round. Mostly a reliever who played a big role in the Tigers’ national championship in 2023.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals only all-star selection has decided he’d rather have four days off than take part in the game. Reliever Ryan Helsley, who set a team record with 32 saves before the all-star break, says it will be better for him and for the team to give his arm a rest so he can continue to be effective down the stretch.

The Cardinals, nine games below break-even on Mother’s day (May 12), are now four above the line (50-46). They are in playoff contention—the second spot out of three—the Mets are a half-game back and the Diamondbacks a game and a half behind the Redbirds.  They’ve gone 35-22 since then and appear to have a slightly favorable schedule the rest of the way.

But things are still unsettled with some veterans not producing as expected, a pitching staff that doesn’t breed confidence (except for Helsley) some guys still uncertain because of injuries, and a one-time wunderkind who doesn’t seem to be making big improvements at Memphis—here he was expected to make big improvements.

The Cardinals have provided hours of speculation about trades since before the season started and that speculation has become more tiresome by the week.

Jordan Walker continues to get at-bats at Memphis but hasn’t earned a trip back to the show. Manager Oliver Marmol says he needs to be more consistent “in doing what he wants to do with the baseball from an offensive standpoint and missing the way he wants to miss,” a statement crying for some definition.

The draft:

West Virginia middle infielder J. J. Wetherholt, who had been a projected number one pick until hamstring injuries cut his year in half became the Cardinals top choice. CBS Sports said he has an “excellent command of the strike zone. He hit .332 in his shortened season with eight homers. Assistant GM Randy Flores says he “plays up the middle, is athletic, has good hands, speed and makes good contact. Bats left-handed.

The ’Birds didn’t have a second-round pick. But in Monday’s picks for rounds 3-10, this is who they got:

RHP Brian Holiday, Oklahoma State. He was 7-3 with a 2.95 ERA. Led the Big 12 in Ks with 128 in 113 innings. Fastball tops out at 95 and has a “baffling” slider.

Arizona State catcher Ryan Campos was taken in the fourth round.  A stubby 5-foot-8, 190 pounder was a three-year starter for Arizona State. Considerable stats as a hitter–.357 as a freshman, .388 as a sophomore. As a junior he ripped 22 homers, 25 doubles, drove in 56 runs. In his three years, he had 94 walks and only 66 strikeouts.

University of Oklahoma left-handed pitcher Braden Davis was a round five pick, a reliever for two years at Sam Houston State, a starter last year with Oklahoma where he went 9-4 with a 4.30 ERA in 92 innings with 117 Ks. Held opposing hitters to a .208 batting average. Probably a reliever.

Josh Kross was a switch-hitting catcher at the University of Cincinnati after a year at Eastern Michigan. Mid-America Conference player of the year as a .376 hitting freshman, All Big-12 in his one year at Cincinnati where he parlayed being hit by pitches a school-record 26 times into a .438 OBP. Also played some first base.

Vanderbilt righty Andrew Dutkanych IV was one of the top high school pitchers two years ago. Had Tommy John surgery earlier this year.  Had a 3.18 ERA with 20 strikeouts and 15 walks in his collegiate career. MLB says the Cardinals might be “gambling on the upside” with this choice.

Notre Dame left-handed pitcher Jack Findlay also is an up-sider for the Cardinals. He had Tommy John surgery in 2023 but before than he was 10-4 with a 2.90 ERA. Starter and reliever in college.  108 strikeouts and only 27 walks in his Notre Dame career.

The Cardinals took Texas Tech third baseman Cade McGee in the ninth round. He’s complimented more for his fielding than for his hitting. After his freshman year at Gonzaga, he played in the Cape Cod League, perhaps the top summer collegiate league.   He hit .185 in eighteen games. But he is seen as a potential “average to above average” hitter.

Oklahoma outfielder Bryce Madron became the tenth and final pick on the second day. He hit .318 from the left side of the plate his year, an all-conference second team selection. Scouts say he controls the strike zone and “doesn’t try to do too much.” He drew 106 walks this year in college and struck out only 64 times.

Now we turn to the speed sports.

(RACING)—Penske racing had a weekend sweep in Iowa and in Pennsylvania, with drivers Scott McLaughlin and Will Power winning both ends of the INDYCAR doubleheader at Iowa Speedway and Ryan Blaney taking the flag at Pocono in NASCAR.

(INDYCAR)—Scott McLaughlin finally picked up an oval victory in Saturday’s race on the high banks of the .087 mile Iowa short track.

McLaughlin had said that he wouldn’t consider himself an IndyCar driver until he had won on an oval. He led 164  of the 250 laps to finish half a second ahead of Pato O’Ward.  McLaughlin had battled pole-sitter Colton Herta until grabbing the lead coming out of the pits.

McLaughlin added to his success for the day by winning the pole position for Sunday’s race, setting a track record in qualifying.

Will Power won for the first time at the Iowa Speedway the next day. But for him, the wait has been much longer.  Power had raced 18 times at the rack and had won seven poles but had never won and had been in the top three only five times.

Power had finished 18th in Saturday’s race started 22nd Sunday and didn’t grab the lead until lap 209 of the 250, thanks to a pit stop that was nine-tenths of a second faster than the last stop by Alex Palou, who finished four-tenths of a second back. McLaughlin was third.

Power had not won a race on an oval since Pocono five years ago. It’s his 43rd IndyCar victory, breaking him out of a tie with Michael Andretti for most wins in his career. He ranks fourth on the all-time list.

The weekend at Iowa was a dominant one for Penske Racing with Power and McLaughlin leading 309 of the 500 laps in the two races.

About the time Power was crossing the finish line, a multi-car crash that turned into a dangerous scenario was happening on the track behind him.

Sting Ray Robb Goes Airborne in Wild Last-Lap Incident at Iowa (indycar.com)

The IndyCar windscreen was credited with protecting Sting Ray Rob and Kyle Kirkwood from serious injuries.  Rob was checked by IndyCar’s medical team and released from their care after a checkup.

The two races’ results leave Alex Palou in the points lead but his margin over Power has been cut to 35 points. Pato O’Ward holds third, 72 back.

(NASCAR)—-Ryan Blaney’s winning run at Pocono wrapped up the hat trick for Penske last weekend. Blaney picked up his second win of the season by holding off Denny Hamlin, who finished 1.3 seconds back.

Blaney had been consistently near the top for most of the race but didn’t lead for the first time until only 44 laps left. He held off the field through two more restarts. Alex Bowman, who one last week’s race, challenged until Halin passed him with seven laps left.

Only five races remain in NASCAR’s regular season before the 15-driver field is set for the 10-race playoff series.

(Photo credits:  Cunningham—Instagram: McLaughlin and Power—Bob Priddy)

Sports:  Wanna bet?  Polling on Sports Wagering, moving KC Teams to Kansas.  And Other Sports Stuff

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(GAMBLING)—Sports wagering hasn’t been approved for the ballot yet, but Missourians appear narrowly willing to allow it if it’s on the November ballot.

A poll of more than 1800 Missourians earlier this month by Emerson College, The Hill, and Nextstar Media, shows 38.3% of prospective voters want it while 35.4% of prospective voters oppose it. That leaves more than 26% undecided.

Emerson College (in Massachusetts) Senior Polling Director Matt Taglia says, “I don’t think folks necessarily know what all it entails but a lot of them are, in principle, supportive of the idea.”

An organization supporting sports wagering—the misleadingly named Winning for Missouri Education (actually, approval of the proposal as submitted will make Missouri school losers) has submitted more than 300,000 petition signatures to put the issue on the November ballot. The Secretary of State’s office and county clerks throughout Missouri are verifying the signatures.

(CHIEFS/ROYALS; STAY OR GO?)—The same poll shows 46% of respondents think it is “very important” to keep the Kansas City Chiefs from being lured to Kansas. Another 17% say it is “somewhat important.” Twenty-two percent would not miss the Chiefs in Missouri.

Support for the Royals is a little softer. Thirty-eight percent say it’s “very important;” twenty percent say it’s “somewhat.”  Two dozen percent of the respondents say they would be bothered at all if the Royals move across the state line.

(CARDINALS)—The St. Louis Cardinals have finally staggered two games above .500 thanks to their weekend sweep  and the news got even better yesterday with the reactivation of catcher Wilson Contreras from the DL several says earlier than expected. He’s been out since May 7 because of a broken arm. He’s been on a minor league rehab assignment since June 18, going 3 for 21 at Memphis.

His activation has meant a trip back to Memphis for backup catcher Nick Raposo.

Before his injury, Contreras had a half dozen homers, a dozen RBIs and a .280 average through the team’s first 31 games. He will rejoin a team that is playing far better than it was before he was hurt.  The Redbirds are eleven games over .500 in his absence, the best record in the National League since May 12 at 24-13.

He returns while Nolan Arenado spent his second straight game on the bench. He came out of Saturday’s game with a sore left forearm. He’s gotten an injection for the pain.

Noot News:  Lars Nootbar is getting close to a rehab assignment. He’s been out since early may with a left oblique strain.

(ROYALS)—The Royals have cooled off in June but remain five games above break even. Their performance since winning eight straight and soaring to 15 games over .500 to going 8-18 since has some fans wonder if the team has turned the wrong corner as the season nears the halfway point.

Former Missouri Tiger Max Scherzer, making his first start of the year for the Texas Rangers, shut down the Royals Sunday, as the Royals were swept in a series for the first time this year.

The sagging performance has left KC nine games behind the Cleveland Guardians and worse, a game behind Boston in the wild card standings.

They got some offensive punch back yesterday with the reactivation of Michael Massey from the ten-day DL. Back problems have limited him to just 29 games this year. His back problems have been treated with recent injections to relieve the pain.

And now, some wheels:

(INDYCAR)—Nobody knows his way around Laguna Seca tese days better than Alex Palou.  In his last four races on the California road course, he has had finishes of  1-3=1=2, picking up his second win of the year and moving into the IndyCar points lead.

He finished about two seconds ahead of Colton Herta in what he called “a chaotic race” that relied on a tire strategy that was “a bit risky for the position we were in.”

Former Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi was fourth, giving his Juncos Hollinger Racing team its best finish ever in the series.

The win gives Palou a 25-point lead over Will Power. Scott Dixon is running third.

(NASCAR)—The track was damp and another rain storm was threatening and NASCAR decided to finish the weekend race at New Hampshire with cars using rain tires. Christopher Bell and other competitors had to sit out a two-hour rain and lightning delay before re-starting on a damp surface.  Although parts of the track were dry at the end, enough other segments remained damp that NASCAR decreed no car would switch to slicks.

Bell led almost half of the laps to become the fourth driver to have at least three wins this year.

 

The race was only the second one on series history to use the new kind of tires. NASCAR Senior VP for Competition, Elton Sawyer, praised the development of the tire. “We’d have been done with 82 laps to go and instead it gave us a chance to get back to green,” he said.

(NHRA)—We don’t usually comment on the folks who seek 300 mph in less than a quarter mile but John Force’s engine explosion and crash in Virginia during the weekend.  Force is 75 years old but still competing at the highest levels of National Hot Rod Association competition.

His engine blew up as his car crossed the finish line, crashed into the wall and came to rest in the middle of the track.  He was conscious when the safety crew got to him but was taken to a nearby hospital where he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. Daughter Brittany told reporters later, “My dad’s going to be all right…He’s one of the toughest people I know.”

(FORMULA 1)—The Spanish Grand Prix went to Max Verstappen with Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton taking the other podium positions.

F1 has unveiled specifications for its 2026 cars:

It says the new cars will be “more agile” because of a weight reduction, will increase use of batteries and the use of sustainable fuels. Aerodynamics will become more active with moveable front and rear wing.  F1 will have six engine manufacturers—compared to three for NASCAR and two for IndyCar.

(Photo credits: Rick Gevers,  Bob Priddy, F1)

Sports: Getting Over the Hump; For the Want of a Cup of Gas; UFL Playoffs

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CARDINALS)—The St. Louis Cardinals went 13-12 in May, a record that might surprise some folks who once saw them nine games under .500 as late as May 11.  The Cardinals closed out the month winning 12 of their last 16 games and got to break even on the next-to=last day of the Month before losing to Cincinnati.

The turnaround was fueled by some bats waking up to support the pitching staff. The Cardinals hit only 19 home runs in April. In May they hit 30.  They had 23 more hits and scored 13 more runs in May than they did in April, most of that in the second two-thirds.  They stole 17 bases in May, only 11 in April.

The Redbirds were 13-13 in April, 1-3 in March.

(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals have shown consistency in the first two months of the season, posting identical 17-11 records in April and May.  As of the beginning of play last night,  Salvador Perez was seventh in batting in both leagues, with a .315 average.

Bobby Witt Jr. was ninth in batting at .313 and was second in stolen bases with 17.

(BASEBALL STATS, GENERALLY)—Going into last night’s games, ESPN’s ranking of the top 50 players in hitting and pitching listed these Missouri players.

Pitching—Royals Seth Lugo is number two behind Ranger Suarez of the Phillies in ERA, Suarez at 1.70 and Lugo at 1.72. Both lead the majors with nine victories. The Royals have two other pitchers in the top 50—Brady Singer is twelfth with an ERA of 2.63 although he’s only 4-2; Cole Ragens is 31st in ERA at 3.21 with a 4-4 record. The only Cardinals starting pitcher on the top 50 is Kyle Gibson, fiftieth, with a 3.60 ERA and a 4-2 record.

Masyn Winn’s .299 average ranks 14th among major league hitters.

(HAWKS)—It wasn’t particularly pretty, but the St. Louis Battlehawks locked in a home UFL playoff last weekend, slipping past their top division rival, the San Antonio Brahmas. 13-12. Both teams finish the regular season 7-3 but St. Louis won both of the regular season games and therefore gets home field advantage for the playoff fame next Sunday.

The ‘Hawks led 10-0 at the half but the Brahmas But the Brahmas reeled off twelve unanswered points in the second half and completed a two-point conversion that would have given them a 14-12 lead. But the Battlehawks won a challenge that maintained a San Antonio player was an ineligible receiver downfield.

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs are beginning the serious preparations for the 2024=25 (they hope) season this week. The last of the voluntary workouts begins today with the mandatory week-long spring training camp starting next Wednesday, the 11th.

(MIZ)—Former Tiger lineman Justin Smith is one of 77 players and nine coaches nominated for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame this year. Smith, a Jefferson City native, played for the Tigers, 1998-2000.  He was a Freshman All-American and made the national All-American first team in 2000. He still ranks fourth in sacks.  He had a long pro career with seven years with the Bengals and seven more with the 49ers.  Inductees will be announced early next year.

Tigers Roar and So Do Engines

(NASCAR)—There’s a car in there somewhere—

We thought it would be the yellow car of Ryan Blaney who had the race in hand, especially after this chief challenger, Christopher Bell, developed engine trouble.  But it was the blue car of Blaney teammate Austin Cindric that did a furious burnout at the start-finish line at Worldwide Technology Raceway just across the river from St. Louis.

Blaney, the defending NASCAR Cup champion still looking for his first win of 2024,who had made his last pit stop was just one lap before Cindric’s last stop, ran out of gas on the next to last lap, had just enough fuel to run the last two laps and to celebrate the win. His tank went dry just before he got the white flag signaling one lap was left.

Cindric had not won a race in 85 outings since becoming a rookie winner of the Daytona 500 at thes start of the 2022 season and had recorded only one top-ten finish this year.  He admitted afterwards that he had become so unfamiliar with the NASCAR winners’ rituals that he almost fell off the roof of his car when he shut it down and climbed out to celebrate.

“It was like my first time all over again, it’s been so long.”  He said his win “is everything. It’s absolutely everything,” but he acknowledged that the third-place car in the race wound up winning because the two better cars—of Blaney and Bell—encountered late problems.

Bell wound up seventh with teammate Martin Truex Jr., bump-pushing him to the finish line. Truex, who had run into problems early and was far out of contention, finished 34th.  Blaney coasted the final lap and was credited within finishing 24th.

Blaney finished 24th after coasting around the track with a silent engine.

(INDYCAR)—Years ago, IndyCar driver Tom Sneva was called the “gas man” because he stood on the gas and became the first driver to turn official 200 mph laps at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and was the fastest qualifier for the 500 four times.

There’s a new “gas man” in IndyCar today, Scott Dixon, who still goes fast at the age of 43 (he’ll be 44 next month) has been winning a lot of races because he “makes fuel,” or stretches his fuel loads father than other drivers.  Last weekend’s race on the streets of Detroit added another example of that nickname by stretching his fuel to finish a full second ahead of Marcus Ericsson.

 

It’s his 58th career win, second to the legendary A. J. Foyt, who had 67 wins his career. Dixon made only two pit stops while most other teams made four or more. “A lot of guys that you know are going to be racing for a championship had a rough day,” he said of the race. His win has elevated him to the top of the point standings, twenty points ahead of last year’s champion, Alex Palou, who finished 16th, and 33 up on Will Power, who was sixth.

(Photo credits: Bob Priddy)

This Was a Just a Farm Once. This is About What Grew There 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

This was farmland once.  Flat. Open. Three hundred-twenty acres owned by a family named Pressley. The city was five miles, a few hours’ buggy ride, to the east and south.  But then a guy named Carl Fisher showed up—this was late in 1908—and with three partners bought the place for $72,000.

In time, the railroad would bring passenger cars loaded with people to this place. In time, automobiles would navigate the muddy roads to the countryside. Eventually there would be paved streets and Pressley farm and the agricultural land around it would turn into a small town and people would build hundreds of homes and businesses and schools on farmland around the farmland where Fischer and partners James Allison, Arthur Newby and Frank Wheeler had invested an additional quarter-million pre-World War I dollars into their new business venture.

Four years after buying the Pressley farm, the four partners laid out a planned residential/industrial community that would not rely on horses and instead would emphasize the automobile.  Many of the residents would work at a chemical company and an engine manufacturing company.

They named their town for their business venture.  Speedway. It’s now a town of about 14,000 people entirely surrounded by Indianapolis, just across Indianapolis’ Sixteenth Street from the first race track in the world to bear the word “speedway” in its name.

The race track these four men built covers 253 acres, not counting the areas around the track that cover hundreds of acres more and are used for parking, camping, tail gaiting,  partying, concession stands and 14 holes of a golf course (the other four holes are on the infield).

And every May, this former farm field becomes a shrine.

Various comparisons have been made to show how massive the development of the site by Fisher and friends has become.  It’s big enough, it is said, to hold SEVENTEEN Yankee Stadiums.  It’s big enough to hold all fourteen Big Ten Football stadiums.  Put another way, says the IndyCar Series, it could hold EIGHT nationally and internationally-famous sites;

Trains no longer bring thousands of spectators to the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”  There are wide, multi-laned streets and nearby intestate highways and on a few days each year those streets and roads become huge traffic funnels pouring tens of thousands of vehicles ranging from beater cars to multi-million dollar luxury motorhomes to this 253 acres.

A crowd about forty or fifty-thousand people larger than the entire population of St. Louis descended overnight on this area, drivers and passengers often stalled in enormous traffic jams for three or four hours, the smart ones turning off their vehicle’s engines because they weren’t going to move a vehicle’s length for several long minutes.

Only a few could park inside the track.  The front yards of residential areas with their two-lane streets around the track became private rental parking areas for race fans. Huge open fields turned into parking areas by today’s Speedway owners were packed.

Knowing they would face all of this, they came.

Knowing very bad weather was moving in from the west, they came.

Knowing they might not see a race because of another storm system was behind the first one, still they came. A hundred thousand.  Then two.  Then three.  And then as many as fifty thousand more.

And then came the lightning. And the rain.

The grandstands were ordered cleared with tens of thousand of people taking refuge under the concrete floors of the giant infield front-stretch grandstands and in the tunnels under the track and other safe places.

All those people. In those crowded spaces. Many of them brought coolers full of food and drink because the race was going to be underway at lunch time.

Hungry people.

Thirsty people.

Wet people

People knowing the weather might mean no race at all that day.

And you know something?

We saw no fights.  Nobody got stabbed or shot (at least nobody that we’ve heard about in these two days after all of this).

345,000 people, one out of every one-thousand people in this entire United States, jammed into 253 acres of damp disappointment.

And nothing happened while nothing was happening.

Then it quit raining.  And the track-drying machines came out, marvelous pieces of engineering designed only to transform two and a half miles of wet asphalt into dry asphalt.

It is in situations such as this that people-watchers have a field day.

The fans looked for ways to entertain themselves before the race could start—including appropriately-attired folks rooting for children in a footrace near the souvenir stands, including a volunteer flag man at the finish line.

(The track is nicknamed “The Brickyard” because the pavement for the race for many years was millions of bricks.  Today the finish line is a yard of bricks.)

(Incidentally, the real flag man for the race, known as the Chief Starter, is Aaron Likens and he has just brought out a book called Playing in Traffic, My Journey From Autism Diagnosis to the Indy 500 Flagstand.)

Patriotism is always big at automobile races.

And coveralls with the Speedway logo accessorized with “gold” chains, again with the famous winged wheel logo that has in one form or another represented the great old track from its earliest days.

After years of personal experience people watching at the Speedway, we can note that you have seen only the most moderate of outfits typical of the events. (We’ll do a commentary on going-to-the-car-races clothing in a later entry.)

Driver Pato O’Ward, one of the young guns and one of the favorites, entertained fans by signing hats and shirts dropped from the grandstands into the garage area.

Or chatting with fans—

But the intense work paid off on the track.  The asphalt turned a lighter gray and it was time to go racing, time for 32 men and one woman to hurtle at 230 miles an hour into a near-flat left turn, the first of 800 left turns they would make before the finish, fighting to get through each of those turns ahead of the other cars.

The skies remained grey; although the weather outlook brightened; maybe the entire race could be run before the next storm.  Time to roll out the cars In the end, only one car would complete the challenge of making those 800 left turns ahead of all others in one of the most dramatic races in the 108-year history of the Indianapolis 500.

Time on the grid for a few moments with family—Josef Newgarden showed his two-year old son, Kota, the “office” where he would spend the next three hours or so defending his championship of the 500.

The race lasted one minute and eleven seconds short of three hours  and featured 49 lead changes among 18 drivers, more than half of the starting field, the last lead change coming time when Kota’s dad broke O’Ward’s heart by passing him on the outside of the next-to last turn and holding on to the finish.

It’s Newgarden’s second straight 500 win, both coming with a last lap pass—his victim last year was the 2022 winner, Marcus Ericsson—who had held off a last lap charge from O’Ward that year.

O’Ward remained slumped in his car for a time after the finish, his helmet still on, admitting later, “It was wet in there.”

Newgarden is the sixth driver to win two of these races in a row.  He will try in 2025 to become the first to do a threepeat.

Helio Castroneves almost did it after winning the race in his first two years and finishing second in 2003.  Al Unser Senior also finished second after winning in 1970-71.

Bill Vukovich came with eight laps of winning in 1952 before a part of his steering failed, returned to win in ’52 and ’53 and died while leading on the 57th lap of the 1955 race.

Wilbur Shaw came close to winning not three but FIVE straight.  He won in 1937, was second in 1938, won the next two years and crashed while leading with 48 laps to go in 1941. That was the year a fire roared through the garage area.  It is believed some of the water used to fight the fire washed chalked words “use last’ from an out-of-balance wheel that collapsed, causing his wreck.

But we’ll have to wait a year to see how that pans out.

Thousands of fans remained in the stands as evening clouds thickened and the light grew dimmer while Newgarden and his wife took the traditional victory lap in the pace car then kissed the bricks and went on to celebrate until the late hours.

Newgarden’s victory was worth almost $4.3 million of the nearly $18.5 million in prize money. O’Ward got more than one million for being second.

Thousands of the fans were deadlocked for hours in their parking lots as traffic oozed  back to the nearby interstates or moved through downtown Indianapolis.  This reporter’s car didn’t turn a wheel for more than three hours in the parking lot and was another hour, at least, before getting to his overnight accommodations—with a stop at a gas station because he was down to his last thirty miles of reserve fuel and would have run out had he not shut off his engine for at least 45 minutes of the three hours it took to get to his parking space in the morning and never firing it up again until seeing other cars start to move.

By Monday evening the former farm field was quiet and empty, except for volunteers earning money for their groups by picking up tons and tons of trash left behind by the one-out-of-one-thousand Americans who found themselves packed into those 253 acres where one of the nation’s greatest holidays was celebrated.

(NASCAR)—NASCAR star Kyle Larson left Indianapolis as the race’s Rookie of the Year but disappointed with his 18th place finish.  Larson was among the five fastest qualifiers in his first IndyCar ride, and was running sixth when he drove too fast into the pits with seventy laps left. He had to do a drive-through penalty that set him too far back too late in the race to recover all the positions he had lost.

Still, he was only 9.4846 seconds behind Newgarden at the end of the 500 miles and averaged 167.6 mph. Newgarden averaged 167.8.

Larson had planned to run the 500 and then jet to Charlotte for NASCAR’s 600-mile traditional Memorial Day race. But bad weather, including rain and lightning, caused NASCAR to decide to end the race after 249 of 400 scheduled laps with Christopher Bell declared the winner.  Brad Keselowski racked up another second-place finish, his third runner-up finish of the year.  Larson had arrived at the Charlotte Speedway in  uniform and helmet on just as the race was stopped because of rain.  NASCAR determined restarting the race would make it end at about 3 a.m., Monday, at best and decided to call it a night. Larson never got to turn a lap for the second half of his “double.”

But there is next year.  The deal between Hendrick Motorsports and McLaren racing in IndyCar us a two-year contract.

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After the Charlotte race, former NASCAR champion Tony Stewart and his partner, Gene Haas, announced they would be shutting down their team at the end of the year.  Stewart-Haas fields four cars in the series this year but will sell all four of its franchises for several million dollars.  The team has two championships and 69 victories. Stewart is driving a full National Hot Rod Association schedule (His wife is an NHRA competitor) and Haas wants more time to spend with his Formula 1 team.

(FORMULA 1)—The Grand Prix of Monaco is the third major race held on America’s Memorial Day Weekend.  Ferrari’s Charles LeClerc became the first Monaco native to win there.

Now the stick and ball sports that usually lead these entries;

(MIZ)—The Missouri Women’s softball team lost the last game of the super regional tournament to Duke Sunday. Duke goes to the world series. The Tigers come home with a 48-14 season record. (ZOU)

(BASEBALL)—The Cardinals are heating up as the warmer weather settles in.  They won 8 of their last ten after Sunday’s weekend wrap up and had moved in top third place and were only one game under .500.  Sonny Gray is up to 7-2 now.

The Royals continue to be the prime candidate for comeback team of the year and were 13 games above .500 before last night’s game against the Twins. The Royals didn’t get their 34th win last year until August.

The Royals had not had an American League Player of the Week since Vinnie Pasquantino in August, two years ago.  Bobby Witt broke that dry spell last week when he went 10 for 26 in six games with four homers and 11 RBIs. One of those homers was his longest ever, 468 feet.

(HAWKS)—The St. Louis Battlehawks  dropped to 6-3 last weekend as the Arlington Renegades turned three interceptions and two fumbles into a 36-22 victory.  The ‘Hawks are still in the running for the top playoff spot in the XFL Division, though.

Quarterback A. J. McCarron missed his second game because of a bum ankle. He’s considered day-to-day.

(Photo Credits: Bob Priddy, Rick Gevers)

Sports; Thoughts on Pitchers’ Arms and a Lead Foot; Some Playoff Talk, Etc.

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(Arms)—-The human body was not designed to throw a baseball 100 mph, or throw a baseball overhand at all. And an awful lot of pitchers have scars on shoulders and elbows to prove it.

Here is what you will never see in baseball;  A pitcher who throws 25 innings in four games in two days, gives up only two earned runs, on only fifteen hits, and strikes out 24 batters.

Oh—and throws 364 pitches, as Laurin Krings did last weekend.

The human arm swings back and forth from the shoulder, and Laurin Krings demonstrated the body’s natural design for throwing things as she led the Missouri women’s softball team back through the loser’s bracket of the NCAA regional tournament. Missouri surprisingly lost its first game of the tournament, to Omaha, and then had to win four straight, including two against Omaha to advance to the super regional.

Krings threw two games on Saturday and two more on Sunday, including the final game that went into extra innings before the Tigers scored a run in the ninth to move on, 1-0.

The Super Regional is a best-of-three series between Missouri, the seventh seed and tenth-seed Duke.  The first game is Friday.  The second game is Saturday. A third game, if needed, will be Sunday. ESPN2 is broadcasting the games.

(Playoff Bound)—Post-season play is growing near for the first season of the United Football League and the St. Louis Battlehawks have locked down their place.  Their come-from-behind 26-21 win over the D. C. Defenders last weekend guarantees they’ll play for the XFL Conference championship on June 9.

The Defenders had taken a 21-20 lead into the closing minutes but the Battlehawks road the hands and legs of running back Wayne Gallman to the winning TD with two minutes left.  Gallman accounted for all of the 44 yards in the closing drive, with six rushing yards and a 38-yard reception, the longest play from scrimmage by either team all afternoon. He got the game-winning touchdown from one yard out, finishing with a team-leading 80 yards rushing.

The Battlehawks called on backup quarterback Manny Wilkins because starter A. J. McCarron is still recovering from the ankle injury suffered against Birmingham the week earlier.

Wilkins had not started a game since 2018 when he was playing for Arizona State.  He said afterward he felt “super comfortable” with the start. He passed for 126 yards and scrambled for 79 more yards on a dozen carries.

Next up for the Battlehawks: The Arlington Renegades, next Saturday morning, our time, in Arlington, Texas.  Its their last road game. They’ll finish up at home the next weekend and then move to the playoffs.  St. Louis is 6-2, the same record as the San Antonio Brahmas, their likely opponent in the divisional championship game.  St. Louis beat San Antonio earlier in the season. The Arlington Renegades are 1-8, last in the division.

The ‘Hawks are likely to be playing the Brahmas two weeks in a row.  They finish the regular season against them at home, then will have to beat them in the championship game to go to the UFL championship game, which will be played in the St. Louis Dome.

(BASEBALL)—Familiar story for the week.  The Royals continue to play steady, hopeful, baseball.  The Cardinals show some flashes but pessimism is traveling with them as they head for June.

(THE LOU)—If you can’t play well, you might at least LOOK good.

The Cardinals will become the latest major league team to unveil their “City Connect” uniforms next Friday against the Cubs.  So what’s a “city connect” uniform?

It’s a promotional gimmick that Nike is doing for MLB teams—uniforms distinctly different from the usual home outfits. They are “designed to reflect cultural aspects of each team’s home city, says one source we checked. The Cardinals are one of the last to show their cultural look. (By seasons end only two teams will no have donned these new duds—the Yankees, who just don’t do that kind of thing, y’know, and the Oakland Athletics, whose “cultural aspects” are in limbo because they’re moving from Oakland to Las Vegas.

Here’s the hottest new item in the team store, and undoubtedly coming to a shopping mall near you that sells sports-themed goodies:

This will be only the second time in the Cardinals’ 142-year history that they have worn red jerseys in a regular season game. The only other time was on August 28, 1999 when they wore red jerseys for their “Shirts Off Their Backs” promotion.  The ‘Birds will wear the special jerseys a dozen times this season.

The phrase “The Lou” refers, of course, to the city but it also is a reference to hometown rapper Nelly, who uses the phrase in talking about his home town. The caps are supposed to be reminiscent of the way the team looked in 1921.

The Cardinals started this week with a 6-3 win against the Orioles last night. Michael Siani’s first major league home run drove in the three runs that dictated the outcome.  Sonny Gray had a no-hitter into the sixth inning and ran his record to 6-2

Baltimore went into the game 29-15; the Cardinals went in at 20-26, no longer in the basement of the NL Central despite splitting their last ten games. Cincinnati had gone 3-7 during that span, falling a game and a half behind St. Louis.

The Redbirds have won six of their last eight after a seven-game losing streak. But they have been at .500 for only one day this season and no longer go into games with the fans’ expectation that they will win it.

(ROYALS)—Somehow, we missed the big unveil of the Royals’ new duds a year ago:

These outfits are loaded with cultural links to Kansas City.  The caps and the logo on the left side of the jersey represents the city’s famous fountains.  The two-tone blue of the shirts represent the traditional Royals colors as well as a salute to previous Kansas City teams—the Athletics, Monarchs, Blues, Bluestockings, and Packers, all of which have worn the darker blue. The “R” with the crown and the striping on the right sleeve recalls the team’s uniforms of the 80s. Not visible in the picture is “Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey,” sewn into the collar, honoring the team victory song written by—

Paul McCartney!!

The letter and number scripts also reflect the art deco architectural style that is seen in many downtown Kansas City buildings.

As for the guys who wear the uniforms, whatever the design, they continue to have a gratifying season with a turnaround from recent years that some fans have trouble grasping.  USA Today, which publishes weekly power rankings, has become a believer.

The newspapers Gabe Lacques writes that the Royals are up to number eight among all major league teams, their highest since the World Series of 2015. “Sure, things can still go sideways. But with Salvador Perez and Bobby Witt Jr. producing like MVPs, Seth Lugo pitching like a Cy Young winner and a young lineup in full bloom, the Royals are in the high-rent district until further notice. They’ve earned that much.”

The Royals picked up their 30th win of the year last night. The Royals scored six in the sixth and beat the Tigers 6-3.

Now, for things that travel faster than a fastball—

(INDYCAR)—In fact, the speeds are astonishing at Indianapolis again this year.

The field is set for next Sunday’s 108th running of the Indianapolis 500.

And there is a ton of stories, as there always is with this race.

Every year, speed is the number one story in the lead-up to the Indianapolis 500. This year’s field

Penske Racing, after dealing with a “scandal” that led to the suspension of three key officials for this race, the forfeiture of Josef Newgarden’s season-opening win and the loss of standings points for the other two team drivers, has rebounded with powerful performances since—including seizing the top three starting positions for the 500 next Sunday.

Scott McLaughlin, driving a car sponsor/color combination made famous by four-time winner Rick Mears, Johnny Rutherford, Al Unser Sr., and Helio Castroneves, will start on the pole—the inside of the first row—with the fastest pole qualification run in Speedway history. He turned four laps with an average of 234.220 mph to edge 2018 winner Will Power and last year’s winner, Josef Newgarden, giving Penske all three starting positions for the second time in company history.

These three constitute the second-fastest front row in race history.  Last year’s first row averaged 234.181 mph. The three drivers on this year’s front row could manage “only” 233.981.

(The fastest four-lap qualifying run in Speedway history still belongs to Arie Luyendyk, who ran 236.986 in 1996 with each lap faster than the previous one. The last one was at 237.948, covering the 2 ½ mile squared oval in less than 38 seconds. But because Luyendyk qualified on the second day instead of the first, he could not start from pole.  His pole-winning run was called by the great Tom Carnegie, whose dramatic voice on the Speedway’s public address system was a Speedway legend for decade—Here it is: Bing Videos)

The fastest single lap in Speedway history was run by Luyendyk in practice for the 1996 race. The unofficial speed record is for a lap of 239.620.

While the Penske trio will lead the field to the green flag, a lot of eyes will be on the car starting in the middle of the second row.  Kyle Larson, whose career has been on dirt tracks and in NASCAR’s big tracks, has been something to watch as he climbed into a completely different kind of car for the first time.  He quickly adapted and was a factor on the speed charts from day one. Larson recorded the fastest qualifying lap by a rookie, 233.353.  The only rookie in Speedway history with a faster four-lap average is Tony Stewart who ran the ten miles at 233.100 in 1996.  Larson’s average speed was 232.846.

All of those speeds were recorded with only the qualifying driver on the track.  On race day there will be 33 of them, 32 of which qualified at more than 230 mph. Twenty-eight of them are within three miles-per-hour of McLaughlin’s pole speed.

The average qualifying speed of all 22 cars is 231.943, slightly slower than last year’s record field speed of 232.184.

The card won’t run that fast during the race; the fastest race lap ever recorded was by Santino Ferrucci two years ago, more than 227.3 mph.

Simple recitation of these numbers cannot convey what it is like to watch these cars and drivers in person, in real time running 230 mph on a track with a mere nine degrees of banking in the corners. When Ray Harroun won the first 500 in 1911, he averaged a little bit less than 75 mph.  The record speed for the entire race is 190.7 mph, by Helio Castroneves in 2021 when he won his fourth 500.

The track architecture is unchanged from 1911. Today’s drivers cover the same distance each lap, go through four corners with no more banking than Harroun had.

Nothing is guaranteed at this track.  Eight drivers with 12 combined victories will start the race, including two-time winner Takuma Sato, who goes off tenth, and four-time winner Helio Castroneves, who starts 20th. 

Former winner Scott Dixon could no better than 21st starting position, outside of the seventh row, and the 2022 winner, Marcus Ericsson—who finished second last year—struggled to even make the race this year and got into the field in the last hour of qualifying.

(NASCAR)—The All-Star race schedule was shortened to one night at North Wilkesboro because of rain that washed out the heat races on Friday night.  Joey Logano won the million dollar top prize in the Saturday race.

NASCAR’s longest race is Sunday night in Charlotte—600 miles.  Kyle Larson plans to finish the 500 in Indianapolis and get to Charlotte in time for the 600.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen had to work hard to get this one.  Lando Norris, driving for the resuscitated McLaren team, challenged him at the Imola Grand Prix and finished only seven-tenths of a second back.

Verstappen started from pole for the eighth straight race, which ties a record and won for the fifth time in seven races this year.

(Photo Credits: MU Athletic Department, Cardinals, Royals, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Rick Gevers)

Sports: Mizzou Chases a World Series Win; Cardinals get a win; Battlehawks Outbattled; and One Guy’s May 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZ)—The University of Missouri softball team enters the NCAA post-season tournament as the overall seventh seed, earning a home field regional tournament slot. They’ll play thefourth-seeded University of Omaha Friday afternoon in Columbia.

Omaha is 41-13.  The Lady Tigers are 43-15 after losing the SEC championship to Florida.  Indiana, the number two seed, and Washington, seeded third, also will be playing in Columbia. It’s a double-elimination tournament.

If Missouri wins it will be the host team in the super regional round, facing the winner of the Durham Regional that includes South Carolina, Morgan State, Utah, and Duke, the tenth seed. (ZOU)

(BASEBALL)—A bad week for the Cardinals and what is becoming a typical week for the Royals.

(ROYALS)—The off-season moves by the Kansas City Royals continue to make the front office appear to be brilliant strategists and buyers as the season reaches the one-fourth mark.   The Royals finished their week eight games above .500 and only one-half game out of first place thanks to a sparkling 12-strikeout performance against the Angels on Mother’s Day by Seth Lugo.  Lugo lasted eight innings and gave up one earned run in a 4-2 Royals win. Seventy-seven of his 112 pitches were strikes as he kept the Angels off the scoreboard until the sixth inning.

Manager Matt Quatraro says getting a dozen strikeouts on only 112 pitchers was “really remarkable.”

His performance has made him the American League ERA leader at 1.66.

(CARDINALS)—If the Royals’ front office seems brilliant for its offseason moves, the Cardinals front office continues to draw scornful looks from fans and media observers for what it did.  And it appears President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak knows he might be on even less firm ground that manager Oli Marmol. During an interview Sunday on the Cardinals’ flagship radion station, KMOX, Mozeliak said he understood fans are not happy with him or with Marmol. “I think we have to just keep trying to go back, trying to get this to work….We understand that if it doesn’t, people are going to be held accountable and ultimately that starts with me.”

A few hours later, the Cardinals finally beat the Brewers on Mother’s Day to close out the week eight games UNDER .500.  Ryan Helsley, who hadn’t pitched in eight days, got the save in a 4-3 Redbird win.  That ended an eight-game losing streak stretching to last year against the Brewers.

Paul Goldschmidt had a pair of hits, including a home run, to break a 1-for-34 streak.

Cardinals’ starter Miles Mikolas staggered through the first inning, giving up all three Brewers runs on 42 pitches, before settling down and needing only 53 more pitches to shut down Milwaukee through the next five innings.

The Cardinals have won only two of their last ten games.

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The ‘Birds got some discouraging news about Willson Contreras’ broken arm during the weekend. It had been thought he’d be gone for about eight weeks but the new prognosis is for him to be missing for about ten.

He was the team’s leading hitter, with a .280 batting average when he went out. Backup Ivan Herrera is hitting .263.

(Battlehawks)—The St. Louis Battlehawks and the Birmingham Stallions went into their weekend game with combined records of 11-1, the Stallions having the unblemished record.

And they still do—but it was a nail-biter.

St. Louis got a team-record 61-yard field goal from Andrew Smyzt to stay within three of the Stallions at the half, and took a 20-17 lead into the fourth quarter—the first time all season Birmingham had trailed going into the last quarter. But Birminghan got the final score on a touchdown pass from Adrian Martinez to Kevin Austin Jr., with 5:23 left, the sixth lead change of the game.

The ‘Hawks, down 30-26, got the ball back on a blocked punt with 40 seconds left, 47 yards from the end zone. But they couldn’t finish a final drive and left for home with a 5-2 record, tied with the San Antonio Brahmas for the lead in the XFL Division. St. Louis, however, has a tie-breaker win in San Antonio.

Quarterback A. J. McCarron hobbled to the sidelines with an ankle injury late in the fourth quarter after taking a low and late hit. He returned to finish the game but was limping perceptibly.  Coach Anthony Becht told reporters yesterday that he doesn’t know yet if McCarron can play next weekend against the D. C. Defenders. He says McCarron will be evaluated day-to-day.

Speeding right along—

(IndyCar)—It’s May and that means racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Practice begins today for the Indianapolis 500 with 34 cars competing for the 33 starting spots in the race Memorial Day Weekend. Qualifying is set for next weekend.

But first, there was the traditional May-opening race on the road course.

Indianapolis, IN – during the INDYCAR Sonsio Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (Photo by Joe Skibinski | IMS Photo)

Defending series champion Alex Palou started from the pole and raced to a 6.6-second win ahead of Will Power, going back-to-back in the May road course race.  But the race was far more intense than that, with eight drivers seeing the lead and fourteen lead changes—including the first lap when Christian Lundgaard, who started third, grabbed the lead from Palou early on the first lap.

Lundgard led 35 of the first 42 laps but was third at the end. Palou led the last 23 laps. Lundgard was third, ahead of Scott Dixon and Marcus Armstrong.

The win puts Palou into the points lead again, up twelve on Power who has three second-place finishes in four races this year.

It was a solid day for Chip Ganassi racing, whose cars finished first, fourth and fifth. Palou’s win is the third straight for Ganassi on the Indianapolis road course. Scott Dixon won the fall race last year.

Power had the best finish of the three Penske team drivers. Scott McLaughlin finished sixth after starting thirteenth and Josef Newgarden, who started fourth, fell back to seventeenth at the end.  Penske’s teams were short some personnel who have been suspended for the month’s races because of the push-to-pass controversy at St. Petersburg.

Colton Herta, who started the race as the points leader, had a difficult day, starting 24th because he ran out of gas while qualifying and then being bumped off the track by teammate Marcus Ericsson early in the race, dropped to fourth in the standings although he rallied back to seventh. Ericsson wound up sixteenth.

(Doing the Double)—The most closely watched driver in today’s two practice sessions (weather permitting) will be Kyle Larson, who will try to coordinate qualifying at Indianapolis next Saturday with the NASCAR All-Star Race that night at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

Larson hopes to run the full 500 and then fly to Charlotte for NASCAR’s annual Memorial Day 600 mile race that night.

Friday is the first day he’ll be challenged to wear two hats, or helmets.  IndyCar practice is scheduled for noon-6 p.m. Practice in Noth Wilkesboro for the All-Star Race is scheduled from 4-4:50 p.m. with qualifying going from 5:50-7 p.m. His team has lined up newly-retired Kevin Harvick to practice and qualify his car Friday night, if needed.

If Larson and his IndyCar team are satisfied on Friday with the way he’s running, he could leave Indianapois early enough to get to North Carolina.

Saturday is more complicated by the qualifying procedures at Indianapolis. Qualifying on Saturday starts at 11 a.m. and goes to 5:50 p.m.  Drivers can try to improve their starting position with additional qualifying runs. At some point, Larson and his team will have to decide when he will or or if he will go to North Wilkesboro for qualifying there.

Sunday will be another challenge.  If Larson is one of the twelve fastest qualifiers, he’ll be part of a shootout scheduled for 3:05-4:05 Sunday.  If he is one of the six fastest drivers in that contest, he’ll be part of a second shootout from 5:25-5:55 to determine who will start from the pole and the starting positions for the first two rows on race day.

The NASCAR All-Star Race starts at 8 p.m.  He should be able to make the start even if he’s part of the fast six shootout. Flight time, Indianapolis to North Wilkesboro is about an hour.

Then there’s race day.

(All of these times are Eastern Daylight Savings times, by the way.)

Hendrick Motorspots, his NASCAR team, has made it clear that Larson’s top priority on Memorial Day Sunday is the Charlotte 600-mile race that night.

If the Indianapolis 500 starts on time and has no serious interruptions, it should be over in plenty of time for Larson to make it to Charlotte for the 6 p.m. start of the NASCAR race.

But if the 500 start is delayed or if the race is interrupted by weather or on-track events that endanger his ability to start the race in Charlotte, he’ll park his McLaren car in Indianapolis and head east. He told reporters last weekend he’s not sure who will make the call but at a certain point, “I have to leave because the 600 is the priority and chasing another championship is the priority.”

Recently retired IndyCar driver Tony Kanaan is a standby driver for the 500 but he’ll only drive the McLaren entry if the start of the race is delayed long enough that Larson has to leave for Charlotte.

Kanaan cannot replace Larson in the car once the race has begun. IndyCar rules prohibit relief drivers. If Larson has to leave for Charlotte while the 500 is still underway, the car will be parked and he will be scored in the standings on the basis of the number of laps he ran.

The hope, of course, is that those race-day contingencies don’t need to be used and Kyle Larson will become the fifth driver to compete in both of those major races on th same day.  John Andretti was the first to try, in 1997.  Tony Stewart did it twice, 1999 and 2001. Robby Gordon tried The Double in 2002 and the next year, and Kurt Busch did it in 2014.

Nobody has won either of the races the year they did the double.  Tony Stewart was 9th in the 500 and 4th in the 500 in 1999 then was sixth in the 500 and third in the 600 in 2001; Kurt Busch was sixth in both races in 2014.

(NASCAR)—Brad Keselowski’s long dry spell is over.

Keselewski finally picked up his 36th NASCAR Cup victory at Darlington after 110 races without seeing victory lane. The win is the first for a Ford this year and his first win as a part-owner of Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing.

The race’s intensity, which would spill over into the pits after the checkered flag, picked up as Keselowsky, pole-winner Tyler Reddick, and Chris Buescher fought for the win during the last thirty laps.

Keselowski and Reddick raced each other door-to-door after the final restart on the 261st lap of the 293 lap race. Their heated battle allowed Buescher to get past both of them three laps later, shortly before Reddick was able to get ahead of Keselowski and start chasing down Buescher.

With nine laps left Reddick tried to go inside of Buescher but couldn’t hold his car low and took Buescher with him into the wall as he slid up the track.

That left the door open for Keselowski, who held off Ty Gibbs by 1.2 seconds at the end.

While Keselowski was celebrating on the track, Buescher was unloading on Reddick in the pits. “We got wrecked. That one’s clear as day. Don’t need any cameras to tell us,” he told Reddick. Reddick’s move, he said, “is just something you know isn’t going to work.”

Reddick readily admitted he fouled up. ““I I made a really aggressive move and was hoping I was going to clear him. When I realized I wasn’t going to, I tried to check up to not slide up into him, but, yeah, I wish I wouldn’t have done that. I completely understand why he is that mad. He did nothing wrong…Just trying to win the race, and to take myself out—that’s one thing—I can live with that, but just disappointed it played out the way that it did, and I took him out of the race as well.”

While one streak ended, another continued.  Denny Hamlin led one lap, his seventeenth race in a row in which he has led at least once.

(Photo Credits: MU; Joe Skibinski-IMS, Bob Priddy)