A Bad Weekend in KC; Bowling for Two; NFL Debut

Posted on December 9, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(KC)—Missouri’s men’s basketball team had a disastrous game against KU in KC and the Chiefs had a disastrous game Sunday night in Arrowhead Stadium against the Texans. We’ll get to them later but first, let’s look at some better news.

(BOWLING)—-Both of our top Division I football teams have another game to play before the shoulder pads get put away until Spring.

(TIGERS AND A GATOR)—The Missouri Tigers are headed to the Gator Bowl on December 27 to play Virginia. Virgina, from the ACC, finished its season 10-3 with an upset loss to Duke, 27-20 in overtime—just two weeks after beating Duke in the regular season 34-17. The Cavaliers head into the bowl season ranked 20^th and 19^th in the polls. They were 3-1 this year in overtime games. Quarterback Chandler Morris threw for more than 2800 yards, going 257/398, sixteen touchdowns and 9 interceptions. Running back J’mari Turner ran for 1,962 yards on 222 carries and also caught 43 passes for 253 yards. Trell Haris led the receiving corps with 59 receptions and 847 yards. Two other players had more than 500 yards receiving. Defensively, the Cavaliers had 31 sacks for 211 yards in losses and 13 interceptions.

Missouri Quarterback Beau Pribula had a similar passing percentage: 182/270 after missing some action with an injury. Virginia will be the latest team to try to contain Ahmad Hardy, who finished he regular year number two in rushing with 1,569 yards. The Tigers ran for well over 2,000 yards. Kevin Coleman caught 63 passes for 715 yards, one of five players with 25 or more catches. Missouri’s defense racked up 35 sacks and seven interceptions.

Missouri crept back into the top 25 with its last game win over Arkansas. The Tigers played four top ten teams and lost all of those games, two by one score. Virginia played no to ten teams. The early line has Missouri winning by a touchdown.

(BEARS AND WOLVES)—The Missouri State Bears meet the Arkansas State Red Wolves in a borderline battle in the Xbox Bowl on the 18^th. Ark-State is 6-6. The Bears are 7-5. Both teams played Kennesaw State this year. Arkansas State lost 28-21. Missouri sate lost 41-34.

State’s Jaylon Raynor hit two-thirds of his passes this year for almost 3,100 yards, sixteen TDs and 11 interceptions. The Red Wolves’ top rusher, Devin Spencer, ran for 529 yards on 102 carries. Cary Rucker led the team in reception with 69 catches for 866 yards. The defense had 31 sacks and 33 interceptions.

Missouri State played six one score games and went 5-1, leading some to refer to them as the Cardiac Bears. Jacob Clark was 222/341 passing for 2,895 yards, 24 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Shomari Lawrence should go past the 1,000 yard mark in the bowl game. Jmariyea Robinson caught 40 passes for 536 yards, one of five players with at least 400 yards receiving. The defense wracked up 33 sacks and eight interceptions.

This is the first bowl game in school history for the Missouri State Bears and the prognosticators think the Bears will be a touchdown better.

(NIL SUIT)—Sooner or later, somebody was going to get nasty about this NIL stuff. The University of Georgia is going to court to recover $390,000 it invested in edge rusher Damon Wilson II. Georgia says he broke his NIL agreement when he transferred from Georgia to Missouri. The lawsuit says Wilson signed a contract a year ago that would pay him $30,000 a month with bonuses that made the whole package worth one-half million dollars. The lawsuit says Wilson informed the university a few weeks later that he was transferring to Missouri.

Wilson was in 11 games with Georgia as a freshman. He had nine sacks and an interception this year for Missouri.

(CHIEFS)—-It is increasingly likely that Kansas City Chiefs players will be watching the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl from the comfort of their favorite chairs at home. Their dispiriting 20-10 loss to the Houston Texans—at Arrowhead—has left them 6-7, needing to win every game from here on and few observers thinking they can do it.

Injuries that made the front line more porous than usual, penalties, and (in particular) dropped passes all made for a frustrating evening. Harrison Butker continued his unaccustomed erratic season by missing his eighth kick for a field goal or extra point this year when be dinked a field goal attempt off the coal post upright.

And this final note, an update on a former Tiger—

(BRADY)—-Brady Cook got his first extended time as an NFL quarterback Sunday as the backup to the backup quarterback when both guys ahead of him were sidelined with injuries. Starter Justin Fields was inactive because of a knee injury and backup Tyrod Taylor left with a groin injury six play into the game. Cook connected on 14 of his thirty pass attempts for 163 yards. Two of his passes wound up in the wrong hands. He was sacked six times and fumbled twice, one of which was recovered. The Jets lost 34-10 to Miami to fall to 3-10 for the year.

Head coach Aaron Glenn said after the game, “He was put in a tough situation. It’s always tough for a backup quarterback to actually go in and get the rhythm that he needs from not getting as many reps as you want ot get during the week…I thought he really had true command of the huddle with the players. ..It’s a tough situation because of the score at that point. [It] put him in a situation where he had to drop back and throw the ball probably more than we wanted him to. But I thought he handled that well.”

As for Cook: “It was definitely a challenge, but a great challenge. One that comes with the job of being the backup quarterback. I felt ready to play today, and obviously I didn’t do enough to get a win, Coming in at half, talking it over, just taking a deep breath, and then coming back out there, I definitely did (settle down). I think you definitely saw flashes there in the fourth quarter of us moving the ball. So, we need more of it.”

As for whether Cook will see more action next weekend? Glenn says that depends on how the other two quarterbacks recover during the week.

(MUBB)—The last few minutes of the first half and the critical opening minutes of the second half became the dagger in the heart of the Missouri basketball Tigers Sunday. Kansas outscored the Tigers 23-3 during that span and maintained the 20-point lead at the end. The game was played in Kansas City. Turnovers (10) and 21 for 61 shooting against the number eight defense in the nation during the first half led to the deficit at the break that grew in the second half.

Alabama State and Bethune Cookman should get Missouri to the ten-win mark before their game against Illinois on the 22^nd.

(BASEBALL)—This is the week we might expect some significant news about the Royals and the Cardinals. It’s time for the Winter meetings.

The Cardinals have picked up right-handed reliever Richard Fitt from the Red Sox. Fitts’ pitching arm went numb for a couple of weeks in the last season but he’s healthy again and hopes he can make a mark in St. Louis. he’s pitched in parts of two seasons and has a 2-3 record with a 3.97 career ERA. He’s been in 15 games, all but one as a starter. He’s 25.

The Royals haven’t caused many ripples this winter as they consider ways to beef up their offense. One thing they did make clear is that pitcher Cole Ragans is not on the trading table.

As the Royals continue to search for ways to elevate their offense for 2026, the conversation usually takes a turn toward their pitching. The Royals have a lot of rotation depth and could use it to land a bat in a trade this offseason. That’s a logical connection, and one the club has continued to discuss as this week’s Winter Meetings kick off in Orlando.

But who would the Royals really be willing to part with, and does it actually include their ace, lefty Cole Ragans? Not as far as General Manager J. J. Piccollo is concerned. He says it would be “really difficult” to trade Ragans. “If we didn’t have Cole Ragans in our rotation, we’d feel like we’re missing something really big.”

On to the fast stuff:

(NASCAR)—The big antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR has dominated the automobile racing headlines for several days. Things have turned increasingly nasty in the first week with the entrance into the evidence file of internal messages, letters, and documents belittling the teams and drivers who have filed the suit. NASCAR’s franchise system is being challenged by 23XI racing (owned by Michael Jordan whose uniform number was 23) and driver Denny Hamlin (whose car number is XI—eleven).

(INDYCAR)—We are 81 days away from the first IndyCar race of 2026.

Seats are being filled for the next season. The driver with the most appropriate name in the series will return to Juncos Racing. Sting Ray Robb is considered “a key pillar” in the team efforts to improve its standing.

Kyle Kirkwood has a contract extension from Andretti Global. He’s been with the team for the last three years during which he has become serious contender with five wins, three poles and six podium finishes.

(Credits; Xbox Bowl, Gator Bowl, New York Jets)

Sports; Tigers Having a Long Drink and Wait for a Bowl; Chief Playing for Highest Draft Pick in Years; It’s Basketball Season

Posted on December 2, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZFB)—Missouri ground up Arkansas and spit it out as it wrapped up its 8-4 season that leaves fans with several “what ifs.” What if Sam Horn hadn’t lost his season in his first game of the year? What if Beau Pribula had not lost three games with his ankle injury and wasn’t mobile for a fourth? What if the team’s field goal kicker had not been hurt.

—all of which is meaningless, of course. Missouri is 29-9 in these last three seasons with a chance to win 30 games in three years for only the third time (Missouri was 30-11 twice, from 2007-09 and from 2006-2008) in school history. For the record, Missouri went 40-14 from 2007-2010, 38-16 from 2006-2009 and 36-17 from 2008-2011.

Three Tigers had more than 100 yard of offense in the game: Ahmad Hardy with 149 rushing yards, Jamal Roberts with another 100, and Pribula, who was 4-7 passing for only 25 yards but who ran for 78. It’s Hardy’s eighth 100-yard game of the year.

(POTY)—Despite Hardy’s performance, including his astonishing tackle-busting TD run, SEC Player of the Week honors went to two other Tigers.

Wide receiver Kevin Coleman Jr., was named Special Teams POTW for his 67-yard punt return for a touchdown, the first return for a Missouri touchdown since 2022. Defensive tackle Chris McClellan was the defensive lineman of the week for recording two sacks and three pressures. His sack after Coleman’s return created a six-yard loss on first down, putting the Razorbacks in a hole they couldn’t get out of, forcing a three-and-out that stifled any chance for a rally.

(MIZPOLLS)—Missouri will go to its bowl game as a ranked team, but just barely. The AP sportswriters led Missouri squeak in at 25 in their poll, only a couple of votes ahead of Tennessee. The Tigers aren’t so highly regarded by coaches. Iowa and Houston are ahead of Missouri as the first teams outside the top 25 of their poll.

(DOAK)—Ahmad Hardy’s yardage against Arkansas moves him to 1,560 for the year, just 28 yards behind Jacksonville State’s Cam Cook. He is one of the three finalists for the Doak Walker Award, given to the best running back in college football for the year. It’s named for the SMU All-American who won the Maxwell Award in 1947 and the Heisman Trophy in 1948.

How do the three stack up statistically? Physically, really close. Performance-wise, close.

Ahmad Hardy Missouri 5-10 206 pounds 241 carries 1560 yds. 6.5 average 16 TD

Kewan Lacy Ole Miss 5-11 200 pounds 258 carries 1279 yds. 5.0 average 20 TD

Jeremiah Love Notre Dame 6-0 214 pounds 199 carries 1372 yds. 6.9 average 18 TD

Love is a Junior. Hardy and Lacy are Sophomores.

Here’s one stat that might give Hardy a leg-up, if you will: More than 1,000 of his yards have come after breaking at least one tackle. His 53-yard touchdown run through, it seemed, the entire Arkansas defense could be a clincher.

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(DRINKWITZ)—His team won’t win ten games this year but Tiger Coach Eli Drinkwitz has won a bid extension to his contract—six years with an average paycheck of #10.75 million. The University Board of Curators authorized the extension through the 2031 season after rumor increased that he was on the short list of coach choices in several major universities.

The six-year deal is two more years than the extension he signed earlier. It’s worth $64.5 million, putting Drinkwitz in the top-ten list of football coach salaries.

He was frustrated by all of the speculation about his possible candidacy for a job elsewhere. He said he was never interviewed for any of the high-profile positions that gossip put as a favorite to take: Penn Sate, LSU, Florida, or Auburn. He said after the Arkansas game, “We’ve got to figure this out, where we’re not putting pressure on coaches and programs and people during the middle of the week where there’s nothing but speculation…We’ve got Twitter trending with bets on who’s going to be leading or get this job… That’s annoying. That’s bullcrap. OK? And it’s just speculation, it’s just media throwing stuff on the wall, and it’s tough on everybody. It’s tough on players, it’s tough on coaches…I just felt like we weren’t done yet. That north end zone isn’t completed. And, so, my job here is not completed yet.”

In his six years at Mizzou, the Tigers are 46-28 and 26-24 in the SEC. He’s 58-29 in his career after gpomg12-1 as a first-year coach at Appalachian State. The Mountaineers finished 18^th and 19^th in the polls that year.

(MIZMBB)—The undefeated season-opening string for the Missouri Tigers has reached eight games with a Dennis Gates homecoming win at Cleveland State, the school from which Missouri hired him four years ago. The hiring became something of a swap because Cleveland hired former Missouri coach (and former Gates assistant), Rob Summers, as its head coach.

The Tigers were never challenged in their 86-59 win, running off the first 23 points of the game. The Vikings were scoreless for half of the first half. Five Tigers were in double figures with Jacob Crews finishing with 19.

Seven-foot-five center Trent Burns saw action in his second straight game as he works his way back into shape after foot surgery. Although he was in for only six minutes and didn’t score, he two rebounds, a block, and a pair of assists.

Things get more serious now. The Tigers play Notre Dame tonight before facing the Kansas Jayhawks in Kansas City on the 7^th.

Missouri got the 28^th most vote from the AP, the 29^th most from the coaches. Notre Dame did not receive any points in either poll. The Fighting Irish roundballers are 5-3.

Kansas is 21^st in both with a 6-2 record.

(MIZWBB) The women’s team is off to a 7-2 start after a big win against Northwestern in the Fort Myers Tip-Off in Florida. The Lady Tigers used Grace Slaughter’s 33 points to win 85-70. It was a landmark day for two people. Slaughter’s last bucket got her to 1,000 career points. It also lifted coach Kellie Harper to her 400 win.

Five players racked up double figures for Mizzou with Shanno Dowell getting her fourth double-double of the year—12 points and 13 rebounds. Northwestern drops to 6-1.

Missouri faces California in the ACC/SEC Challenge Thursday night in Columbia. The Tiger women received no votes in this week’s Ap women’s basketball poll. (ZOU)

(POST-SEASON)—Northwest Missouri State made it to the Division II playoffs but didn’t make it past Harding, losing 38-16 in the first round.

Missouri State and Delaware are the last two teams to get into the 82-team FBS post-season tournament. The Bears will learn next Sunday who their first-round opponent will be. They’re 7-5 (5-3 in Conference USA) after losing their last regular-season game, 42-30 to Louisiana Tech.

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs continue to make it appear likely they’ll be in the best position inyears for the college draft next Spring. Their 31-28 loss to the Dallas Cowboys dropped their record to 6-6.

There still is time to mess up their draft status, though. Last year the Chiefs also had split their first dozen games and wound up in the Super Bowl.

It was a familiar story against Dallas—inconsistency, a leaky offensive line, momentum-robbing penalties, and a vulnerable defense.

(BASEBALL)—Other than the Sonny Gray trade to the Red Sox for two minor league pitchers, the Cardinals have been pretty quiet. Any speculation that reliever Ryan Helsley would come back to St. Louis after his trade last season to the Mets has been killed by Halsley’s two-year $28 million dollar deal with the Orioles.

The Royals have been quiet, too.

Nineteen of the game’s top 25 free agents remain unsigned as we head to the winter meetings, starting December 10 in Dallas.

As we experience our first bitter cold and snow of the winter, here’s a warming reminder—Pitchers and catchers report for spring training on February 11. The days can’t pass fast enough.

Speaking of things that are fast—

(INDYCAR)—The 110^th Indianapolis 500 next May will have an even more patriotic mood about it than usual, as the race and the nation celebrate the 250^th anniversary of the document that created our nation, the Declaration of Independence.

The first part of the race’s promotion is the unveiling of next year’s logo.

The speedway says, “the logo colors directly match those of the American flag. The shield harkens back to the coat of arms, now called the Great Seal of the United States. The red stripes represent the stripes of the flag, as well as the wings of the IMS Wing & Wheel logo, while the four stars represent IMS’s four “founding father.”

At least one of the cars will carry the theme. A. J. Foyt Racing will have this car for Santino Ferrucci next year.

HFOT stands for Homes For Our Troops a nonprofit organization that provides custom homes for severely injured post 9/11 veterans. A team statement says, “Most of these veterans have sustained injuries, including multiple limb amputations, partial or full paralysis, blindness, severe burns, and/or severe traumatic brain injury.

(NASCAR)—The antitrust lawsuit filed by two NASCAR Cup teams against the sanctioning body (and owner of most of the tracks where the series’ major races are run has begun. The pre-trial climate has been increasingly ugly and the trial is expected to follow suit.

(FORMULA1)—The last race of the last major racing series to call it a year will be Abu Dabi next weekend. Max Verstappen’s win last weekend moves him to only 12 points behind Lado Naorris.

Sports: Frustration in Norman; Elation in KC; A Former Tiger Gets a Kick Out of Playing in LA

Posted on November 25, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZFB)—A frustrating day for the Missouri Tigers in Norman Oklahoma means Missouri must win at Arkansas next weekend to have the chance for a nine-win season when much more was anticipated.

Missouri is now 7-4 after its 17-6 loss in Norman, a game the defense saved for Missouri but the offense could not claim. Missouri took an early lead on a Robert Meyer field goal and had a chance to make it a six-point lead when Meyer’s kick from inside the red zone in the second quarter was blocked.

Oklahoma seized the lead on the only big play of the game—an 87 yard pass from John Mateer to Isaiah Sategna, who’d gotten a step ahead of Tiger safety Marvin Burks Jr. Mateer hit Javonnie Gibson for a second touchdown after Missouri went three-and=out on its next drive.

Bo Pribula was back from his ankle injury and went 20/35 for 231 yards but had two interceptions and the Sooner sacked him four times. Playing on the ankle injured a month ago, Pribula did not show the mobility that had helped open the Tiger offense in previous games.

Missouri has become a team that cannot beat a top-10 team. It’s the fourth time this year they have failed and Coach Drinkwitz drop to 0-7 against top-25 SEC teams in the last two years.

The loss drops Missouri to 29^th in the coaches poll; 28^th in the AP.

(MIZBB)—-The Missouri Tigers are undefeated through their first six games but have yet to dent the top 25 in either major poll. The Tigers are 33^rd in the top 25 rankings by the AP and in the Coaches poll. The Tigers play South Carolina State at the Mizzou Arena tonight. State has yet to win after six games this year.

(MIZTHICKER)— Jushua Karty is still on the Los Angeles Rams roster as a place kicker and former Tiger Harrison Mevis is doing his best to make sure he stays there. Mevis kicked four more extra points this weekend to run his consecutive string to 13 and then was two for two on field goals—from 42 and 50 yards—in the Rams win over Tampa Bay. (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—They were down by eleven with only the last quarter ahead of them and the Indianapolis Colts were ready to hammer the nails into their playoff coffins. The hometown fans had been watching the Kansas City Chiefs once again with a sluggish offense, a disappointing defense, a team crippled by penalties at wrong times and unable to put a coherent offense together.

And the Chiefs stopped the Colts in their tracks and played a fourth quarter out of the past to win the game in overtime 23-20 on a Harrison Butker field goal.

Rashee Rice was a key figure in the comeback. The Chiefs were pinned close to their end zone line, Patrick Mahomes found Rice for 47 yards. His fourth and 3 grab that went for 19 yards kept the final drive going before the game-winning field goal.

If Rice was the lightning, Kareen Rush was the thunder in the second half. He finished the day with 30 carries for 104 yards, giving KC a 100-yard rusher and a 100-yard receive in a game for the first time this year.

The defense stopped Colts cold in the second half, giving up only five first downs and giving up first downs on only two of seven Colts chances. They dominated the fourth quarter, holding the ball for 10:39 of the quarter’s fifteen minutes and stopping the Indianapolis passing game as well as its rushing attack.

Patrick Mahomes set a new passing record in the game. His 352 yards (but no touchdowns) put him past the 35,000 yard mark for his career. It was his 123^rd game, breaking Matthew Stafford’s record of 126.

The Chiefs avoided falling below .500 with the win. The loss was only the third of the season for Indianapolis. They lead the AFC South by a game over the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Chiefs have a short week before their Thanksgiving game in their original home town against the Cowboys, who have struggled to a 5-5-1 season. The Cowboys had won their last two games but they’re giving up a lot of points—314 so far. The Chiefs have given up only 201.

CARDINALS)—The Cardinals are laying the groundwork for free agent signings, trades, or promotions from the minors in coming weeks. They’ve decided not to offer contracts to four players, including Yohel Pozo, who finished second in all of the major leagues with seven pinch-hit runs batted in. They’ve also non-tendered reliever John King and minor league pitcher Sem Robberse. They’ve DFA’s reliever Jorge Alcala. It’s thought Pozo could come back with a minor league contracts next year.

There are three guaranteed contracts: William Contrares, Sonny Gray, and Noen Aranado. Seven more are eligible for new contracts—Nolan Gorman and Alex Burleson, Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbar, Matthew Liberatore, Andre Pallante, and JoJo Romero.

Three players have guaranteed contracts==Nolen Aranado, Sonny Gray, and Willson Contrerras. The list of players eligible for new contracts stands at seven: JoJo Romero, Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbar, Andre Pallante, Matthew Liberatore, Nolan Gorman, and Alex Burleson. Pre-arbitration contracts have been offered to 27 other guys.

Two top minor leaguers are hoping to head north with the team after spring training next year—J. J. Wetherholt and Brycen Mautz.

Wetherholt has been named the Cardinals’ Minor LeaguePlayer of the Year. He’s considered the fifth overall prospect in the majors. A left=handed batter, he hit .306 in 109 games last year, one of six minor leaguers to exceed .300/400/510 last year with 17 homers, 28 doubles, a pair of triples, 23 steals, and 59 RBIs playing for Springfield (double A) and Memphis (triple A). The last player to do that in the Cardinals system was Ted Savage, fifty-nine years ago. Savage bounced around among eight teams in his ten-year major league career.

Mautz was a second-round draft pick in ’22 and was the Cardinals Minor League Pitcher of the year this year. He was in double-A last summer, started 25 games, went 8-3 with a 2.98 ERA in 25 starts. He fanned 135 and walked only 33 in 114.2 innings as he led Springfield to a Texas League championship.

(ROYALS)—Catcher Salvador Perez has been named he captain of the Venezuelan team in the World Baseball Classic that will be played in March.

The Royals have are gambling that reliever Alex Lange can return to major league level after he missed most of last season. Lange’s deal is worth $900,000 in 2026 with $100,000 in performance bonuses, a source told MLB.com. He will make $2.5 million in his two-year contract and will be under Royals control through 2028. Lange was DFA’s by the Tigers on November 12. He was in one game for the Tigers last season before going on the injured last season after surgery on a right lat injury. When he returned, he was sent to Toledo in triple-A. He was released after posting a 4.64 ERA.

With the Tigers in 2022-23 when he was in 138 games with a 3.55 ERA, and rang up 26 saves in 32 opportunities. He’s a home town boy who went to Lee’s Summit West High School before going to LSU and becoming a first-round pick by the Cubs.

The Royals have signed infielder Jonathan India to a new deal after his first season with the team. He came over from the Reds. He’d been considered a possible non-tender player after hitting .233 last season. His deal is worth $8 million, a million dollar raise from 2025.

But the Royals are cutting loose J. J. Melendez and pitcher Taylor Clarke. Melendez didn’t seem to match his promise although showing good power. He was a second-round pick in 2017 who made his major league debut in 2022. Last year, he was in just 23 games and hit .083 with five hits in sixty at-bats before being sent down to Omaha. He had 20 homers and 64 RBIs at Omaha and hit .261 last season.

Clarke was in 51 games for Kansas City last year, posted a 3.25 ERA, had one save, and was 1-1. He’ll be 33 next year.

The Royals have offered contracts to their arbitration-eligible players: outfielder Kyle Isbel, infielders Vinnie Pasquantino, Maikel Garcia, and Michael Massey, and pitchers Kris Bubic, Angel Zerpa, John Schrieber, Daniel Lynch IV, and Bailey Falter.

Now, the speedy stuff:

(INDYCAR)—Immortality, at least as long as sterling silver lasts, has come to Alex Palou, the winner of this year’s Indianapolis 500 as well as his fourth IndyCar championship. His image joins the images of all of other 500 winners of the race on the Borg-Warner Trophy.

He had never won a race on an oval until last May when he got past former winner Marcus Ericsson and led the last thirteen laps. He’s the first driver from Spain to make it to the trophy.

Seeing his image on the big trophy provoke emotions that other winners have felt when they saw their images for the first time. “I know that it’s always going to be there forever, if I race one more year or if I race 50 more years. And whatever the history of INDYCAR is going to be, it’s always going to be there. So, it’s great to be part of all those amazing drivers. And, yeah, I feel that now. I want to get that face again on that trophy. Try and be part again of the history of our sport.”

Palou’s image joins that of 2024 winner Josef Newgarden and 110 other images on the trophy created in 1936.

(Roger Penske and Josef Newgarden with their Baby Borgs after Newgarden’s 2024 win)

The trophy has the image of only one non-winner of the race. Long-time track owner Tony Hulman, who rescued the Indianapolis Speedway from destruction after World War II, and owned it until his death in 1977, is portrayed by a gold image.

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Another former Formula One driver is moving to IndyCar—Mick Schumacher, who has signed with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. He’s the son of Michael Schumacher, a seven-time world champion. He’s part of a team that includes veteran Graham Rahal and IndyCar Rookie of the Year Louis Foster.

It’s a new chapter in Schumacher’s life after a career in F1 and in endurance races. He’s never raced on an oval. Six of next year’s races are on ovals. He’ll run his first race for RLL on the St. Petersburg, Florida street circuit on March 1.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen repeated his victory on the glitzy streets of Las Vegas, taking a first lap lead over points-leader Lando Norris and running away from any challenges. It was the third F1 race in the States this year as the series hopes to build its constituency in this country.

Norris crossed the finish line in second place twenty seconds behind Verstappen with George Russell third and Norris teammate Oliver Piastri fourth.

But Norris and Piastri were disqualified because the skid plates under their car were short of specifications, relegating them top 19^th and 20^th place in the race and allowing Verstappen to take a bite out of Norris’ points lead.

The results put Verstappen and Piastri 24 points behind Norris with two races to go.

(Photo Credits: Mahomes—KC Chiefs; Mevis: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images © Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images; Palou—Indycar; Penske and New Garden—Detroit News)

The Border War

Posted on November 21, 2025 by bpriddy

I might not be considered a loyal Missourian—

because I don’t give a hoot on which side of the state line the Royals and the Chiefs play. If I’m going to drive three hours to get to a game in Kansas City, what’s another ten or fifteen minutes on Interstate 70? A game is a game wherever it’s played.

I long ago thought the Missouri-Kansas sports rivalry thing was stupid. The pre-war Civil War ended more than 150 years ago and to liken two teams of big guys trying stomp on each other, or two teams of tall guys jamming a ball into a metal circle has any significance to the universe is insane.

The great sports columnist Heywood Hale Broun wrote in the forward to his wonderful book, Tumultuous Merriment;

“The actual importance of the contest is immaterial to both spectators and players once the period of magic has begun. The level of excitement is subconsciously chosen by those present and after a time exists beyond their control. It is only harmful when, like some lingering germ from a tropical paradise, it darkens the future. All of us should play as if life and honor depended on it, and all of us should cheer as if it were Lucifer State versus Angel U. in the arena; but at game’s end all of us should recognize that paradise was neither won nor lost. None of us should emulate those middle-aged men who stare glumly into the bottom of a highball glass when they think of a shot that failed to drop in the last second of some long-ago basketball game.”

In other words, the game is what is important and it is important only within the time of the game. Attaching any importance outside that period is a waste of time.

So, then, is all of the anguish about economic advantage of one place over another unimportant within the entirety of an economic area. And that should be what we are talking about here because the metropolitan cities and counties form their own economic area regardless of rivers and streets. Why there continues to be a counterproductive economic civil war within that area is beyond my understanding.

It’s not a case of whether the teams play on one side of the Missouri River or the other. The river as a boundary is a manmade abstraction as are state lines. The grass is the same color on both sides. Drive down Stateline Road. One side is in Jackson County, Missouri. The other is in Wyandotte County, Kansas. If you drive north, you’re in Missouri. Drive south and you’re in Kansas. The difference is a white line about six inches wide in the pavement..

The Chiefs and the Royals are still going to be “The Kansas City Whatevers” regardless of which side of a manmade line on which they hold their contests.

Get over it.

For years, Missouri and Kansas have waged an economic war, giving tax breaks to snatch this or that business from the other side only to have the other side a few years later offer tax breaks to get the company back.

If one state or the other is economically ahead, it can’t be by very much.

This silliness almost became—and maybe should have become—academic in 1855, the days of the pre-war border war, when pro-slavery Westport resident Mobillion McGee decided the chances of Kansas entering the Union as a slave state would be improved if the Missouri boundary line was shifted to the east a few miles, thereby putting more pro-slavery voters in Kansas. He and newspaper publisher Robet T. Van Horn convinced the legislatures of both states to agree to the scheme. But a young man they hired to seek congressional approval went to Washington, fell in love, married and left on an extended honeymoon, during which time enthusiasm for the plan cooled and it was never carried out.

Their idea has some validity today, not in redrawing the boundary lines for slavery but in considering territory on both sides of the lines as a single economic entity. Such a move would take, as happened in 1855, legislative approval from both states to form an economic district that would jointly pursue economic development mutually beneficial to the broader area.

Call it the McGee Enterprise Zone in which rivalries would not be recognized and the economic power of two states will be combined for greater development, the value of which would be shared by both.

It won’t be simple to organize such an entity. But doing so could end decades of unproductive rivalry resulting from unnecessary adherence to manmade lines. A battle between Lucifer State and Angel U is okay in the three hours of a game. But the game does not last for more than 150 years and neither should the parochial man-made rivalry between Kansas and Missouri.

Build stadiums wherever negotiations lead them to be built. It’s all still the Kansas City area and in the end we should be glad they don’t move to Nashville.

Sports: Mizzou Can’t Stop A&M; Tiger Basketball Faces Toughest Opponent; Royals & Cardinals at the Start of Free Agency; Blues are Blue

Posted on November 11, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MUFB)—The Missouri Tigers are barely clinging to a top-25 ranking in one of the polls after Saturday’s disheartening loss to third-ranked Texas A&M. They’ve fallen out of the coaches poll but the AP sportswriters gave Missouri four votes, letting them stay at 25^th.

Missouri was able to stay in the game for most of the first half before quarterback Matt Zollers fumbled the ball in the air when he was hit while preparing to pass with one minute left in the half. The ball went straight into the arms of A&M defensive back Dalton Brooks. Brooks took it to the two=yard line and A&M got a touchdown just before halftime to go up 14-0.

Zollers hand was “banged up” on the play and he was seen on the sideline afterwards flexing it. He later did some throwing on the sidelines and stayed in the game.

Missouri’s offensive line could have been stouter in protecting Zollers in his first collegiate start and in opening running space for Jamal Roberts and Ahmad Haley, both of whom topped 100 yards rushing, but not until well into the second half when Missouri was two or three scores down.

Missouri also was caught flat-footed in the third quarter by a fake punt turned into a touchdown for A&M.

Missouri’s offense missed the versatility of Beau Pribula, out indefinitely with hia ankle injury, who had added a running dimension to his position.. Zollars was 7 of 22 passing for just 77 yards and had negative yards on three rushing attempts.

The loss ended any hopes, although they were slim to begin with, of making the playoffs. The Tigers have lost three of their last four games with Saturday’s loss marking the first time Missouri has lost two in a row since 2022.

The last game of the year on Faurot Field is next Saturday against Mississippi State. They close on the road with games against Oklahoma and Arkansas. They have to win all three plus their bowl game to hit the ten-win mark for an unprecedent third straight year.

(MIZBB)—-The basketball Tigers are 3-0 in their first week on the court, hanging on for a win against Southeast Missouri State and a dominating victory over VMI.

The Tigers let the Southeast Red Hawks stay uncomfortably close because they couldn’t hit a free throw in the 89-84 win. They were just 19 of 31, a concerning figure because they were 10 of 21 in the season opener against Howard.

Mark Mitchell got his first double-double Sunday with 24 points and ten rebounds in the 106-68 win against VMI. The Tigers outscored the Kaydets 56-28 in the second half, showing a significantly tighter defense than they had displayed in their earlier games.

Ant Robinson’s versatility showed in his stat line—20 points (4 of 5 from the arc), four steals and four assists.

Missouri faces its first big-time test tomorrow night against Minnesota. One of those teams will lose its undefeated season.

(XMU)—Former Tiger place kicker Harrison Mevis has landed with one of the top teams in the NFL and hasn’t missed the chance to be around for a while. Mevis was signed to the Los Angeles Rams practice squad last week and was activated for Sunday’s game against the 49ers. He was six for six in extra points as the Rams won 42-26.

(BASEBALL)—The talent pool for teams looking for a free agent is falling into place. The Cardinals have a dozen minor league guys who want to play for somebody else. Michael Siani, who spent part of last season in the bigs, has been signed by Atlanta. Roddery Munoz has been claimed off of waiver by the Reds. Miles Mikolas has cut ties with the team by becoming a free agent. Mikolas was 18-4 when he joined the Redbirds after three years in Japan. He was 40-65 in the other six years in St. Louis.

The Royals have signed their first free agent, a guy they drafted in 2016. Outfielder Kameron Misner decided to play ball for the University of Missouri instead of signing with the Royals. He was designated for assignment by the Tampa Bay Rays after hitting .213 in 217 plate appearances. When he hit the ball, he hit it hard—nine doubles and five home runs. He also stole eight bases. But 69 of the 217 times he stepped into the batter’s box, he struck out.

He made history with his walk-off home run on opening day, the first player ever to make his first homer a walk-off on an opening day. Kansas City gives up a player or cash to be decided later.

They have guaranteed that Salvatore Perez will retire a Royal. He has signed a two-year extension. They have several players eligible for free agency. Sports Illustrated is reporting that the Tampa Bay Rays are strongly interested in signing Mike Yastrzemski, who joined the Royals in mis-season.

The Royals have lost Randal Grichuk, who has declined a five-million dollar deal to go into free agency. The Royals also have cut Michael Lorenzen loose

The Royals have moved to strengthen their hitting coaching staff by offering a job to Connor Dawson, who at 32 years old already has four years as the Milwaukee Brewers’ hitting coach and time spent as the minor league hitting coordinator for the Seattle Mariners.

(HOCKEY)—The St. Louis Blues got their season off on the wrong skate and find themselves winners of only five of their first sixteen games (5-8-3) and last in their division. They are averaging 2.3 goals per game. They’re giving up almost four goals.

Only the Calgary Flames have fewer wins, at 4-11-1. The Buffalo Sabers also have only five wins. But they have four ties—-5-6-4.

An Open and Shut Case

Posted on November 11, 2025 by bpriddy

The Associated Press reported earlier this week that Governor Kehoe’s latest pitch to keep the Kansas City Chiefs in Missouri goes back to the original plans for the Truman Sports Complex, as the area that contains Kauffman and Arrowhead Stadiums on the eastern edge of Kansas City.

Kehoe told the AP there’s no talk of building an ultra-expensive completely domed stadium, but there might be another way to enclose the present Arrowhead Stadium. The leases the Royals and Chiefs have on the Jackson County Sports Complex expire in about five years, a pretty short time in stadium-building scenarios.

His concept has assumed immediate importance with a report by Pete Mundo of KCMO radio that the Chiefs have put out a request for proposals to design a new stadium near the Kansas Speedway. Mundo says the move does not mean the Chiefs have decided to move to the Kansas side. In fact he says his “gut” tells him they’ll stay on our side.

Kansas officials are not commenting and Chiefs owner Clark Hunt says the team is still negotiating with both sides.

But the story raises the stakes in the discussions.

Missouri officials well remember the failure of the legislature in the late 1990s to react favorably to a proposal to put a major automobile race track near Kansas City International Airport. The Kansas Speedway opened just across the state line in Wyandotte County Kansas and opened in 2001, triggering considerable development in the area.

World Sports Network estimated seven years later that the track already had generated $243 million a year in economic benefits to the area.

The idea of a covering for Arrowhead is not new. The original designs for the complex in the 1960s included a covering for both stadiums.

The rolling roof system would be on tracks that could move a covering over the playing fields for inclement weather. The stadiums would not be heated or air conditioned under that system but rain and snow would not be a factor.

The idea came from architect Charles U. Deaton, an innovative thinker born in New Mexico who never got a college degree. He became a certified architectural engineer after personal studies of industrial design, structural engineering, and architecture. He designed board games in addition to structures and held several patents for furniture and interior lighting designs—and for designing board games. He worked in St. Louis for a time before moving to Denver, where practiced until his death in 1996.

The original plans were for a facility much like Busch Stadium II in St. Louis, where both baseball and football games could be played. But Deaton convinced Chiefs GM Jack Steadman the dual stadium concept would be better.

If you want a more detailed description of the philosophy behind his designs, go to the KC Yesterday web page.

Deaton’s idea of the rolling roof was scrapped during the construction process—practicality time, and cost were factors. The Chiefs played their first game in Arrowhead in 1972. The Royals played their first game in their new home on April 10, 1973. Twenty years later it was renamed for Royals’ owner Ewing Kauffman.

Kehoe is not recommending a return to Deaton’s original but now outdated design. He cites more modern stadium architecture that he think would work at far less cost—-and the incredible costs of new stadiums is a huge factor. Jackson County voters rejected the extension of a local sales tax to finance an $800 million overhaul of Arrowhead and construction of a two-billion dollar ballpark and ballpark village (as it’s called in St. Louis) downtown.

Missouri and Kansas now are in a heated competition for the two teams and legislatures in both states have authorized millions of dollars in one form or another to provide the new facilities.

What Kehoe is suggesting is something similar to what he saw in Frankfurt, Germany when he attended a Chiefs-Dolphis game in 2023 at Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park, a 100-year old soccer stadium that has been overhauled many times and now sports a cable-supported flexible, translucent fabric covering that can be opened or closed.

The Governor plans to meet today with the new Jackson County Executive, Phil LeVota, who also is talking to the Chiefs. The Chiefs aren’t reacting yet to the Kehoe suggestion but they have said they’d invest $1.l5 billion into the project if they decide to stay on our side of the state line. Another Kansas City (Missouri) election could be held next year.

For what it is worth, the view of the situation from the height of our hill is that this entire decades-long war for economic development in the Kansas City area has gone on too long. Somebody needs to develop a solution to it.

And we are as qualified as anyone to do that….and we will, on Monday.

(Photo credit: KC Yesterday/Jackson County Historical Society, Stadiowelt, Trip Advisor)

Brent

Posted on November 5, 2025 by bpriddy

Last weekend, Nancy and I drove to St. Joseph for the retirement party of my longtime Missourinet managing editor, Brent Martin. Brent and I sat about four feet apart in the Missourinet newsroom for fifteen years before the company sent him to Lincoln, Nebraska to breathe new life into the Nebraska News Network.

He built the organization into a respected part of the Nebraska Capitol Press Corps before our parent company decided there just wasn’t enough money in Nebraska to continue support of the NRNs and abruptly shut it down.

We had hired Brent from our affiliate in St. Joseph, KFEQ, a historic station serving northwest Missouri, northeast Kansas, southwest Nebraska, and southeast Iowa. But we had known Brent since he was a student at Central Missouri State (now the University of Central Missouri) in Warrensburg where he did the news on affiliate KOKO.

Brent wrapped up a 45-year career in broadcast journalism last week, having returned to his St. Joseph roots at KFEQ after the abrupt shutdown in Nebraska.

Brent was on top of a number of major stories in St. Jo and in Jefferson City and in Lincoln. CBS relied on him to cover the 1993 flood and its impact on northwest Missouri’s biggest city. I trusted him implicitly to maintain the quality of the Missourinet operations when I was out of town.

That included the night 25 years ago when we lost Governor Carnahan. Nancy and I were in Albuquerque, having just come down from our annual archaeological work in southwest Colorado, and watching the 10 .p.m. news on KOB-TV when the anchor reported that the airplane carrying Missour Governor and senatorial candidate Mel Carnahan was missing. We immediately switched to CNN and got the updated information that the plane had crashed.

I knew that Brent would be in the newsroom along with the other members of our staff and other staffers who would be drawn there by the events, and I knew he would have things well in hand.

And he did. I told him to send someone to the Capitol and find Lieutenant Govenror Roger Wilson, who would become the new governor at almost any time. One of the people who had rushed to the newsroom that night was my former assistant news director at KLIK, a Jefferson City Station that no longer exists—Clyde Lear, now the owner of Learfield Communications.

Brent gave Clyde a recorder and sent him to the Capitol to stick to Wilson. When Wilson was sworn in and, understandably under the circumstances, said he didn’t have anything to say, Clyde—ever the journalist—asked him one and got an answer.

Brent told me that as the a time grew closer to our first newscast of the day, at 5:55 a.m., he paused and collected himself after the intensive hours that had passed, and reminded himself that in a few minutes, thousands of Missourians would learn from him that Mel Carnahan was dead.

Throughout that long day, as Nancy and I drove almost 1,000 miles back to Jefferson City, the Missourinet, led by Brent, told Missourians about what things were developing in the wake of the tragedy.

Less than a year later, I was in Nashville for the opening of the national convention of radio and television news directors, due to start on September 12. Just as we were to start our pre-convention board meeting, the first airplane crashed into the first of the World Trade Center towers in Washington. Again, it was Brent in charge of the Missourinet newsroom, running our coverage of state events that were affected by those two crashes.

Fortunately, I had driven to Nashville so I was not trapped as were several other news directors because all airline flights had been grounded indefinitely. When I got back to the newsroom, our operation hadn’t missed a beat.

I missed him when he went to Nebraska—-more because he was a dear friend more than anything else. We talked about all kinds of stuff in our years together; politics, government, religion, families, cars—-Brent bled blue and white during the Kansas City Royals seasons and he bled red and yellow during the NFL season. Our sports director, Bill Pollack, once confided to me, tongue in cheek, that he was always glad to see me back in the newsroom so he could get his sports business done because Brent always wanted to talk about the Royals or the Chiefs or the Tigers.

Being a journalist requires enduring energy for a long number of years. It’s exciting to be on the front row of history, whether it’s in city hall or a state capitol. Sometimes it is frustrating. Sometimes it is boring. But it is always human and the role of a reporter is vitally necessary to our state and country. Brent spent his fifteen years as Missourinet Managing Editor covering the House while I camped out in the Senate trying to make the complicated process of making laws simple enough to explain to Missourians who need to know what their government does to, with, and for them.

Sometimes, it wasn’t fun at all—the Carnahan crash, the floods, the twin towers attacks. And executions. Brent and I covered 34 of them; he covered twelve before going to Nebraska where he became not only a reporter but also a source for other reporters when Nebraska had its first execution by lethal injection in 2018. We felt that the state should not exact its most serious penalty against someone without witnesses from the two statewide media organizations as witnesses.

Brent’s wife and daughter planned the retirement party at the church the family attends in St. Joseph. One of the gifts he was given was a Chiefs jacket. And there was a special guest:

Brent is looking forward to time to read and to write poetry and to spoil his two granddaughters. The big retirement gift from his family and friends is a trip to England next year. I gave him a small gift, something a baseball fan might appreciate—an official 1994 World Series baseball. The Royals weren’t in it but a baseball fan such as Brent Martin would appreciate it because nobody was in the World Series that year because of a players strike.

He’ll have plenty of time for Royals games after missing so many because he had to be up early the next morning to tell the people of St. Joseph, and for a few years the people Missouri and Nebraska what was going on around them.

I wrote a little poem in the card we gave him that began something like:

Guilt-free naps

With a cat on the lap

And the Chiefs on the TV….

And it went downhill from there.

I reminded him and Tammi of something Christopher Bond told me after he had retired from the U.S. Senate—that his wife said she married him for better or worse, but not for lunch.

We hope the Martins have better luck at figuring out the lunch thing that we have had. We’re okay with Monday through Wednesday and the weekends. But after eleven years, we still havne’t figured out Thursday and Friday.

I hope my friend Brent is more successful than I have been about lunch.

Sports (and the cruelties thereof)

Posted on November 4, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

“There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.”

The truth in that observation by newspaper humor columnist Erma Bombeck many years ago was carried out in our sports venues in the past several days.

In baseball, the World Series ended in laughter for the Dodgers and great pain for the Blue Jays, an underdog team that carried a dream of baseball superiority into the into the final two outs of the seventh game when the Dodgers’ Miguel Rojas hit a game-tying homer in the ninth inning, the first such blast World Series history. Scintillating defensive plays forced the game into the eleventh when the Dodgers got the winning run and the silent Toronto crowd realized their hopes for their first championship in 32 years were dead.

In football, the Chiefs played their way out of the playoff picture, for now, falling once more to the Buffalo Bills in Bufalo 28-21, dropping to 5-4. There was a time when Patrick Mahomes was unique and a unique offense generated points by the hands full. But the game has caught up with them. Joe Burrows at Cincinnati and Josh Allen at Buffalo also started displaying magic. Last year it was clear the rest of the league had caught up to the Chiefs in terms of talent and innovation. Last year’s run to the Super Bowl for the Chiefs was a matter of breaks. This year the breaks aren’t coming but opponents have adapted to the KC style and have gathered talent to be a stronger match for Kansas City. Burrows still is out with a turf tow problem but Allen was the superior quarterback with a better team last Sunday.

The thin line between laughter and pain was no better carried out in sports last weekend than in the NASCAR race at Phoenix Sunday. Denny Hamlin, desperate to win his first NASCAR Cup championship in his 22-year career, wanting to win it for his dying father, had command of the race with only a couple of laps to go when a flat tire by one of his competitors for the title, William Byron, that sent his car into the wall and brought out a caution flag. While several drivers hit the pits for two tires, Hamlin’s crew gave him four—-a decision that put him eighth for the restart, with several cars between him and rival Kyle Larson—-too many to work around in those last two laps.

Larson finished third in the race and won the championship without leading a single lap in the final race, a circumstance that might emphasize the demands for NASCAR to change its playoff system after Joey Logano’s championship last year in which he got into the playoff field on a tecnicalty.

Hamlin, who started on the pole and led 208 of the 319 laps, got back to fifth. “We were 40 seconds from a championship. It’s just unfortunate,” Hamlin said. “…It’s just, gosh, you work so hard. It’s just this sport can drive you absolutely crazy because it’s just that sometimes speed, talent, all that stuff just does not matter.”

Someone who can appreciate Hamlin’s situation is Carl Ewards, who saw his championship hopes vanish in a late-final race collision, and left racing, feeling that he had accomplished all of his personal goals in driving a race car at its maximum level, and realizing he wanted to live a fully life after racing with all of his physical and mental faculties intact.

Hamlin earlier this year signed a two-year contract extension that he says will be his last contract, motivated by some of the same things that Edwards cites—-wanting to leave the sport on his terms.

Ryan Blaney won the race but he wasn’t among the final four that fought for the title in the last race of the year. Blaney won his championship in 2023.

And finally, this week brought an end to the Andretti family’s hopes that one of them would win another Indianapolis 500. Marco Andretti, grandson of 1969 winner Mario, announced that he would not be back for a 21^st 500 and would retire from racing at age 38 to spend time with his daughter, his outside-racing ventures, and writing a memoir he’ll call “Defending the Dynasty.”

Marco (on the right) with father Michael and grandfather Mario, finished second once and third three times in the 500. Father Michael, in fifteen 500s as a driver was second once, third twice. Mario ran twenty-nine 500s was the runner up twice and crossed the finish line in another race.

In 1992, when Marco was five, the Andrettis were the first family to have four drivers competing in the same racing series.

Jeff, John, Michael and Mario. Michael and Jeff were Mario’s boys. John, who died in 2020, was the son of Mario’s brother, Aldo.

Next years race will be the first 500 since 1954 without an Andretti in it. The four Andrettis combined for 79 starts in the Indianapolis 500. They finished in the top ten 32 times, in the top five 16 times, ran second four times and third six times. John also competed in NASCAR for seventeen seasons.

John was the first driver to try to do “the double,” competing at the Indianapolis 500 and then running the 600-mile race at Charlotte that night. He was tenth at Indianapolis and was 36^th at Charlotte after dropping out with engine trouble just past the halfway point.

Michael hold the record for the driver leading the most laps (431) in the 500 without ever winning. However, as a team owner, his drivers won six 500s.

(MIZFB)—The football Tigers had the weekend off, an important bye for their new starting quarterback, true freshman Matt Zollars, who finished the Vanderbilt game after the ankle injury to beau Pribula. His backup will be reshirt junior Brett Brown, who came back to Missouri in September.

Zollars showed outstanding composure in finishing the game 14 of 23 for 138 passing yards. One of the passe was for a game-tying touchdown. His last one, as time ran out, was compoete to the six-inch line. It would have sent the game into overtime.

The Tigers are at home against third-ranked Texas A&M Saturday afternoon. They’re now 6-2 with four regular season games and a bowl game left as they try to win ten games in a season for an unprecedented third straight time. They’ll go into the game ranked 17^th and 19^th in the polls.

(MIZBB)—Missouri’s basketball season opened with a win on the road, 88-67, against Howard University.

Seven-foot Center Shawn Phillips dominated on the inside with a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds—Missouri outrebounded the Bison 47-28.

Freshman Guard Jayden Stone came off the bench for 13. Transfers Luke Norweather and Jevon Porter combined to match Phillips’ totals. Anthony Robinson II had eight points, four assists, and three steals.

The women’s team opened at the Hearnes Center with a 78-71 win over Central Arkansas. Shannon Dowell had 21 points and a dozen rebounds. Jordana Reisman also had a double-double for Missouri with a dozen points and ten rebounds.

(MORE BASEBAL)—The best-fielding shortstops in major league baseball are from Missouri. The Cadinals Masyn Wynn and the Royals Bobby Witt Jr., have been awarded gold gloves, the first of the off-season awards presented.

Wynn is the youngest gold-glove winner in Cardinals history at 23 years and 191 days. That breaks the record of third baseman Ken Reitz, who was 24 years, 96 days in (can it be so long ago?) 1975. He is the 100^th GG winner in Cardinals history. He’s the fourth shortstop to win it (Edgar Reneteria, Ozzie Smith, and Dal Maxwell). He had only three errors in 501 chances this year.

Witt has won two of the gloves. Also winning a Gold Glove teammate and third baseman Maikel Garcia, who joins George Brett as the only Third Basement gold glovers in Royals history.

(FREE AGENTS)—The end of the World Series is the beginning of the free agent and trade season. Royals outfielder, and former Cardinals outfielder, Randal Grichuk declined a $5 million mutual option yesterday and is in the market for a new team. The Royals also have exercised their $1.5 million buyout option for pitcher Michael Lorenzen, another mid-season addition who made 26 starts and one relief appearance and posted a 4.64 ERA.

The Cardinals and Mike Mikolas are parting ways. He is the only free agent listed in the first batch out.

(Photo credits: Chiefs vs. Bills—Paramount Plus; Three Andrettis—USA Today; Four Andrettis—RACER; Kyle Larson—Bob Priddy at Indianapolis)

Sports: Chiefs Roll; Tough Losses for MU Football; A Glimpse at Basketball; A Speedy Final Four

Posted on October 28, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—-The Kansas City Chiefs’ offense sputtered in the first half against the Washington Commanders last night but outran them with three touchdowns in the second half. The 28-7 win moves them to 5-3 for the year. Washington drops to 3-5, equaling last year’s loss total when the Commanders made it to the playoffs.

Patrick Mahomes, who had only two interceptions in the first seven games this year threw two picks in the first half against Washington. Mahomes, who turned 31 on September 17 after breaking Peyton Manning’s record for young quarterbacks, connected for two touchdown passes in the second half.

One of those touchdown passes went to Travis Kelce, giving him 83 TDs to tie Priest Holmes for mot all-purpose touchdowns. Kelce finished with 99 yards receiving. Rashee Rice had nine catches for 93 yards and rushed for twelve more as Mahomes came up one yard short of 300.

Kareem Hunt has the other two touchdowns for Kansas City.

The Chiefs are one game behind Denver in the division standings. They’re at Buffalo next weekend. They’ll play the Broncos two weeks later.

(MIZFB)—The Missouri Tigers have the next weekend off before facing Texas A&M, ranked third in both major polls this week. When they take the field against the Aggies they will be without Beau Pribula and likely will not have him back for the rest of the regular season. Pribula tore three ligaments in his left ankle when it was dislocated during a tackle in last weekend’s game against Vanderbilt. In most cases, such injuries result in broken bones but not in Pribula’s case. No surgical repairs are needed.

Recovery from the ligament injury generally comes after six weeks of being in a cast and/or a boot to immobilize the injured area and then rehabilitation sessions. The Tigers play their last game before that recovery period is over. After being off this week, Missouri has five games left, making his return more likely for a bowl game than for a regular season game.

Before exiting, Pribula had passed for eleven touchdowns and 1,685 yards and had run for five more TDS.

His replacement, true freshman Matt Zollers, has played impressively in the limited time he has had, most of it in the closing minutes of the Vanderbilt loss. He has two weeks to take snaps as the number one quarterback. His performance in the last five games could determine how deeply into December the Tigers will go in the bowl schedule—and whether Coach Drinkwitz will have a difficult decision to make on who will start the bowl game.

Missouri is 19^th and 20^th after the tough loss to then-number 10 Vanderbilt, one of those games that often hinges on which team gets The Big Play. Vanderbilt got it with the 80 yard touchdown run by Makhilyn Young that put the Commodores up 10-3 in the third quarter. Mizzou tied the game before Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia got the winning score on a one-yard plunge.

The win moved Vanderbilt up to ninth in one poll and dropped it to 11^th in the other.

(MIZ BIG QUESTION)—-With Mizzoui’s third-string quarterback now number one, who slots in as his backup. None of the other four quarterbacks listed on the pre-season roster have ever played a down in college. The two most likely number one backup to the number three quarterback are Tommy Lock, cousin Drew and nephew of Andy, who is 6-feet-3 and from Lee’s Summit, and Brett Brown, a Tennessee native who is 6-1, 185. Both Lock and Brown are graduate students who got their degrees in August.

(MIZBB)—The game didn’t count but it was hardly the typical pre-season game we often see teams play as exhibition contests. Missouri’s basketball exhibition against Kansas State had the look and the feel of a regular season game built on the rivalry intensified by Missouri’s defection to the SEC a long time ago.

It had a familiar feel—a full tilt race to get more points at the end that the other team got. The two teams combined for 105 points in the last twenty minutes.

The point total should not have been a surprise. Missouri has three returning starters and seven lettermen back from last year’s team that was ninth nationally in scoring (83.6 ppg).

The tendency in a 100-91 game is to wonder who was playing defense. In this game, Missouri played enough defense to keep Kansas State down by double figures most of the way and it looked pretty impressive offensively doing it. Missouri shot 54.8% from the field, scored 54 points in the paint and got 29 points off of fast breaks. Missouri was also good at the free throw line, going 26 of 34.

The game was the 238^th between the Missouri and K-Sate but the first one that doesn’t count in the season standings. Missouri and Kansas State were rivals through the Missouri Valley, Big Six, Big Seven, Big Eight and finally the Big 12. They’ll play another exhibition game against each other in Manhattan next year. (ZOU)

(THE BASEBALL)—a phrase used by Hemingway in The Old Man and the Sea. By this time next week, the season will be over and players and money will be moving. Until then, the Royals and the Cardinals are watching prospects in the Arizona Fall League. Anne Rogers with her Royals Beat newsletter has been keeping tabs on KC’s seven players.

Right-handed pitcher A. J. Causey, impressive in his first season out of the Universitys of Tennessee in High-A has found the AFL more challenging. Four appearances, seven runs in 4.2 innings, but with seven strikeouts.

Righty Dennis Colleran, who moved up three levels to Double A this year, pitching 66.1 innings with a combined 2.85 ERA has three scoreless AFL innings with four K’s and two walks in three games.

L. P. Langevin, a product of Louisiana-Lafayette missed part of the minor league season with a right lat strain has yet to allow a hit in limited action in the AFL, three and three in the strikeout-walk department and one unearned run.

Pitcher Logan Martin, a righty out of the University of Kentucky, started 22 games in High A this year and put up a 3.45 ERA in 91.1 innings. In Arizona he has pitched 5.2 innings, given up four runs with four walks and one strikeout.

Lefty Hunter Owens, a Vanderbilt product, spent this year in Double A, had nineteen starts and three relief appearances in which he gave up 3.8 runs per nine innings. He missed parts of the year with shoulder tenderness but struck out 107 batters in 94.2 innings. In Arizona he’s had some problems in his two appearances. Six runs, 11 hits, four strikeouts and a walk in 4.1 innings.

Catcher Blake Mitchell, who signed out of Sinton Texas High School had surgery on a broken wrist but got into 49 High-A games. He struggled after coming back from the injury and hit only .209 with one home run. In Arizona he also has struggled and is hitting .167 but has taken a dozen walks. Defensively, he’s fine behind the plate.

Shortstop Daniel Vazquez, a 2021 International Free Agent, is making up for missed time in the regular season by hitting .357 in Arizona with five stolen baes and eleven RBIs in eleven games.

Center Fielder Carson Roccaforte has hit .294 in his first nine games of the AFL after posting an .862 OPA in High A. Bottom of Form

(SLUGGER)—Louisville Slugger has announced its finalists for its annual American League Silver Slugger Awards. National League winners will be announced on November 6, with American League winners announced the next day. Managers and coaches cast the ballots for the best hitters at each position.

Two Cardinals are on the National League nominees list, both listed as utility players: Alex Burleson and Brendan Donovan.

The Royals have first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, Shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., Catcher Salvador Perez, and utility man Maikel Garcia.

(ROONEY and BUCK)—-There’s a personal angle to a wonderful recognition for a kid who once asked the Missourinet for a job. And I told our boss, Clyde Lear, we needed to hire him as our first sports director when we got ready to have one. Somewhere in the company files now at the State Historical Society in Columbia is the pencil-written job application for John Rooney.

John is one of the ten finalists for the highest honor a baseball broadcaster can have—the Ford Frick Award at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

And there’s Joe Buck who has done baseball games on FOX Spors for 26 years. He also called 17 years of Cardinals games and has broadcast a couple-dozen World Series.

That kid has just finished his 39^th year broadcasting major league baseball games for the Twins, the White Sox, and now for the Cardinals. He’s also called some games for FOX Sports and in his younger days he was a CBS radio voice for the NCAA Tournament and for other games.

Also on the list is Skip Caray, son Harry, who was going sportscasts on Columbia radio station KFRU when this correspondent was in college.

The winner will be announced December 10 during the winter baseball meetings. Induction will take place in late July when the Hall announces its latest honored players.

One of those who nominated this year’s slate is another familiar name to Missouri sports fans: Bob Costas. Among those who will make the selection is longtime Royals broadcaster Denny Matthews.

Another sport has a final four—

(NASCAR)—NASCAR has narrowed the number of drivers with a change at the NASCAR Cup to four. The big difference in this sport when compared to stick and ball sports is that the racing field remains full throughout the run-off. As many as forty drivers might be on the track at Phoenix next Sunday when the championship will go to one of those four who is highest in the finishing order.

Actually, eight of the biggest names in NASCAR will decide whose driver will be this year’s NASCAR Cup Champion:

Joe Gibbs Racing

Hendrick Motorsports

Chevrolet

Toyota

Byron

Briscoe

Hamlin

Larson

Three of the four drivers want their first Cup. Kyle Larson won the Cup in 2021. William Byron, Chase Briscoe, and Denny Hamlin are looking for their first. Briscoe and Hamlin drive for Gibbs. Larson and Byron run for Hendrick. Hendrick uses Chevrolet engines. Briscoe and Hamlin drive for Toyota.

Byron raced his way into the final four with a dominating rim on the tight half-mile flat track at Martinsville, starting from the pole and leading 304 of the 500 laps, the last 44 after getting past Ryan Blaney, who had to win to make the final four.

Christopher Bell became the odd man out when Larson claimed the fourth and final slot, seven points ahead of Bell. But with Hamlin, Byron, and Briscoe guaranteed in the final four by winning the three final cutdown races, Bell, seven points behind Larson in the regular points standings, was out of the finale.

(Photo Credits: Mahomes—NFL; Byron—Bob Priddy, Indianapolis 2025; Logo—Louisville Slugger; Zollars—Reddit; Rooney and Buck–St. Louis Cardinals)

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

Posted on October 21, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now, from fastballs to fast cars:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bob Priddy

A journalist's random observations

Category Archives: baseball

A Bad Weekend in KC; Bowling for Two; NFL Debut

Sports; Tigers Having a Long Drink and Wait for a Bowl; Chief Playing for Highest Draft Pick in Years; It’s Basketball Season

Sports: Frustration in Norman; Elation in KC; A Former Tiger Gets a Kick Out of Playing in LA

The Border War

Sports: Mizzou Can’t Stop A&M; Tiger Basketball Faces Toughest Opponent; Royals & Cardinals at the Start of Free Agency; Blues are Blue

An Open and Shut Case

Brent

Sports (and the cruelties thereof)

Sports: Chiefs Roll; Tough Losses for MU Football; A Glimpse at Basketball; A Speedy Final Four

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

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