(CARDINALS)—Joshua Baez is a major leaguer and a record-setter at that, but it took only two games to show he has work to do.

Baez, who has a rep as a power hitter, showed it Saturday when he became the first major leaguer to hit three home runs in his first game.

He ripped the first pitch he saw from a major league pitcher 449 feet into the center field bleachers at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Next time up, he went 389 feet into the left field stands and the third time, the shot measured 368 feet to right.

In one game it appeared he had lived up to his promises in that Saturday game.  He had hit 34 home runs this year in Triple=A, driven in 90 runs and had a .256 average.

But on Sunday, the real world came calling.  He was hitless in five at bats and fanned three times—displaying a feature that has been worrisome throughout his minor league career.  He has struck out 547 times, better than 25% of the times he’s recorded an at-bat.

He helped the Cardinals win the weekend series against the Cubs and win their eighth game in their last dozen, to pull two games above .500 again and move back into the wildcard playoff hunt with about six weeks (39 games) left in the regular season.

Blaze Jordan’s baseball shoes are headed to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown—-because Baez had worn them for his historic day Saturday.

The Redbirds started the week yesterday with a doubleheader against the Reds in Cincinnati.  They recalled lefty Quinn Matthews from Memphis to start the first game with their leading pitcher, Andre Pallante looking for win number 13 in the second game.

Alec Burlison drove in both Cardinals runs in a 2-1 win in the opener, a makeup game for a rainout in May. Matthews made a solid start before leaving after four innings. He struck out seven. Burlison took over the National League RBI lead in that game. The win went to Luis Gastelum who struck out two of the three batters he faced in the fifth. Riley O’Brien cleaned up by striking out the side in the ninth to get save number 31 in 36 chances.

The Redbirds let the second game slip away from them. The Reds tied the game in the 9^th. The Cardinals had two on in the top of the tenth and couldn’t get one across and the Reds sent the hometown fans home happy in the tenth. 6-5 Reds.

(MILES TO GO)—Former Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas might have reached the end of the road with the Washington Nationals designating him for assignment.

His work this year seems the lean against anybody picking him up for a stretch run. He made eleven starts and appeared in thirteen other games this year for Washington, has gone only 3-9 with an ERA of 5.89 through 113 innings. He’s given up 26 home runs while striking out only 56 batters. The last month and a half have been brutal as his ERA for July jumped to 6.62 and before his release, it was 8.18 for August.  He’s 37.

(ROYALS)—The Royals remain one of the worst teams in the majors this year but there have been flashes of promise, one being Noah Cameron’s performance Sunday against the Angels when he gave up only a bloop single in the seventh inning.  Cameron went on to pitch his first career complete game. He struck out eight, threw 115 pitches and struck out eight.

The win allowed the Royals to take their first series since they took two out of three against  June 4-7 against the Twins.

It’s the time of year for the Royals to make some personnel changes—as is the case with major league team in general at this point in the season. Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcie have come home after their rehab assignments. Pasquantino has been inactive since July 29 because of a sore right wrist.  Garcia has been missing since June 23^rd because of a strained muscle in his left hand.  It’s been almost two months since the Royals had their regular starting lineup intact.

The Royals also have called up LHP Connor Thomas from Omaha. They claimed him from the Athletics roster earlier this month.

The addition of those three to the roster means three other guys had to do. Infielder Josh Rojas and RHP Jose Cuas have been sent down to Omaha and veteran outfielder Sterling Marte has been designated for assignment.

Marte hasn’t been used much—only 59 at-bats this year. He was hitting .242.

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs got their first shot against somebody not wearing red and yellow during the weekend and although Coach Andy Reid saw some things he liked, he also saw somethings that “we got to clean up.”  The Chiefs lost to the Rams 20-12, with the winning margin provided by former Missouri Tiger place kicker Harrison Mevis, who was good on two field goals and both LA extra points.

One of the biggest areas for cleaning up is the ongoing tendency to draw flags.  The Chiefs had the seventh-most penalties in the league last year with 119, almost evenly divided between the offense and the defense.  They had a dozen against the Rams.  Eleven of them were offensive, five before the snap.

(MIZZOU)—Ahmad Hardy has been on the field—but only as a spectator—as his Missouri Tiger teammates continue their work toward the opening game in a couple of weeks.  Reporters covering the drills say he was spotted on the sidelines last week with a black sleeve on his left leg.

Coach Eli Drinkwitz says there’s nothing new to report about his return to the field in pads. But he says there will be an update next weekend. Hardy has been in the work room and continued with speed training and walk-throughs but Drinkwitz says he’s still some time away from being ready for full contact.

(MOOKIE HOPES)—Former Tiger wide receiver Mookie Cooper hopes the United Football League has a place for him in 2027.  He was one of more than 250 players taking part in the UFL Showcase in St. Louis a few days ago.

He finished his Mizzou career early when he was sidelined with a season-ending injury in 2024. “I’m just chasing an opportunity,” he told a reporter.  He hopes he performed well enough to impress UFL coaches although he is not fully recovered from surgery for a double sports hernia.

Last year, he helped coach players at University High School. This year, he’s been coaching running backs at William Jewell College. “I just know at heart I’m a ballplayer,” he told are reporter at the UFL combine. “My heart is still in playing. I know I still can go.”

Cooper was a 5-foot-eight receiver who caught 92 passes in 44 games (11 of them starts) for 1,179 yards. His biggest game was against Auburn shortly before he was sidelined two years ago when he was on the scoring end of a 78-yard pass play.

(NOT READY TO  GO)—Former (for now) Tiger basketball star Mark Mitchell isn’t ready to leave college basketball.  He  has filed a lawsuit against the NCAA seeking a fifth year of eligibility, one of ten players who have filed suit in Louisville, Kentucky seeking a court order keeping the NCAA from blocking their fifth year. His lawsuit asks a judge to order the NCAA to  reopen the transfer portal which means he could play for somebody else if he wins—although a ruling from another court would let him return to Mizzou. Media reports, however, say Kentucky is prepared to offer one of the biggest financial packages in all of college basketball to get Mitchell.

Present NCAA rules bar him from talking to any coaches other than Missouri’s Dennis Gates. However, Gates already has a full roster of 15 players, the maximum number allowed.  Another question is whether Missouri could compete financially with Kentucky.

From the diamond to the oval—or the road course

(INDYCAR)—Marcus Ericsson charged to a win in the closing laps of the IndyCar race in Markham, Ontario, Canada with a bold late move to get past Will Power, Alex Palou, and leader Romain Grosjean and get his first IndyCar race since 2023.

The result slightly tightens the point standings with four races left on the schedule but Alex Palou remains on top with what is likely a big enough margin to withstand any competitor.

Ericsson was fifth after his last pit stop, his 13 second lead disappearing while he got fuel and fresh tires.  He had to pass teammate Will Power, points-leader Alex Palou, and leader Romain Grosjean to win the first race held at Markham.  Grosjean gave Dale Coyne Racing its first podium finish of the year. Power, who started 25^th, got his fourth third-place of the year.

(NASCAR)—The door is closing on some big-name drivers outside the top 16 in season points standings with only two more races before the 16-driver playoff run begins.  The week in NASCAR showed a familiar face  making a familiar late-season charge toward the field of 16 and the move of a disappointing rookie to one of the sport’s superteams.

Joey Logano, who has languished around 20^th most of the year, picked up his second win in the last four races Saturday night at Richmond. He has gained nine positions in the standings in the last six races and is now ninth in the standings, within one point of eighth and only 36 points out of sixth place.

This isn’t the first time Logano has spent the first part of the season with mediocre results only to catch fire down the stretch to the playoffs.  He has three Cup championships on his record.

The win is his 37^th victory for Roger Penske, tying Missouri’s Rusty Wallce for most NASCAR wins for The Captain.  Logano has two other wins before joining Penske.  Wallace had eighteen wins for other teams, totaling 55 in his career.

Chase Brisco led 171 laps and had a two-second lead going into the last round of pit stops.  But Logano’s team got him out ahead of Briscoe and Logano got past Christopher Bell and into the lead with 24 laps left.

(Photo Credits—Baez—Instagram; Ericsson—Rick Gevers at WWTR; Logano—Bob Priddy at the Brickyard)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BASEBALL

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

But they’re not standing pat.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There are five years left on the lease.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now: Cars

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Baseball:

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

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

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

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

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

Football:

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

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

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

The Big Motorsports Weekend:

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

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

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

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

Then things changed.

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

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

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

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

Multiple Contenders Crash in Indy 500 Practice

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Photo credit:  Palou—IMS)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As long as we’re talking football—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BASEBALL:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Speedworld

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(BBPORTALS)—Add the name of Jacob Crews to the list of bolting Missouri Tiger basketball players.

Crewse to play another year of college ball, but he’ll need an NCAA hardship waiver to get it. He’s the fourth Tiger to jump ship. So far, nobody has transferred TO Missouri but it’s still early in the shopping season to have anything in the cart although Coach Dennis Gates is looking at a lot of merchandise, particularly on the guard shelf.

The story is the same in Springfield and in Billiken-Land.

(ROYALSHOME)—Kansas City’s Council is considering whether the city should pay about one-third of the cost of a new stadium for the Royals. The ordinance putting up $600,000 of the $1.9-billion needed authorizes the city manager to negotiate a 30-year deals with the team to play in an area known as Washington Square Park.

The proposal also would prohibit the Royals from thinking about moving to another state, county, or city and it would call for the stadium being ready for the start of the 2030 season. Owner John Sherman has indicated the team wants to play “in the heart of the city,” although he has not reacted to the proposed ordinance.

(CHIEFSHOME)—Kansas Governor Laura Kely has signed a bill creating the Kansas Sports Facilities Authority, the latest step in her state’s effort to get the Chiefs to move to Wyandotte County Kansas with a training facility in Olathe.

Kelly’s statement says, “The Kansas City Chiefs’ historic agreement with the State of Kansas is monumental for our economy, creating thousands of new jobs, attracting tourists from around the world, and elevating Kansas as an elite place to put down roots…This bill provides the necessary governance structure and guardrails to manage and oversee the team’s facilities, ensuring Kansans for generations to come will continue to cheer on our beloved team at home. We’re turning Kansas into a premier destination for sports and entertainment without raising state taxes or taking funding away from essential services.”

(BATTLEHAWKS)—The St. Louis Battlehawks scored 21 points in the last quarter to top the Birmingham Stallions 34=30.  Backup quarterback Harrison Frost took over the quarterbacking duties at halftime.

The Battlehawks squandered a 10-0 first quarter lead, part of which was a 54-yard field goal by former University of Missouri place kicker Tucker McCann to fall behind 16-13.  It was 30-20 with 11:45 left before “Hawks and Frost took control of the game. They took the lead with 1:42 left.

The Battlehawks will play the DC Defenders next Saturday, the first of three straight road games. They opened the season with a win against the Defenders.

(MCCANN)—Tucker McCann has been out of football for five years but has continued to work out and made the Battlehawks roster in mid-January and immediately made his presence felt with a 58-yard field goal in the season opener, his first field goal in a competitive game since August 12, 2021.

He was an undrafted free agent in the 2020 draft coming out of Mizzou. He signed with the Tennessee Titans but injured an ankle in a preseason game and was sent to the practice squad. He was cut in October of 2021.

(THEBASEBALL)—Both of our baseball teams have shown they’re not much more han mediocre in the first couple of weeks of the season.

(ROYALS) —-The Royals finished the week at 7-9 only a game out of first place in the AL Central division. For the most part the team seems to have left it hits-bats in Florida. Salvador Perez and Vinnie :Pasquantino are hitting .264. Jonahan India is hitting .184. The star of the team, Bobby Witt Jr., is hitting only 260. The bright spot is Mikael Garcia who is at .324 after the first 15 games.

Starting pitching is pretty sold. Michael Wacha turned in a masters’ performance Saturday against the White Sox on Saturday. His first 17 pitches were strikes. He went into the eighth inning having thrown only 80 pitches. The Royals won the game 2-0 and Wacha lowered his ERA to 0.43.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals are above break even thanks to outstanding starting pitching in the early going. Michael McGreevy is giving up only 2.64 earned runs a game. Andre Pallante has an ERA of 1.80 and Matthew Liberatore is respectable at 3.38.

Jordan Walker has been a surprise in the first two weeks, hitting .314.  But the whole team’s average is only ,224.

(SOPHIE)—Sophie Cunningham has signed on for another season with the Indianapolis Fever of the women’s NBA.  The signing keeps the popular “Trois Leches” (Spanish for “Three Milks” that combine for a popular dessert) of Cunningham, Caitlin Clark, and Lexie Hull. The three are the core of the Fever, a team that won the Commissioner’s Cup in 2025 although Cunningham and Clark both missed playing time

Terms of the contract haven’t been revealed but the new collective bargaining agreement specifies that someone who’s been in he league as long as she has will be paid at least $292,500, a sizeable increase from the salaries in the last CBA.  This will be her eighth season. She’s 29, played thirty games for the Fever last year before a torn MCL put her on the sidelines. She had career best shooting percentages last year—43.2% from the three-point line and 46.9 overall.

Cunningham is setting up her second career as a media personality and podcaster. She’s going to be part of the USA Network’s studio coverage of the WNBA when she’s not on the court. She’ll also contribute to the network’s digital and social platforms.

AND she will be a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model this year.

The league starts its season on May 8. The Fever will play its first game the next day.

For the speedy set—

(INDYCAR)—Not all of the attention next weekend will be focused on the racing on the streets of Long Beach, California.

A new movie will attract a lot of attention—a documentary about driver Robert Wickens, whose seeming meteoric career was ended by a crash that left him partially paralyzed.  It’s going to be the story of a driver who was determined to drive racing cars again—and has been.

An earlier documentary tracked his life from wheelchair to racing car:

Bing Videos

Wickens was IndyCar’s rookie of the year in 2018, having run so well in the first part of the season to accumulate enough points to win the award although a crash at Pocono left him a paraplegic.

Four years later he was back in a race car—an IMSA TCR series entry with hand controls that he and his co-driver took to two wins and a championship.

The movie is called, “The Weight of Speed.”

The Long Beach race is the last one before the teams move to Indianapolis for a race on the IMS road course and the 110^th Indianapolis 500.

(NASCAR)—Ty Gibbs made Grandpa’s day on Sunday with his win at Bristol, his first in 131 cup starts for Joe Gibbs racing.

Ty Gibbs made the critical decision that gave him the win when the caution flag waved for a Chase Elliott spin.  Gibbs refused to pit when many other leaders did.

His gain in track position paid off when he restarted with the lead and fourteen laps to go in regulation distance.  But a later caution flag meant the race would go into overtime.  He withstood the challenge of Ryan Blaney and beat him to the line by .05 second, the closest finish at Bristol since Missouri’s Rusty Wallace beat Ernie Irvan by one foot in 1991.  It’s also the first race win for a car number 54 in almost 47 years—when Lennie Pond won his only Cup race, at Talladega, in 1979.

Blaney and Kyle Larson had dominated the race until those cautions. Larson finished behind Blaney, in third.

Missouri NASCAR fans get a chance for their first close race of the year—at the Kansas Speedway, not far from the apparent future home of the Kansas City Chiefs.

(Photo credits: Stadium—Kansas City Royals; Sophie—Irishstar.com; Gibbs—Bob Priddy)

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZZPORT)—The college basketball transfer portal opens today and the Missouri Tiger guards are bolting. Late last night, word came that T. O. Barrett, whose insertion as a started added intensity to the defense and toughness to the inside game, was bolting. We already knew the ptjer two top guards were moving on. Anthony Robinson II, who lost his starting guard position in mid-season to Barrett, and reserve guard Sebastian Mack, who never rose above a backup role after transferring in from UCLA, are leaving.  Both are seniors. Barrett has a couple of years of eligibility left.

He was exciting in his sophomore breakout season, but had a problem with turnovers, scored a career high 28 points against Tennessee but also had games where he had no offensive impact.

Mizzou has a five star guard, Jason Crowe Jr., coming in, joining the only guard left on the roster—redshirt Aaron Rowe of Columbia.  Crowe is considered a top ten national prospect.

Mizzou has one of the best recruiting classes in the nation for the 26-27 seasons as it looks to improve on this year’s fadeout with four straight losses, including first round games in the SEC tournament and in the NCAA.

(BILLSPORT)—Two players from the St. Louis University Billikens are going into the portal but reports indicate other players with eligibility remaining will stick around. Department are forwards Brady Dunlap and Kalu Anya. Dunlap had the best three-point parentage for the team this year—45 percent. But in terms of minutes played he was seventh in the nine-man rotation and his playing time was reduced in the last ten games.

Anya was crowded out of the rotation this year and took a redshirt so he’ll have one year of eligibility left. He’s a 6-8 forward who started all 34 games for the Bills in the 2024-25 season when he led the team in rebounds, shot a respectable percentage from the field but hit less than one-third of his free throws.

(BEARSPORT)—Missouri State’s only portal entry so far is Amar Kuljuhovic, a 6-8 power forward. He transferred to Springfield after two years at North Dakota State but played in only two games this year.

(BASEBALL)—Both of our major league teams have finished the first full week of the season with so-so records. The Cardinals winning five of their first nine and the Royals losing five of their first nine.

(ROYALS)—The Royals opened a series against the Cleveland Guardians last night, looking to get back to .500 after the first ten games of the year. Before the game, the team activated infielder Michael Massey from the ten-day injured list and sent utility man Nick Loftin to Omaha.

Massey had been recovering from a calf strain. He hit .244 last year. He’s mostly a second-baseman but has played third and left field, too.

The first of three games against the Guardians was moved from last night to the afternoon because temperatures were expected to drop for a game under the lights. Kansas City evened is record at 5-5 with a 4-2 win. Jonathan India’s two-run homer in the eighth gave the Royals a needed cushion in the win. He also drove in Kansas City’ s first run. Catcher Carter Jensen also homered.

(CARDINALS)—The last piece of the Sonny Gray trade to the Red Sox has fallen into place with the Cardinals getting Class-A pitcher Patrick Galle as the player to be named later. Galle was a 17^th round pick last year projected to be a reliever.  He’s the third player to move to the Cardinals in the trade.  Galle is 22 with a triple digit fastball that produced a 1.04 ERA in eight appearances with the Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod League, a collegiate wood bat summer league.

Last night, the Cardinals dropped back to .500 (5-5) with a 9-6 loss to the Washington Nationals. One nice development in the opening games of the season is Jordan Walker, who was 2 for 5 last night an is hitting .314 in the early going after a lot of work on his swing while in Florida. Rookie J.J. Wetherholt was one for three and is hitting .278 so far in his first pass through major league pitching.

(TIGERFB)—The Mizzou football class of 2927 is starting to assemble; the question will be how many will stick with their verbal commitments. Coach Drinkwitz wants 18-22 recruits in the last. Six already have committed

The top name on the tentative list is Tight End Jack Brown Francis Howell Central, considered the top talent in Missouri, a 6-5, 215 pounder who catches footballs. Jack Brown is a four-star recruit.  More than thirty schools will try to get him to change his mind.

(CHIEFS)—Coach Andy Reid isn’t forecasting whether Patrick Mahomes will be ready to go for game one of the NFL season but there is a video that shows him dropping back and throwing a pass in the Chiefs training facility. His left let is wrapped from ankle to thigh but he appears to be moving normally.

(BATTLEHAWKS)—The Battlehawks play tonight, a rarity in UFL scheduling. They will take their 1-0 record against the Dallas Renegades, who also have won their first game this year. The ‘Hawks will have to find a way to stop Dallas quarterback Austin Reed, who set a league record with 376 passing yards in a 36-16 win against Houston.

On the track—

(INDYCAR)—IndyCar heads to the streets of  Long Beach on the 19^th for its last race before everyone heads to Indianapolis for a road course race and the buildup to it’s greatest race on Memorial Day weekend.

The car count for the 110^th running of the Indianapolis 500 stands at 31, two short of the traditional staring field of 33. RACER magazine’s Marshall Pruett reports Abel Motorsports is working getting a car ready for Jacob Abel, son of the team owner, who was bumped from las year’s starting field by a faster driver in qualifications. Andretti Global appeared ready with a car for Colton Herta, who is running Formula 2 in Europe this year. But his availability has come into question. PREMA Motorsports, which has not been able to field a car for the starting grids of any of four races so far this year but could put one on the track if a driver with adequate sponsorship appears on the scene.

Alex Palou won last year’s 500 and has won two of the four races this year with Kyle Kirkwood and Joef Newgarden winning the other two. Kirkwood’s consistent runs in the first four races has put him in the points lead.

(NASCAR)—NASCAR returns after the Easter break to run at Bristol. It’s the eight race of the season. The standings are starting to look familiar as drivers race to be in the top 16 in points for a ten race runoff that will crown a champion who accumulates the most points during those ten races.

NASCAR has abandoned its street race in downtown Chicago to return to the Chicagoland Speedway. It’ called ChicagoLAND because the track is in Joliet. Because no Cup races have been run there since 2019, Goodyear plans tire tests on the 21^st.  The race is July 5.

(MIZZGONE)—We saw this kind of Missouri Tigers a lot in the last part of the season, especially in the last four games—all losses.  Inconsistent offense, turnovers, comebacks, brief leads but couldn’t get the dagger basket or keep the other team from hitting it. They had Miami down by a handful late and lost by fourteen.

Missouri lost six of its last nine games to finish 20-13.

It took a 9-0 run at the end of a struggling first half to draw the Tigers to a mere 27-26 deficit at halftime. But all-to-familiar scoring droughts in the second half doomed the Tigers. In one stretch they missed ten straight shots. While Missouri was going without a basket for more than two minutes near the end, Miami ran off 12 straight points.

Miami kept Mark Mitchell bottled up in the first half and held him to only four points while dominating the offensive boards throughout the game.  Mitchell finished with 19 points. Trent Pierce and T. O. Barrett, who were the third and fourth top scorers for the team this year, were two for 15 shooting, and combined for only seven points.

“We just couldn’t keep those guys off the boards,” Coach Dennis Gates said afterward (Miami outrebounded the Tigers 42-29).

Four or five guys suited up for the last time Saturday night:  Mark Mitchell, who became the first since Albert White in the 1998-99 season to lead the team in scoring, rebounds, and assists; Shawn Philips, who came from Arizona for his last season of college ball in Missouri; Jayden Stone, who had 21 points in the Miami game,  sixth year senior and who played the second-most minutes this year; and  Jacob Crews, a transfer from UT-Martin.

The fifth player might or might not be Javon Porter, who joins the family tradition of physical brittleness at Mizzou.  He is on the bubble for a medical redshirt.   His last game was December 14 and he’s been on the bench with a “lower leg injury.” To get the redshirt, a player must be hurt before the halfway point of the season which he was. But the rule also says the player must appear in less than 30 percent of the team’s total games.  He was in 12 of 33, which work out to 36%, two games beyond the limit.

(LADY TIGERS)—The Missouri women’s team topped Seton Hall 67-57 in the first round of the National Women’s Invitational Basketball Tournament. They ran into the top-seeded Brigham Young aggregation late last night and never led on the way to a season-ending 93-75 loss to finish 17-17. BYU advances at 24-11

(BILLIKENS)—The St. Louis University Billikens left Georgia coach Mike White stunned in their first-round game, demolishing the Bulldogs 102-77, leading by as much as forty points at one time. Georgia was an 8 seed; St. Louis a 9. “We weren’t very prepared to compete at the level that I thought we would. Did not see this coming…Didn’t give St. Louis much of a game.”

Georgia, from the mighty SEC, never led in the game, was outscored by an astounding 66-28 in the paint and out-rebounded 47-36. SLU also had 27 assists, three times more than Georgia.

The win was the first in the NCAA tournament for St. Louis since 2014, and a record-setting 29 for the year. But the win just set the Bills up for a game against Michigan, which pulled away from St. Louis Saturday to a 90-75 win.

(MOSTATEWMN)—The Missouri State Lady Bears played their way into the NCAA tournament with an 85-75 win over Stephen F. Austin to get a 16^th seed and an immediate game against top-seeded Texas that did not turn out well.  Texas steamrollered Missouri State 87-45.

(COLCOL)—We need to recognize Columbia College in, well, Columbia.  The Lions, 15^th in the country, finished 29-4, including a game against Central Christian Bible in which they scored 134 points, second most in school history. They were 13-1 in the American Midwest Conference and winning the conference championship for the sixteenth time. They won the conference tournament for the thirteenth time. They won their first round game in the NAIA Tournament against McPherson College of Kansas in overtime 74-72 before losing to Faulkner University in the second round.

(BASEBALL)—Next week well be reporting on the first weekend of games that aren’t in Arizona or Florida.

(CARDINALS)—One of the biggest questions of Cardinals spring training was whether J. J. Wetherholt would come north for opening day.

The announcement game in a video yesterday morning:

https://x.com/Cardinals/status/2036179257123119350?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2036179257123119350%7Ctwgr%5E9c078eb1c1ccb3cc6e7d1f4222d7fa024e45dcaa%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.si.com%2Fmlb%2Fcardinals%2Fonsi%2Fst-louis-cardinals-news%2Fjj-wetherholt-era-begins-as-cardinals-make-right-call-pat3

Okay, we’ll save you the trouble—the video shows the Cardinals making Wetherholt’s jersey, swapping his spring training number 77 for his preferred 26. He is considered the number five prospect in all of baseball. He was the seventh pick in the first round of the 2024 draft and had a solid spring—fifteen games, nine walks, two homers and seven RBIs, OBP of .780.  He jumps to the bigs after only 138 games in the minors in which he hit a combined .304 with 19 home runs, 79 runs batted in and 100 runs scored, 25 stolen bases, 33 doubles and a couple of triples.

The Cardinals will give the ball to Matthew Liberatore for opening day against the Tampa Bay Rays, the team that drafted him in 2018. He came to St. Louis in the 2020 Randy Arozarena trade.  Liberatore is considered the ace of the rotation with the departure of Sonny Gray and Miles Mikolas.  He was named the starter after giving up only one walk in 13.1 innings in Florida.

(ROYALS)—The opening day starter for the Royals was Cole Ragans for the third year in a row.

Ragans missed much of last year (only 13 starts) but hopes he returns to his 2024 form this year. Two years ago, he led all American League pitchers with 10.77 strikeouts per nine innings, was second in total Ks with 223.  “I’m more motivated than ever,” he said after being named the starter for game one. He leads a seemingly sold starting pitching corps for the Royals with Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Krus Bubic and Noah Cameron coming back from sold 2025 seasons.

(KCWBC)—The Baseball Hall of Fame is getting a lot of gear from Kansas City Royals players who had major roles in the World Baseball Congress tournament—the winning team’s captain and the tournament’s MVP particularly. But the Hall also is getting a bat from a Royals hitter.

The USA team drew some boos at the start of the last game of tournament from a Miami crowd that had a lot of Venezuelans in it—who are not fond of President Trump’s actions in their home country.  The Venezuelan team won the tournament with a 3-2 win over Team USA.

After the game, team captain and catcher Salvador Perez told reporters,  “I’m gonna be honest with you guys, and there’s nothing that I can hide, you know?  All you guys see, what happened, all that … and … I know people are super happy right now in my country …“Where I come from, all my family, it’s hard to get to see me play in the big league. I got some family that never had that opportunity. So now they’ve seen me play. I know they’re super happy and me as well, for my family and for other people from Venezuela.”

Royals third baseman Mikel Garcia was the tournament Most Valuable Player.  “I’m proud to be part of this group, and I’m proud to be representing 30 million Venezuelans back in my country,” he told interviewers.

 The USA team had tied the game before Garcia got the game-winning RBI in the top of the ninth. In that final half inning?

“I only was thinking what was going to happen after we win the game. I had full confidence in our closer and I knew that we were going to win this game,” Garcia said.

Garcia He hit .385 for the tournament with seven runs batted in and a home run. He’s sending his helmet to Cooperstown.  Perez is sending his Venezuelan colors catching gear

Among other items from the series going to the Hall of Fame is the bat that Royals first basement, Vinnie Pasquantino, used to become the first player in WBC history to hit three home runs in a game. Pasquantino played for Italy.

(CHIEFS)—Travis Kelce is not only coming back for the 2026-27 season—–he could be coming back for two more years after that.  Word came out yesterday that his new contract is not for one, but for three years and $54 million dollars and maybe more.

The deal is set up for him to still walk away after this coming season in which he’ll be paid $12 million with another three million dollars in bonuses.

The  restructuring of the otherwise continues with the exit of Hollywood Brown after two seasons. Brown was signed as a fast big-play threat who could replace the departed Tyreek Hill. But he missed almost all of 2024 with an injury and his numbers in 2025 were not game-breaking impressive (49 catches, 587 yards and five touchdowns. He’s gone now, to the Eagles, reflecting, “In this league, the margin for error is so small,” Brown said on “Speakeasy.” “I feel like the group of guys and the staff we had with coach Reid, I wouldn’t be able to handle that adversity anywhere else … It wasn’t the season we wanted to have, but it was a season that we all learned from.”

The Chiefs hope James Worthy and Rashee Rice can return to their previous forms and the retention of Tyquann Thornton provides some depth.

Plus, there’s the draft…….

On the other side of the ball, the Chiefs have re-signed popular special teams leader Jack Cochrane, who’s been with the team since signing as an undrafted free agent in ’22.  He’s missed only four of 68 games in his career.

UFL)—The St. Louis Battlehawks start the new UFL season next Saturday against the Washington Defenders in the dome.

Now: V8 is not just a drink

(NASCAR)—Tyler Reddick says he’s in an “incredible” position after picking up his fourth win in six races this year, this time at Darlington despite early electrical problems that buried him deep in the field. He rallied back to pass Brad Keslowski with 27 laps left.

It’s Keselowski’s best finish of the year, even as he continues to recover from a leg broke in an off-season incident.

Reddick started from the pole despite brushing the wall during qualifications.

(INDYCAR)—-Two races left before The Month.

IndyCar is back on track next weekend with the Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park with the GP of Long Beach on April 19.

The Month of kicks off on the 9^th with a run on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

After that, it’s all about Memorial Day weekend and the 110^th Indianapolis 500, when 33 cars line up and less than three hours later one driver will achieve an adjective that will stay with him the rest of his life: Indianapolis 500 winner.

Several drivers will make their only run in IndyCar this year.  Helio Castroneves continues his quest to be the first five-time winner. Two-time winner Takuma Sato also is lined up to run. Others signed for just this race are Conor Daley, Jack Harvey, former winner Ryan Hunter-Reay and Ed Carpenter, who owns the car he’ll drive.

It’s expected Andretti Global will provide a car for Colton Herta who has dropped off the IndyCar circuit to seek his fortune in Europe, hoping to pick up a Formula 1 ride next year. He’s a reserve driver for the Cadillac team that’s making its first season in F1.

Notably absent so far is Prema Racing, the team that put rookie Robert Schwartzman on the pole last year.  The team has some internal ownership problems that have kept it from fielding a car in the early seasons races.

It has been 79 years since the race started with fewer than 33 cars.

Practice for the 500 starts on May 12, a Tuesday, with qualifying the next weekend and the race on Sunday, May 4.

(Photo credits: Kelce—Kansas City Chiefs; Ragans—Royals; WBC—Getty Images—Cochrane; Indy Car driver banners, Indianapolis—Bob Priddy)