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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-0-0-0-

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

-0-0-0-0-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-0-0-0-0-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—Grading the Seasons—

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

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

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

The Royals got a D from ESPN:

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

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

0=0=0=0=0=0=

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

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

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

-0-0=0=0=0=0

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

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

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

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

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

—-Speedy Stuff—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                0-0-0-0-0-0

(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.

-0-0-0-0-0-

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

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

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

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

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

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

(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)