Category Archives: basketball

Sports:  A Thrilling Win, A Bad News Upset, the Chiefs Turn Into the Bad-Hands People. And the Cardinals make a deal. 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs dropped a big one to the Philadelphia Eagles at home last night.  Actually they dropped several, increasing their NFL-worst record for dropped passes to 26.

Dropped passes including two as the Chiefs tried to regain the lead with time running out, penalties and two turnovers in the red zone added up to a 21-17 loss that drops the Chiefs to 7-3 whle the Eagles go to 9-1.

Wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling had a perfectly-thrown pass bounce off his hands for what would have been a go-ahead 51-yard touchdown play in the last Chiefs drive. Wide receiver Justin Watson let the ball through his hands on the Chiefs’ final play, a pass on fourth and 25 that would have been a first down.

The Chiefs were held scoreless in the second half after Philadelphia found a way to stop what had been an effective run game in the first two quarters and th Kansas City offense seemed out of kilter in the second half.

(CARDINALS)—-Sometimes, seasoned lumber is the best thing to use when you start a rebuilding process. The St. Louis Cardinals have picked up two pieces of it, one as a player and one as a coach.

The Cardinals’ first significant signing of the team’s rebuilding winter is former starter Lance Lynn who has signed a one-year deal, reportedly for a guaranteed $10 million or so with incentives to earn another three million.  The Cardinals have a $12 million option for 2025.

Lynn pitched his first six years with St. Louis, went 72-43 with a 3.78 ERA.  One important thing about him is that he ate innings, 977 of them in 161 starts. He’s 36 now. Last year he started 6-9 for the White Sox but finished the year 7-2 with the Dodgers and helped them advance in the playoffs.  He has a World Series ring from 2011. He left the team as a free agent after the 2016  season and signed a deal with the Twins. The Twins dealt him to the Yankees in mid-year and then to the Rangers for three years, then two years with the White Sox.  It was a disappointing experience for Lynn but he had one strong game when he tied a team record by striking out 16 Mariners and set a Manor League record for strikes by a pitcher who went into the game with an ERA of 6.00 or more.

In his career, he’s 136-95 with a 3.74 ERA.

ON THE BENCH:  The Cardinals have hired their third bench coach during the Marmol managing era.  The newest one is former Redbird utility man Daniel Descalso. He replaces Joe McEwing who is moving up to the front office as a special assistant to John Mozeliak, the President of Baseball Operations. The team says it expects to make more coaching additions as the winter wears on.

Descalso spent half of his ten-year MLB career with the Cardinals.He also was with the Cubs, Diamondbacks, and the Rockies.  He spent last year as a special assistant in baseball operations with Arizona.

Former outfielder Matt Holliday was hired as bench coach a year ago but he decided he wanted to spend more time with his family and resigned after a few weeks.

(MIZ)—Missouri’s win over Florida has allowed the Tigers to inch up one spot in the Associated Press and the Coaches Poll. They’re tenth in each. They hold at 9th in the playoff rankings.  They’re the nation’s top-ranked two-loss team.

It began to appear as the game went along that the team that had the ball last was likely to win the game.  The Missouri Tigers had the ball last, down a point with a minute and a half to go…and then inside of thirty seconds had it with fourth and 17

And they found a way to win.

The lead had changed for the eighth time in the game when a Florida field goal put the Gators on top 31-30.  But Florida left too much time on the clock for Missouri. Here’s how the last minute-36 seconds brought the ninth lead change of the game, and gave 28 seniors on the football team a beautiful memory to take away from their last game on Faurot Field.

1:36—Missouri 25 yard line after a touchback on the Florida kickoff.  Quarterback Brady Cook throws short to Cody Schrader for two yards.

1:20—pass incomplete. Third down and eight.  Cook to Mekhi Miller good for 13 yards.  First down.

1:00—False start, Missouri.  First and 15.  Cook finds no one open downfield, throws to Schrader, who loses two yards but gets out of bounds.

Second and 17 now.  Incomplete pass to Theo Wease Jr.

Third and 17, Cook tries to hit Mookie Cooper but leads Cooper too far and he can’t pull it in .

:38—Fourth and 17.  The game rides on this play, maybe the whole season if the Tigers want a 10-win year and a New Year’s Day bowl game.  Missouri calls its final timeout because of some confusion about what play to call. Cook drops deep, throw a bullet that Luther Burden III jumps to catch amid Florida defenders and bulls his way for 27 yards and puts Missouri in Harrison-Mevis long field goal range.  The ball is on the 40.  It would be about a 57-yard kick.

:21—Incomplete pass.  Missouri needs more yards to make the kick easier for Mevis.  Cook connects with Miller at the Florida 29. First down

:13—Cook spikes the ball to stop the clock. Second and ten.  Schrader fires to Cooper, who backs out of bounds at the 13-yard line.  First down but not enough time to get closer.  Mevis walks on to deliver his second walk-off field goal of the year.  Florida calls  time out, giving Mevis time to get nervous. Mevis won’t be iced. He’s just thinking about the mechanics of thekick, “keeping my head down and making good contact…I knew if I do those two things then good things are gonna happen,” he says afterward.

Head down, good contact and the ball arcs high and through the uprights with four seconds on the clock.

On-field celebrations are interrupted by officials who say the clock still shows a handful of seconds. Florida tries the hook-and- ladder return of the Missouri kickoff but the runner is finally on the ground with the clock at zero.

Cody Schrader racked up 127 yards rushing in the first half but the Gators found a way to stop him in the second two quarters. He had only 32 more yards but upped his conference-leading total to 1,272.  Cook finished 20 for 34 for 326 yards and no interceptions.  Burden  went over 100 yards receiving for the first time since week six with 158 and now has 1,142 yards for the year, third best in the SEC.  Cook has topped the 3,000 yard mark, and ranks third in the conference.

On the other side of the line, Darius Robinson’s eight sacks tie him for second in the league. Only Mississippi State’s Nathaniel Watson has more—10.   Kris Abrams-Draine’s four interceptions put him a tie for second, one behind Kentucky’s Maxwell Hairston.

Harrison Mevis and Texas A&M’s Randy Bond lead the conference with 22 field goals. Mevis is third in points scored, 103.  Eight of the top ten scorers in the conference are kickers.  Cody Schrader ranks 11th with 12 touchdowns and a two-point conversion.

Missouri is fourth in total offense at almost 450 yards a game, trailing LSU, Georgia, and Ole Miss.

One game left in the regular season. Friday afternoon, against Arkansas, which beat up on Florida International 40-22 Saturday to run the Razorback’s record to 4-7.  (ZOU)

(ROUNDBALL/MIZBOO)—This had to be a learning experience of some kind. It certainly was an embarrassment.

Just two days after a scintillating rush from far back against Minnesota to claim a 70-68 victory Friday night on the road, Missouri’s basketball team choked big time against Jackson State.  Missouri, which outscored Minnesota 31-9 in the last half of the second half at Minnesota to come from 20 down to a 70-68 win, was up 57-50 against a team that is opening its season with nine straight road games and five straight losses.

But the Jackson State Tigers outscored the Missouri Tigers 11-2 to take the lead at 61-59 with about seven minutes left.  The Tigers re-established a lead at 69-63 but let the game slip away, with Chase Adams hitting a jumper with three seconds left to give his team the win.

Missouri crippled itself ith 18 turnovers.  Eleven of them in the first half turned into 17 points and a final one trying to get off a shot under the basket just before the clock hit zero.

Jackson State Coach Mo Williams called it a “signature win” for his team: “To beat an SEC opponent on the road, not to mention this is 15 days straight on the road since Nov. 5. To have that performance from multiple guys, O’Neal going 8-for-11 from the field and Young bouncing back from a few tough games that he has had and to hit some big shots for us and to make his free throws and continue to be aggressive was huge for us… We beat SMU last year and they are considered more of a mid-major than a Power Five just because of the conference. You beat an SEC team, a Missouri team that is not going to be at the bottom but an upper-echelon team in the SEC.”

It was the eighth meeting between Missouri and Jackson State, the first in 22 years. It’s the second SWAC team Missouri has faced this year, the first being Arkansas-Pine Bluff in a season-opening 101-79.

Missouri meets South Carolina State tomorrow night. (ZOU, but not as enthusiastically)

Getting up to speed—

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen, who earlier appeared unimpressed by the hoopla surrounding the Las Vegas Grand Prix enjoyed himself so much Saturday night that he said afterwards, “I’m already excited to come back here next year and hopefully try to do something similar.”

He won his 18th race of the year, the 33rd victory out of the 43 Formula 1 races.

(INDYCAR)—The kickoff of the 2024 big-time racing season in the United States will be January 25-26 on the high banks of Daytona. IndyCar has not raced there since 1958 but the track has become a showcase for the series’ talent in recent years and next year will continue that trend.

At least sixty cars will run in the Daytona 24 Hours. Three-time winner and six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon; last years winner of the Indianapolis 500 winner, Josef Newgarden; James Hinchcliffe, and the winner of the 2016 Centennial 500, Alexander Rossi are the healdiners from the series.

IndyCar owners will have entries: Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi, Michael Andretti, Bobby Rahal, and Jimmy Vasser.

Dixon will team with, and with four-time IndyCar series champion Sebasian Bourdais—who won the 24 hours in 2014—and Dutch driver Renger van der Zande.   Tom Blomqvist, an English driver who will join the Meyer Shank IndyCar team for 2024 will team with two other drivers on the Whelen Cadillac entry.

Newgarden will be one of four drivers in a Penske Porsche.  Colton Herta and 2009 F1 champion Jenson Button will be half the team in a car from Wayne Taylor Racing.  Marcus Ericsoon, who won the 2022 Indianapolis 500, will be one of four drivers in the other Acura run by WTR.

Rossi, Hinchcliffe and two other driers will be in a McLaren 720s. Kyle Kirkwood and former IndyCar driver Jack Hawksworth will be tw-thirds of a team entered by Pfaff Motorsports.

 

Sports:  Cookin’ with Cody, Rest for the Chiefs; A Basketball Split; Waiting for Baseball Action

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZ)—Here’s how Nashville Tennessean Senior Columnist John Adams saw it Saturday evening: “Saturday’s 36-7 loss to Missouri is just as inexplicable {as last year’s 63-38 loss to a middle-rated  South Carolina}. It wasn’t just a loss. It was an embarrassing loss…They played defense as though they were trying to make Cody Schrader a Heisman Trophy candidate and their offense was just as lacking.”

He got that right.

This was a statement game.  Missouri deserves the Number 11 rating it has claimed in both major polls after pounding the Volunteers into submission.

It was a game of delicious statistics for Missouri fans, the kind of satisfaction-in-numbers that we haven’t seen for a long time.  Tme of Possession: Missouri 39:56, Tennessee 20:04.  Tennessee had only three plays in the first quarter.

Total Offense: Schrader 321 yards. Tennessed 350 yards.

The SEC was formed in 1951. Schrader of Missouri is the first SEC player to have 200 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving  in a game.  Nobody from Alabama has ever done it. Nobody from George has ever done it. Nor from Auburn. Nobody.

Brady Cook and Cory Schrader where the show on offense thanks to an offensive line  that gave them time and openings to do their thing.  The two combined for 47 rushing plays that produced 260 yards. Cook had an average day passing, going 18 for 24 for 275 yards, throwing to seven Missouri receivers and one Tennessee defensive back.

Those guys were the fireworks who overshadowed a defense that held Tennessee to its lowest point total in the three years under Josh Heupel. Twenty Tigers made the 56 tackles that kept Tennessee from gaining any traction other than a first half touchdown.  Twenty-six of the tackles were solos, another indication that Tennessee just could not spring The Big One.

Schrader now leads the conference rushing statistics by almost 200 yards over Kentucky’s  Ray Davis (1124-926).  Cook is fourth in passing yards (2746), a category headed by LSU’s Jayden Daniels, who is about 400 yards ahead of him.

Next up is Florda, 5-5 overall, 3-4 in conference play.  And then Arkansas, now 3-7 overall and 1-6 in the conference.

Missouri is 8-2, the 23rd time in program history the Tigers have  won eight games. Don Faurot’s 1939 team (8-2) was the first. His 1941 and 42 teams  also got to eight wins.  It didn’t happen again until Dan Devine’s “undefeated” season of 11-0 in 1960.  He had five years with at least eight wins. Al Onofrio had one year of eight wins.  Warren Powers did it twice. Larry Smith’s 1998 team hit the eight mark once.  GaryPinkel won eight or more games nine times including the Tigers’ 12-win seasons in 2007 and 2013, an eleven win season in 2014, and ten wins in 200 and 2010.  Barry Odom had an eight win year in 2018.

The last double-figure win year for Missouri was 2014.  This year’s squad has a chance to become only the 7th team in 134 seasons to finish with wins in double figures.  (ZOU)

(TIGERS BASKETBALL)—These are the games in which a coach tries to sort out who will be the starters, who will be next off the bench and who will fill the last seats on the bench.

Last week’s game against Memphis State was part of that process. The Tigers led 33-26 at the half but only four players found the net in the whole second half. Missouri scored only 22 points in the last 20 minutes and shot only 19 percent from the field. Memphis enjoyed a 70-55 win.  Sean East II had 14 points to lead Missouri in the first half.  He did not attempt a shot in the second half.

A somewhat weaker opponent provided the Tigers with a chance to heal last night. Southern Illinois-Edwardsville couldn’t buy a bucket for 16 minutes of the second half, finally getting a three-pointer with 1:21 left, ending an 0 for 16 “streak.”  Missouri walked away with a 68-50 win, with Sean East scoring 20.

A sterner test awaits Thursday night at Minnesota.

(CHIEFS)—-The Kansas City Chiefs emerged from the weekend as winners although they didn’t play.  Lucas Strozinsky on Arrowheadaddict.com that the Chiefs went into the weekend tied for the best record in the AFC although holding a tiebreaker.  Baltimore and the Chiefs were both 7-2. The Jaguars were in at 6-2 and the Dolphins 6-2.

If the Ravens beat Cleveland, Baltimore would be up to 8-2. The Jaguars and the Dolphins had a shot at joining Kansas City at 7-2.

Didn’t happen.  The Ravens coughed up a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter and lost to Cleveland. The 49ers beat Jacksonville. Houston ended Cincinnati’s four-game winning streak. Miami also had a bye week. Strozinsky puts the AFC playoff standings this way:

Chiefs  7-2

Ravens 7-3

Jaguars, Dolphins, Steelers, Browns  6-3

The Chiefs don’t play again until next Monday night when they meet the Eagles, who are 8-1 and rank second in scoring in the NFL.  But they are 20th in points-against.

Motoring along:

(MOTORSPORTS)—Big-time auto racing in the United States has wrapped up with teams from IndyCar and NASCAR retreating to their shops to prepare for next year and looking for bodies to fill seats being vacated for various reasons or negotiating new deals with returning drivers.

Formula 1 races in Las Vegas next weekend.  The next race, in Abu Dhabi, will end racing for that series although the championship was decided weeks ago.  The course includes almost a mile of The Strip, a situation that has upset many folks in Vegas.

The event is being billed as a spectacle—which turns off Max Verstappen, who locked up the championship last month and who says, “We are there more for the show than the race itself, looking at the layout of the circuit.  I’m not actually much into that, I’m more: ‘I’ll go there, do mything, and be gone.”

 

Sports: Football Tigers Can’t Get Over the Hump; Basketball Tigers crack the century mark; Chiefs stifle Miami. And a Racing Champion is Crowned  

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZ)—The Missouri Tigers have proved they can play with the big guys. Now they have to prove they can beat the big guys.  Thirteen penalties, some at crucial moments, and a couple of bad passes led to a 30-21 loss to Georgia, the nation’s number one team in the AP and USA Today Coaches poll (but #2 in the bowl playoff list).

Missouri went into the game ranked 14th in the polls but 12th in the playoff list.  The loss likely dooms Missouri’s changes for an SEC division title or one of the playoff bowls but its performance likely impressed several top-level bowl scouts.

Missouri traded leads with Georgia and the game was in doubt until the four-minute mark when a Georgia interception led to a field goal that boosted the Bulldogs’ lead to nine points.  The game turned in the fourth quarter when a Brady Cook pass aimed at a receiver cutting across to the left was intercepted by 300-pound defensive lineman Nazir Stackhouse, who lumbered deep into Tiger territory before going down.

The game stats showed Missouri out-rushed Georga and had more tackles for loss on defense. Cody Schrader toughed his way to 112 yards rushing with a touchdown in the fourth quarter that tightened the game.  But Missouri couldn’t get a dagger play that would put them back on top.

Tiger Kicker Harrison Mevis helped Missouri to a first-half tie with a 38-yard field goal  and gave the Tigers a second-half lead at 13-10 when he hit from 42 yards out, a kick that made him the top scorer in MU football history.

Next up for the Tigers is Tennessee. Both teams go into the game at 7-2.  Tennessee beat up on Connecticut 59-3 Saturday. Both teams are likely to be ranked in the second half of the top 20 going into that game. (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—What many thought would be a shootout became a tight defensive win for the Chiefs Sunday. The Chiefs’ 21-14 win was the result of an tough and opportunistic defense that held Miami scoreless in the first half and sealed the win with a huge play that stopped a Miami drive for a tying score in the closing seconds.  Kansas City scored 21 points in the first half, with the ultimate winning points coming on a 59-yard fumble return by Bryan Cook.

Perhaps most satisfying for Kansas City fans was that the fumble was by former Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who caught what was intended to be a screen pass two yards behind the line, but was immediately hit by defender Trent McDuffie and dropped the ball, which was scooped up by Mike Edwards. Edwards, about to be taken down, lateraled the ball to Cook who streaked down the sideline for the touchdown.

The Chiefs couldn’t score in the second half but Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa let a shot at tying the games slip through his fingers—really slip.  The last snap for the Dolphins went slightly to his right and off his fingers. He fell on the ball, but it was Chiefs’ ball with seconds left.

While the Chiefs offense again struggled to put big points on the board, the defense forced Miami to punt five times in the first half, more times than they have punted in any full game all year.  The first-half shutout was the fewest points scored in a first half in the Dolphins’ last forty games. And the scoreless first half was the first since last year’s Christmas loss to the Packers. Tagovailoa’s 193 yards passing in the game was his lowest total of the season. And Hill never could break free, finishing with eight catches for 62 yards.

The Dolphins shut down Travis Kelce, who had only three catches for 14 yards.  But his final catch of the day put him a yard past Tony Gonzalez former team record of 10,940 yards receiving. He broke the record in his 152nd game.  Gonzalez reached the 11,000 yard mark in his 191st game. Kelce needs only 59 yards to get there and become only the fourth tight end in NFL history with 11,000 yards.

He still needs a lot of work to catch Gonzales, who caught passes for 15,127 yards.  Others who topped 11K yards: Jason Witten, who had 13,046, and Antonio Gates, with 11,841.

There are some other Gonzalez records within Kelce’s reach. He’s within 46 receptions of Gonazalez’s 916 catches and is within three of the 76 touchdowns Gonzalez scored while with the Chiefs.

Hill had told his teammates not to let Kelce out of their sight.  If that’s what they did, the Dolphins were soft on a lot of others. Patrick Mahomes completed passes to nine receivers. Kelce, Hardman, and Gray had three each. Nobody else had more than two.

The win makes the Chiefs the first NFL team to win games in four different countries: Germany, Mexico, England and——*

(TIGER ROUNDBALL)—We got our first look at this year’s talent assembled by Mizzou basketball coach Dennis Gates last night.  Missouri opened with a 101-79 win against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Sean East II, with 21 points lead the team in scoring as Gates gave fans a first look at a dozen players.  Tamar Bates played ten flashy minutes and scored 18 points including 10 within a minute and a half.  Aiden Shaw chipped in with five blocks and nine rebounds as the team racked up 17 assists with only 13 turnovers.

The new Tigers shot 56% from the field, 40% from behind the line.

The Lady Tigers opened their season with a 72-61 victory over Belmont, with new players, including freshmen, scoring all of the points in the first quarter.

(CARDINALS)—The St. Louis Cardinals will play a special game in a special place next June 20—Rickwood Field, the oldest professional ballpark in the United States.  They’ll play the Giants in a game honoring the Negro Leagues.

A special guest for the game will be Willie Mays, who played at Rickwood Field as a member of the Birmingham Black Barons.  Tickets will be hard to come by—the stadium seats only 11,000.

The park opened August 18, 1910, the realization of a dream by Birmingham industrialist Rick Woodward, who asked Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack to help him design it.

Want to take a look?

https://youtu.be/FW9_nQDMDCo

Rickwood Field was shared by the Birmingham Barons, a white team, and the Black Barons. Future Hall of Famers played on the diamond through the years, as the park’s history tells us:

History of Rickwood Field | Rickwood Field

Now, on to the end of NASCAR for the  year—

(NASCAR)—-The checkered flag has fallen on the 2023 NASCAR season with two winners at Phoenix: Ross Chastian gets the race but Ryan Blaney gets the Cup after a day of close racing among the remaining competitors for the championship.

Chastain, Blaney, Kyle Larson, and William Byron—the latter three being in contention for the Cup—raced each other intensely for almost sixty laps including a pit stop and a restart after a caution flag.  Blaney’s car owner, Roger Penske, had to tell Blaney to turn down his intensity as he battled Chastain, assuring him he could with the championship by conserving his car and settling for a secod-place race finish.

Blaney contented himself to second place after that, finishing 1.2 seconds behind Chastain with Larson third and Byron fourth.  The fourth driver who entered the race running for the championship, Christopher Bell, broke a brake rotor just past the one-third mark and finished last.

Blaney becomes the fourteenth driver in NASCAR’s 75-year history to win a Cup championship before turning thirty (Jeff Gordon did it three times).  The youngest was Bill Rexford in 1950.

He sees the championship as a responsibility in addition to being an accomplishment because the championship brings a platform. “I feel like if you get the privilege to be a champion of your sport, it is part of your job to promote your sport and do the best you can to be the best champion that you can,” he said afterwards. “I think it’s part of your job to kind of, hey, embrace it, push the sport. You have this awesome platform now to where you’ve done something incredible; use that, promote the sport. I’m excited to see what happens this offseason, see what comes up, to where you’re not only growing yourself, you are growing the sport of NASCAR as well.”

Racing is in his blood.  His father, Dave, ran 473 Cup races in a 17-year career. His grandfather and an uncle also were racers. He won his first race at the age of nine in a quarter midget.  He won in NASCAR’s top series three times this year and finished in the top ten in half of the 36 races. He has finished in the top ten in points in seven of his eight full-time seasons.

The race was the finale for Kevin Harvick’s career.  He led 23 laps early in the race but his car lost some of its handling as the sun faded. He finished seventh, the 21st consecutive top-ten finish at Phoenix.

The next race that counts toward the 2023 championship is only 101 days away, the Daytona 500, February 18.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen has won the Grand Prix of Brazil with Lando Norris in a McLaren and Fernando Alonso in an Aston Martin sharing the podium with him. The victory extends his record for most wins in a season, now at 17.  Each race is a new recordfor Verstappen this year.  Even if he fails to win any of the final two races, will finish the year having won more than 77% of the races on the schedule.  That would break the record set in the hearly days of F1 when Alberto Ascari won six of he eight races in 1952. He has won 32 races (so far) in the last two seasons, another record. He’s been on the podium nineteen times this year, another  record. His 922 laps-led is also a new record. He will far surpass the record for the greatest winning margin for a championship. Sebastien Vettel won the title by 155 points ten years ago. Verstappen leads his nearest competitor by 256. He has a record run of 39 consecutive races leading the points. He has won eleven times from pole this year, another record.

Verstappen has led the championship standings across two seasons, since the Spanish Grand Prix of May 2022, and is guaranteed to end the season with a record run of 39 races in a row as leader.

*The United States, of course!!!

(Photo credit:  NASCAR/Chris Gaythen/Getty Images)

Sports: A Tigers Shootout; Another close call for the Chiefs; A little roundball preview; and so forth

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZ)—It was no surprise Missouri’s football game Saturday was two light-heavyweights throwing haymakers at each other.  A pre-game look at their statistics found little difference in overall numbers. The two teams went into the game closely-ranked in the polls. It bid to be an entertaining game with somebody going home disappointed.

Missouri and LSU traded halves and LSU’s half was bigger.  The 49-39 final was closer than the score indicated.  Missouri was down by only three with time running short, looking to at least get close enough for a tying field goal that would put the game in overtime when Brady Cook’s second interception of the game was turned into a 17-yard pick-six with 34-seconds left.  LSU outscored Missouri 22-7 in the fourth quarter to pick up the win.

The two teams combined for 1,060 yards total offense.  Cook had his second-straight 395-yard day passing, But Missouri’s Tigers gave up 274 yards on the ground (almost six and a half yards per carry) , couldn’t get key stops.  Both teams had eleven penalties.

This might seem similar next weekend against Kentucky, another top-25 team.  Missouri dropped out of the AP top 25 after the game but remains last in that field in the coaches’ poll.  Kentucky is 23rd after a 51-13 thrashing at the hands of Georgia.  (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs played just well enough to win—again—in their 27-20 victory over the Minnesota Vikings Sunday.  It appeared they were about the blow he game open when they broke a halftime tie with two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.  But Minnesota tightened the game in the fourth quarter and knocked on the door twice in the last five minutes but couldn’t re-tie the game.

The Chiefs are now 4-1 despite not being the dominant team their fand are accustomed to seeing. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes pointed out after the game that, “There are a lot of young guys out there and we’re going to keep everybody moving in the right direction.”  He forecast, “I think by the end of the year, we’re going to be dangerous.”

Travis Kelce tweaked an ankle in the first half but came back in the second half with it taped up and caught a touchdown pass from Mahomes.  Kelce, who is shooting for his eighth straight season with at least 1,000 yards receiving, has 222 in the four games he’s played this season.

The Chiefs have a short week ahead. They play the Denver Broncos Thursday night.  Denver lost to the Jets Sunday 31-21, giving up 234 yards on the ground.  The Broncos are 1-4 and lost ugly to the Jets, losing three fumbles (one of which went for a TD), a safety, and starting the second half with five straight three-and-outs.

Mahomes had another milestone game against the Vikings.  They were the last NFL team he had not defeated in his NFL career.  Minnesota was number 31.  Pro Football Talk says he’s the youngest, at 28, to do it.  Others were in their thirties.  He joins Alex Smith, Russell Wilson, Ben Rothlisberger and Aaron Rogers as the only other quarterbacks to defeat every team but their own.

(TIGER BBALL)—We are less than a month away from the first Missouri Tiger men’s basketball game.  It’s Arkansas-Pine Bluff on November 6.

The Tigers have four players back from last year: Noah Carter (Senior, 9.6 points, four rebounds, 1.8 assists per game); Nick Honor (Senior, 7.9-1.6-2.9); Aidan Shaw (Sophomore, 2.7-1.7-0.1); and Sean East II (Senior, 7.3-2.1-2.5). Also returning is Kaleb Brown, Kobe’s brother, who scored nine points, had six steals, five assists and four rebounds last year as a 6-7 sophomore guard,

Coach Dennis Gates has proven to be a Tasmanian Devil at recruiting. John Tonje comes in as a fifth-year player from Colorado State, a 6-5 guard, 14.6 ppg, 39% from the arc, 55% inside it).  Tamar Bates transfers after two years at Indiana, another 6-5 guard (6 ppg, 37% from the arc, 39.2% overall).

Caleb Grill is a 6-3 guard, fifth year player with a year at UNLV and the last three at Iowa State. (9.5 ppg last year, 39% shooting with most of his shots from outside. Four rebounds per game.

Curt Lewis comes to Missouri as the Player of the year in the NJCAA playing for John A. Logan Junior College. Led his team to a national championship, shot 51.8% from the field, 48.3% from outside.

Jesus Carralero was hurt and played only five games for Campbell last year as a 6-8 forward. Averaged 10.6 points and 5.2 rebounds hit 50% of his shots from the field when he did play.

One answer to the complaints that Mizzou doesn’t have a big man inside was answered with the arrival of Connor Vanover, a graduate-transfer who stands 7-5.  Also coming over is 7-2 center Mabor Majak, who will have two years left after seeing limited action at Cleveland State.

The Tigers also picked up a third seven-footer, Jordan Butler, who led his South Carolina high school team to two state championships in the last three years; 6-10 forward Trent Pierce who led his high school team from Arizona into the High School National Championship game; Jackson Francois, another 6-5 guard who comes from Las Vegas; Anthony Robinson II, a 6-2 freshman guard who led Florida State University High School to a record of 109-25 and was the all-time winningest player in Florida high school history for boys basketball; Danny Stephens, a 6-6 guard from Bowen, Illinois, who averaged 26.4 ppg, 9.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists in his high school career; and 6-5 guard J.V. Brown, a freshman from Los Angeles who averaged 16 ppg and led his team to a 23-6 record as a senior.

How many will play?  How many will stay?  Only five can play at a time.

But the ingredients are there for a very interesting season.

(Let’s hit the road)

(NASCAR)—A. J. Allmendinger isn’t among the drivers contending for this year’s NASCAR Cup championship but he was a factor for those who are, or were.

An emotional Allmendinger beat all of the championship contenders to the finish line on the Charlotte Roval Sunday, this third career Cup win, all on road courses. He led the last 33 laps and beat William Byron to the checkered flag by about seven-tenths of a second.

Allmendinger called his run “the drive of my life” and admitted he was crying during his cool-down lap.  And he broke down during a post-race interview. “It’s a freaking Cup race, man. You don’t know when it’s ever going to happen again,” he said.  “That is why you do it. This is the only reason you do it.”

Perhaps adding to the moment is the uncertainty about whether his team, Kaulig Racing, will field a car with him in it next year. Allmendinger has been in the car for the last two years and hopes to stay in Cup racing. His team owners say they have made a decision about what will happen in 2024 but they’re not ready to announce it.  Allmendinger would prefer to stay at the top level, “Bu at the end of the day, it’s a business and it’s about trying to find the funding for it.”

He had been racing in NASCAR’s second-level series and could go back a Kaulig car in that series if the team doesn’t provide a car for him at the Cup level next year.

The next three-race elimination round begins at Las Vegas next weekend with Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, and Ryan Blaney still in the hunt.  The competition will be narrowed to just four drivers for the final race of the year, with the highest-finishing one taking the 2023 Cup.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen’s winless streak has ended at one.  His F1 championship streak has reached three, his win at the Qatar Grand Prix has clinched the title with five races left.  Its his 14th win this year.

Racing conditions are leading the Formula One sanctioning body to reconsider the racing schedule for next year.   The Qatar GP was run on an 86 degree humid day.  Several drivers needed medical attention after the race and one dropped out because of health reasons. Driver Esteban Ocon said he vomited in his helmet. Another driver said he was close to fainting. And another driver was treated after the race for acute heat exposure.

(photo credit: Allmendinger at WWTR—Rick Gevers)

SPORTS:  The Hendrick 1100; The Chiefs Debut; Tiger Basketball Gets the Beef; Tiger Football Developing.  Then there is baseball.

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(RACING)—We normally start with the stick and ball sports but the stick-shift or paddle-shift sports took some interesting turns (to coin a phrase) this weekend and we were there so we’re going to talk about things faster than a baseball pitch.

First, NASCAR and IndyCar shared the road course at Indianapolis this weekend, IndyCar on Saturday and cars with fenders on Sunday.

(HENDRICK)—The weekend was the perfect venue to unveil the cars that former NASCAR champion Kyle Larson will run next year as he tries to “do the double, .” racing in the Indianapolis 500 and then jetting to Charlotte, NC for NASCAR’s 600 mile Memorial Day race that night.

Larson, who won Saturday night’s Knoxville Sprint Car Championship in Iowa, got to Indianapolis at 4 a.m. Sunday but was at the Indianapolis Speedway at mid-morning the unveiling of the cars he will drive next Memorial Day Weekend.

.His car owner, Rick Hendrick, is partnering with Arrow-McLaren Motorsports, which fields cars for the 500.  The color scheme is McLaren Papaya Orange and Hendrick’s traditional blue. Because he’s an active partner in the effort, the event has been unofficially dubbed the “Hendrick 1100,” for the 100 miles Larson will drive that day if he completes both races.

Four other drivers have tried it but only Tony Stewart has been able to run all 600 laps in the two races.  Robby Gordon tried four times, John Andretti tried it once and the most recent driver to make the attempt, Kurt Busch, was 6th at Indianapolis but fell out of the Charlotte race with engine problems.

Hendrick, owner of 94 automobile dealerships employing 10,000 people, owned Jeff Gordon’s car that one the first Brickyard 400, the first NASCAR race on the Indianapolis oval, in 1994. At one time he considered having Gordon run both races, but Gordon was cool to the idea.

But Jeff Gordon was a strong advocate for Larson to try it, and Larson has been eager to do it.  Hendrick says Larson has shown he can win in any kind of car.

For his part, Larson says he’s not nervous although he expects the nervousness to start “creeping in” as next May gets closer.

(SUNDAY ON THE ROAD COURSE WITH MIKE)—Michael McDowell had been one of the drivers keeping an eye on drivers’ points as NASCAR’s playoff runs begins to grow close.  But his win Sunday eliminated any uncertainty about his presence among the 16 drivers competing for a slot.

McDowell, who has shown improvement as a road course driver in his career, seized control of the race that went without a yellow flag for the last 77 of 82 laps.  It’s his second CUP victory—the first being the Daytona 500 two years ago.

His closest pursuer was Chase Elliott, who desperately needs a win to qualify for the playoffs.  Although Elliott trimmed McDowell’s lead from four seconds to less than one second, he couldn’t get the win that would have put him, Elliott, into the 16-car playoff field. He gave Ford its first road course victory since 2018, whcn Ryan Bleney won the first race on the Charlotte Roval.

He’s the 13th winner this year, leaving only three playoff positions available for non-winners.  Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski seem secure in the points chase, leaving only one position, for all intents and purposes, open. Bubba Wallas holds the 16th playoff spot now, by 28 pins over Daniel Suarea

McDowell’s win reduces the number of available Playoff spots to three. Keselowski and Kevin Harvick are comfortably situated on points—barring more different winners at Watkins Glen and Daytona—but Wallace’s hold on the final spot was reduced from 58 points pre-race to 28 over Suárez. Next closest is Ty Gibbs, who’s 49 points out.

The road course at Watkins Glen is next on the schedule.

(INDYCAR)—The IndyCar race Saturday was awash in history from beginning to end.  Saturday was the 90th birthday of Speedway legend Parnelli Jones, the first driver to run a 150 mph lap, a past winner of the 500 in May.  This year is the 38th anniversary of Danny Sullivan’s famous “spin and win” 1985 500. Dixon had not planned to celebrate Sullivan’s achievement when the race started but less than one minute into the contest he spun off the track into the dirt as part of a five-car tangle.  Dixon’s car was undamaged and he got back under power before the field came back around, keeping him on the leader lap.  A pit stop four laps later would let him run the rest of the race on only two more stops while other drivers had to make three.

The alert move by his team put him in the lead late and his legendary fuel-saving abilities left him ten seconds ahead of pole-sitter Graham Rahal after the final pit stops.  Rahal bit into the lead but finished about a half-second back.

(Dixon meeting a fan)

The win is Dixon’s 54th; only A. J. Foy had more (67).  It gave Dixon at least one win in 19 consecutive seasons, breaking a tie with Foyt.  He’s known as “The Ice Man” for his ability to keep his cool during tight races but he’s also IndyCar’s “Iron Man” after making his 319th consecutive start, breaking the record held by Tony Kanaan.

The race was a disaster for Josef Newgarden, the winner of the 500 in May. His car was one of the five in the first lap crash and he never got into contending position after repairs. Dixon has replaced him as second in points but Alex Palou has a 100-plus point lead going into the last three races of  the year (the first of which is just across the river from St. Louis in two weeks, at World Wide Technology Raceway).

(HELIO)—The race near St. Louis likely will be the last chance we have to see Helio Castroneves except for the Indianapolis 500.  Castroneves is easing into retirement and his only race for 2024 for his current owner, Meyer-Shank Racing, will be his next big for a fifth Indianapolis 500.  Otherwise he’ll assume a minority ownership of the team. He’ll also run sports cars in the IMSA series.

He remains one of the most popular and charismatic figures in IndyCar.

His MSR teammate, Simon Pagenaud, is still not allowed to race because of concussion problems resulting from his horrendous crash at Mid-Ohio a month ago. His contract with Meyer Shank ends at the end of this season. Linus Lundqvist has been filling in for him. He was 12th in the Saturday race.

(ONE OTHER THING)—Imagine the players on your favorite base, foot, basket, or soft ball team pausing on their way to the field to start the game to pass among fans and sign autographs.

IndyCar and NASCAR drivers do that.  We weren’t there to collect autographs but instead we were there to photograph drivers.  One young Indiana couple brought their young children, each wearing t-shirts saying, “My First NASCAR Race.”

Chase Briscoe was one of the several drivers who saw their little girl sitting on top of the fence, held by her father whose hat was signed earlier by broadcaster Dale Earnhardt Jr., (barely visible on the bill) and signed her shirt. Briscoe finished sixth in the race.  Briscoe is 28 with a lot of future ahead of him; she looked to be three or four with even more future before her.

Forty-six years ago, a woman named Janet Guthrie became the first woman to start a Daytona 500 AND an Indianapolis 500.  A year later she finished sixth at Bristol, the highest finish in a NASCAR race ever by a woman up to that time (Danica Patrick also finished 6th in a NASCAR race, in 2017).

Your on-the-scene scribe once had an autographed Guthrie picture hanging in his daughter’s bedroom, not because he thought she would become a woman race driver but because he wanted her to know she could be anything she wanted to be.

TIGER FOOTBALL)—Coach Eli Drinkwitz started sounding a little more positive about his team after Saturday’s closed practice, especially about the defense—although the offense began to find itself a bit toward the end of the first half of the closes scrimmage.

The competition for slots on the offensive line is intensifying. He says as many as eight players are competing for five positions.  He indicates Javon Foster might have left tackle nailed down and Connor Tollison is impressive at center.

A week ago he was critical of Tiger wide receivers for their shortcomings in the blocking game but after the weekend scrimmage, he says the players have “responded really well.”

(MISSOURI ROUNDBALL)—Coach Dennis Gates has been signing some big guys to fill what has been an aching shortcoming of the Tigers for years—the lack of interior size.  His newest recruit isn’t just tall.  He’s BIG.

He’s Peyton Marshall, a 7-foot, 300-pound center from Marietta, Georgia, who has picked Missouri aver Georgia Tech, Auburn Ole Miss, Cincinnati, Georgetown, and Mississippi State, and about ten other schools.  He’s the third top 100 player in the 2024 recruiting class. He is considered to have a lot of raw but unpolished talent.

(CHIEFS FOOTBALL)—The starters hardly broke a sweat in their first exhibition game of the year against Russell Wilson and the New Orleans Saints 26-24 on a late field goal.  The regulars were in for just a few plays while coach Andy Reid got a good  look at the rookies and the newbies. The Chiefs play the Cardinals next week. The regular seasons starts September 7.

Okay, now let’s take a look at our baseball teams. It will be a short one.

Our two teams had a rare Sunday off after their two game series that ended in a split at the end of the week.  In both games, both games played well above their winning percentage.

(ROYALS)—The Royals have to win their next 50 games in a row to have a .500 season. They start tonight’s game against the Mariners 31-81.  The Royals used the day to juggle the lineup.  Drew Waters is returning from the three-day Bereavement List.

Edward Olivares is headed down to Omaha to make room on the roster for Bubba Thompson, coming over from the Rangers, who designated hm for assignment this week. At first glance, Thompson doesn’t appear to be much of a game-changer. He is hitting .170 in 27 games for Texas.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals (52-66) face another team that, on paper, would appear to be easy pickings—the Oakland Athletics, who sport a 33-85 record.  It is the first meeting of these two teams since 2019.

Just when some things were starting to look just a teeny more rosy, the Cardinals have announced that Steven Matz is going to be on the 15-dayh DL with a left lat strain.

Manager Oli Marmol hasn’t said it in so many words, but the time as come to seriously address what’s to be done with Adam Wainwright.  Last Friday night’s outing against the lowly Royals was nothing if not tragic for a beloved player who wants so badly to go out with 200 wins. Marmol promised afterward to “sit down with Waino” and “talk through a few things.”  But he says the future doesn’t look great.

Wainwright, however, will make a start later this week.

(Photo Credits: Bob Priddy and Rick Gevers)

 

If you can’t trust the game—-

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The NFL announced last week that five players have been suspended for betting on sports contests.  Three are suspended for at least a year. Three can resume playing in game seven of the upcoming season.  Four of the players involved are with the Detroit Lions. The team has released two of them.

They aren’t the first.  Last year the NFL suspended Calvin Ridley of the Atlanta Falcons for gambling.

The Detroit Lions reportedly (ESPN) organization has fired several staff members from various departments who also might have been gambling.

A few days before that announcement, Ohio residents began wagering on sports.  The first bet was placed by former Cincinnati Reds baseball player Pete Rose, who has been banned from the Baseball Hall of Fame because of gambling.  As baseball and other sports crawl farther under the covers with gamblers, are they creeping closer to admitting people such as Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson to Halls of Fame?  Will fans believe them as much as they once did that the answer is “no.”

One of those lobbying for sports wagering in Missouri has said it will enhance fan participation in the games.

Associated Press columnist Kyle Hightower, however, wonders if our pro sports teams are undermining public confidence in themselves, writing, “The incidents have driven a public conversation about the integrity of pro sports as legalized sports betting takes a greater hold in this country.”

He quotes Professor Declan Hill at the University of New Haven who says “Leagues are dancing with the devil. Here’s what happens.  There’ll be one play that’s kind of weird and dubious and sports fans will start to do, ‘Was that legitimate?’ And then there’ll be another one. And another one and another one. And after a few years, the sports leagues will have a problem because their fundamental credibility is being debated by their fans.”

Hightower sees players becoming “ambassadors for gambling companies” by appearing in sports gambling advertisements and promotions.

Huge money is involved here—more than $220 billion since the U. S. Supreme Court legalized sports betting in 2018.  Leagues already are providing official stats to the big gambling companies. Some fans already wonder how pure leagues can be when this kind of big money is involved. And the money is going to be even bigger.

Missouri is an island surrounded by states with sports betting. The industry is leaning hard on the Missouri legislature to end that status. So far, internal squabbling among gambling interests has frustrated sports wagering backers.  But it seems inevitable that our lawmakers eventually will buckle.

And what will happen to our trust in the games we watch when the fans’ “participation” in the games is “enhanced?”

Humans play these games and humans make mistakes and not always by accident.  In the future fans might ask if a mistake really is a mistake? Every suspension for gambling chips away at confidence in The Game, whatever game it might be.  What happens when we wonder if that error was accidental or that missed block was really just a miss; that the pass was not intentionally thrown an inch too high or too long or too short; that the goalie really did just miss that puck or that those two free throws that bounced off the rim could have gone in?

Our pro sports teams have spent decades emphasizing the integrity of their games. We worry that the lure of big money will erode the confidence we have as we watch from the games’ grandstand.  How can we know?

How can we trust what we see?

It appears to be too late for such concerns to be prohibitive of gambling involvement in sports.

Hightower’s article concludes with a comment from Karol Corcoran, the general manager of FanDuel, one of the biggest online gambling operators, who says, “We’re in an ecosystem with customers, we’re the operators, with the leagues with our data providers. It’s important for all of us that we build together a sustainable industry. And being very careful about integrity is part of that.”

The fox is in the hen house.   And it is talking about integrity.

We wish we could say we are comforted.

—-because the fox is always hungry.

We hope we can still love and trust our games five years, ten years, from now.

 

Celebration Time—C’mon!

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

Some sports know how to celebrate a victory.  Others just have participants shake hands and go to the locker room.

Admittedly it’s hard to go crazy ninety or 100 times a year in a baseball season, or thirty times if you’re a top NCAA basketball program.  Winning the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Stanley Cup, the NBA Championship—all of those have major celebrations.

But 36 times a year, it’s confettiville—

—at a NASCAR Cup race.   The winning driver is in there someplace.

And it’s time to smoke ‘em because you’ve still got ‘em—–

There’s a car in there.  It just won the NASCAR Cup race at Worldwide Technology Raceway and it’s traditional for the winner to cut roaring donuts and burn off what’s left of the rubber on the rear tires.

And then, in Kyle Busch’s case, to get out of the car and bow to the crowd that often responds with a mix of cheers and boos.

Then the car goes to victory lane for the hurricane of confetti.

and then there’s  celebration with the crew.

Some folks don’t understand why your correspondent likes auto racing.  That’s okay.  I don’t have much good to say about the NBA (I went to a game in Washington, D.C. once and felt that I was at some kind of a carnival that was interrupted by some big guys playing some version of basketball.)  And soccer?  A lot of guys running around a big field for an undetermined amount of time and a team that scores a goal in all of that is a winner.  Horse racing?  One lap is all I get?

Auto racing also is more fan friendly than many sports.  Where else can fans chat with four players before a big game as this fan was doing in the garage area at WWTR? Full-field autograph sessions are often held before a race.  And there are lots of selfies—-

—in this case with Missouri’s most successful NASCAR driver, Rusty Wallace, who was at the track to drive some exhibition laps in his favorite car. It even has a name,  Midnight.

Or photos with prominent participants—in this case with Jamie Little, who is a pit reporter for the FOX television team.

Have you ever heard of the Chiefs inviting fans out of the stands for an autograph or selfie session at Arrowhead Stadium before a game?

So these guys went out and do what they do.  It took about six hours to finish the race because of a 105-minute delay while potential unsettled weather moved out of the area. A lightning strike several miles away triggered the precautionary step. The race included nine on-track caution periods.

One other social note about the race.  Among the spectators, actually a special guest of the Illinois political folks who sponsored the “Enjoy Illinois 300” was this fellow:

We don’t know if Governor Parson got any autographs or had his picture taken with any drivers (or vivacious TV reporters) but he seemed to be enjoying things.  We didn’t know he was a car-racing fan although as a former sheriff he probably had his share of high-speed adventures.  We hope he had a good time, probably more comfortable than we did on a 90-plus degree day walking from one end of the track to the other in our hot photographer’s vest that the track provided so my camera could go to certain places.

And I couldn’t help myself, but seeing him at a race track in sight of the Gateway Arch reawakened an irritation that has been in mind for more than twenty years.   On the other side of our state, some promoters were looking for some tax incentives to build a major NASCAR track near the Kansas City airport.  The legislature, showing the vision that it sometimes shows, refused any help. So, in 2001, within sight of the Kansas City skyline, the Kansas Speedway opened and has triggered a massive industrial development around it.

Maybe a lot of readers don’t understand this racing thing and why people enjoy it so much.  But it is huge economically.  And Missourians are going to a track in Madison, Illinois—as Governor Parson and I and a lot of other Missourians went last weekend—or to the Kansas Speedway, or to the high-banked Iowa Speedway (with design consultation from the aforementioned Rusty Wallace) but we could have had our own track and its economic development around it.

But we blew it. Or our legislature did.

Kyle Busch had plenty of chances to blow the race last weekend at WWTR.  He withstood challenges from Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin on a series of late-race restarts after crashes to finish half a second ahead of Hamlin. Last year’s winner, Joe Logano, was third with Larson fourth and Martin Truex Jr., one of the drivers talking to a fan in the garage area we showed you earlier, fifth.

Late that night—the race ended about 9 p.m. after eleven caution periods and a stoppage for almost two hours because of lightning in the area—-two big trucks passed your correspondent on Interstate 70—haulers carrying some of the cars that will race next weekend on a road course at Sonoma, California.

(INDYCAR)—Much—but certainly not all—of the skepticism about the raciness of the Detroit street course seemed to have gone away by the end of Sunday’s race, won by Alex Palou.  The track’s roughness, ninety-degree corners and tight passing areas had raised concerns during practice.  Some drivers thought the long front straightaway remained too bumpy and left them unable to advance as they would have liked. One team owner, Chip Ganassi, thought the GP was “a really good race” despite earlier fears that chaos would take place.

Race organizers say they’ve been listening closely to the criticisms and will have a better circuit next year.

Palou started from pole and led 74 of the 100 laps. Runnerup Will Power led fourteen of the others and finished about 1.2 seconds back.

Felix Rosenqvist was third with Scott Dixon continuing his consistent runs this year with a fourth.  Palou led by as many as nine seconds but at the end was only 1.2 seconds up on Power. He was one of the skeptics earlier, calling the course “too tight for INDYCAR, too short for INDYCAR.”  He complained it was “too bumpy.”  At the end of the race, however, he conceded, “I was a really fun race. It was a lot better than I expected.”

(FORMULA 1)—-Red Bull’s Max Verstappen makes it five wins  in seven races this year with a victory in the Spanish Grand Prix. His closest competitor was 25 seconds back.  The results have prompted INDYCAR star Will Power to pronounce Formula 1 racing incredibly boring and not nearly as exciting as INDYCAR racing.

(MIZ)—Finally, Missouri bas a big guy.  And we meet big.  REALLY big. How about 7-feet-5 inches?  Connor Vanover has played at the University of California then moved to Arkansas and was with Oral Roberts University last year.  Petty good stats: 34 games, shot 52% from the field and 32 percent from outside for an average of about 13 points a game. Better than 81 percent of his free throws found the net. 7.2 rebounds, 3.2 shots blocked.

This will be his only year at Missouri. His college eligibility will be finished.

But how’s this for a Tiger front line?  Jordan Butler at 6-11, Vanover at 7-5 and Mebor Majak at 7-2.

(THE BASEBALL)—-Why talk about our teams when we can talk about Albert?

He has a new job.  He’s a special assistant (in other words, a consultant) to Commissioner Rob Manfred, advising him on issues related to the Dominican Republic and other areas. Pujols also is in the broadcast booth as of tonight (Tuesday) as an analyst on an MLB Network. l

Okay, now the teams: The once lowly Pittsburgh Pirates sank the Cardinals back into last place in the division by sweeping the Redbirds during the weekend—after the Cardinals had had to days off to rest up after a poor road trip.  They’re 10 games under .500 but the good news is that they’re playing in a division so weak that the leader is only five games above .500.

The Royals?  They continue to be so bad that if they were in the same division as the Cardinals, they’ve be seven games behind the Cardinals going into this week’s games.

The only team in the major leagues with a worse record is 12-49, the Oakland Athletics.

 

The End of an Upsetting Tournament; Cardinals and Royals Start Slowly; and Racing

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(NCAA)—(Ladies first): Nobody saw this one coming.  Oh, we knew the LSU-Iowa matchup for the women’s NCAA basketball championship probably would be special.  But 187 points was not seen as a likely thing for most folks, and 102 points by LSU was equally unexpected and it overpowered Iowa by 17 points. .

But LSU gets the big trophy and Iowa gets the experience of playing in a championship game.  And Iowa’s Caitlin Clark has a year of eligibility left if she wants it after scoring a record 191 points in Iowa’s six games.  That is a record for boh men and women; Glen Rice scored 184 for Michigan in 1989 and Cheryl Swoops had 177 for Texas Tech in 1993.

(Men): San Diego State University met the same fate that Iowa did in the men’s championship game—also a 17-point loss.  Number four seed Connecticut beat the number five seeded Aztecs 76-59.

It’s the fifth championship for UConn, tying them with Duke and Indiana for the fourth-most NCAA championships. UCLA has 11. Kentucky has won it eight times. North Carolina has six titles.

(BASEBALL)—The St. Louis Cardinals have split their first four games with shaky starting pitching a lowlight so far.  Jack Flaherty’s five hitless innings against the Blue Jays has been the only solid performance in the early going. The other starters, Miles Mikolas (13.50 ERA in 3.1 innings), Jordan Hicks (13.50, also in five innings) and Jake Woodford (12.46 in 4.1 innings) have given the hitters plenty of work to do just to stay even. The Cardinals have scored 26 runs in their first four games nd are batting .329 as a team in their break-even start.

One piece of solid news is rookie Jordan Walker who has gone five for 16 has struck out only once.

The Kansas City Royals have only 22 hits as a team in their first four games, which helps explain why they’re off to a 1-3 start.  Ten of those hits came last night in a 9-5 win against the Blue Jays in Toronto’s home opener.  Royals pitching has been solid except for Dylan Coleman who lasted only gave up four runs in his 3.1 innings to start the season.

(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR driver David Malukas might have described the weekend race at the Texas Motor Speedway best: “beautiful chaos.”

Eight drivers, 482 passes for position, 26 lead changes, with Josef Newgarden slipping past Pato O’Ward just before a final caution flag came out on the last lap, freezing the running order to the end made for one of the most exciting open-wheel racing in recent memory and started some observers suggesting the race made a strong case for more oval races on the INDYCAR schedule.

Seven of the 28 starters finished on the lead lap in a race that saw O’Ward rip off the fast lap of the day, just over 221 mph.  Twenty-two of the starters were still competing when the checkered flag fell.

“There were parts when we were good, parts when we were weaker,” Newgarden said after the race. “But when we needed to be good, the car was there at the end.”  He and O’Ward dueled inches apart for more than ten laps before Newgarden inched ahead just before Romain Grosjean’s late crash brought out the final yellow.  “Pato gave me all the respect in the world when he was racing next to me. It was really hard to fight those guys,” said Newgarden. “There are just no gimmies. It was packed up today, very difficult to get away.”

O’Ward’s second-place finish, puts him in the points lead after two races ahead of Marcus Ericsson, the winner of last year’s Indianapolis 500, and Scott Dixon.  Ericsson finished eighth and Dixon was fifth in the race.

O’Ward has finished second in both of the races in the series this year. “That’s a great start to the championship year,” he said, “and that’s what we need.”

(NASCAR)—Kyle Larson’s mediocre season so far—only two top ten finishes in the first six races—took a turn for the brighter at Richmond during the weekend.  Larson beat teammate Josh Berry to the line by a second-and-a=half after leading the last 25 laps.  Berry is filling in for defending Cup champion Chase Elliott, who is expected to be out of the car for several more weeks after surgery on his broken leg.

Larson took advantage of a late caution and pit stop to move in front for the last 25 laps on the three-quarter mile track.  Ross Chastain chased the two Hendrick Motorsports drivers to the flag with Christoher Bell and Kecin Harvick fillingo out the top five.

NASCAR runs its only dirt track race next weekend at Bristol. The track is a little more than a half-mile long but has sharply banked turns. It is this country’s fourth-largest sports venue and the tenth largest sports venue in the entire world with seating for as many as 153,000 people.

(FORMULA 1)—Carnage and confusion marred the Grand Prix of Australia although the usual winner these days won again.

Only twelve of the twenty starters finished with Max Verstappen taking his third win in three races this year.  The race was red-flagged three times and the safety car hit the track two other times.  Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso claimed the other two podium slots, both finishing withing one second of Verstappen.

Sports—Baseball final tune-ups; A Pepto-Bismol NCAA Tournament; A hot hand for the Battlehawks QB; And a little racin’ at the end

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(Royals)—Kansas City Royals starter Zack Greinke looked ready to go in his last Cactus League start before he becomes the oldest pitcher to make an opening-day start in Royals history.

He’ll be on the mound Thursday afternoon when the Royals open at home against the Twins.  Minnesota will go with Pablo Lopez who joined the Twins in the offseason from the Marlins.

Greinke needs two more wins to get to 225 and 118 strikeouts to become the 20th pitcher to throw 3,000.  Only Justin Verlander (3,198) and former Missouri Tiger Max Sherzer (3,193) are ahead of him as active pitchers.

It will be Greinke’s seventh opening day start.  The game will be the first opening day as manager for the Royals’ Matt Quataro.

The Royals finish spring training this afternoon before opening at home against the Twins on Thursday. Last night the two teams played to a 4-4 tie.  The Royals opened a 3-0 lead on a two-run homer in the fourth inning but Texas scored twice in each of the last two innings for the tie.

(Cardinals)—It’s the time when hopeful young guys get the word on whether they’ve made “the show” or whether they’re going to ride minor league buses again.

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol called Jordan Walker into his office Saturday, gave him a candid evaluation of his spring training work and then told him, “You deserve every bit of being with us on opening day.”

He’s 20. He’s six feet-five, a third baseman becoming a left fielder, who played his way onto the opening day roster by hitting .284 in the Grapefruit League with three homes, nine RBIs, and 19 runs scored in 65 at-bats.  Last year at Springfield he hit .308 with 22 stolen bases to go with his 19 homers.

He will be the youngest Cardinals player to make his major league debut since 1999. That was Rick Ankiel’s year to get the great news.

Jack Flaherty, scheduled to pitch the second game of the regular season Saturday, had an ugly wrap-up in Florida, as the Cardinals lost to the Astros 24-1, getting outhit 20-9. Flaherty got just 11 outs, gave up six hearned runs on four hits and three walks. He struck out one batter and only 39 of his 69 pitches were strikes. He finishes spring training with an ERA of 6.41. Opposing batters hit .329 against him.

Miles Mikolas will be the opening day pitcher.

The Redbirds wrapped up their spring training schedule with an 8-2 win over the Orioles. Jordan Montgomery had a solid five innings with one run, three hits, four strikeouts and a walk on 72 pitches.

The Cardinals open against the Blue Jays, in St. Louis, Thursday.

 (BATTLEHAWKS)—Quarterback A. J. McCarron hit 19 passes in a row Saturday night against the Las Vegas Vipers. He finished 23 for 29, three touchdowns and 236 yards.  The Battlehawks are now 4-2, tied with the Seattle Sea Dragons for second place behind D. C. Defenders, who are undefeated.

The XFL season is starting to run down for the ‘Hawks. They’re on the road for the last time next Sunday against the Houston Roughnecks. They finish up with three straight home games against the Vipers, the Sea Dragons, and then play the Orlando Guardians.

(NCAA TOURNAMENT)—A historic final four has been set after a couple of weeks of bracket carnage.  For the first time since the NCAA started seeding teams in 1979, no number ones made it to the great eight.

The whole tournament has been one of great upset.  One-third of the games played to narrow the field to the Final Four have seen a lower ranked team prevail over a higher seed. That means no #1 will be in the final four for only the fourth time. It happed previously in 1980, when there were only 48 teams in the tournament, 2006 and 2011 after the expansion to 64 teams.

The final four features one team seeded as high as fourth—University of Connecticut.  Two number fives (San Diego State and Miami of Florida) and a sixth seed, Creighton.

Next weekend San Diego State (5) plays Creighton (6) and UConn (4) plays Miami of Florida (5) will decide who will play for the big trophy.

Now the racin’

(NASCAR)—Tyler Reddick withstood three furious overtime restarts to win his first race of the year and post the first Toyota victory of 2023 at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas.  It’s his first win with his new team, 23XI racing.  He’s driving the car Kurt Busch would have been driving if he was healthy enough to be in a race car this year.

Instead, Busch was in the television broadcasting booth and admitted he was choked up as he watched “his” car win by 1.4 seconds over Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain, and pole-sitter William Byron.

Reddick and Byron had fought for the lead during most of the, eventually, 75-lap race. They led 69 of the laps, 41 by Reddick.

The race had an international flavor with four “ringers” who were brought in because of their road-racing experience.  Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 Formula One champion, was as high as fourth before finishing 29th.  Jenson Button, the F1 champion in 2009, was 18th.  Jordan Taylor, the reigning champion in the IMSA Series, filled in for the injured Chase Elliott and came home 24th after reaching the top ten briefly.  INDYCAR driver Conor Daley was 36th, dropping out early with a bad transmission.

(INDYCAR)—The high banks of the Texas Motor Speedway will see INDYCAR’s second race of the season next weekend.

(F1)—Formula One is in Melbourne, Australia next weekend for the Australian Grand Prix.

Sports:  The Acronyms of our times—NCAA, WNIT, WBC, NCAA, NASCAR, F1

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(MIZ)—A historic Missouri Tiger men’s basketball season has come to an end with a disappointing 15-point loss to Princeton in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Tigers couldn’t threes and couldn’t buy offensive rebounds and the Princeton defense neutralized Kobe Brown and D’Moi Hodge, the Tigers’ one-two punch in their win over Utah State.

Princeton’s 15-point win is the largest win margin for a 15th seed in NCAA Tournament hsitoryl.

Missouri was 6 for 33 from the outside and finished the season at 25-10.

The men’s team will be remembered for over-achieving, predicted in the pre-season conference polls to finish 11th.  But they couldn’t make it to the Sweet Sixteen, something Missouri hasn’t done since 2009.

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Missouri’s women’s team played Kansas in Lawrence’s Allen Field House last night.  The second round game was the first time the two teams had played each other since Missouri won 80-65 in Lawrence in February, 2012 but it hardly provided any great memories for Mizzou fans.

The Jayhawks pounded the Lady Tigers 75-47. Missouri never scored more than 15 points in a quarter and has ony six in the third.  Missouri finishes 18-14.

They’re 54-62 in the last four years. Coach Robin Pingeton, who finished her 13th year as head coach this year,  promises an aggressive recruitment effort through the transfer portal to go with an incoming recruit class she considers solid.

(WBC)—The World Baseball Classic is nearing its end with the United States ready to play for the championship against Japan tonight.  Japan got a walk-off double in the ninth inning to beat Mexico 6-5 last night.

Team USA hammered Cuba Sunday night 14-2 with Cardinals stars, uh, starring.  Paul Goldschmidt’s two-run homer in the first inning put USA in the lead., In the fourth, Nolan Arenado drove in Goldschmidt with a triple and then scored the teams’ seventh run on a wild pitch. He left the game in the fifth inning when a pitch hit him on the right hand but an X-ray showed no fracture. The Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr., took his place in the lineup.

Goldschmidt drove in two more runs in the fifth inning.

Adam Wainwright went four innings, gave up a run in the first inning but shut Cuba down in the other three. Miles Mikolas went the next four and also gave up just one run.

Witt’s appearance last night was only the fourth time he’s been in a game. He’d had only two at-bats before last night. While his lack of playing time might disappoint Royals fans, a look at the roster indicates why he has watched more than he has played.  Treat Turner, who has put on a power show in the last two games in particular, is the top shortstop—which is Witt’s normal position.  Nolan Arenado is anchored at third.  And there are plenty of senior guys for DH.

Royals catcher Salvatore Perez has had a solid tournament for Team Venezuela.  In its win over Puerto Rico, Perez went 4 for 4 with a home run, five runs batted in, and three runs scored. Venezuela won the game 9-6.

(IN THE CAMPS)—The Cardinals go into their last days in Florida with the best record in the Grapefruit League, at 13-6 despite their contributions to the WBC.  They’re a game ahead of Boston.

In the Cactus League, the Royals are 16-9 and have half-game leads on the Dodgers and the Angels who have slightly better winning percentages but have played fewer games.

Opening day is March 30. All teams are scheduled to play that day. It’s the first time every team in both leagues is opening on the same day since 1968.

(NASCAR)—The first 17 cars finished within one-second behind Joey Logano Sunday at Atlanta.   Logano got a big push on the backstretch during the final lap from Christopher Bell that got hm past Brad Keselowski, who had his best finish in a couple of years with his Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing. Bell was third.

Logano had dominated the race, starting from pole and leading 140 of the 260 laps but Keselowski had taken the lead on lap 231 and had skillfully blocked all challengers until Logano got the bump from Bell that gave him the lead and his first win of the year.

NASCAR takes to the Circuit of the Americas road course in Texas next week.

(F1)—Red Bull’s Sergio Perez has won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix but some Formula 1 bureaucratic blundering and some churlishness by Perez’s teammate took some of shine off of things.   Perez finished five seconds ahead of defending F1 champion Max Verstappen, who had little to say about his team’s second straight 1-2 finish to open the season.

“The whole feeling in the team, everyone is happy,” he said afterwards. “But personally, I’m not happy because I’m not here to be second…”  He was still upset because of a drive shaft failure during qualifying that left him 15th on the starting grid.  He passed everybody but his teammate and posted the fastest lap—which gave him an extra point that keeps him ahead of Perez in the standings.

Two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso thought he had the 100th podium finish of his career until race stewards slapped him after the race with a pit penalty. The penalty later was overturned, she he finished third after all.

Formula One is off next weekend before the Australian Grand Pix on April 2.

(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR is quiet until it races through the streets of Long Beach on April 16.