(TRADING DEADLINE)—-Kansas City Royals pitcher Kris Bubic has moved from the bottom to the top in the last hours of the MLB trading deadline.  The Royals have sent him to the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The Royals get right-handed pitcher Carlos Duran.

The deal was made although Bubic is on the 60-day injured list. He is a free agent after this season. He made nine starts before going on the DL with left elbow and shoulder soreness.

Duran will head to the Royals bullpen before the end of the year, probably.  He’s been in 37 games in the minors this year, posting a 3.38 ERA with a 12.9 strikeouts per inning in the minors this year.

“Noot” is going to Arizona.  The Cardinals had an active day on the last trading day. Fan Favorite Lars Nootbar, who’s been discussed as trade bait all season, has been sent to the Diamondbacks in return for one of Arizona’s top pitching prospects. The get right-handed pitcher Daniel Eagen, who is considered Arizona’s second-highest pitching prospect. He’s 24, a third-round pick in the 2024 draft out of Presbyterian College and is not pitching for Amarillo in Double-A.  He’s made twenty starts this year, has a 29.2% strikeout rate and his ERA is 16% better than the league-average pitcher.

Fans of the Springfield Cardinals might already have seen him. Amarillo and Springfield are in the same league.

The Cardinals sent Dustin May and JoJo Romero to the Brewers and got a couple of outfielder prospects in Alexander Frias and Josiah Ragsdale.

They also picked up left-hander Caleb Ferguson from the Reds, giving up a to get an international player later.  Ferguson has given up two runs in his last four innings of work.

Ferguson is 30. He’s bounced around a bit, coming up with the Dodgers and going 7-2 with two saves in 29 games. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2020, was traded to the Yankees in 2024 and moved to the Reds earlier this year.  He’s 25-17 in his career with a couple of saves and a career ERA of 3.69.

Rising Star Quin Matthews was impressive in his big league debut last weekend against the Blue Jays. Unfortunately, the Cardinals gave him no run support as they continue to fade out of the playoff picture.  They lost 5-1 although Matthews went 5.1 innings, gave up two runs on six hit. He walked and struck out three each.

Observers think he might become part of the rotation the rest of the way, particularly if the Redbirds peddle Dustin May.  He already has a major league player’s signature scrawl developed.

The Cardinals scored an uncharacteristic five runs Sunday to beat the Blue Jays 5-1, the first time they had scored five runs since July 25. Four of the runs scored in the ninth inning. The victory ended a three-game losing streak for St. Louis and a three-game winning streak for the Jays.

The win left the Cardinals two games under .500

Back down on the farm, young outfielder Tai Peete is raising some eyebrows in High-A Peoria. He hit for the cycle for the second time this year during the weekend. He also stole a couple of bases.  He’s flirting with .300 with a .983 OPS. Since returning from a concussion that cost him games in May and June, he’s been hitting .365. Although he still strikes out about 21 percent of the time, he’s getting better. He’d been near thirty percent before the injury.

Things are not so rosy, however for former top draft pick Tink Hence. To make room on the roster for Matthews, the Cardinals sent reliever Matt Svansn to Memphis, a move that crowded out Hence, who’s been designated for assignment.

Svanson has struggled this year. He’s made 41 appearances in the bigs and has a 7.27 ERA.

(ROYALS)—The Royals finished a ten game road trip with a loss Sunday to drop 21 games under .500. After a day off yesterday they open a series tonight against the Twins. They wasted a good start after the All-Star Game and are on a four-game losing streak, three of the games against the Rockies in which they were outscored 23-8. Twice during the streak they suffered walk-off defeats.

The Royals made a weekend trade they hope has long-term as well as short-term benefits. They sent outfielder Lane Thompson and left-handed pitcher Bailey Falter to the Braves to get pitcher Lucas Braun the Braves’ number eight prospect and  Carter Holton.

Braun is a Triple-A starter with a 3.53 ERA in 19 appearances, 17 of them starts in two minor league levels.  He’ll start his KC career in Ohama.

Thomas was on a one-year deal with Kansas City and would have been a free agent at the end of the season. Falter had been designated for assignment but nobody wanted him so he’s back in Omaha with a 13.97 ERA in 9.2 innings this year.

Braun has made 17 starts and two relief appearances in two minor league levels. He’ll start his KC career in Ohama. We might see him with the parent club because the Royals have a lot of arms out with injuries—Chris Bubic, Cole Ragans, Ryan Bergert, Stephen Kolek and Ben Kurdna.

Holton will go to Single-A Columbia. He has 41 strikeouts and a 4.32 ERA in the minors this year and the Royals think will develop.

The Royals also have picked up reliever Aaron Brummer from the Braves’ Triple-A affiliate. He’s a lefty who spent time with the Cubs before being released by the Braves.

(MIZ)—Ahmad Hardy will miss at least the first week of fall Missouri Tiger football practice. Coach Drinkwitz says he will take part in walkthroughs while he continues to rehab his injured leg. He says there will be another update in a couple of weeks.

The semi-good news is that Defensive Tackle Sterling Webb is eligible for the 2026 season after a Colorado judge granted a preliminary injunction letting the high school class of 2022, which includes Webb, to be able to play this year. Until the judge’s order, the NCAA had held he had finished his eligibility last year.

The ruling gives the Tigers some exceptional experience in the defensive line for 2026.  Webb had 20 tackles, 23 pressures and two sacks on 407 snaps last year. He’s the third fifth-year lineman suiting up this year, along with Marquis Gracial and Jalen Marshall.

Webb had not been counted on in Drinkwitz’s planning for the season. The coach says he’ll take some time to get acclimated to the program. He and Webb had had “zero contact” during the off-season.

One other injury update: Redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Elias Williams is “tracking well” in his recovering from leg surgery after an injury in spring practice. Drinkwitz says it’s too soon to say if he’ll play this year. (ZOU)

CHIFS)—-The news in the Kansas Chiefs camp has to get better.

Patrick Mahomes looked pretty good in the non-contact drills last week in St. Joseph and says he feels stronger than ever when it comes to working out. “Now it’s just about getting the quarterback stuff down…moving in the pocket quick, making those quick movements, reacting and doing stuff like that.”

Mahomes thinks the injury has “kind of helped” him focus on “getting back to who I am.”

However—

Some worrying news is coming out of camp about the wide receiver corps.  Rashee Rice has not practiced at full speed and has left practice early to do more rehab work on his repaired right knee. The surgery was described as a “cleanup” procedure.

This is to be his fourth season with the team. But various problems on and off the field have allowed him to play in just twelve games during the last two years.

Xavier Worthy is still recovering from shoulder surgery. He told reporters last week that he “was never 100 percent (last year). I was never going to be 100 percent until I got the surgery. “

A reunion with Tyreek Hill is considered unlikely until mid-season, if then.  He continues to recover from surgery on his left knee that was badly injured—dislocated knee cap and multiple torn ligaments– in last year’s fourth game when he was with the Dolphins. He’s had two surgeries and reports he’s working to get his right leg back to full strength.

Hill is 32 now, easing out of the prime years for a wide receiver.

(ORIGINAL CHIEF)—One of original Kansas City Chiefs has died—defensive back Bobby Hunt was 85.  He was part of the team when it was in Dallas and stayed with them when they moved to Kansas City. He played both ways at Auburn where he was a quarterback and defensive back.

The then-Dallas Texans picked him in the 11^th round of the 1962 American Football League Draft.  In his rookie season, he intercepted eight passes and make first team all-AFL. He was part of the AFL champion team before the franchise moved to Kansas City.  In 1964, he intercepted four passes in one game against the Houston Oilers, a record.  In 1966 he was among the league leaders with ten interceptions.  In his 112-game career he intercepted 42 passes, still a Chiefs record.

Hunt was a starter in the 1966 AFL-NFL Championship Game (before Lamar Hunt coined the phrase “Super Bowl”). He finished his career in 1968 and ’69 with the expansion Cincinnati Bengals then became a defensive back coach for the Bills for a couple of years before going into the apparel industry.

New Wheels—-

(INDYCAR)—Get a load of this, friends.  It’s the future face of IndyCar, the IR-28, that will hit the tracks in 2028. It’s designed to be faster, safer, and better in traffic in a sport already famous for its multiple lead-changes, even more passes for position during its races, in what IndyCar calls ‘the fastest racing on earth.”

The version you’re looking at is for road and street courses. The oval version (in the other photo) will have smaller wings that produce less drag but still produce adequate downforce in turns.  Designers suggest it might produce qualifying runs exceeding the speed records set by Arie Luyendyk in 1996 at just under 240 mph.

On-track testing started immediately with Indianapolis 500 winners Alexander Rossi and Alex Palou laying down some baseline laps on the Speedway road course.

Palou was so excited that he wished it would go into service next year instead of 2028. “When we saw it live for the first time,” he said, “ was shocked at how good it looked and how excited I was to give it a try.”

“I was having fun,” he said.

“It’s like Christmas morning,” said Rossi. He called the car “really rewarding to drive…It doesn’t do anything unpredictable and gives you good feedback and you kind of know what’s coming.”

The chassis is provided by Dallara, the company that has provided the DW-12 chassis for more than a decade. The new car will be about 100 pounds lighter than the present one, will have a new suspension system that reduces reliance on aerodynamic downforce while maintaining mechanical grip in traffic and a more powerful engine. Designers think tweaks to the body also will make the airflow coming off a leading car less of a problem for a car or cars behind it, allowing tighter racing and more passing opportunities.

The new car’s hybrid power system will use a new battery with 14 times the capacity of the present system, giving drivers more flexibility is their applications of power.

The cockpit is bigger and wider—-there have been complaints about the tight fit from bigger and wider drivers—and the protective aeroscreen that protects the driver is more streamlined, stronger, and provides better cockpit ventilation.

Designers are forecasting the car will break Arie Luyendyk’s 1996 records at IMS.

The car will go through more testing and refinements throughout 2027.

(NASCAR)—NASCAR had a rare off week this weekend. Missourians wanting to watch a NASCAR race can head to Iowa next weekend.

(photo credits: Matthews—Cardinals; Hunt—Alabama Spors Hall of Fame; Indy cars–IndyCar

(CHIEFS)—The initial excitement that Patrick Mahomes is a full “go” for practice at the Chiefs training camp in St. Joseph, there is concern with news that the son of Assistant Coach Eric Bieniemy has been charged in Virginia with shooting his mother, Bieniemy’s wife, Mia.

She is reported in stable condition with multiple wounds. Their son, Elijah, is being held without bond on three felony charges in Loudon County, Virginia.  Coach Andy Reid to reporters in St. Joseph, “I can’t get into details on it, but things happen sometimes, and Eric will work through it. He has a great support group here, as does his family, as needed, and we’ll just let time take care of it from there…She’s a saint, we all know that, those of you that know her. One of God’s great blessings. But things happen. And you have to work through it. That’s where we’re at right now. Time will have to be involved in this to help heal.”

Pass game coordinator Joe Bleymaier and offensive line coach Andy Heck will take over his duties for now.

The Chiefs first full workout will be tomorrow.

(MORE CHIEFS TRAGEDY)—Former Chiefs offensive lineman Jordan Devey has committed suicide at the age of 38.

ESPN reports his mother says the family “believed that he suffered from CTE,” but the nature of his death left his brain unavailable to test for the neurodegenerative disease. Devey played seven years and 44 games in the NFL, wining a Super Bowl ring with the Patriots in 2014.. He also played for the Bills, Raiders, and 49ers. He was with the Chiefs 2016-2019.

(CHIEFS FOOTBALL)—He vowed to be back by the first game of the year—and Patrick Mahomes has done more than that. He has rehabbed his double knee injury and is cleared for full activity at the Chiefs camp in St. Joseph.

But he’ll be 31 in September and we’ll see how the miles, the hits, and this injury affect his style of play.  This will be his ninth season.  The first chance fans will have to see how he looks is tomorrow. The team will break camp on August 20, three weeks before their regular season opened September 14 against the Broncos.

(MIZ)—We’re only a week away from the beginning of camp for this year’s Missouri Tigers.  Media day will be August 2 and the serious stuff starting the next day.

Mizzou will play its 1,380^th game September 3 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, seeking their 732^nd win against 596 losses and 53 ties, a winning percentage that ranks 67^th in college football. Their 731 wins ranks 37^th.

The Southeastern Conference football experts who make pre-season predictions think Missouri will finish tenth.

(BASEBALL)—Our MLB teams have gone different directions since the All-Star break.  The Cardinals have lost eight of eleven, including four of their first five after the break and the opening game of a home series against the Cubs last night that dropped them to .500..

The Royals start their week tonight against the Twins.  If they win all 55 of their remaining games, they’ll finish two games above break-even.

(Motoring along)

NASCAR—In its 76-year history through last year, NASCAR had never seen a car numbered 67 win in 2,786 races.  This year, it has happened twice in 22 races.

Part-time driver, Corey Heim put the car in victory lane after the road course win at the San Diego Naval Base in June and added the Brickyard 400 Sunday by hanging onto the lead despite veteran challengers waiting for him to make a mistake in the closing laps.

Heim, who is 24 and has been competing in increasingly bigger circles since he was about 16, will join 23XI Racing full time next year. One of those left in his wake Sunday was the co-owner of his team and the series points leader, Denny Hamlin.

He led the last 33 laps with Christopher Bell his major threat ahead of three-time NASCAR Cup champion Joey Logano, Chase Briscoe and Hamlin.  In all, he led 58 of the 160 laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  He also had the fastest lap in the race.

NASCAR is taking a week off before running at Iowa Speedway on August 9.

(INDYCAR)—IndyCar is idle until it takes to the streets of Toronto on August 19. It is the start of a five consecutive week run to the season finale at Laguna Seca on September 6.

A long-time part of IndyCAR is returning to a fulltime schedule next year. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing has bought one of the charters from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. D&R has been competing in the Indianapolis 500 since pulling out of the full-time operation in 3012.  Negotiations for the return already were underway when team founder and owner Dennis Reinbold died June 13 at the age of 65.

Dreyer and Reinbold fielded a car in the Indianapolis 500 for the 27^th year in May. Conor Daley finished 12^th, just 2.7 seconds behind winner Felix Rosenqvist. In all, the company has run 57 cars in the 500.  But the team history at the 500 goes back to Floyd “Pop” Dryer, who was a mechanic for the great Duesenberg teams a century ago.

The team will announce is driver and other plans for 2027 later.

(Photo credits: (Bienemy son jpg)  (Photo Credits: Bienemy–Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office via AP; Devey—cyprus-mail.com; Heim—Rick Gevers)

(MIZ)—Coach Drinkwitz has answered what arguably is the number one question at SEC Media Days in Tampa, Florida that started yesterday: What’s up with Ahmad Hardy?

For the first time, we learn that the bullet that hit Hardy’s leg hit a bone.  But Drinkwitz says Hardy has been cleared to prepare for the upcoming season.  He has said it would take five to eight weeks for Hardy could play—he was shot in May—and Drinkwitz says it’s hard to know how he would play—if he returns. But, said Drinkwitz at the first Media Day, “My anticipation of what I’ve seen, the way he’s attacked his rehab, he’s going to be a better Ahmad Hardy when than when he was before.”

Drinkwitz is looking to new quarterback Austin Simmons to add explosiveness to the offense. He says Mizzou hasn’t had had kind of quick strike capability for a while.

“I think we have done a really good job in the past of really being proficient on the run game, but in games of need, we weren’t able to complete passes and create explosives the way we needed to…You look at some of the tough losses that we’ve had in the last two years, we weren’t able to push the ball down the field when we needed to. That’s something that’s got to change. You got to run to win, but you got to throw to be explosive. When the game’s on the line, you got to be able to execute. That’s a combination of wideouts, protection, (and) quarterback play calling.”

But a good quarterback needs a good offensive line to protect him. Drinkwitz told reporters, “I’ve never seen an offensive line work as hard as our offensive line works right now… The offensive line sets the mentality for intolerance and the standard for your football team.”

A key player on that offensive line is questionable as the Tigers head toward the opening of practice for the coming season. Josh Atkins, projected to be the starting right tackle, has had a setback in recovering from a leg injury in spring practice. Drinkwitz told reporters Atkins might not be available until September of October.

(BOVA)—Catching up on Bo Pribula, who jumped ship in Columbia after the 2025 season. He’s been named the starting quarterback for Virginia.  This is his third stop in his campus career. He played his first two years for Penn State.

(Royals)—The Royals lost to the Diamondbacks Sunday 19-2 less than a month since the White Sox beat them 22-1. That set us off to check the number of games in which Royals opponents have scored ten or more runs.

We were surprised to see the Royals were only 7-9 in those games.

They have won games 13-9, 12-7, 14-6,12-5, 15-1, and 16-12.

They have lost games 10-2, 10-9, 13-4, 15-1, 10-8, 12-10, 22-1, 10-4, 19-2.  They started this week 40-60.  Only the Angels (39-61) are worse in the American League. Opponents have scored 99 more runs than the Royals have scored through their first 100 games.

The Royals started the second part of the season with some roster moves, none of them falling into the “major” category. Pitcher Stephen Kolek has gone on the 15-day DL with a right flexor strain. Outfielder Randy Martin Junior has been sent to the Orioles for cash. Left-hander Scott Alexander has been acquired from the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League and pitcher Nick Mears has been moved from the 15-day IL to the 60 day list.

(Cardinals)—The Cardinals have split eight games in which at least one team scored in double figures.  Their losses have been 11-6, 11-9, 14-6, and 12=10.  Their wins have been 11-7, 10-5, 10-3, and 12-1.  They began the first  full week after the All-Star Game break 51-47. Only five teams have better records in the National League. The Cardinals are plus-4 in runs scored through their first hundred games.

The Redbirds started the second half of their season with some roster moves. Reliever JoJo Romero is on the 15-day disabled list because of appendicitis. How that affects his trade value is unknown but he had been discussed as trade bait.  Replacing him on the roster for now is right-hander Scott Blewett.

Leaving, perhaps, is catcher Yohel Pozo, who has been designated for assignment, an odd man out on a team loaded with catchers. He was one of four catchers in Spring Training. The Cardinals sent JimmyCrooks down to Triple-A and made Pedro Pages and Ivan Herrera their to catchers with Pozo coming off the bench as a pinch hitter. But he hasn’t been in a game since May 27.

Speeding along—

(NASCAR)—Don’t look now, but NASCAR’s strongest road warrior is adapting to ovals.

Shane Van Gisbergen racked up his second straight top six finish on an oval Sunday night at North Wilkesboro. He has four of them this year and has strengthened his grasp on a playoff position with five races to go before the ten-race runoff for the Cup.  SVG also led 49 laps, his first laps lead on an oval, and almost won the first stage of the race.

Joey Logano won the race on a sweltering, humid evening that left several drivers drained at the end. It was the first NASCAR Cup race at the old speedway in thirty years. Logano held off Denny Hamlin, who could get to his bumper but couldn’t find a path past him. The victory ends a 45-race winless streak for Logano. It’s his 38^th career win and most importantly, it moves him into the top 16 drivers eligible for the Cup championship.

Logano has a new look this year because he has been dealing for some time with alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that attacks hair follicles and causes hair to fall out in patches. He has used hair replacement systems in the past after first noticing the condition six years ago. When the condition returned during the offseason he decided just to shave it all off.

Nothing to worry about as far as his overall health, he says.

He has had a generally mediocre year with only seven top ten finishes and only three podium races in the 21 points races this year but the old Wilkesboro track was his playground Sunday night. He led 320 of the 450 laps.

Van Gisbergen’s post-race reaction to the heat and the intensity of racing on a .625 mile track with 36 other drivers illustrated the physical challenge of the race. He said he was “just soaked the whole time…I felt fine but when I stopped, I went…I’m pretty cooked.”

(INDYCAR)—It was the humidity, not the heat, that caused cancellation of Sunday’s IndyCar race in Nashville.  100% humidity, twice, that washed out an opportunity to run. The heat yesterday prompted IndyCar to cut the length of the race from 300 miles to 225.

The track temperature during the race reached 140 degrees.

Alex Palou withstood the heat as well as the late-race assault by the three Penske drivers—Josef Newgarden, David Malukas, and Scott McLaughlin–to win his fifth race of the year and strengthen his points lead to 83 points over Malukas with six races left in the season.

Palou led the last 95 laps and turned the fastest lap of the race eight laps before the end to give team owner Chip Ganassi his 150^th IndyCar win. Malukas, who started last in a backup car after crashing his primary car in practice, came close to being the first drivers since Simon Pagenaud in 2020 to start last and get the win. He finished third behind teammate Newgarden and commented afterward, “I’ve never driven so hard in my life.”

(Photo credits:  Drinkwitz—nathan ray Seeback Imagn image; Van Gisbergen—NASCAR; Logano—Instagram; Palou—Bob Priddy at Indianapolis)

-0-0-0-

(BASEBALL)—Major League baseball passed the midseason mark last weekend with both of our teams getting bounce-back wins.

The Cardinals seem to have played themselves out of the playoff picture with seven losses in nine game before taking a 2-1 in from the Marlins Sunday.  Kyle Leahy won for the first time since mid=May and Bryan Torres provided the offense with a  two-run homer Sunday.

The Royals, after a 22-1 mauling by the White Sox also avoided a series sweep by beating the White Sox 5-4. That gave them a split in their last ten games but still left them with the worst record in the American League. Only the National League’s Colorado Rockies are having a worse season at 33-51 while the Royals were 35-50 at week’s end.

(MOMOVESON)—Former St. Louis Cardinals executive John Mozeliak has a new job, moving on to become interim general manager of the Los Angeles Angels.

(ONTHEFARM)—Redbirdrants.com has checked on four Redbirds sent down to Memphis to find themselves.—Nolan Gorman, Yohel Pozo, Thomas Saggese, and Victor Scott II.

Scott started hot with nine hits and four steals in his first six games. In the next seven he had just three hits, stole no bases and struck out 11 times.

Gorman, who headed to Memphis via Florida after striking out half of the time in St. Louis struck out his first four times in Memphis before getting his first hit but has continued to have strikeout problems although he did hit two home runs and walking three times. Blaze Jordan is doing well enough in The Show that there appears to be little rush to get Gorman back in St. Louis.

Saggese’s batting average remans in the low 200s but has walked more times than he has fanned.

Pozo caught ten of his first fifteen games in Memphis but he has to contend with the play of Leonardo Bernal who is a catcher-first baseman and might be a victim of a numbers game.

(MIZZFB)—The Missouri Tigers continue mining home state talent with the latest commitment coming from four-star running back Kingston Miles of St. Louis, who originally committed to Auburn. He plays high school ball for St. Mary’s, the school that has produced current Mizzou running back Jamal Roberts and former Tiger wide receiver Kevin Coleman Jr., who was drafated in the fifth round of this year’s NFL draft.

Six of the states ten top-ranked players in this recruiting cycle now have committed to Missouri.

Kansas City offensive lineman Kyler Kuhn, a four-star, player at St. Pius X, has joined Miles. He’s a 6-3 280 pounder.

Others who’ve committed in recent days are a pair of three-stars: Cornerback T’ari Miller from Miami and Jaylen Hill, an 6-5, 295 pound offensive tackle from the state of Louisiana.

Motoring along—

(INDYCAR)—Two Indianapolis 500 winners’ off-the-track situations might signal a significant change in the IndyCar lineup for 2027. One definitely will.

Speedcafe is reporting that the deadline has passed for Chip Ganassi Racing to have exclusive negotiating rights to keep six-time series champion Scott Dixon, leaving him free to talk to other teams. The Dixon-Ganassi combination has been a constant in IndyCar since 2003.

Ganassi’s exclusive negotiating window with Dixon recently lapsed, allowing the Indianapolis 500 winner to speak with other teams. Arrow McLaren has been mentioned as a possibility. Dixon is 45 and has one Indianapolis 500 win to his credit. He has led more laps in the Indianapolis 500 than any other driver—709. The most laps led by any other active driver is Will Power’s 145.

The winner of this year’s Indianapolis 500, Felix Rosenqvist, says he has taken an offer from a rival team, speculation suggesting the Andretti Global arm of Arrow McLaren, and will move on from Meyer-Shank racing at the end of the year.

Rosenqvist had been with Arrow McLaren before moving to Meyer Shank two years ago. Meyer Shank minority owner Helio Castroneves, a four time 500 winner, says the team has started talking with rookie Caio Collett, a Brazilian driver for A. J. Foyt’s team. Collett has had some impressive performances this year although his overall results have been poor.

Team co-owner Jim Meyer told the Indianapolis Star that a decision will come later whether to go with a newcomer or a veteran-ish driver is the correct direction to take, saying, ” Ultimately, we’re all trying to figure out how to consistently beat Alex Palou right now, to be honest with you. So however we think we can do that best is how we’re going to look at that.”

(NASCAR)—-Shane Van Gisbergen how stands just one win away from tying Jeff Gordon’s record of winning nine Cup road races.  Van Gisbergen fought off a determined late challenge from Chase Briscoe to win at Sonoma.

The race was the last on a road course this year. Van Gisbergen’s win puts him 14^th in the points standings, two slots above the cutoff point for drivers wanting to be among the ten that will race  for the season championship. Two former champions, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano (a three time champion) are having less than mediocre seasons and rank 18^th and 20^th.

Eight races remain before the championship runoff begins.

The points standings have a new number one for the first time since Tyler Reddick won the Dahytona 500, the opening race of the season.

Denny Hamlin’s 26^th place finish gave him enough points to be one ahead of Reddick, who lost four laps early that he could never get back. He finished 36^th, last, in the race.

(Picture credits: Cardinals—Chris Creamer’s Sports Logo Page; Royals—Pinterest; Dixon at Indianapolis—Rick Gevers; Rosenqvist at the bricks—Bob Priddy; Van Gisbergen at WWTR-Priddy)

(BASEBALL)—The Kansas City Royals missed getting their first sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals at home in 25 years, but they still won the three-game series.  The final game, Sunday, was great for the spectators even though the Royals lost it.

St. Louis 12, Kansas City 10.

Eight home runs. 28 hits. Neither starting pitcher made it to the third inning. A combined dozen relievers followed them to the mound.

Cardinals rookie J. J. Wetherholt had two of the home runs, drove in three runs and scored three times. With one of his two home runs Wetherholt tied an obscure record by a largely forgotten Redbird. His third leadoff home run tied a rookie record set by Bo Hart 24 years ago.

Who?

Bo Hart had a roaring start to his big league career in 2003 when he broke Kirby Puckett’s record by hitting .460 in his first ten games. He finished the season with four homers, to leading off. But  a month into the 2004 season he was sent down and never came back to the bigs.

The Cardinals had lost four in a row. The Royals had a three-game winning streak.

(CHIEFS)—Rashee Rice has finished his thirty-jail sentence that started shortly after his knee surgery.  His time in jail meant his rehabilitation program could not be fully implemented. He also missed the voluntary offseason workouts and the mandatory minicamp practices.

Rice is in the last year of his four-year, $6.5 million rookie contract. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent next March unless the Chief slap a “franchise” tag on him to keep him through ’27.

(HARDY)—Latest word on Tiger running back Ahmad Hardy is that he’s been hard at work on a Stairmaster in the Tiger Training facility rebuilding the strength in his left thigh after a gunshot wound requiring emergency surgery.  Coach Drinkwitz says he’s making good progress but it’s too early to determine if he’ll be in playing condition for the season opener in a little more than a month.

(NFL)—It has been seven years since the NFL has held a supplemental draft. Players have to make themselves available for it—Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsbey has announced he’ll turn pro instead of wrestling opponents about his eligibility after a gambling conviction.

The draft allows teams to submit bids and choose the rounds they want to enter. The first round of bidding is open to non-playoff teams with six or fewer wins.  If no team enters from that category, non-playoff teams with more than six wins go next.  Playoff teams are last, based on their most recent records. If a team wins a player, the team forfeits the equivalent pick in the next year’s draft.

The supplemental draft is kind of an auction. It’s held only when eligible players have put themselves on the market. This will be the fiftieth year since the draft began and only 46 players have been taken.

Jalen Thompson, chosen by the Cardinals in the 2019 draft, is the last player was taken.

—-On the Road Where Mistakes Make Losers and Surprise Winners—

(INDYCAR)—-IndyCar defending champion Alex Palou started from the pole at Road America and was running second when he was caught speeding on pit road and forced to do a drive-through penalty that set him back far enough to take him out of contention. He was able to salvage fifth.

The bigger story was Christian Lundgaard, who started 12^th and whose left front wing was damaged in a first lap tangle with Scott Dixon incident that forced him to the pits for repairs and dropped him to last place, 25^th.  He made it to the lead on the 43^rd of the race’s 55 laps before gibing way to Josef Newgarden for four laps and Marcus Amstrong for 18.  But Lundgaard got past Armstrong to lead the last seven laps including a final lap shootout coming out of caution. Davis Malukas finished second for the third time this year.

The last time an IndyCar driver went last-to first was in 2024 when Alexander won the Grand Prix of Monterey.

(NASCAR)—A unique NASCAR Race Sunday produced a special result and seemingly provide a positive answer about whether the series can run a street-course race on a military base.

The cars snaked through the 3.4-mile naval base course in San Diego, California with part-time driver Corey Heim getting his first Cup victory.  Bubba Wallace, who lost a wheel early in the race rallied back to second.

Road racing ace Shane Van Gisbergen, who had the fastest qualifying run, was taken out in a multi-car crash about halfway through the race.

Heim, 23, who was running only his sixth Cup race of the year and only the 13^th in his young career. He’ll move into a fulltime ride next year as a teammate of Tyler Reddick, the current points leader, and Wallace.

(Picture credits:Heim—Instagram;  Hart—Fanatics Collect; Rice—KMBC TV; Lundgaard at Indy—Rick Gevers)

(BYE REDBIRDS BYE)—The Cardinals have welcomed back Noot and Nathan to the big nest and have kicked Victor Scott II down to Memphis after low-offensive production in the first couple of months of the season. Nathan Church came off the DL for last night’s game. Lars Nootbar had a solid outing in his return after months of recovery from heel surgery.

The moves can set up an outfield of Church in left, Jordan Walker in center and Nootbar in right. That leaves Nelson Velasquez to rotate in on offense and provide power off the bench.

Scott still isn’t showing he can consistently hit big league pitching. He was sent down with a .194 average, two homers and nine RBIs. Church, on the other hand, has played 45 games with five homers, 18 RBIs and a .247 average.

Nootbar returned Sunday with a two-run game-winning homer against the Reds.

(ROYAL PAINS)—Two key members of the Kansas City Royals are hurting and as this is written, their reappearance in the lineup is uncertain.

Bobby Witt has a right knee that is giving him more trouble as the season wears on. He left the field om the Seventh inning Sunday. Manager Matt Quatraro says its “nothing acute” but it got worse as the game wore on.  Witt has not missed a game this year.

Royals catcher Salvador Perez has missed the last couple of game after getting hit by a pitch on his right thumb. Outfielder Jac Caglianone left the game with a sore shoulder after hitting the wall. Maikel Garcia will move to shortstop if Witt spend some time off the field. The Royals have rookie Carter Jensen ready to go behind the plate if needed.  He’s played 34 games there this year, five more than Perez, who has spent some time at first base.

Although Perez’s overall batting performance is down this year, he and Witt are tied for the team lead in homers with nine. He’s also just five home runs behind the team record for career homers, now held by George Brette, who had 317.

On the good news side, there’s Kris Bubic who began his rehab assignment today in Omaha. He’s been on the 15-day DL with left elbow soreness. He had Tommy John surgery three years ago and missed the last half of last year with a rotator cuff strain.  He had a pretty good season going with a 4.11 ERA and 51 strikeouts in 50.1 innings. He had four quality starts in nine outings.

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs are bring back a former teammate who might be able to help a young cornerback corps.  NFL Insider reports the chiefs have signed L’Jarrius Snead to a one-year, potential five-million dollar contract.

The Chiefs cornerback group going into fall camp is their number eight overall draftee Mansoor DeLane, holdover Nohl Williams, and free agent Kader Kahou

The Chiefs traded Snead to the Tennessee Titans in 2024. The Titans signed him for four years, $76 million but he was in only a dozen games in the two seans there and was released in the offseason. He intercepted ten passes in his four years with the Chiefs and was on two Super Bowl winning teams.

(BATTLEHAWKS)—The St. Louis Battlehawks have fallen out of the UFL playoffs in the first round, falling to the Louisville Kings, arguably the hottest team in the league, or one of them.  Louisville lost its first three games and has won seven of eight since then, the latest being 29-20.

The win puts the Kings in the United Bowl, the league championship game, against the DC Defenders.  Louisville blasted one of the league’s best defenses with two touchdown runs of 50 yards or more. It is the third straight year the Battlehawks have lost a chance to play for the league championship.

St. Louis won the statistical game, with double the Louisville first downs (22-11), ran 75 plays to the Louisville’s 42.  But their offense, one of the league’s weakest, didn’t get the ball across the goal line enough.  They led 20-18 going into the last quarter.

But Louisville got the touchdown and then kicker Tanner Brown nailed down the win with a 63 yard field goal. The UFL gives field goals longer than 60 yards four points.

St. Louis finishes the year 6-5.

A different kind of running game:

(INDYCAR)—IndyCar reached the halfway mark of its18-race season and the halfway point of its six-race schedule for ovals just before midnight at World Wide Raceway, just across the river from St. Louis.  The race was delayed twice—almost an hour, total,  for brief sprinkles of rain.

The Track is a friendly place for Penske driver Josef Newgarden, who won there for the sixth time in eleven races at the track Sunday night. It’s his second win this year.

Newgarden is IndyCar’s ovalmeister, with fifteen of his 34 career wins coming on ovals, two of them at the Indianapolis 500.  He still wears a fiberglass boot because of a leg injury suffered in this year’s 500, although he takes it off for driving.

He finished about seven-tenths of a second ahead of Marcus Ericsson (on the left on the podium) and almost two seconds ahead of Christian Rasmussen (right). The finishes by Ericsson and Rasmussen are their bests this year.

Ericsson led more than twice as many laps as any other driver—Newgarden—114-53 of the 260 laps on the mile and a half track. But it was Rasmussen that Newgarden had to get past after close racing for several laps after the last stoppage.

McLaughlin made a spirited charge toward the front on the restart on Lap 234, climbing from ninth to fifth in just four laps. But the Kiwi and the other cars that pitted for tires didn’t have enough traction from the fresher rubber or speed to challenge the top four down the stretch.

The race was hotly contested all night long with 268 passes for position in he 260 laps, a track record.

Points leader Alex Palou started on pole for the fourth straight race but tried to stretch his fuel one lap too far. He coasted into his pits with a dead engine that then refused to re-fire. He finished 17^th, two laps down but he still has a substantial lead on Kyle Kirkwood, who finished sixth.

Newgarden’s win puts him into a ninth-place tie with Al Unser Jr., on the all-time Indycar wins list.  A. J. Foyt is number one with 67, eight more than Scott Dixon, who finished 12^th Sunday night.

(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin’s 63rd career win—the second time in two weeks that he’s gone from last to first—was emotional one because it lifted him into a ninth place on the all-times Cup wins list with Kyle Busch.  His fourth win of the year ended with him turning a victory lap while holding a black flag with the number 18 on it—-Busch’s number for most of his racing career before his death a couple of weeks ago. Hamlin and Busch had been teammates at one time.

Hamlin had the top qualifying speed but had to start last among the 37 cars because his team made some adjustments in his car after qualifying.

Points leader Tyler Reddick failed to finish and leads Hamlin by only 52 points now.

The race had eleven caution flags, a race record.

(Photo credit: Bob Priddy)

(BEFORE WE GET STARTED):   There is the NBA and then there is basketball and it is being played by women.

We took in our second Indiana Fever game when we were in Indianapolis recently, chance to watch Sophie and Caitlin play—Sophie is kind of considered Caitlin’s enforcer—and again were greatly impressed by the intensity of the women’s game and the fact that people of normal height but extraordinary skill worked the ball, set up plays, had tremendous assists, fierce blocks, and ran up 90 points in four ten-minute quarters.

And the pregame!  Tiger fans, get a load of this (anytime you see someone wearing number 8, it’s former Tiger Sophie Cunningham)

Now, on to regular business

(BASEBALL)—Neither of our major league baseball teams was much to talk about this week.  The Cardinals muddled along and the Royals sank deeper into mediocrity. In fact, the Royals dropped to a season-worst 15 games under .500 with their sweep by the Rangers, making Kansas City losers of 16 of their last 19 including two straight sweeps and four overall. Manager Matt Quartaro was at least honest when he said, manager Matt Quatraro said Sunday. “I mean, we didn’t play well enough to win a game.”

The Royals were 10-18 in May. Four of their pitchers are out with injuries and the the offense isn’t showing much spark heading into June.  They began the new week with the second-worst record in the American League (Detroit is a half-game behind them.)

The Cardinals took the rubber game of the series with the Cubs Sunday night to hold onto second place in a division in which every team is playing better than break-even ball. They’re five games over .500 but trail the Brewers by four and a half at the start of a new week.

They opened a series last night against the Texas Rangers who are managed by Cardinals fan favorite Skip Schumaker, who played in St. Louis 2005=2012.

(DOWN ON THE FARM)—-A rarity, maybe it’s history—for minor league baseball happened in Springfield Saturday afternoon when Jurrangelo Cinintje, obtained in a winter trade and now the number for player in the Cardinals pipeline, started for the Springfield Cardinals.

He struck out Wichita Wind Surge outfielder Garrett Spain twice.

He did it once throwing right-handed and once throwing left-handed. He wasn’t too spectacular otherwise—three runs, three hits and a walk.

He’s 23, has made ten starts this year and is 3-2 with a 5.21 ERA

(BATTLEHAWKS)—-The St. Battlehawks go into the first round of the UFL playoffs at 6-4 after Friday night’s upset by the Dallas. 20-16.  They had clinched a home field first round playoff spot a week earlier.

Dallas had lost six in a row before finishing the regular season with the victory. St. Louis helped he Renegades get the win by turning the ball over four times in eleven possessions (1 fumble, two interceptions and a 3-and-out).

The Orlando Storm go into the playoffs 8-2 with the Battlehawks at 6-4. The Louisville Kings are 5-4, and the DC Defenders are the four-seed with a 5-5 record.

The first round playoffs next weekend will match Orlando and DC and St. Louis against Louisville in the Battledome, as it’s now called. The ‘Hawks beat the Kings 16-3 earlier.

The Kings started the season 0-3

On the track—

(INDYCAR)—The streets of Detroit hosted IndyCar one week after the spectacular Indianapolis 500  and this this time, the driver who started P1 finished in the same position

—a familiar face: Alex Palou.  If he pulls off a win next weekend at World Wide Technology Speedway, he will have won half of the last 26 IndyCar events.  He’s four out of eight this year. He’s well on the way to his fourth straight series title, up by 62 points over Kyle Kirkwood, the runner up, three seconds behind.

He led 71 of the 100 laps and took the lead for the final time on lap 69 when Kirkwood pitted.

(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, and Chase Briscoe were three-wide at the start of the last lap at Nashville but, as one long-ago broadcaster put it, “it was a wreck that didn’t happen….and Hamlin had the momentum coming off of the last turn.

Hamlin began the race on the pole but jumped the start and was sent to the back of the 38-car field. He fought his way back for the 62^nd victory of his career. He is now only one win behind Kyle Busch, who ranks ninth on the all-time Cup list.

(picture credits: Palou at Indianapolis—Bob Priddy; Battlehawks—Instagram; Pitcher—Springfield Daily Citizen)