By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BASEBALL)—The Cardinals and the Royals have taken major steps for 2023, the Cardinals by locking in their All-Star third basemen through 2027 and the Royals hiring a new manager.

Arenado had an opt-out provision in his contract and after a disappointing two-and-out playoff series with the Phillies had said some things that raised doubts in fans minds that he would come back next year.  But the Cardinals sent President John Mozeliak to California for a heart-to-heart discussion and the best third baseman in baseball today.  Teammates Paul Goldschmidt and Adam Wainwright also had been telling him how much they wanted him back.   So he’s staying for the last five years and $144 million of his contract. He’s 31 and playing in his prime. He’s expected to compete with Goldschmidt for MVP honors.

The Royals have picked Tampa Bay bench coach Matt Quatraro as Mike Matheny’s replacement as manager. Quatraro finished his fifth year as bench coach this year. The Rays went 86-76 and lost both games of the wild card playoff to the Guardians. Quatraro got as high as Triple-A as a catcher, outfielder, and first baseman, then managed four years in the Tampa Bay system in Sigle-A and was Cleveland’s hitting coach in 2014.

During his five years on the Rays bench the team went 412-296 (.574), made the playoffs four times, lost the 2020 World Series, lost twice in the Division series and, this year, got knocked out in the wild card games.

Quatroro has his work cut out for him and likely will need some front office help.

He takes over a team that finished 27 games behind the Guardians, lost 97 games, and was under .500 at home. It ranked 24^th in runs per game, 26^th in run differential with opponents, had the 8^th most strikeouts per 9 innings, ranked 27^th with a team ERA of 4.70. Pitchers ranked 28^th in strikeouts per nine innings and 29^th in hits per nine innings.

Both the Cardinals and the Royals have some things to do in the offseason, however.

(CHIEFS)—No game this weekend but the Chiefs picked up some depth at receiver by giving the New York Giants a couple of next year’s low draft picks to get Kadarius Toney, a former number one pick of the Giants (2021). NFL observers say that he might be a significant outside threat for Kansas City—if he can stay healthy.

Now, Racing:

(NASCAR)—-Christopher Bell did what he had to do for the second elimination race in a row and Ross Chastain did what he had to do with an astonishing run through the last half of the last lap.

Bell, far down in the standings after last week’s bad-luck crash, had to win to make the final four for the season’s last race next Sunday at Phoenix. He grabbed the lead during pit stops with about 100 laps left, but dropped to sixth during the final round of stops, coming out sixth with 24 laps left on the short Martinsville track. He got past Ryan Blaney, another contender who had to win to advance to the final four, with four laps to go and held on to edge Kyle Larson at the line.

But behind the finishing gaggle, Chastain had started a desperate dash to the front.  Too far back to pass enough cars to make the playoffs, Chastain floored it, and ran full speed scraping the wall for the last two turns of the race, going 50-70 mph faster than other competitors, and nipped rival Denny Hamlin for fourth place, knocking Hamlin out of the playoffs.

https://www.nascar.com/video/franchise/nascar-cup-highlights/see-multiple-angles-of-chastains-last-lap-move-to-advance-at-martinsville/

Hamlin, who has had several run-ins with Chastain this year, came out of the last turn of the race two points ahead of Chastain in the points standings only to find himself displaced by Chastain’s mad dash.  Hamlin called the tactic “brilliant.”

Bell and Chastain, along with Chase Elliott and Joey Logano will fight for the championship next weekend in Phoenix. Whoever finishes highest gets the NASCAR Cup.  Logano and Ellott will be racing for their second championship.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen arguably has had the greatest season in Formula 1 history—and there are still two races left. Vertappen’s win in the Mexico City Grand Prix is his 14^th win of the year, breaking the record held by Michael Schumacher in 2004 and tied by Sebastien Vettel in 2013.  His win gives Red Bull Racing its ninth victory in a row, tying the team record, and its 16^th win in 21 races. Lewis Hamilton finished second for the second race in a row and Sergio Perez, Verstappen’s teammate, finished third, the second year in a row he has run third on his home track.

(BASEBALL)—A lot of stick-and-ball sports fans adopt the attitude that if their team gets knocked out of the playoffs, they’ll hope the team that did it goes on to the championship.

So some Cardinals fans will be rooting for the Phillies in the World Series that starts Friday.  The Phillies, winners of only 87 games in the regular season, have run the table so far against the Cardinals, Braves and the Padres to gain the right to take on the Houston Astros, who swept the Yankees in the American League finals.   Houston won almost 20 more games in the regular season, 106, than the Phillies did.

But Cardinals fans are left to ponder, “If we had beaten the Phillies, would it be our guys in the World Series?”  The Cardinals were one of eleven teams in major league baseball this year with better records than the Phillies.  But if the Phillies need extra inspiration they need only look at the Cardinals of 2006, who finished 83-78 in the regular season and beat the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. Based on winning percentages, the 2006 Cardinals are the worst teams to win it all.

Five teams with fewer than 90 regular season victories have won the World Series including last year’s Atlanta Braves that finished 88-73, one victory more than the Phillies had this year.

(KC Chiefs)—-Sometimes it seems as if the only way the Kansas City Chiefs can lose is if they beat themselves—last week’s game against the Bills, for example.  For a few minutes against the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, the trend was headed in that direction. The Chiefs spotted the 49ers ten points and then outscored them the rest of the way 44-13 with thirty points in the second half.

The Chiefs have survived a tough first half of the season to go into their break week 5-2.

(TIGERS)—After playing just well enough to lose for a month, the Missouri Tigers played just well enough to win against Vanderbilt.  The Tigers went into the game favored by a couple of touchdowns in some forecasts but needed a fourth-down stop of a Vanderbilt running back to stop a drive that appeared destined for a tying field goal attempt or a winning touchdown.

Missouri is now 3-4 and faces another tough test next weekend against 25^th ranked South Carolina.

Now, for the non-stick-and-ball stuff:

(NASCAR)—Unlike other sports where playoff losers go home and pack up the gear until next year, those who lose in NASCAR’s playoffs keep playing.  And winning.

Case in point, Kyle Larson, who won both stages and the race at Homestead-Miami Speedway last weekend.  Larson led all but 68 of the 267 laps. Larson was eliminated from the playoffs earlier as the NASCAR season winds down with only two races left.

Playoff contender Ross Chastain trailed Larson across the line by 1.3 seconds followed by A. J. Almendinger, Austin Dillon, and Brad Keselowski.  Chastain was the only playoff driver in the top five. Keselowski’s finish as his first top five of the year, the first top five since becoming part owner of what is now Roush-Fenway-Keselowski racing.

Joey Logano remains the only driver guaranteed a chance at the championship.  Chastain is the second-seed with Chase Elliott and William Byron holding the top four positions. Denny Hamlin is five points below the cutline. Ryan Blaney is eighteen points back.  Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe need to win next weeks’ race at Martinsville if they are to advance to the final four who will run for the title November 5 at Phoenix.

(INDYCAR)—Two fan favorites have sewn up rides for the 2023 Indianapolis 500.

Sponsorship has been found for a fourth car to be fielded by Andretti Autosport that will give Marco Andretti his eighteenth chance to get his face on the Borg-Warner Trophy.  Andretti was second as a rookie in 2006, sat on the pole in 2020 and has four top-three finishes and eight top tens.

The winner of the 2013 Indianapolis 500, Tony Kanaan, will drive for Arrow McLaren SP team in the 2023 race, which he has said in the past will be his last 500.  He’ll drive the fourth car in the race for AMSP. Kanaan finished third last year for Chip Ganassi Racing. It will be his 22^nd 500. He has five top-three finishes including his 2013 win that as the fastest Indianapolis 500 at the time; the record was later broken by Helio Castroneves in 2021.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen has three races left to set a new Formula 1 record for most victories in one year.  He won his thirteenth race last weekend at the Circuit of the Americas, in the United States Grand Prix, near Austin Texas, passing Lewis Hamilton with just six laps left and won by about five seconds.

Hamilton, a seven-time F1 champion, thought he had a shot at his first win of the year and admits he’s beginning to think this will be the first time in his career that he has gone without a victory all year. He’s been racing in F1 since 2007.

The win also locks up the constructors’ championship for Red Bull Racing. It comes the day after the death of the co-founder of the Red Bull energy drink, Dietrich Mateschitz.

(BASEBALL)—The post-season playoffs have developed a big underdog issue.

San Diego, which won 89 games in the regular season, has ousted the Dodgers, who won 111.

The Phillies, winners of 87, have dumped the Braves, winners of 101.

So far only Houston, winners of 106, has played to form, topping Seattle in three straight. Settle won 87 in the regular season.

Cleveland’s Guardians, making the playoffs in the first season with their new name and 92 wins in the regular season, play the deciding game against the Yankees, winners of 99 this afternoon. Their game was rained out last night.

Tonight Philadelphia and San Diego begin the National League Championship Series.

Thursday night, Houston opens the ALCS against the survivor of tonight’s Guardians-Yankees series.

(FOOTBALL—NFL)—For the second weekend in a row, a Kansas City Chiefs placekicker has set a new team record for longest field goal.  But this time, it didn’t lead to a win.

The Buffalo Bills beat the Chiefs 27-24 on a touchdown with about a minute to play,

The game was tied at 10 at halftime thanks to a 62-yard field goal into the wind by Harrison Butker, who had missed the last few games with an ankle sprain.  His kick broke substitute Matthew Wrights record, a 59-yarder a week earlier.

Patrick Mahomes threw an interception in the end zone in the first quarter and threw a second one that ended the game as the Chief tried to recover from the final Buffalo score.

The win lets the Bills stay a game ahead of the Jets in the Eastern Division. The Chiefs drop to 4-2 but still lead the West over the Chargers, who are 3-2.

(FOOTBALL—MISSOURI TIGERS)—Missouri had the weekend off and is spending this week preparing for Vanderbilt. The Commodores have split six games. Missouri is 2-4, winless in the SEC.  Nashville football columnist Aria Gerson says the game “is one of Vanderbilt’s best shots of winning an SEC game.”

(BASKETBALL—MISSOURI TIGERS)—We’re only about three weeks away from the first University of Missouri-Columbia basketball game. Southern Indiana is the first of the warm-up games for the new-look Tigers on November 7 as they work their way through a non-conference schedule and develop as Dennis Gates’ first Missouri team.

Ken Pomeroy, an atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Utah who has made a science of ranking college basketball teams, ranks Missouri 41^st in the country in his Kenpom.com rankings.

(NASCAR)—Joey Logano has made the final four.

Logano’s win at Las Vegas guarantees he’ll be one of the four drivers who will compete for the NASCAR  Cup in the last race of the season next month.  Logano had dropped out of the top ten when he pitted for new tires with 26 laps to go. But he caught leader Ross Chastain with three laps left and led him by eight-tenths of a second at the checkered flag.

Logano, who drove his first Cup race fifteen years ago, wrapped up his 30^th career victory. He’ll be chasing his second Cup championship in the final race of the year. He won the title in 2018 and went into the Las Vegas race as the second seed and emerged number one.  The previous number one seed, Chase Elliott, struggled all day and finished 21^st.  He dropped to third in the standings.

Chastain, who led a race-high 68 laps, is second in the standings with Elliott and Denny Hamlin making up the rest of the top four.  Hamlin started 31^st and finished fifth, behind Chase Briscoe.  Kyle Busch became the only non-contending driver to finish in the top five by crossing the line third.

Two races are left to decide who will be the three drivers joining Logano in the final run for the title.

Christopher Bell was collected in a crash involving Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson and dropped to the eighth and last contender spot.  Another contender, Ryan Blaney, hit the wall and finished 28^th. Contender William Byron finished 13^th. Byron, Blaney, Brisco, and Bell are below the cutline headed to next weekend’s race at Homestead-Miami.

(NASCAR—KURT BUSCH)—Kurt Busch, the last active NASCAR Cup driver to compete against Dale Earnhardt Sr., says he’s done as a fulltime Cup driver.  He’s 44, a Daytona 500 winner, and NASCAR’s 2004 champion.

The oldest of the Busch brothers has missed thirteen races since backing his car into a wall in July and suffering a concussion.  He says he might do some selected races next year if doctors say he’s recovered from his concussion, but his days as a fulltime driver are finished.

Tyler Reddick will mover over from Childress Racing and will take Busch’s seat in the 45-car, joining Bubba Wallace on the 23XI team.

Busch was hired by 23XI, co-owned by NBA star Michael Jordan (whose jersey was 23 for most of his career) and driver Denny Hamlin (whose car carries the number 11) to drive last year. The team says he was hired to “elevate our organization in many ways.”  He gave the team its first playoff berth by winning at Kansas earlier this year then had to withdraw from the playoffs because of his injury.

A second driver, Alex Bowman, also has been out of his car because of a concussion in a race three weeks ago. He says he won’t be back on the track until the last race of the year, if then.

NASCAR has announced it will have a re-designed rear section of the chassis available next year. NASCAR hopes it will do a better job absorbing energy in a crash, lessening chances for other drivers to incur the kinds of injuries Busch and Bowman have had to deal with this year.

Photo Credits:  Logano at WWTR—Bob Priddy; Busch at Indianapolis—Rick Gevers

(Baseball)—Well, that sure didn’t take very long, did it?  Two and out for the Cardinals whose big bats went one for fifteen and whose most solid relief pitcher’s finger apparently couldn’t last two innings.  Albert and Yadi went out with base hits in their last times at bat—a fitting conclusion to their careers.

In years to come, young men in the grandstands will be telling their grandchildren, “Yes, I saw Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina play baseball,” much as THEIR grandfathers told them, “I saw Mantle and Musial and Williams” or “Gibson and Marichal and Clemens.”

Across the state, the Royals are looking for a new manager and a new pitching coach.  And some better talent.

In the meantime the playoffs continue although a lot of people no longer care.

(Tigers)—The Missouri Tigers are playing just well enough to drive their fans nuts.  They’re off this week after losing three games they could have won.  This is a team that appears capable of winning only if they play mistake-free.  The break comes at a good time.

(Chiefs)—The Oakland/Los Angeles/Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders played the Kansas City Chiefs (ex-Dallas Texans) for the 127^th time last night.  The Chiefs spotted the Raiders the first 17 points then worked their way back into the lead thanks to four short-yardage touchdowns by Travis Kelce, tying a team record and a 59-yard franchise-record field goal from substitute kicker Matthew Wright.  The hinge point of the game came when Wright missed a field goal but the Raiders were called for defensive holding, giving Kansas City a first down and keeping a drive alive that turned into a TD.

Both teams failed on two-points-after efforts and the Chiefs with only a 30-29 lead had to turn the ball over with less than three minutes left. Las Vegas couldn’t get close enough for a winning field goal and the Chiefs get away with a 4-1 record to start the season.

The Chiefs are now 71-54-2 against  O/LA/O/LV.

Now, on to another kind of playoffs:

(NASCAR)—The number of drivers who can win the NASCAR championship has been cut to eight after a competitive and contentious race on the Charlotte Roval—the combination oval and road course.

And in a season known for its unlikely turnouts, Christopher Bell’s victory fits right in.  He had to win to make the round of eight—and he did thanks to pit strategy that gave him fresh tires that let him clear Kevin Harvick on a restart and then pull away for the victory.

On-track incidents turned the day around for several contenders, none so much as 2021 champion Kyle Larson who hit the wall and broke a rear suspension piece on his car. The repairs were made but he was unable to regain enough positions to make the semi-final round. He fell two points short of Chase Briscoe, who had his own adventure when he spun with five laps to go but was able to recover to finish 9^th, just enough to move into the next round.

Bell went into the race 33 points below the cut line with no chance to advance unless he finished first. “We were just there at the right time,” he said. “We rolled the dice, gambled, and it paid off for us.”

Also not making the cut was rookie Austin Cindric, the winner of the Daytona 500 at the start of the year. Daniel Suarez lost his power steering but muscled the car to the finish. Unfortunately his finish was 36^th, knocking him out of the playoffs, too. Alex Bowman missed his second straight race because of a concussion and is the fourth driver eliminated,

Moving ahead are Chase Eliott, Joey Logano, Ross Chastain, Bell, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Deny Hamlin, and Briscoe.  The field will be cut to four after three more races and the champion will be decided in the last race of the year. Whichever driver in the final four has the best finish in the last race will wear the crown.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen raced through a deluge that sometimes left visibility on Japan’s Suzuka Circuit to win his twelfth race in eighteen starts this year and wrap up his second F1 championship.  The race was halted after the first two laps because of the downpour.  His championship was clinched because initial runner-up Charles LeClerc was assessed a five-second penalty that dropped him to third place.  The result leaves Verstappen 113 points in the lead with four races to go, a margin impossible for LeClerc to make up.

Verstappen becomes only the third driver in F1 history to lock up a title with four races left.  Michael Schumacher and Sebastien Vettel are the only other drivers to dominate a season as he has done this year.

(Photo Credit: Bob Priddy, Bell at WWTR)