Sports: The Good and Sad Tiger Opener; We Explain “The Practice Squad,” and Other Sports Stuff

Posted on September 2, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZ)—-The Missouri Tigers were expected to roll over Central Arkansas in their season opener but few thought they would run up 61 points. Central Arkansas has a student body of less than one-third of the student body in Columbia. The Bears didn’t score until 22 seconds were left in the game.

Sam Horn’s dream of being a starting quarterback for the Tigers are likely gone because of a serious right leg injury suffered on his first play in the game. He underwent an MRI and more tests will be run this week but Coach Drinkwitz says he’s gone “for an extended period of time.”

Beau Pribula, however, left no doubt that he’s capable of running the Missouri offense. He accounted for more than 400 yards running and passing.

The Tiger also lost starting place kicker Blake Craig, who suffered a leg injury making a tackle on a kickoff. True freshman Robert Meyer was good on all four of his extra points as Craig’s replacement.

The next opponent is a more substantial one. Missouri and Kansas will play for the first time in fourteen years next Saturday, in Columbia. Kansas has won its first games, also against lower-level teams. They’re shown they also can score bunches of points in their wins, 31-7 against Fresno State and 46-7 against Wagner.

Missouri leads the series 56-55. There have ben nine ties. Missouri has a one-game edge because kU had to forfeit its 23-7 win over the then-#1Tigers in 1960 because Kansas halfback Bert Coan was ineligible.

(MIZNFL)—Some made the teams. Some didn’t but are sticking around. Some are hurt. SI.com has this list of former Missouri Tigers who are connected, or not, to NFL teams:

Former Missouri Tigers on NFL Rosters

Kris Abrams-Draine, Denver Broncos, Cornerback
Tyler Badie, Denver Broncos, Running back
Nick Bolton, Kansas City Chiefs, Linebacker
Larry Borom, Miami Dolphins, Tackle
Marcus Bryant, New England Patriots, Tackle
Luther Burden III, Chicago Bears, Wide receiver
Jordan Elliott, San Francisco 49ers, Defensive tackle
Akayleb Evans, Carolina Panthers, Cornerback
Ty’Ron Hopper, Green Bay Packers, Linebacker
Marcellis Johnson, Indianapolis Colts, Tackle
Drew Lock, Seattle Seahawks, Quarterback
Isaiah McGuire, Cleveland Browns, Defensive end
Armand Membou, New York Jets, Tackle
Darius Robinson, Arizona Cardinals, Defensive end

Released (some have been signed to practice squads)
Joshuah Bledsoe, Tennessee Titans, Safety
Jaylon Carlies, Indianapolis Colts, Linebacker
Trystan Colon, Detroit Lions, Center
Brady Cook, New York Jets, Quarterback
Jacon Foster, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tackle
Harrison Mevis, New York Jets, Kicker
Nate Noel, Indianapolis Colts, Running back
Albert Okwuegbunam, Las Vegas Raiders, Tight end
Cody Schrader, Los Angeles Rams, Running back
Theo Wease Jr., Miami Dolphins, Wide receiver
Kristian Williams, Denver Broncos, Defensive tackle

Injured List
Yasir Durant, T, New England Patriots
Ennis Rakestraw Jr., CB, Detroit Lions
Johnny Walker, OLB, Denver Broncos
Kristian Williams, DT, Denver Broncos

Reserve/Designated to Returm
Jaylon Carlies, LB, Indianapolis Colts

Practice Squads
Trystan Colon, C, Detroit Lions
Brady Cook, QB, New York Jets
Marcellus Johnson, OT, Indianapolis Colts
Harrison Mevis, K, New York Jets
Albert Okwuegbunam Jr., TE, Las Vegas Raiders
Cody Schrader, RB, Los Angeles Chargers
Theo Wease Jr., WR, Miami Dolphins

Profootballnetork.com’s Piiyanshu Choudhary has a good explanation of what practice squad members are paid:

Close to 1,000 players hit the free agent market simultaneously, allowing teams to stock up on depth pieces at positions of need. All practice squad players are eligible to make the team on game day, giving coaches some flexibility with their lineups. But what is the compensation for the players on these practice squads? How much do they earn for the role? And what are the rules that govern their standing across the NFL?

NFL Practice Squad Salaries

The NFL separates players on the practice squad into two distinct categories. Any member with two or fewer years of experience falls into the first group, while those with more than two years of experience fall into the other category.

For the relatively newcomers to the league, the weekly salary amounts to $13,000 in 2025, as agreed upon by the Collective Bargaining Agreement. However, that number is not static and continues to increase each year.

2025: $13,000
2026: $13,750
2027: $14,500
2028: $15,250
2029: $16,000
2030: $16,750

The salary is also defined by the CBA for players who qualify in the veteran portion of the agreement. However, their value can be set within a specified range rather than a fixed number, depending on what their agents can negotiate.

That designation falls in the $17,500 to $22,000 range for the 2025 season. However, like the previous list, these numbers continue to grow until the current CBA’s extension of 2030.

2025: $17,500 – $22,000
2026: $18,350 – $22,850
2027: $19,200 – $23,700
2028: $20,900 – $25,400
2029: $20,900 – $25,400
2030: $21,750 – $26,250

How Many Players Can Be on an NFL Practice Squad?

The first unofficial practice squad was established in 1946, courtesy of Cleveland Browns head coach Paul Brown. Four years later, the NFL made it official for each franchise to have a practice squad.

In 1993, the official count for players on the practice squad was limited to five, courtesy of the CBA. However, that number doubled to 10 in April 2004 and remained stagnant til 2019. The onset of COVID-19 led to a change once again, with the pool expanding to 16 players.

This year, though, that number is taking another slight bump, with 17 total players allowed on the roster. However, two further guidelines are in place for the squad’s constituents.

One player must be a member of the NFL’s International Pathway Program. Of the remaining 16 players, at least 10 should qualify for the two-year or less criteria in relation to their experience in the league.

Each week, teams have a chance of locking in four players to protect them from making a different team’s active roster. However, a team can only activate a player twice before giving him an official contract.

Who Is Eligible To Be on an NFL Practice Squad?

Not all players are eligible to be on an NFL team’s practice squad. Rookies cannot be placed on the practice squad. Additionally, players on the active list for fewer than nine regular-season games during their only accrued NFL season are also ineligible.

When players are elevated from the practice squad on game days, they count toward the 48-player limit each roster must present.

Only two practice-squad players can be elevated for the same game, and players can only be elevated three times until they need to be signed onto the active roster.

ESPN adds more information:

What does an average day look like for a member of an NFL practice squad?

He does everything an active player would during the week. He practices, does film work and eats meals at the team facility. He travels with the team for road games. But on game day, he’s in street clothes unless he gets called up.

Can NFL practice squad members get traded? How much stability do they have?

Only players on the active roster can be traded. But teams can sign a practice squad player for one week, only to release him the next.

What happens to NFL practice squad members at the end of the season?

Practice squads are only active during the regular season and postseason. Once the season is over, practice squad members are typically signed to reserve/futures contracts by their teams. With those contracts, players can be members of the team’s offseason roster at the start of the new league year in March. Most practice squad contracts automatically terminate one week after the team’s final game of the regular season or postseason.

Do NFL practice squad members receive Super Bowl rings?

Per the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, practice squad members are entitled to Super Bowl rings, though they may be of lesser value than the rings their full-time active counterparts receive on the team.

And finally, from fluentrugby.com:

NFL practice squad players receive a range of benefits including pension (if they play at least 3 seasons), player insurance, 401(k) and disability payments.

NFL practice squad players receive the following benefits:

Player insurance – Practice squad NFL players receive Medical, Dental, Vision, Prescription Drug, and Life Insurance.
401(k) – NFL practice squad members can defer salary and place it in their 401(k) where they make tax free investments.
Disability plan – NFL practice squad players receive a range of different disability payments and support.

(CHIEFS)—Brazil gets a taste of Chiefs football when Kansas City opens its season against the Los Angeles Chargers in Arena Corinthians in Sao Paolo, Brazil. The Chiefs are no stranger to taking NFL football into foreign countries but this will be their first game in South America. The game is on ESPN and can be streamed with an app.

Receiver Rashee Rice will miss the first six games as he pays a suspension penalty for his reckless driving crash that injured people in other cars last year. He’ll play his first game on October 19^th against the Raiders. He is barred from the team practice facility until preparations for that game.

(BASEBALL)—Holy Smokes, folks! There are only 23 games left in the regular baseball season! The Royals are only three games out of a wild card playoff position. The Cardinals are 5½ games out. Detroit shut out the Royals Sunday on only four hits and kept KC from pulling within two games of the wildcard.

(CARDINALS)—Michael McGreevy is emerging as a potential Cardinals star next year. His win in an unusual game on Saturday makes him 6-2. How he got that sixth win is historic. For the first time since 2009 the Cardinals won a game in their pitchers recorded zero strikeouts. McGreevy and three relievers inducted 17 groundouts and beat the Reds 4-2.

Sunday, the Cardinals struck out 15 times in dropping a 7-4 game that kept them from getting back to .500. They have split their last ten games and started the week 68-70.

(ROYALS)—Kansas City also has split their last ten and started this week with the reverse of the Cardinals at 70-68.

Going a longways to get back to where you started—

(INDYCAR)—Josef Newgarden has ended his most difficult IndyCar season with a win in the last race of the year, only the second victories in 17 races for Team Penske. Newgarden broke an uncharacteristic twenty-race winless streak He held off series champion Alex Palou for the last eleven laps on his hometown oval in Nashville.

He picked up the guitar trophy for winning the Music City Grand Prix. Palou received the Astor Challenge Cup for the fourth time, the third time in a row, for being the national champion and Louis Foster shaded Indianapolis 500 pole-sitter Robert Schwartzman for Rookie of the Year.

Newgarden teammate Scott McLaughlin equaled his second best with his third third-place finish to put two Penske drivers on the podium for only the second time this year.

IndyCar racing, known for its high-speed competition, recorded a dozen leaders, twenty lead changes, and 284 passes for position in the 225-lap race.

But IndyCar is done for the year now. Not until next March 1 when IndyCar’s 31^st season begins on the streets of St. Petersburg. It also will be the 115^th year when a champion of American open-wheel racing will be crowned.

(WHITHER POWER IN ’26)—The biggest question about who will drive for who next year is waiting for one big decision from Penske Racing and whether its senior driver, Will Power, will sign a new contract or will move on. David Malukis, who has driven for A. J. Foyt Racing is being talked about Power’s heir-apparent at Penske.

Power had the best year of any Penske driver this year. He finished eighth in the points; Mclaughlin was tenth and Newgarden was 16^th. Power had one of the two poles won by Penske this year and, until Newgarden’s season-ending win last weekend, had the team’s only win.

The end of the race and the end of the season came just before a meeting with team owner Roger Penske from which he emerged still not knowing if he’ll have a contract for next year. But it’s clear from reports and from his emotional reactions at the end of the race and at the end of the meeting that he seems to have accepted the idea that he’ll be moving on.

He told reporters, “Either way, no matter what happens, Roger has been extremely good to me. Very, very good to me. I’ve been lucky for the chance to win championships, Indy 500, a lot of races, poles. So whatever happens, I think I was so lucky to drive for Roger Penske.”

It’s been quite a ride—the 2018 Indianapolis 500, forty other race wins, a record 71 pole positions and two championships. Power will be 45 about the time the next season starts. Malukis is 23. Only Scott Dixon is older among active IndyCar Drivers. Dixon, a six-time champion who trails only A. J. Foyt in total victories will be 45 next year. Dixon, like Power, has driven for only one team throughout his IndyCar career.

(NASCAR)—Chase Briscoe is making the most of his off-season move from the now-defunct Stewart-Haas team to Joe Gibbs Racing, picking up his second win of the year at an opportune time—the first race in the playoffs. The race celebrating the 75^th Southern 500 at Darlington scrambled the playoff standings with only Briscoe, Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin finishing in the top ten. Only six of the sixteen drivers finish in the top 15.

Briscoe, who drives the only car sponsored by a Missouri company in the Cup Series, also has won five poles this year and narrowly lost his sixth one to Denny Hamlin, led 307 of the 367 laps two win his second straight race at “the track too tough to tame.” The last time anyone won two straight races at Darlington was when Greg Biffle did it in 2005 and 2006.

Two more races remain before the field is cut to a dozen drivers. Last year’s champion, Joey Logano is three points below the cutline, followed by Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman and Josh Berry.

(Photo credits: Power—Bob Priddy; Newgarden—IndyCar; Pribula—Instagram; Briscoe car—Rick Gevers; Rice—Kansas City Chiefs)

Sports: Football Time, Ready or Not; Baseball Lingers; a Second Season for one Racing Series and the End Nears for Another

Posted on August 26, 2025 by bpriddy

by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

Next week, we’ll be telling you about the real start of the football season. Here’s where somethings stand in the days before the start of one season emphasizes the short life left for another one.

(MIZFB)—The Missouri Tigers will start the season with two starting quarterbacks next weekend. One will start the first half and the other will start the second half.

(MIZ-STATE)—Missouri State is taking a big step this year, moving into the top tier of college football. The Bears make their debut in the really big time with a game next weekend against the Southern Cal Trojans.

(LINCFB)—Lincoln University moves fully into the Great Lakes Valley Conference, hoping to be more competitive that anytime in recent memory. Lincoln was 1-10 last year

Former Blue Tiger “Leapin’ LeMar” Parrish has been elected to the Cincinnati Bengals Ring of Honor Parrish, who played for Lincoln 1966-69.

The Bengals’ announcement of his honor summarizes his career:

Parrish, known as “Leapin’ Lemar,” is remembered by fans as one of the most athletically gifted and exciting players in team history. Recognized for his charismatic personality and flashy attire in the 1970s, his play was just as electrifying. He remains the franchise’s highest scoring defensive player, with touchdown returns recorded on four interceptions, four punts, three fumbles and one kickoff. He boasted an 18.8-yard punt return average in 1974, which still is the best mark by any player in a season since the 1970 NFL/AFL merger. His 90-yard punt return against Washington that season is the second-longest in Bengals history, and it occurred in the same game he returned a fumble recovery 47 yards for a TD. Parrish tallied 25 INTs as a member of the Bengals, the fifth-most in team history, then went on to record 22 more during stints with Washington and Buffalo. His six Pro Bowl selections (1970-71, ’74-77) are the second-most ever by a Bengals defensive player. Parrish is one of six cornerbacks with at least eight Pro Bowls and the only one not in the NFL Hall of Fame.

Parrish joins another Bengal great, Dave Lapham, in joining the Ring of Honor. You can find of interviews of the two men at https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-litmus-caerus&ei=UTF-8&hsimp=yhs-caerus&hspart=litmus&p=lemarr+parrish&type=1476589-vsub-2_25083_2_E0_V_nwtb3#id=7&vid=751e53a6ab0fc80ef86aea0e84314657&action=click

His part of the interview begins at 25:12. Parrish also was he head football coach at his alma mater for four seasons.

Parrish played for Coach Dwight T. Reed, for whom the Lincoln Stadium is named. Reed won 135 of Lincoln’s 248 total wins. He lost only 76 of the 453 school losses. His teams played six of the university’s 25 football ties.

(BASEBALL)—The Royals are surging. The Cardinals are drifting.

(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals beat Detroit 10-8 Sunday to avoid a series sweep by the Tigers and to end their five=game winning streak. The win leaves the Royals, winners of seven of their last ten, 67-64, in second place in their division heading into a new week.

Taking the loss for Detroit was former Cardinals star Jack Flaherty, who drops to 7-13. Flaherty had one of his worst outings of the year, giving up seven straight hits that resulted in six Royals runs in the third inning. KC, 7-3 in their last ten games, is three games above .500, in second place in their division.

Royals veteran Salvador Perez no longer has the major league record for most home runs in a season by a player who is primarily a catcher. Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh, who is on a pace to beat Aaron Judge’s American League record of 62 homers, hit his 48^th and 49^th home run Sunday, breaking his tie with Perez, who hit 48 in 2021.

(CARDINALS)—Cardinals shortstop Masyn Wynn got his second MRI on his left knee in the last two months yesterday.

He did not play Sunday. Wynn says the MRI in July “showed a little something,” and added, “I’m assuming this one’s going to show a little more.” Regardless of the results, he says he’ll “play through it and suck it up.” He says the Cardinals still have a shot at the playoffs “so I want to be out there and playing shortstop as much as I can.”

The Cardinals’ chances of making the playoffs do not appear promising, though. Their Sunday loss to Tampa Bay dropped them to 64-67, five and a half games out of the last wild card playoff slot. It was their eighth loss in their last eleven games.

Cardinals Nation is not taking this season well. The average attendance is its lowest since 1984 as the team continues to be on a track for a mediocre season at best and heads toward the Labor Day weekend showing no signs of breaking out.

Speaking of being on a track—

(INDYCAR)—It has been 39 IndyCar races since the series saw a first-time winner. But Christian Rasmussen stopped that string with a stirring late-race run to win the next-to-last IndyCar race of the year, on the ancient Milwaukee mile.

Rasmussen pitted when a few drops of rain oozed out of the sky and caused a caution flag late in the race.

While race leaders Alex Palou, Scott McLaughlin, and Josef Newgarden stayed out to hold their track positions, Rasmussen and the rest of the field got new tires before getting back on the track with about forty laps to go. Within twenty laps the better grip of the new tires had allowed Rasmussen to catch Palou, swoop past him and pull away to a two-second lead at the end.

Rasmussen, who is in his second year at the top level of American open-wheel competition, had his first career podium finish a few weeks ago at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis. He has posted his first victory in his 30^th IndyCar race.

Rasmussen, who drives for Ed Carpenter Racing, outran three drivers from two of the series powerhouses—Palou, who drives for Chip Ganassi Racing, and McLaughlin and Newgarden, who drive for Penske. His win is the first for ECR in more than four years—since Rinus VeeKay won on the Indianapolis Speedway road course in May, 2021.

Palou’s runer-up finish means he no longer has chance of equaling A. J. Foyt’s record of ten victories in a season. Palou has eight wins and a dozen top-three finishes in sixteen races this year.

The IndyCar season wraps up next weekend in Nashville.

(NASCAR-I)—Sixteen NASCAR drivers start their new season next weekend. No matter where the rest of the drivers are in the points now or how many races they win in the next three months, the highest any of them will finish will be 17^th.

Ryan Blaney, the Cup champion two years ago, is headed to the ten-race championship runoff on a high after winning the regular seasons concluding race at Daytona Saturday night. His win is the first for Ford since Blaney won in Nashville on June 1.

Blaney shook off a mediocre start this year to finish second in the regular season points. He’ll go into the first playoff race on a roll, with five straight top-ten finishes including the Daytona win.

Two drivers without wins this year have made the sixteen car field==Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman. Blaney finished behind William Byron in the regular season championship points standings. He will start the playoffs as the fourth seed.

Fourteen drivers have victories this year that locked them into the playoffs. If a driver who had not previously won a race this year had won at Daytona Saturday night, Alex Bowman would not have had enough points for the playoffs.

Here are the sixteen drivers who will start the championship run next weekend:

(Left to right: Alex Boman, Josh Berry, Ross Chastian, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Shane Van Gisbergen—the NASCAR Cup—Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon, Tyler Reddick.

The first three-race elimination round begins next weekend at Darlington. The next playoff race after that is at World Wide Technology Raceway, a few minutes across the river from St. Louis. It’s the first NASCAR playoff race to be held at that track, which has been steadily gaining in importance for NASCAR since owner Curtis Francois kept it from being sold for redevelopment, and reopened it in 2011.

The field of sixteen will be reduced to eight after the next three races. Three more races will eliminate half of those drivers and the next three will leave only two who can race for the championship—-regardless of where they are in the season points standings.

That’s a sore point for some in the garages as well as some in the grandstands, especially after Joey Logano won his third championship last year when he would have been 15th in points if there had been no playoffs. Logano made the playoffs with one win in the regular season but won the title with three wins in the playoffs.

(NASCAR-II)—A big change for Trackhouse Racing was announced before the Daytona Race. Connor Zillish will replace Daniel Suarez. Zilisch is moving up from the NASCAR send tier to join Ross Chastain and Shane Van Gisbergen after having a strong season this year with JR motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team and is the points leader in that series.

He broke his collarbone in a fall after climbing out of the cockpit to celebrate a win. He drove in Friday night’s Daytona race with s plate in his collarbone, was replaced during the race by Parker Kligerman, who became the first relief driver in 18 years to win a NASAR race.

In the record books, though, the win is Zilisch’s because he started the race in the car. Officially Kligerman remains winless in 122 races but he’ll take Zilisch’s place in the JR Motorsports car next year.

Zilisch is just 19 and already has co-driven cars to class victories in the Daytona 24 Hours and the Sebring 12 Hours.

(Photo credits: Parrish—Cincinnati Bengals; Winn—MLB; Rasmussen car—Rick Gevers; Rasmussen and Blaney—Bob Priddy; Playoff field—NASCAR)

Sports: Ho-Hum Baseball; Chiefs start; Tigers undecided; Sophie Steps Up; and the fast stuff.

Posted on August 12, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BASEBALL)—Neither of our teams has caught any fire since the end of the trading deadline. This year, more than most, it is likely a lot of fans are excited about the advent of the football season more than they are about the how the Cardinals and the Royals are slouching toward the season’s end.

We went back to the All-Star break to see if the trading deadline (or anything else) has done anything to make the blood flow more rapidly. And the answer is a big fat NOPE.

Cardinals, at the break, were 51-46. As of the end of the weekend they had staggered to 58-60, a record of 9-13. The Royals were 47-50. Now they are 58-60 now, a record of 11-10, better than the Cardinals but basically becalmed.

So let’s look at something more entertaining. Such as—

(Sophie)—Former MU women’s basketball great Sophie Cunningham has turned the arrival at the Indiana Fever’s dressing room before a game into a red-carpet photo shoot. She’s glamourous and she likes to dress in camera-stopping styles.

With Caitlin Clark out and injuries last weekend to two other key Fever players, more weight has been put on her shoulders to not only be a team enforcer but a team on-floor leader. She was all of that last weekend against the Chicago Sky when she led the way with 18 points and added three rebounds, two assists, and a steal, with only one and a turnover

(FOOTBALL)—The Chiefs have played their first exhibition game and used it to let a lot of guys do some exhibiting. Coach Reid had said the starters would play about a quarter. The Chiefs got a short field and scored on their first three plays in the game, producing an early exit for Patrick Mahomes and the first unit. The Chiefs lost to the Cardinals 17-14.

(MIZ)—The Missouri Tigers aren’t exciting the national pollsters as they head into their first game unranked this year. They finished 22^nd last year but in both the sportswriters and the coaches’ poll, they don’t make the top 25.

Missouri has four teams ranked on the pre-seasons polls on the schedule this year: Alabama (8), Oklahoma (18), South Carolina (13), and Texas A&M (19).

The Tigers held their second scrimmage of the fall camp last weekend. Coach Drinkwitz saw no separation between the two players competing for starting quarterback—Sam Horn and Beau Pribula, and felt other segments of the offense and defense still need polishing before the Central Arkansas Bears provide the first test of hitting people from other teams on August 28.

(MIZZALUMNI)—From time to time we’ll catch up on former Tigers in the NFL and check on whether they make the squad this year.

There’s bad news about linebacker Ennis Rakestraw, who’s out for the season after suffering a shoulder injury during the first workout for the Detroit Lions. He only played eight games last year because of a hamstring injury. He’s had surgery on his shoulder.

MIZZBIZ)—With college football increasingly becoming a cash enterprise, schools are hiring people for jobs most fans could never have imagined just a few years ago. Case in point: Tigers football has added Gaurav Verma as the Director of Football Strategy and Finance. He’ll figure out how Missouri can get the most bang for its bucks in recruiting talent. He won’t recruit, he’ll just deal with the financial part of today’s college football recruiting. His most recent credential explains a good deal of what he’s going to do at Missouri: Salary cap specialist with the Denver Broncos. He has an MBA from MIT. ($OU)

Moving right along. Rapidly.

(INDYCAR)—A couple of major story lines come out of the Grand Prix of Portland IndyCar race this weekend: a race winner at last and a champion again.

Let’s talk about the race winner, Will Power, the first Penske driver this year to win a race in the series owned by Roger Penske, the senior driver on the team and one whose contract runs out at the end of the season.

First: The three-driver Penske program has suffered through a miserable year of mistakes, rules violations, and mediocre finishes. How difficult has it been for the team known for its dominance of the sport? In 45 combined races this year, Power has the only win and one of three poles (at Worldwide Technology Raceway). The three drivers have accumulated only twenty top ten finishes and only a dozen top fives, including the win for Power at Portland. The three drivers have led only 490 of the 1,980 laps run in those fifteen races. By contrast, this year’s champion (more about him later) has led 568.

Power is sixth in the points standings this year. Teammates Scott McLaughlin are 6^th and 18^th, respectively.

Power is 44. Only Scott Dixon, at 45 is older among active IndyCar drivers. He’s won the national championship twice and the Indianapolis 500 once. He has started from the pole 71 times, the all time championship car record. His 45 wins are the fourth-most ever, trailing only A. J. Foyt (67), Dixon (59, including Mid-Ohio this year), and Mario Andretti (52).

Power shook off discussions of his future with Penske after the race.

The second story belongs to the driver who finished third in the race, Alex Palou. He accumulated enough points to guarantee his fourth series championship in the last five years. His nearest competitor for the title, pole-winner Pato O’Ward saw his distance chances disappear when his car developed an electrical problem and he finished the day eight laps behind Power, in 25^th place.

Palou, who is 28, will run the remaining two races in the IndyCar series this year with the “champion” sticker on his rear spoiler. He has won the last three championships. He is the only Spaniard to win a national championship in open-wheel racing in this country. In May, he became the first driver from Spain to win the Indianapolis 500.

He has put together one of the most dominant years in IndyCar history. He has won eight of the fifteen races and finished second twice. It has been a remarkably consistent year with finishes in the top ten 13 times, 12 of those times in the top five.

Only A.J. Foyt (7) and Dixon (6) have more championships.

(NASCAR)—Watkins Glen is a road course—-and that’s fresh meat for Shane von Gisbergen, who has won four road and street races this year. He joined Denny Hamlin as the winner of four races in the series this year. The closest competitor at the end, Christopher Bell, was a distant 11.2 second back.

(Photo credits: Sophie—Bob Priddy; Power—Rick Gevers; Palou—Indycar; Rakestraw–Detroit News)

Sports: Trades but no immediate gains; Stadiums suit; History on the track

Posted on August 5, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

Neither of our major league teams found any blocks to bust in the late-season trading period. But both got a little help and some possible future performers.

(ROYALS TRADES)—Backup Kansas City Royals catcher Freddy Fermin has been traded to San Diego for a couple of pitching prospects. The Royals get pitchers Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek, both of who started games last week. Kolek has made fourteen starts this year and comes over with a 4.18 ERA. Bergert is a reliever who has a 2.78 ERA and is averaging almost one strikeout per inning this year.

Fermin had been the backup to Salvador Perez behind the plate. No replacement for Fermin has been announced by the team as we go to press.

Kansas City got a last-minute deal done to strengthen its outfield defense by getting Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski, a 34-year old veteran hitting .231 this year. He’s the son of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, he great Boston Red Sox outfielder. The Giants get minor league pitcher Yunior Marte from the Royals.

That deal paid off quickly for KC on Friday night when Yastrzemski homered in his first game in Royal Blue helping the Royals win for the seventh time in their last ten games and reach the .500 mark for the first time in a month.

Saturday, KC moved some of its player chess pieces around, adding Bergert and pitcher Baily Falter to the active roster, optioning Jonathan Bowlan to Omaha, and designating pitcher Thomas Hatch for assignment.

They had gotten Falter in their trade with the Pirates that gave Pittsburgh first baseman prospect Callan Moss and reliever Evan Sisk. .

Hatch had been cut loose by the Pirates after the 2023 season and spent the last couple of years playing in Japan. He signed a minor league deal with KC after the Hiroshima Toyo Carp announced he wouldn’t be retained this year. He was added to the Royals roster on June 5^th and DFA’d the next day. Nobody else wanted him so he was sent down to Omaha before returning July 29. He pitched one inning and gave up two runs before his latest demotion.

The Royals started this week back at .500 for the first time since June 30

(DOWNHILL)—It didn’t take long for the Royals to decide a 45-year old journeyman pitcher couldn’t cut it with his 14^th major league team. Rich Hill was designated for assignment last week after two starts, both of which were no-decisions and the last of which was worth only four innings and led to some of the pitching staff’s 14 walks in a game. In his two starts, he pitched nine innings, gave up five earned runs (seven overall) on nine hits.

Hill has asked to become a free agent instead of going back to Omaha.

Hatch took his place on the roster, but only briefly.

The Royals pitching staff is pretty lean now with Bubic out, probably for the year with a rotator cuff injury, and Cole Ragans (also with a rotator cuff strain) and Michael Lorenzen on the IL with a left oblique strain.

(CARDINALS)—-The Cardinals were not as active as some expected as the trading deadline rushed toward them, making some potential upside trades by unloading some expiring contract players. Some position players considered possible trades remain with the club, leaving St. Louis with some attractive bait for off-season and free agent acquisitions. Nolan Arenado and his no-trade clause remain in St. Louis.

Just a year after Ryan Helsley set a Cardinals record with 49 saves, he has been sent to the Mets with St. Louis getting three minor leaguers that are considered guys with solid futures: shortstop Jesus Baez and right-handed pitchers Nate Dohm and Frank Elissalt.

Although he’s been a closer for St. Louis, he’s expected to be the setup man for Edward Diaz in New York. He worked his first game as a Met on Friday night, pitched one inning, allowed to hits but struck out the side in his 37^th appearance of the year. His ERA dropped to 2.92.

Helsley’s departure leaves the Cardinals with JoJo Romero as their best closer option. But he’s also the only left-handed reliever, so Manager Oil Marmol has indicated the Redbirds will use the committee approach to close out games the rest of the way this year.

The key player for the Cardinals in this trade is Baez, a shortstop who is the Mets’ number five prospect and ranked 92^nd in all of major league baseball. He’s hitting .242 after 75 games in the minors this year. He’s played other infield positions, too.

The Cardinals also got rid of reliever Steven Matz, shipping him to Boston for one of the top prospects in the Red Sox farm system,

Blaze Jordan, who is 22, a five-year minor leaguer with a career average of .291 with 55 homers and 303 RBI. This year he has hit .308 in double and triple-A, with a dozen home runs and 62 RBI. The Cardinals also like the fact that he strikes out only ten percent of the time.

He first attracted public attention when he was a kid. When he was 11, he hit a homer that went 395 feet. At thirteen, he hit one that came down 500 feet away from the batter’s box.

Shortly before the trade deadline, the Cardinals sent reliever Phil Maton to the Texas Rangers. Maton was having the best year of his career, with 40 calls from the pen, 48 Ks in 38.1 innings and a 2.35 ERA. In return, the Cardinals get some promising minor leaguers; pitchers Mason Molina, a starter, and reliver Skylar Hayes. Molina is in High-A and Hayes is in Triple-A.

After the wheeling and dealing was finished, the Cardinals lost for the eighth time in their last eleven games Sunday to drop below .500 at the start of this week.

(FEDDE)—It took just 4 2/3 innings for the Atlanta Braves to learn why the St. Louis Cardinals dumped Erik Fedde. Pitching against the Royals last week, Fedde gave up four earned runs on five hits (one being a home run). He struck out three in his first appearance.

(FOOTBALL POLITICS)—Whether the Chiefs and the Royals stay in Missouri has been thrown into some additional uncertainty by the filing of a lawsuit that challenges recent legislative action providing state funding to keep them from moving to Kansas.

Two state senators, Mike Moon and Bryant Wolfin have been joined by property rights activist Ron Calzone in filing suit saying legislation providing financial help is unconstitutional. Their suit challenges the proposed state funding as a “direct gift or bribe to the owners of the Chiefs and the Royals.”

The legislation commits the state to issue bonds to pay for as much as one-half of the costs of renovating Arrowhead Stadium and building a new stadium for the Royals. Tax revenue generated by the teams would help pay off the bonds.

Kansas is promising to issue bonds paying up to 70% for new stadiums if the teams move across the state line.

Negotiations involving the two states and the two teams are continuing. The legislature meets in September to consider overriding any of Governor Kehoe’s vetoes of bills from the regular session that ended in May. Kehoe could convene a concurrent special session to pass a bill answering the court challenges but it is too early to make that decision.

The Chiefs play their first pre-season game next Saturday.

(UFL)—The United Football League is going to look different next spring but the changes do not directly affect the St. Louis Battlehawks.

The new man in charge of league business operations, Mike Repole, has announced at least two teams and maybe all four of the USFL franchises will be moved—the Memphis Showboats, Hosuton Roughnecks, Birmingham Stallions, and the Michigan Panthers. The Michigan Panthers won their division this year but lost the DC Defenders in the championship game, which was played in the St. Louis dome in March. The only new market confirmed so far is Columbus, Ohio although the league has trademarked four team names from the original UFL: Oakland Invaders, Philadelphia Stars, New Jersey Generals, and Tampa Bay Bandits.

Repole candidly admits attendance is one reason new markets are being sought. Last year, the Battlehawks drew about 30,000 fans per game but the rest averaged five-to-twelve thousand.

The XFL franchises, which include St. Louis, have not been mentioned for any changes. The Battlehawks’ division includes teams from Houston, San Antonio, and Arlington, Texas and the Defenders.

Repole says the league does not expect to expand for 2026 but he sees 10-12 teams within the next five years and 16 within the next decade.

Off to the Races:

(INDYCAR)—A major change in IndyCar and its premier event, the Indianapolis 500—Roger Penske has sold one-third interest in the racing series to FOX Sports for a reported $130 million. The move is described as “a strategic investment and partnership designed to launch new growth for IndyCar.” The deal includes an extension of the broadcast rights that FOX now holds as its first season of broadcasting IndyCar races begins to wind down.

Observers consider the arrangement to be part of Penske’s succession plan. He’s 88 now and still heavily involved in the operations of his sprawling business empire that fields teams in four top-level motor sports series, his trucking company, and a number of car dealerships as well as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar series. The speedway and the series are the only Penske operations that are now partly owned by FOX.

Penske bought the Speedway and the IndyCar series in 2019 and has poured millions of dollars into that ownership. Some voices, however, who admire him as a businessman don’t see the kind of promoter that they believe IndyCar needs. They think Penske Entertainment, the division that manages the racing partners, has taken a major step to be more entertaining and thus expand the open-wheel racing audience.

Although IndyCar does not run any races in Missouri, it has several within driving distances of various areas of our state with races just across the river in Illinois, in southern Iowa, Nashville, and (for a little longer drive) at the Circuit of the Americas near Austin, Texas. And, of course, Indianapolis twice in May.

(NASCAR)—NASCAR was on the track in Iowa this weekend with William Byron stretching his fuel just far enough to win with three closes competitors also trying to reach the finish on their available fuel.

Most teams expected to get about 110 laps on the .875 mile track but Byron and his closest competitors got about 130, thanks in part to some caution flags that slowed the field and increased fuel mileage. A dozen cautions that covered 72 of the race’s 350 laps—21 of the last 100–helped drivers squeeze the last drop from their tanks.

It’s Byron’s second win of the year. He also won the season opening Daytona 500.

Chase Briscoe, who started on pole for the fifth time this year and the second race in a row, was about 1.2 seconds back, just ahead of Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, and Ryan Preece.

Only three races are left in the regular season. Thirteen drivers have locked in positions for the 16 positions for the championship run-off. Three non-winners are in the field on points: Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, and Chris Buescher. The three closest to them, Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, and A. J. Allmendinger are among those far enough below the cutline that they need a win to claim a spot in the championship round.

(Photo credits: Yastrzemski—Facebook; Jordan—Baseball Prospect Journal; Baez—Redbird Rants; Penske—Bob Priddy); Byron–NASCAR)

Sports: Lows and highs at Mizzou; Chiefs Lock In Two, Third Escapes Lockup; Bad Baseball, And More.

Posted on July 22, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZBB)—It might be the dawn of Tiger football season but the big Mizzou sports story of the week is with the roundballers. And it is a really big deal.

Guard Jason Crowe Junior also had been courted by UCLA, USC, and Kentucky. It’s a verbal commitment. Signing day isn’t until November so he could bolt.

247 sports ranks him as the sixth best player in the class of 2026. He’s from Inglewood, Califoornia, 6-3 with arms of a player two inches taller. He’s considered so good that some see him going to the NBA after one season at Missouri.

He’s the second-best recruit in Tiger basketball history. Number one is Michael Porter Jr., whose career didn’t turn out too well because of injuries.

(MIZFB1)—When former Tiger wide receiver Luther Burden I11 unexpectedly dropped off the list of first round NFL draft picks, he said, “That’s staying with me forever. Everybody who passed up on me gotta pay.”

But first, the team that took him as the 39^th overall pick is GOING to pay. The Chicago Bears have signed Burden to a guaranteed eleven million dollar contract. He is the first 39^th pick in the NFL draft to sign a guaranteed deal.

(MIZFB2)—Once again, the Southeastern Conference media have picked Missouri to be in the lower tier of the football standings this year.

Twelfth, to be exact.

The Tigers play eight conference games, five against teams ranked higher: Alabama is third; South Carolina is ranked fifth. Texas A&M ranks number 8 with Oklahoma tenth. Auburn is forecast to finish one slot above Missouri. Below Missouri are Vanderbilt (13^th), Arkansas (14), and Mississippi State, picked for last, at 16^th.

The sportswriters think left guard Cayden Green is a first-team all-conference player. Wide receiver Kevin Coleman has been picked for the third team.

Here’s how the fulltime sports writers think the conference will look at the end (first place votes in parenthesis:

Texas (96)
Georgia (44)
Alabama (29)
LSU (20)
South Carolina (5)
Florida (2)
Ole Miss (1)
Texas A&M
Tennessee (1)
Oklahoma (3)
Auburn (1)
Missouri
Vanderbilt (2)
Arkansas
Kentucky
Mississippi State

Vanderbilt got TWO first-place votes???

Missouri starts its fall practices one week from today.

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs start their pre-season camp today in St. Joseph. They’ll have wide receiver Rashee Rice on hand but they don’t yet know how much of the season he will miss. Rice has avoided a serious prison sentence with a plea bargain growing out of his big traffic crash in Dallas in 2024 that will put him on probation for five years and let him serve thirty days in jail at his convenience. He also has paid the medical bills of those he hurt, about $115,000 worth.

The NFL has not yet announced what IT plans to do about him, but a multi-game suspension appears to be looming—the Chiefs think he’ll be gone for two to five games. The Chiefs, however, are not totally without speedy wide receivers. This year’s fourth-round pick, Jalen Royals is on the depth chart behind Rice, Xavier Worthy, and Marquise Brown.

A few days ago the Chiefs made sure two key players on the line would be around for several more years—offensive lineman Trey Smith and defensive end George Karlaftis.

Smith, originally a sixth-round draft pick, is the highest-paid player in his position in the whole NFL—$94 million for four years, with $70 million guaranteed.

George Karlaftis, a number one draft pick in 2022 and an immediate impact player at defensive end also is locked up for four more years. He gets $92 million with $62 million guaranteed.

(BASEBALL)—This wasn’t the post-All Star Game start that either of our MLB teams wanted. They went 1-5, the Cardinals being swept by the Diamondbacks and the Royals salvaging a win in the third game against the Marlins.

The Royals, behind a couple of Salvador Perez home runs, clubbed the cubs last night 12-4. Joe Caglianone and John Rave also joined the power show.

The Royals have the oldest player in the major leagues on the mound tonight—Rich Hill, who is 45, has been called up from Omaha. He was drafted by the Cubs in 1999 and made his major league debut in 2005. The Royals will be his fourteenth major league team. That ties him with Edwin Jackson as the player who has been part of the most major league teams in their careers. Jackson did it by the time he was 35, a decade younger than Hill.

Hill has made nine starts for Omaha this year and has lasted 42 innings. He has struck out 61 batters but has an ERA of 5.36. He’s 90-74 in his big league career.

The Cardinals opened a series last night against the Rockies who are headed for the worst season in modern MLB history. They’s won only 24 of their first 100 games after losing to the Cardinals 6-2. The Cardinals racked Colorado pitching for fifteen hits, to get back to three games over .500 at 52-49. Michael McGreevy went seven solid innings in his latest callup from Memphis.

If the Rockies can improve to win eighteen of their next 44 games, they will avoid breaking last year’s modern baseball loss record, 121 games, set by the White Sox.

The Cardinals have a chance to pour it on tonight as they face Colorado’s Bradley Blalock who has lost both of his decisions this year and has a 9.97 ERA. But that means the disappointing Erick Fedde will have to avoid losing his tenth game of the year (he has three wins) and should lower his 4.83 ERA.

Now, the More:

(INDYCAR)—It’s starting to develop into the Palou and Pato show in Indycar with Pato O’Ward’s win at Toronto

Monterey, CA – during the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey in Monterey, California. (Photo by Joe Skibinski | IMS Photo)

O’Ward’s win cuts Alex Palou’s championship points lead by thirty. It’s his second win in eight days; he and Palou split visits to victory lane in the to races at Iowa the weekend before.

The Toronto race course winds its way for 1.786 curvy (11 curves) miles through downtown Toronto. The race produced the most on-track passes (226) since the 2014 event and the most passes for position (201) for position since the 2019 race.

Palou finished twelfth at Toronto. O’Ward was joined on the podium by two guys not familiar with the ceremony—Rinus Veekay, who hasn’t had a top-three finish since 2022, and Kyffin Simpson, who’s never been there in his two years in the series.

Palou still leads by 99 points, though, a challenging figure for O’Ward to overcome in the four races remaining on the INDYCAR schedule.

The miserable season of INDYCAR’s most prestigious team added another chapter at Toronto. Scott McLaughlin went into the wall when a left rear lug nut came off on the second turn after a pit stop. He finished 26^th. Josef Newgarden was caught up in a crash that found the car of Jacob Abel on top of his, relegating him to 23^rd. Once again, the best finish for the Penske team was by Will Power, who finished 11^th after brushing a wall.

Santino Ferrucci finished 27^th, and last, although he did not start the race. He crashed in practice, damaging his car and injuring his right hand.

INDYCAR heads west to race at Laguna Seca next weekend.

(NASCAR)—THIS, I have to see to believe:

Your reporter is off to Indianapolis this coming weekend for the Brickyard 400, an annual trek we make. He’s gone to a lot of automobile races in his long life, but this one……

Last weekend, in a more normal setting, the CUP series was at Dover, where Denny Hamlin edged teammate Chase Briscoe for the win in a two-lap overtime shootout. The win is his fourth of the year, the best of all drivers in the series. It’s his 58^th career Cup win. Only Kyle Busch, with 63, has more victories among full-time drivers in the series. He needs two more to tie Kevin Harvick for tenth on the all-time winners list.

Hamlin was in charge late in the race until a rainstorm stopped the race with fewer than twenty laps to go. He got good jumps on the first two restarts after the track was dried, and got ahead of Brisco for the green-white-checker laps.

Chase Elliott, who led 238 of the 407 laps, couldn’t match Hamlin’s late run and dropped back to sixth at the end. But that was good enough to take the regular season points lead away from teammate William Byron.

The fight for the sixteenth playoff spot remains tight. Bubba Wallace is sixteen points ahead of Ryan Preece and 39 up on Kyle Busch with five races to go before the sixteen driver playoff field is set.

(Photo credits: Smith and Karlaftis—KC Chiefs; O’Ward—Indianapolis Motor Speedway; Hamlin—Rick Gevers; Cookie Monster—NASCAR)

NIL

Posted on June 18, 2025 by bpriddy

We don’t use the word “nil” very much in this country. And when somebody does—as in the score of a soccer game, one-nil—it is considered something of an affectation. On this side of the Atlantic we use “nothing.” Every now and then somebody says “zero” instead of “nil.”

I started writing this entry yesterday, just after breakfast. I’m glad I had already eaten because I saw Eli Hoff’s story in the Post-Dispatch that said my university had spent almost $32 million last year to buy athletes and I lost my appetite.

—-for collegiate sports.

Mizzou is spending a quarter of a billion dollars to put more seats into a facility that might fill them seven out of the next 365 days. And then it’s spending more than half of the Name-Image-Likeness money on the players who will perform on the field below regardless of whether they win.

Name Image Likeness came about because of a court decision that said universities have to compensate the athletes whose names, images, and likenesses appear on shirts, mock jerseys, programs, TV promotions for the athletic department, and so forth.

So schools bid for the thoroughbred players who, once signed, have no particular loyalty to the school and can bolt for a higher-paying job at another university as soon as the season is over. And the fan base, which is paying twice as much for season football tickets this year plus a healthy “gift” (in politics the phrase is “lug.”) that entitles them to park somewhere in Boone County, watches a team to whom institutional loyalty is minimized thanks to the transfer portal and education is secondary rather than post-secondary.

The phrase “student-athlete” is so Twentieth Century. The “athlete-student” is the name of the game these days, especially in the high-profile sports of football and basketball. If you’re a future Wimbledon winner, you might get a few financial crumbs to play tennis for some university, but don’t expect to be paid to appear in some goofy television commercial for a company that kicks in big bucks to buy the best football and basketball players.

But being paid some pretty good money to be a college athlete isn’t a bad deal. Some jocks will have some financial security before they enter the real world where most of them will not become professional-professional athletes, rather than professional amateurs. And a few, such as WNBA star Caitlin Clark, might have to take a salary reduction to turn pro.

The NCAA says that these paid athletes are still amateurs as far as it is concerned.

Three concluding points:

I’m proud of the degree I have from the University of Missouri and I do make modest membership contributions to the alumni association. But I’ll never buy a ticket for a university sporting event because the financial tail has outgrown the dog on many of our college campuses.

I admire the athletes who DON’T have one eye on the ball and the other on the transfer portal. But the portal game is a mercenary one and I won’t support it.

The NCAA might say these folks are amateurs, but the NCAA does not run the State of Missouri and the state is missing a good bet by not extending its Athletes and Entertainers Tax program to levy an income tax on visiting NIL-paid athletes who play here. The professional-professional athletes pay that tax. The million-dollar quarterback from Alabama or Georgie or Ohio State, etcetera, should contribute, too.

Now, there is a qualification to this spleen-letting this morning and it is this: NIL is a very complicated issue that the fan in the stands or in the fan in the recliner might not completely grasp and the reflexed knee in this entry might be missing some important points that render these thoughts in-valid. That’s why we have the reaction box at the end of these entries—so the host can be set straight on things. So have at it. Reasonable discussion is always welcome (but stay within Captain Woodrow Call’s guidelines that we established a long time ago.

(As we were wrapping up this entry, we came across a 2024 article in Harvard Law Today that has an interview discussing the history and the significance of legal actions that have brought us to this point. https://hls.harvard.edu/today/peter-carfagna-on-the-state-of-the-ncaa-nil-and-amateurism/).

Sports: Cards, Royals headed the wrong way; UFL championship game in St. Louis; Great night for racing near St. Louis.

Posted on June 17, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(Baseball)—And suddenly, things have taken a bad turn for our teams.

(CARDINALS)—We’ve seen this scenario before—and slow start, a month of optimism, and then a decline to mediocrity at best. The Cardinals ended a six-game losing streak Saturday but couldn’t make it two in a row against the Brewers, losing Sunday.

They should bet healthy this week when they play three against the Chicago White Sox, one of the worst teams in the major leagues. The Sox are at home, 23-49 this year. The Cardinals are still slightly to the good at 37-35.

The highlight of the weekend came with the Saturday win when Wilson Contreras of the Cardinals and brother William Contreras both homered in the ninth inning of the Cardinals win.

They are not the first to do this. But it’s been more than ninety years since anybody else did it. On July 19, 1922, Rick Ferrell of the Red Sox homered off of his brother, Wes, a pitcher for the then-Cleveland Indians. Wes Farrell also homered that inning.

Two years ago, two brothers playing for the same team became the first to hit home runs in the same game. But Bo and Josh Gray, did it in different innings.

(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals, tired of losing and dropping below .500 held a players only meeting after Saturday’s loss—-then lost again on Sunday as the Athletics completed a series sweep.

The Royals now have lost six in a row, 22 of their last 32, and are four games under break-even t 34-38. They open a series against the Ranger tonight. The Rangers are pretty mediocre, too, also with a losing record at 35-36.

(FOOTBALL)—Fourteen thousand-559 people went to a football game in the St . Louis Dome and their home town team wasn’t even playing.

It was the United Football League Championship game and the DC Defenders clobbered the Michigan Panthers 58-34. The Defenders got a 390-yard passing day out of Jordan Ta’amu. Their 580 total yards and 58 points are records for a UFL game.

The Defenders took control of the game with 31 points in the second quarter then outscored Michigan 9-0 in the third quarter.

Thus ended a season of some disappointment for the UFL although you wouldn’t think so by listening to the league officers. Overall attendance dropped about five percent this year and it would have been much worse if Michigan’s attendance had not shot up by almost one-third. Four of the eight teams in the league—Birmingham, Memphis, Arlington, and Houston, drew fewer than 10,000 fans per game. Three other teams, including the St. Louis Battlehawks, saw lesser declines. Television viewership was down by more than 165,000.

Executive VP for football operations, Daryl Johnston, says, “When the time comes and the time is right, we’ll start to reflect back and find out some of the whys and then how can we implement tht moving forward to make sure that we’re getting better every year.”

(DOME)—The domed stadium where the Battlehawks play needs a major upgrade—$155 million worth in the next decade according to a state audit. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports a draft of a state audit shows no revenue stream for that work. A member of the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority says the authority is preparing a “long term plan” to take to state and local officials.

The authority does have a plan to invest $50 million dollars the city has received in the settlement of its lawsuit against owners of the former St. Louis Rams.

(KANSAS CITY STADIUMS)—The state has promised to invest $1.5 billion in football and baseball stadiums in Kansas City—but the Royals and the Chiefs have not promised to stay in Kansa City.

Overland Park, Kansas has offered a site and a financial package for the Royals.

The legislation that goes into effect September 9 does not open a money faucet for the teams. The Department of Economic Development wants to see some proof that the stadium projects qualify for developmental financial incentives.

Now, on to some fast moving sports stories.

(INDYCAR)—Worldwide Technology Raceway got its first prime-time broadcast major automobile race Sunday night—-and it wasn’t disappointing.

Unless you were connected with the sport’s biggest team.

Team Penske drivers had the top two starting positions and three of the top five starting slots.

And then the raee started. Outside front row driver Scott McLaughlin stalled in pit lane as the other 26 cars took to the track. Enough warmup and pace laps were run for him to refire his engine and get into his regular starting position.

Penske’s senior driver, Will Power, a two-time series champion and Indianapolis 500 winner, started from pole for the 71^st time in his career, an Indycar record. And four-time WWTR winner Josef Newgarden, a two-time champion of the 500, started fifth.

Power crashed while running second after a tire went flat just 47 laps into the 260-lap event. Newgarden, was in a violent crash while about to lap Louis Foster on the 128^th lap, t-boning the spinning car of Foster.

Newgarden’s car came down on top of the wall and then slid on the track almost to the start-finish line. The car’s titanium aero screen protected him during the wild ride upside down and he walked away from the wreckage after the safety crew set it back up on hits wheels. Foster also climbed out of his demolished car and walked away. If you want to see it, including the view from inside Newgarden’s cockpit, this is how it looked on the FOX broadcast:

https://x.com/i/status/1934427429487231109

“Not sure what to say, other than thank you to the AMR safety team and the safety of the car. Seemed like everything was going our way last night, until it wasn’t. Not much you can do in a situation like that. This season has been pretty trying for everyone on the 2 crew. Only thing to do is look forward. It will only make the successes even sweeter. See you in Road America!” (Indycar runs there next weekend)

McLaughlin also had an encounter with the wall leading the leading Indycar team with finishes of 24-25-26 in the 27-car field.

That wasn’t the only action, of course. There were 254 passes for position for the race. More than half of the drivers led at least one lap. Christian Rasmussen had his career best finish, third, although started 21^st and was penalized to the back of the field during the race, passed a total of 62 cars to get to the podium.

Winner Kyle Kirkwood led only the last five laps and held on for a half-second win over Pato O’Ward. Indianapolis 500 winner Alex Palou, who finished eighth, had the fast lap during the race—174.803 on the mile and a quarter track.

The win by Kirkwood is his third of the year, his first ever on an oval. He and Palou are the only drivers to win an Indycar race this year. The victory puts him third in the stndings behind Palou and O’Ward. Palou, who has the other five wins, including the Indianapolis 500, finished eighth and reeled off the fastest lap of the race, 174.803 on the mile and a half track.

(NASCAR)—Every year there seems to be a driver who is ‘way down in the standings who surprisingly wins a race and thus qualifies for the 16-driver race off for the series championship.

This year it’s Shane Van Gisbergen, 30^th in points, who makes the runoff. His win is an appropriate one, however. The Australian Supercars champion won the first points NASCAR race in a foreign country by taking the win at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course in Mexico City.

He beat Christopher Bell by almost seventeen seconds to claim his second Cup series victory. He won his first Cup race on the street course in Chicago two years ago.

(FORMULA 1)—Mercedes driver George Russell won his first race of the year, taking the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

(Screenshot from FOX Sports; Kirkwood by Rick Gevers; Newgarden aero screen, Bob Priddy)

SPORTS—Stadium Money Faces Crucial Week; Competitive Cardinals; Breakout Rookie in KC; Battlehawks Lose in Playoffs, Again

Posted on June 10, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(THE CAPITOL)—-Whether the state lays out hundreds of millions of dollars to build the new stadium that will keep the Kansas City Royals on this side of the state line could be determined tomorrow at the Missouri Capitol.

The House will consider the Senate-passed bill would have the state as much as half of the total costs of a new stadium for the Royals and for major upgrades to Arrowhead Stadium.

Kansas is putting on the pressure by offering to pay as much as 70% of the costs of building new stadiums on its side of the state line.

The bill also requires the state to pay as much as a quarter-billion dollars to upgrade Busch Stadium III.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals took on the third-best team in the National League during the weekend and won two out of three from the Dodgers. The Dodgers avoided a sweep with a Sunday win. But the Cardinals continue to gain confidence as they won the series.

Redbird shortstop Masyn Winn thinks the result shows the Cardinals can compete. He told reporters after the game, “We don’t have the payroll that a lot of teams do have. We have a lot of guys in here who are just grinders. We don’t have a standout superstar. We have a lot of guys in here who are just grinders.”

St. Louis finished the week four game behind the Cubs, in second place in the division, seven games ahead of break-even and four games behind Chicago, the team with the second-best record in the National League. The Mets are on top at 42-24.

(PITCHING)— The Cardinals continue to tinker with their pitching staff, calling up relievers Riley O’ Brien and Chris Roycroft, both righthanders, and sending Matt Svanson and Michael McGreevey to Memphis.

They’ve also decided to take a flyer on Zach Plesac, a former starter for the Cleveland Guardians who had been moved in and out of the rotation for the past few years. The Guardians finally let him go to the Los Angeles Angels last year. He was out of baseball as 2025 began but picked up a minor league deal with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League. He’s averaged about eight strikeouts per nine innings with the Ducks.

(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals still are waiting for the spark that moves them above mediocre and they might have found it in Jac Caglianone, who went 4 for 4 Sunday against the White Sox. Caglianone, called down from Omaha last week, had been just 2 for his first 21 at-bats. But against the White Sox, he went 4 for 4, one of he hits a 113 mph double.

First baseman Vinnie Pasquantino led the Royals to a 3-3 week in games against the White Sox and the Cardinals with a performance that earned the Player of the Week honors. He batted .500 with 13 hits, 20 total bases, and seven runs batted in during the road trip.

Catcher Salvador Perez made a little history last week with his two-run homer that tied game against the White Sox. It was his 30^th game-tying home run, moving him past Alex Gordon into number two on the team records list. Only George Brett had more. 35.

(BATTLEHAWKS)—We’ve heard this before:

It’s one and done for the St. Louis Battlehawks in the UFL playoffs, and the defeat smarts even more because it happened in front of the home folks.

The DC Defenders, beaten by the ‘Hawks a week earlier, rolled over St. Louis 36-18 to grab the XFL title. The win sets up the Defenders to play the Michigan Panthers for the UFL championship Saturday in (ouch!) St. Louis. Michigan beat Birmingham 44-29 for the right to go to St. Louis.

Now: Where the rubber really meets the road—

(INDYCAR)—If you want to watch the winner of the Indianapolis 500 try to go back to back on an oval, you’ll want to go across the river from St. Louis to World Wide Technology Raceway for Sunday night’s Indycar race. Alex Palou made the 500 his first career win on an oval three weeks ago.

It’s a full weekend of competition with a race for 500 hopefuls in the IndyNXT series and a race for Silver Crown drivers.

(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin has become one of the few drivers to win a race after running at least 700 Cup races when he minded his fuel until he needed to go all-out in the closing laps at Michigan. He led only the last five laps and finished more than a second ahead of Chris Buescher and Buescher’s teammate, Ty Gibbs.

The race was the 701^st of his career and his 57^th win.

Carson Hocevar seemed to have the race in hand until he his car developed a flat tire, giving William Byron a lead he held until he had to make a splash-and-go fuel stop, handing the lead to Hamlin.

Only ten other drivers in NASCAR history have won at least one race after making 700 starts. Kevin Harvick had seven wins, a record Hamlin wants to beat. He is 44

The win at Michigan is his third checkered flag this year. He has said he wants to win at least sixty races in his career.

NASCAR runs its first international race next week, in Mexico City.

(F1)—Formula 1 runs the Grand Prix of Canada next weekend, in Montreal.

(Photo Credit: Visit Kansas City)

This Might Be News To You—-

Posted on June 3, 2025 by bpriddy

It sure is to us.

Did you know Missouri has another professional football team?

We’ve pretty much forgotten about arena football, the game from which Curt Warner vaulted into the NFL to become a Super Bowl-winning quarterback with the St. Louis Rams and a member of the NFL Hall of Fame.

Actually there are at least four leagues that play football in small arenas. The Goats are part of the Arena League. The others are:

Arena Football 1

Indoor Football League

National Arena Football League

The St. Joseph team is moving from Kansas City for this season. AND:

Travis Kelce and his brother, Jason, are the new principle owners of the Goats.

Actually, they are principle owners of Garage Beer and Garage Beer has a major ownership share of the team. It will play its first home game of the new season next Saturday in the city’s Municipal Auditorium against the Duluth Harbor Monsters.

Other teams in the league are the Harbor Monsters, Eau Claire Axmen, Hot Springs Wiseguys, Iowa Woo, and the Ozarks Lunkers (based in Springfield).

The Goats came into existence two years ago. They are named in honor of political boss Tom Pendergast’s Kansas City faction, known as “the Goats.” Pendergast and his family controlled Missouri Democratic Party politics for decades before he went to prison for tax evasion in the 40s. One of the things he did was push for building Kansas City’s Municipal Arena that was buit with lots of Pendergast concrete.

“Goats” won out over some other proposed names—Kings (after the NBA team that was in Kansas City for several years), Ribs (for the city’s well-known barbecue reputation, and the Potholes (which is self-explanatory). The team finished 7-1.

Will the team go over in St. Jo? Think about this: The Missouri State High School Activities Association lists 45 high schools that play 8-man football. By our count, 33 of them are within an easy drive of St. Joseph. Indoor, or Arena, football games are played on a field 50 yards long, 85 feet wide, surrounded by padded walls. Teams have 15-player rosters and field seven players at a time.

Sadly, we have to report the Goats lost their first game of the year, 54-50 to the Springfield Lunkers on a last-play-of-the-game touchdown set up by a pass interference call on the previous play.

Indoor, or Arena, football actually is a series of leagues ranging in size from three teams to twelve teams.

Arena Football 1

Indoor Football League

National Arena Football League

Arena League

The St. Joseph team is in the Arena League.

-0-

Well, as long as we’re here, let’s do our weekly sports review:

—and let’s stay with football for a bit.

(BATTLEHAWKS)—The St. Louis Battlehawks have wrapped up their regular season 8-2 after taking down the D. C. Defenders 13-8. The Defenders are 6-4 and the teams will have a rematch for the XFL Division Championship next weekend. St. Louis won the game 13-8.

(BASEBALL)—The Cardinals and the Royals open a three-game series tonight with the Cardinals coming off their best May (19-8) since 2013 and their best month since August of 2022. They won six of their last ten and are second, within four games of the Cubs.

The Royals won only four of their last ten and come into the series 31-29. They’re 8 ½ games behind Detroit, in fourth place but only two games out of second place.

The offense-seeking Royals have called up their top minor leaguer, Jac Caglianone, for his first taste of big league pitching. Only one MLB team has hit fewer home runs so far than the Royals, who have 34. The Rockies, who are 9-50, have kept more balls inside the walls than the Royals. The saving grace for the Royals so far is their pitching—the fourth best in the major leagues with a 3.13 ERA.

How would you react when you’ve been told you’re going up to the bigs?

https://www.si.com/mlb/royals-prospect-jac-caglianone-heartwarming-reaction-big-league-call-up-father

Caglianone has shown impressive power in his games in AA and lately in Triple-A while he’s learning to play the outfield.

The Cardinals’ counterpart is J. J. Wetherholt, who was drafted one slot behind Caglianone last year. He hasn’t made the progress tht Caglianone has made offensively and there’s no position available for him on the present roster. He’s a middle infielder and the Cardinals are full at those positions.

(MIZ)—Missouri Tiger basketball has become such big stuff that the team needs a general manager. That is Tim Fuller whose responsibilities are described as, “help with strategic planning and roster construction with an emphasis on alumni engagement, agent relations and NIL optimization.” The appointment is something of a homecoming for Fuller, who was an associate head coach for five years including 2012 when Missouri finished third-ranked nationally after a 30-5 record and a Big 12 championship.

Last season, he was an assistant coach at Providence, under former Tiger Kim English, one of he key players in that 2012 season. Mizzou Coach Dennis Gates says the appointment will give him more time to coach instead of taking time away to do the things Fuller will supervise now.

Speaking of big wheels—-

(INDYCAR)—This is shaping up to be the breakout year for Kyle Kirkwood, who already has recorded two wins and six top ten finishes (although only five count), swept to the win on the streets of Detroit. He earlier won on the streets of Long Beach. He and Alex Palou are the only drivers to win an Indycar race this year.

He finished sixth at Indianapolis but was demoted to 32^nd after his car flunked post-race inspection.

All four of Kirkwood’s career wins have been in street races.

He took the lead from Foyt Racing driver Santino Ferrucci with 22 laps left ad held on to win despite damage to one of his front wings. Ferrucci’s runner-up finish was the best finish for Foyt on a street course since Takuma Sato was second at Detroit a decade ago.

Kirkwood teammate Colton Herta came home third.

Alex Palou, the Indianapolis 400 winner, wrecked on a restart but still has a strong lead in the points.

The next race for Indycar will be within driving distance of most Missourians will be at the World Wide Technology Raceway across the river from St. Louis.

(NASCAR)—Ryan Blaney, the 2023NASCAR champion, has guaranteed he’ll be in the running for his second title with his win at Nashville.

Blaney has had strong runs throughout the season so far but hasn’t been able to hold leads down the stretch—until Nashville, where he led 139 of the 300 laps and beat Carson Hocevar to the finish line by almost three seconds.

NASCAR heads to Michigan next weekend.

(FORMULA 1)—McLaren’s Oscar Piastri beat teammate Lando Norris to the finish line in the Spanish Grand Prix with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc getting the other podium finish.

(picture credits: Kirkwood—USA Today, Junfu Han; Goats—Facebook; Blaney—Bob Priddy)

Sports: Making a Mark and Marking Places

Posted on May 28, 2025 by bpriddy

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

Your editor is recovering from a long and active weekend among about 350,000 of his closest friends and the long drive to and from the event. So he’s dragging himself back to the keyboard after a recovering day to explain how many people that is and some of the incredible stories, good and bad, emerging from the event.

If you took the average per-game attendance of the nine most popular teams in major league baseball and added them together, you would not get the 350,000 people who attended the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. And here’s a kicker: What the eventual result was, was not what they witnessed.

Memorial Weekend is a big celebration weekend for sports. But the biggest celebration weekend happens with men driving cars rather than hitting line drives.

Memorial Day is a day for some of the biggest automobile races worldwide, in Indiana, North Carolina, and Monaco. So we’re going to start where the biggest sports stories happened.

(INDIANAPOLIS)—It’s not over until it’s over. And that includes the 2025 Indianapolis 500.

There are always stories within stories in the 500 and one of the two biggest ones came the morning after the race.

The biggest story is, of course, the win by Alex Palou, a three-time champion in the Indycar series who had said his career would be incomplete if he didn’t win the 500 after winning the series championship multiple times.

He won. But his is the only finishing position that remained as it was viewed by all of those fans.

While standings are listed within minutes after the checkered flag falls, the results do not become official until the next morning after all technical inspections and other reviews are completed.

In a race that began with two of the fastest qualifiers penalized to back-row starts for technical infractions and one of the favorites not even making it to the start, the final standings show drivers who finished second, seventh, and twelfth actually finished 31, 32, 33, behind a driver who did not log a lap in the race.

Improper equipment on qualifying weekend sent two of the Penske team’s drivers–last year’s winner, Josef Newgarden, and 2018 winner Will Power—to the last two starting positions. Then on race day, the third Penske driver and one of the favorites to win the race, Scott McLaughlin wrecked his car on a warmup lap.

At the end of the day, the only thing that remained the same was the winner, Alex Palou (he pronounces it “Puh-LOW.”)

Marcus Ericsson, (shown) the 2022 winner, had crossed the finish line 0.6822 second behind Palou, sixth-place finished Kyle Kirkwood, who crossed the line 2.9454 seconds behind, and twelfth place finisher Callum Illot (21.3918 seconds back) have been disqualified because their cars did not meet highly-technical standards after the race. Those times work to a difference of only .019 mph after 500 miles.

The OFFICIAL results posted Monday morning after post-race technical inspections record Ericsson finished 31^st, Kirkwood 32^nd, and Illot 33^rd, behind McLaughlin, who never took the green flag.

This is not the first time a controversy has dogged the last laps of the race.

In 1995, Scott Goodyear, leading the race, which was going green on the 190^th lap after a caution period, passed the pace car before it left the track. He refused to go to the pits for a stop-and-go penalty and officials quit scoring him after 193 laps. He was accorded a 14^th-place finish. The win was given to Jacques Villeneuve who was running second to Goodyear when scorers quit counting him. Villeneuve had been assessed a two-lap penalty much earlier in the race for passing the pace car but had time to make up the penalty distance.

In 1981, Bobby Unser was declared the race winner with Mario Andretti finishing second. A protest charged Unser had illegally passed cars coming out of the pits during a caution flag and Andretti was given his second 500 victory. But Unser protested and on October 8^th, his victory was restored.

A driver who had never driven on an oval course started on the pole. Robert Schwartzman is the first Israeli to race in the 500. Schwartzman holds dual citizenship in Russia and in Israel

He became the first rookie to win the pole since Teo Fabi in 1983. Rookie Tony Stewart, later a NASCAR champion, was a rookie when he stated in the first position in 1996 but he had been moved into the P1 position after pole-winner Scott Brayton had been killed in a pre-race practice crash.

Not even the Indianapolis 500 can be isolated from other events in the world, and Schwartzman reminded people of that. He was born in Israel, was raised in Russia and had driven in Europe under Russian colors until Russia invaded Ukraine.

After winning the pole for the 500, he was asked about his dual citizenship, and replied, “I just want peace in the world. I want people to be good, and I don’t want the separation of countries, saying, ‘This is bad country. This is good country.’ There is no bad or good. We’re all human beings, and we just have to support each other. We need to find ways to, let’s say, negotiate things. Find ways to agree on things, you know? Because from my experience, there is always, you know, a gold medal, I’m calling it — like, there’s always the right path.”

(THE WINNER)—So where are you going to go after winning The Greatest Spectacle in Racing?

No, not Disneyland.

Alex Palou went to the NBA Divisional playoff game between the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks where a much smaller crowd than the one that saw him win the race, stood and applauded.

Palou won $3.8 million out of a record purse of more than $20 million, the biggest purse in auto racing history. He was the 14^th and final lap leader in the race. Only two races have had more drivers leading at least one lap. Fifteen drivers led the 2017 and 2018 races. Last year’s race showed almost half of the drivers, 16 of 33, led at least one lap.

(Palou leads pole winner Robert Schwartzman into the first turn.)

Palou, who averaged 168.883 mph in the win (the record is 190=plus) is the 21^st foreign driver to win the 500. Foreign drivers have won 31 of the 109 races (including five drivers from the UK and four from Brazil who have combined for 16 wins). Drivers from eleven countries have won the race but he is the first native of Spain to do so.

The 500 is one of those races where multiple records are kept. The Speedway has updated some of its records book after this race:

Four-time winner Helio Castroneves ran the full 500 miles for the nineteenth time in his 25 starts in the 500. He has been running at the finish 23 times. Both are race records. Only three other drivers, A. J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, and Al Unser Sr., have more starts. He also had the fastest lap in the race, 226.178 mph. He finished tenth.

Former winners Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden had run all 200 laps in each of the last seven races. Neither finished Sunday’s race, though.

(LARSON)—NASCAR star Kyle Larson didn’t show the form he showed last year in his first attempt to “do the double,” run the 500 in the afternoon and the 600-mile NASCAR race in Charlott later in the day. He started 19^th and went out after a crash just after the halfway point of the 500. He made it to Charlotte to start that race, led 33 laps, but a couple of on-track incidents sidelined him well before the end. He was credited with a 37^th place finish. After the race, Larson was doubtful he would try doing the double again.

(NASCAR)—Ross Chastain did something in the 600-mile race at Charlotte that had not been done in more than half a century.

He started dead last and finished a lively first. He is the first driver to qualify to start 41^st to win a NASCAR race since Richard Petty did it in 1971 at Richmond. And he did it in a backup car that his crew put together overnight after he wrecked his primary one.

Runner-up William Byron led 283 of the 400 laps but could not hold off Chastain, who got past him with six laps left to get the checkered flag by about seven-tenths of a second and a chance to perform his post-race celebratory act, standing on the roof of his car and throwing a watermelon to the track, smashing it into pieces. (Chastain’s family has raised watermelons in Florida for generations). Chase Briscoe, the pole winner, came back to third after a pit violation set him back early. A. J. Allmendinger was fourth and Brad Keselowski got his first top five finish in what has been a miserable season so far.

The race saw 34 lead changes, the most in the race since 2014.

(FORMULA 1)—Memorial Day Weekend in the United States is the weekend for Formula One’s “crown jewel,” the Grand Prix on Monaco on course that winds its way past the Monte Carlo casinos and along the sea front. McLaren’s Lando Norris picked up his second win of the year, finishing ahead of defending series champion Max Verstappen and Mercedes driver George Norris.

Now, to stick and ball sports:

(BASEBALL)— Memorial Day is traditionally the first of the three summer holidays in which baseball teams take their temperatures now that they’re fully engulfed in the season. Both of our teams are playing well, one of them not as well as many expected and the other playing much better than most people expected.

At the beginning of the season, few were predicting the St. Louis Cardinals would be playing better baseball than the Kansas City Royals at this stage of the year.

But they are.

The Cardinals begin the mid-season stretch between now and the next measuring point, July 4^th, 30-24, trailing only the Cubs in their division, by three games.

The Royals make this turn fourth in their division behind Detroit, Cleveland, and Minnesota, six games out at 29-26.

(FOOTBALL)—One game left in the regular season for the St. Louis Battlhawks, who ran up heir biggest score of the season last week against the San Antonio Brahman’s in a 39-13 win. Head Coach Anthony Becht became the first UFL coach to get twenty career victories with that win. His team is 7-2 and tied with the best record in the league.

More people attended the game than attended the other three games in the UFL combined:

St. Louis: 27,890

Memphis: 2,044

Birmingham: 10,344

Houston: 6,684

That’s an average of 11,740.

In the other division, the Memphis Showboats game against the Arlington Renegades, in Memphis, drew only 2,044 people to a stadium that seats 44,000. The Showboats averaged 6,900 for home games last year. The average this year is 3,846.

UFL News Hub reports the Battlehawks are averaging 34,362 fans per game. The other seven teams in the league average only 9,834 FPG and attendance is sliding. TV viewership also is down, leading to talk about the survival of the league.

The ’Hawks finish the regular season on the road next week and then, on June 8, will meet the DC Defenders for the division championship. That game will be in St. Louis.

(Photo credits: Palo–Indianapolis Pacers and Bob Priddy; Ericsson—Rick Gevers; Schwartzman—Priddy; Chastain–NASCAR)

Bob Priddy

A journalist's random observations

Category Archives: football

Sports: The Good and Sad Tiger Opener; We Explain “The Practice Squad,” and Other Sports Stuff

Sports: Football Time, Ready or Not; Baseball Lingers; a Second Season for one Racing Series and the End Nears for Another

Sports: Ho-Hum Baseball; Chiefs start; Tigers undecided; Sophie Steps Up; and the fast stuff.

Sports: Trades but no immediate gains; Stadiums suit; History on the track

Sports: Lows and highs at Mizzou; Chiefs Lock In Two, Third Escapes Lockup; Bad Baseball, And More.

NIL

Sports: Cards, Royals headed the wrong way; UFL championship game in St. Louis; Great night for racing near St. Louis.

SPORTS—Stadium Money Faces Crucial Week; Competitive Cardinals; Breakout Rookie in KC; Battlehawks Lose in Playoffs, Again

This Might Be News To You—-

Sports: Making a Mark and Marking Places

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