By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
(Arms)—-The human body was not designed to throw a baseball 100 mph, or throw a baseball overhand at all. And an awful lot of pitchers have scars on shoulders and elbows to prove it.
Here is what you will never see in baseball; A pitcher who throws 25 innings in four games in two days, gives up only two earned runs, on only fifteen hits, and strikes out 24 batters.
Oh—and throws 364 pitches, as Laurin Krings did last weekend.
The human arm swings back and forth from the shoulder, and Laurin Krings demonstrated the body’s natural design for throwing things as she led the Missouri women’s softball team back through the loser’s bracket of the NCAA regional tournament. Missouri surprisingly lost its first game of the tournament, to Omaha, and then had to win four straight, including two against Omaha to advance to the super regional.
Krings threw two games on Saturday and two more on Sunday, including the final game that went into extra innings before the Tigers scored a run in the ninth to move on, 1-0.
The Super Regional is a best-of-three series between Missouri, the seventh seed and tenth-seed Duke. The first game is Friday. The second game is Saturday. A third game, if needed, will be Sunday. ESPN2 is broadcasting the games.
(Playoff Bound)—Post-season play is growing near for the first season of the United Football League and the St. Louis Battlehawks have locked down their place. Their come-from-behind 26-21 win over the D. C. Defenders last weekend guarantees they’ll play for the XFL Conference championship on June 9.
The Defenders had taken a 21-20 lead into the closing minutes but the Battlehawks road the hands and legs of running back Wayne Gallman to the winning TD with two minutes left. Gallman accounted for all of the 44 yards in the closing drive, with six rushing yards and a 38-yard reception, the longest play from scrimmage by either team all afternoon. He got the game-winning touchdown from one yard out, finishing with a team-leading 80 yards rushing.
The Battlehawks called on backup quarterback Manny Wilkins because starter A. J. McCarron is still recovering from the ankle injury suffered against Birmingham the week earlier.
Wilkins had not started a game since 2018 when he was playing for Arizona State. He said afterward he felt “super comfortable” with the start. He passed for 126 yards and scrambled for 79 more yards on a dozen carries.
Next up for the Battlehawks: The Arlington Renegades, next Saturday morning, our time, in Arlington, Texas. Its their last road game. They’ll finish up at home the next weekend and then move to the playoffs. St. Louis is 6-2, the same record as the San Antonio Brahmas, their likely opponent in the divisional championship game. St. Louis beat San Antonio earlier in the season. The Arlington Renegades are 1-8, last in the division.
The ‘Hawks are likely to be playing the Brahmas two weeks in a row. They finish the regular season against them at home, then will have to beat them in the championship game to go to the UFL championship game, which will be played in the St. Louis Dome.
(BASEBALL)—Familiar story for the week. The Royals continue to play steady, hopeful, baseball. The Cardinals show some flashes but pessimism is traveling with them as they head for June.
(THE LOU)—If you can’t play well, you might at least LOOK good.
The Cardinals will become the latest major league team to unveil their “City Connect” uniforms next Friday against the Cubs. So what’s a “city connect” uniform?
It’s a promotional gimmick that Nike is doing for MLB teams—uniforms distinctly different from the usual home outfits. They are “designed to reflect cultural aspects of each team’s home city, says one source we checked. The Cardinals are one of the last to show their cultural look. (By seasons end only two teams will no have donned these new duds—the Yankees, who just don’t do that kind of thing, y’know, and the Oakland Athletics, whose “cultural aspects” are in limbo because they’re moving from Oakland to Las Vegas.
Here’s the hottest new item in the team store, and undoubtedly coming to a shopping mall near you that sells sports-themed goodies:
This will be only the second time in the Cardinals’ 142-year history that they have worn red jerseys in a regular season game. The only other time was on August 28, 1999 when they wore red jerseys for their “Shirts Off Their Backs” promotion. The ‘Birds will wear the special jerseys a dozen times this season.
The phrase “The Lou” refers, of course, to the city but it also is a reference to hometown rapper Nelly, who uses the phrase in talking about his home town. The caps are supposed to be reminiscent of the way the team looked in 1921.
The Cardinals started this week with a 6-3 win against the Orioles last night. Michael Siani’s first major league home run drove in the three runs that dictated the outcome. Sonny Gray had a no-hitter into the sixth inning and ran his record to 6-2
Baltimore went into the game 29-15; the Cardinals went in at 20-26, no longer in the basement of the NL Central despite splitting their last ten games. Cincinnati had gone 3-7 during that span, falling a game and a half behind St. Louis.
The Redbirds have won six of their last eight after a seven-game losing streak. But they have been at .500 for only one day this season and no longer go into games with the fans’ expectation that they will win it.
(ROYALS)—Somehow, we missed the big unveil of the Royals’ new duds a year ago:
These outfits are loaded with cultural links to Kansas City. The caps and the logo on the left side of the jersey represents the city’s famous fountains. The two-tone blue of the shirts represent the traditional Royals colors as well as a salute to previous Kansas City teams—the Athletics, Monarchs, Blues, Bluestockings, and Packers, all of which have worn the darker blue. The “R” with the crown and the striping on the right sleeve recalls the team’s uniforms of the 80s. Not visible in the picture is “Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey,” sewn into the collar, honoring the team victory song written by—
Paul McCartney!!
The letter and number scripts also reflect the art deco architectural style that is seen in many downtown Kansas City buildings.
As for the guys who wear the uniforms, whatever the design, they continue to have a gratifying season with a turnaround from recent years that some fans have trouble grasping. USA Today, which publishes weekly power rankings, has become a believer.
The newspapers Gabe Lacques writes that the Royals are up to number eight among all major league teams, their highest since the World Series of 2015. “Sure, things can still go sideways. But with Salvador Perez and Bobby Witt Jr. producing like MVPs, Seth Lugo pitching like a Cy Young winner and a young lineup in full bloom, the Royals are in the high-rent district until further notice. They’ve earned that much.”
The Royals picked up their 30th win of the year last night. The Royals scored six in the sixth and beat the Tigers 6-3.
Now, for things that travel faster than a fastball—
(INDYCAR)—In fact, the speeds are astonishing at Indianapolis again this year.
The field is set for next Sunday’s 108th running of the Indianapolis 500.
And there is a ton of stories, as there always is with this race.
Every year, speed is the number one story in the lead-up to the Indianapolis 500. This year’s field
Penske Racing, after dealing with a “scandal” that led to the suspension of three key officials for this race, the forfeiture of Josef Newgarden’s season-opening win and the loss of standings points for the other two team drivers, has rebounded with powerful performances since—including seizing the top three starting positions for the 500 next Sunday.
Scott McLaughlin, driving a car sponsor/color combination made famous by four-time winner Rick Mears, Johnny Rutherford, Al Unser Sr., and Helio Castroneves, will start on the pole—the inside of the first row—with the fastest pole qualification run in Speedway history. He turned four laps with an average of 234.220 mph to edge 2018 winner Will Power and last year’s winner, Josef Newgarden, giving Penske all three starting positions for the second time in company history.
These three constitute the second-fastest front row in race history. Last year’s first row averaged 234.181 mph. The three drivers on this year’s front row could manage “only” 233.981.
(The fastest four-lap qualifying run in Speedway history still belongs to Arie Luyendyk, who ran 236.986 in 1996 with each lap faster than the previous one. The last one was at 237.948, covering the 2 ½ mile squared oval in less than 38 seconds. But because Luyendyk qualified on the second day instead of the first, he could not start from pole. His pole-winning run was called by the great Tom Carnegie, whose dramatic voice on the Speedway’s public address system was a Speedway legend for decade—Here it is: Bing Videos)
The fastest single lap in Speedway history was run by Luyendyk in practice for the 1996 race. The unofficial speed record is for a lap of 239.620.
While the Penske trio will lead the field to the green flag, a lot of eyes will be on the car starting in the middle of the second row. Kyle Larson, whose career has been on dirt tracks and in NASCAR’s big tracks, has been something to watch as he climbed into a completely different kind of car for the first time. He quickly adapted and was a factor on the speed charts from day one. Larson recorded the fastest qualifying lap by a rookie, 233.353. The only rookie in Speedway history with a faster four-lap average is Tony Stewart who ran the ten miles at 233.100 in 1996. Larson’s average speed was 232.846.
All of those speeds were recorded with only the qualifying driver on the track. On race day there will be 33 of them, 32 of which qualified at more than 230 mph. Twenty-eight of them are within three miles-per-hour of McLaughlin’s pole speed.
The average qualifying speed of all 22 cars is 231.943, slightly slower than last year’s record field speed of 232.184.
The card won’t run that fast during the race; the fastest race lap ever recorded was by Santino Ferrucci two years ago, more than 227.3 mph.
Simple recitation of these numbers cannot convey what it is like to watch these cars and drivers in person, in real time running 230 mph on a track with a mere nine degrees of banking in the corners. When Ray Harroun won the first 500 in 1911, he averaged a little bit less than 75 mph. The record speed for the entire race is 190.7 mph, by Helio Castroneves in 2021 when he won his fourth 500.
The track architecture is unchanged from 1911. Today’s drivers cover the same distance each lap, go through four corners with no more banking than Harroun had.
Nothing is guaranteed at this track. Eight drivers with 12 combined victories will start the race, including two-time winner Takuma Sato, who goes off tenth, and four-time winner Helio Castroneves, who starts 20th.
Former winner Scott Dixon could no better than 21st starting position, outside of the seventh row, and the 2022 winner, Marcus Ericsson—who finished second last year—struggled to even make the race this year and got into the field in the last hour of qualifying.
(NASCAR)—The All-Star race schedule was shortened to one night at North Wilkesboro because of rain that washed out the heat races on Friday night. Joey Logano won the million dollar top prize in the Saturday race.
NASCAR’s longest race is Sunday night in Charlotte—600 miles. Kyle Larson plans to finish the 500 in Indianapolis and get to Charlotte in time for the 600.
(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen had to work hard to get this one. Lando Norris, driving for the resuscitated McLaren team, challenged him at the Imola Grand Prix and finished only seven-tenths of a second back.
Verstappen started from pole for the eighth straight race, which ties a record and won for the fifth time in seven races this year.
(Photo Credits: MU Athletic Department, Cardinals, Royals, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Rick Gevers)