Category Archives: Sports

Hot Baseball; Winning Football; and the Power of Palou

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

Our baseball teams are hot.

(CARDINALS)—The St. Louis Cardinals finished the week with two straight series wins and a winning streak of eight games The streak has pulled the ‘birds into second place, one game behind the Cubs. The Cardinals, once at 14-19 are now at 22-19. Theu rank second in all of major league baseball with a .261 team batting average. The’re ninth in hits.

(ROYALS)—Although they lost two games in a row last weekend, the Kansas City Royals still have won 16 of their last 20 and are tied with Cleveland for second in their division, 2½  games behind Detrot.  Kris Bubic has the fourth best ERA in MLB, 1.69.

(AS WE GO TO PRESS)—The Cardinals extended their streak nine with a win over the Phillies in the first game of a midweek series.  The Royals ended their four-game losing streak with a series opening win against Houston and now have gone 25% of the way to a 100-victory season.

(UFL)—The St. Louis Battlehawks aren’t scoring a lot of points with their backup quarterback but they don’t need to, given their defense.

They ran their record to 5-2 during the weekend with a 19-9 victory on the home field of the Memphis Showboats. St. Louis broke the game open with ten first-quarter points. After Memphis closed to 10-6 in the second quarter, St. Louis bounced back with a 78-yard that made it 16-6 at the half. The teams traded field goals in the second half.

Next for Battlehawks: the Birmingham Stallions, in the St. Louis Dome, next Saturday noon.  The Battlehawks, Birmingham, and the Washington Defenders are 5-2 heading down the stretch in the UFL season. Birmingham will play the ‘hawks next weekend in the St. Louis dome.

(INDYCAR)—It’s May and for racing fans the word is Indianapolis.  INDYCAR has started the month with a race on the speedway road course. And Alex Palou has continued his run in the leadup to the biggest race of the year for the series.

But that’s the longest race so far this year and Josef Newgarden will be shooting for an unprecedented third straight win.  The 500 championship could be a matter of which of the biggest teams in the series gets the Borg-Warner trophy.

Palou is on track to have the greatest INDYCAR season in 61 years.  His win on the speedway road course is his fourth in five races this year and makes him the clear favorite to add a fifth win in the Indianapolis 500 on the 25th.

Palou had a ten-second lead when the first caution period this year came along after 408 green flag laps to start the season. But he pulled away on the restart and in the remaining dozen laps rebuilt his lead to more than five seconds.

Pato O’Ward picked up his second runner-up position of the season.

Through five races this year, Palou’s average finishing position is 1.2.  INDYCAR says the only start in the last half-century that comes close to that is the season-opening run by Sebastian Bourdais in 2006, who was at 1.4 after four victories and a third place.

While his start to the year has been spectacular, he has no lock on the 500, a race much longer than the first five races of the INDYCAR season. Josef Newgarden, who finished twelfth on the road course, will aggressively chase his goal of being the first driver to win three consecutive 500s. Former winner Will Power has had top tens in the last four races, including third on the road course last weekend. Power says he will be “shocked” if Palou dominates the 500 as he has dominated the first five races.

And O’Ward, who has two heart-breaking seconds in the big race, now has two seconds so far this year and wants to taste the champagne.

Scott Dixon, who finished fifth in the race, is a six-time series champion and has led more laps in the 500 than any other driver, wants to lead at least one more and get his second win in the race.

The 500 is likely to have seven drivers who have combined for 12 wins.

(NASCAR)—Kyle Larson’s car wasn’t 100% healthy when he crossed the finish line for his second straight win at the Kansas Speedway, but it was enough to get to the checkered flag seven-tenths of a second before Christopher Bell did.

He babied his right side tires for the last few laps, especially the last one when pieces of rubber were seen flying from the right front.

It was Larson’s third win of the year. He started from the poll and led 221 of the 267 laps to join Bell as the only three-time winner in the NASCAR Cup series this year.

He now ranks third among active drivers in laps led with 10,073. He has more than five-thousand laps to lead before he gets to Denny Hamlin and more than nine thousand before he equals Kyle Busch.

(Photo Credits: Palou, INDYCAR

Bombs Away for Kansas City; Sweep for the Birds; Gem for the Battlehawks. Blues for the Blues. But first, some history for today.

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

May 6, 1917—-Bob Groom of the St. Louis Browns throws a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox a day after the Browns’ Ernie Koob had no-hit the Sox at Sportsman’s Park. The catcher for both games was Hank Severeid, the only catcher in MLB history to catch no-hitters on two consecutive days.  Groom went on to an 8-19 record that year and finished his ten  year career a year later.  Ernie Koob was 6-14 that year and out of baseball after another year and a five-year record with the Browns of 23-31.

The Browns were 57-97 that year, seventh in the then-eight team America League which is about what they usually were before they left St. Louis after the 1954 season to become the Baltimore Orioles (of which we will have some news in a few more paragaphs)

Baseball Reference records, “The St. Louis Browns are perhaps history’s worst Major League franchise. The Browns existed from 1902 to 1953 in the American League and managed just 11 winning seasons over that span. They lost more than 100 games eight times, finishing dead last in the AL 10 times. They finished as high as second in the AL standings just three times. The Browns won just one pennant, in 1944, when the majors were not at full strength due to World War II.”  (To which we add that they lost in six games to the Cardinals during the “trolley car series,” when all games were played in old Sportsman’s Park.

But for two days in 1917, the Browns were untouchable.

 

Severeid went on to a solid career, ten of his years with the Browns for whom he caught 100 or more games eight times. He had a solid major league career (.289 career batting average) and spent several more successful years as a minor league catcher and manager. He died in 1968 at the age of 77, still the only catcher to get pitchers through no-hitters on successive days.

Only one pitcher has ever thrown back-to back no-hitters: Johnny Vander Meer of the Reds beat the Boston Bees (later the Braves) on June 11, 1938 and no-hit the Brooklyn Dodgers in his next start June 15.

The only time there have been back-to-back no-hitters involving the same two teams was in 1968 when Gaylord Perry of the Giants beat Bob Gibson of the Cardinals 1-0 and the next day when the Cardinals’ Ray Washburn beat the Giants the next day 1-0. The last two outs he got that day were future Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Willie McCovey.

Those two games are the only time in MLB history there have been no-hitters in two consecutive games.  The second Browns no-hitter had been in the second game of a double header. 

That’s your baseball history lesson for the day. Now let’s look at the history being made by today’s players.

(Royals)—The Kansas City Royals started their week against the Chicago White Sox last night  after finishing their previous week with a team-record seven home runs in one game.  They polished off the Baltimore Orioles 11-6 to go three games over .500 at 19-16.

It was a historic game for catcher Luke Maile, who homered for his first hit with the Royals. He’s the 29th player in team history to have a home run as his first hit.

Cole Ragans already was playing at a historic level going into the game. Although he’s just 1-1 with a 4.40 ERA so far this year, he has struck out 11.16 batters per nine innings through five starts this year and has allowed 0.69 home runs per nine innings.  OptaSTATS says only two other pitchers since 1901 have ever started a season with allowing fewer than 0.80 homers and at least 11 strikeouts through fifty starts with a team are Nolan Ryan and Kevin Gausman.,

We all know who Nolan Ryan is. But Kevin Gausman? He’s bounced around among five teams in thirteen years, has a career record of 104-105.

Ragans was dominant in his return to the mound Monday, tying a season-high with 11 strikeouts in five innings as the Royals shut out the Chicago White Sox 3-0 at Kauffman Stadium. With that, the Royals continued their current hot streak. KC won its 12th game in 14 tries and also improved its season record to 20-16.

Ragans didn’t appear to show any ill effects from his earlier problem.

(CARDINALS)—-A double-header sweep of the Mets gets the Cardinals within three games of break-even 35 games into the season. They can thank Mike McGreevy, who was called up from Memphis by a rule that lets teams add an extra player for doubleheaders. McGreevy relieved Andre Pallante in second game when the bases were loaded and there was only one out in the fourth inning. McGreevy shut down the Mets on one hit and one walk the rest of the way, struck out five, and got the Mets to hit into five groundouts.

The Cardinals had won the first game 5-4

Alex Burlison broke out of his season-longer homerless streak with a two-run rip in the first game. In fact, he hadn’t hit a home run since last August 17. He’d had only three extra base hits so far this season.

The Cardinals kept rolling last night, beating Pittsburg 6-3 in a series opened. Home runs by Jose Berrero hitting his first home run since 2023 with Alex Burlison and Wilson Contreras adding shots of their own to give the Cardinals the lead.

(ST. LOUIS BLUES)—The coach has turned into a pumpkin for the St. Louis Blues. There will be no Cinderella story for them this year.

Once almost written off as a playoff team, the Blues stormed through the last third of the season to make it in the field.  Down two games to none to Winnipeg in the first round of the playoffs, but Blues came back to force a seventh game.

The Blues led by two goals with less than two minutes to play but the Jets tied the game with 1.6 seconds left and got the game winner at the 16:30 mark of overtime.

(FOOTBALL)—-Spring pro football reached the halfway mark in the regular season last weekend.

(BATTLEHAWKS)—Two weeks after losing their first game of the year to Arlington, the St. Louis Battlehawks put together what was called a “defensive gem,” against the same team, 12-6.

The Arlington Renegades had  scored thirty points three times this year, including the first game against St. Louis, in Arlington.

Battlehawks linebacker Pita Taumoepenu was the key to the St. Louis defense. With less than two minutes to play, Taumoepenu slapped the ball out of the hands of Arlington’s quarterback and two teammates pounced on it. It was the fourth turnover forced by the Battlehawks, the second within the final five minutes.

The win keeps St. Louis’ title hopes alive as they go to 4-2 on the season and get back to 2-2 in their UFL conference.

Now we move to sports with another turnoff the wheel.

(INDYCAR)—Alex Palou heads to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with momentum rarely seen in INDYCAR—winning three of the first four races of the season and already building a big lead as he runs for his fourth series championship.

Palou calls his start from the pole and his win on the road course at Barber Motorsports Park “the best race” of his career. He led 81 of the 90 laps. “It was a perfect day, a perfect weekend,” Palou said. “The car was amazing, super-fast. I had a ton of fun. I was a bit lonely there, but I loved it. It was an amazing day.” He was lonely, it seemed. His margin of victory over Christian Lundgaard was sixteen seconds. Penske driver Scott McLaughlin, who had won the last two races at the track, finished third.

Palou’s worst finish in the firs four races is second.

Next up will be two races at the track that gives the series its name, a race on the infield road course next weekend and then the crown jewel of the year for the series, the Indianapolis 500, where Josef Newgarden will try to become the first driver to win three 500s in a row.

(NASCAR)—Consider last weekend’s NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway a breakthough run for defending Cup champion Joey Logan, who avoided trouble as he worked his way from 27th starting position to victory circle. It’s his first top-five finish of the year.

He had worked his way up to second place behind Michael McDowell but took the lead with four laps left in regulation.  McDowell, a lap later, got into some dirty air behind Ryan Blaney and wrecked. He finished 26th.

Blaney was passed by Ross Chastain, who had started 31st, on the restart. It’s Chastain’s best finish of the year.

Nobody led more laps than Kyle Larson  but the best he could do at the end was fourth.

For the first time after 21 straight races, Denny Hamlin did not finish on the lead lap. He lost an engine early. His string of 21 straight top fives is the eighty longest in NASCAR history.

(FORMULA 1)—Oscar Piastri picked up his fourth win of the year in the Grand Prix of Miami. Teammate Lando Norris came home behind him.

(Photo credits: Severeid–Becket Marketplace; Palou–Rick Gevers, Indianapolis 2024)

 

 

 

Sports:  Mizzou Draftees and UDFA’s; Cardinals championship architect dies; Blues tie, etc.

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(DRAFT)—More former Missouri Tigers signed on with NFL Teams as Undrafted free agents than were picked up in the draft itself.

The New York Jets have signed quarterback Brady Cook, who was praised by NFL analyst Lance Zierlein for his toughness, athleticism, and arm talent. He calls Cook a “developmental prospect.”

One of his receivers, Theo Weese Jr., is headed to the Miami Dolphins, as is running back Nate Noel.  and edge rusher Johnny Walker Jr., and the Denver Broncos appear to be getting together.

Tigers taken in the draft were tackle Armond Membou, who calls himself “a mauler.”   His performance at the talent combine elevated him to the seventh choice in the first round, takenby the Jets. Jets GM Darren Mougey he’s a “natural fit” who will compete right away for a starting slot at right tackle.

Receiver Luther Burden III went to the Bears in the second round. He’s the first tiger WR to be drafted since J’Mon Moore in 2018. He’s the highest drafted wide receiver since Jeremy Maclin went to the Eagles as the 19th choice in 2009. He had a 13.3 yard career reception average. Moore lasted one year with the Packers and had two career receptions for 15 yards.

(BLUES—The St. Louis Blues appeared on the verge of being blown out of the first round of the National Hockey League playoffs before bouncing back with a pair of wins against Winnipeg to even their best of seven series at two each. One of these teams is going to win two of the next three to advance.

The Blues have picked themselves up off the mat before this year. Until a coaching change early in 2025 the Blues were headed for an early end to the 2024-25 season before they ripped off a franchise-record winning streak that put them back into contention. It has been more than nine weeks since they lost a game at home.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals continued their mediocre season during the last week and at the end of it they lost the architect of their latest championship-contending years.

Walt Jocketty, the general manager whose trading expertise built teams that won a World Series (2006), six NL Central Division championships, two National League pennants. The Cardinals made the post season seven times in his 14 years. He was the executive of the year three times. He was 74. He knew he had been voted into the Cardinals Hall of Fame and reportedly was writing his acceptance speech when he died.

(THE TEAMS)—Looks like a long season, folks, especially in St. Louis.

The Cardinals dropped to 12-17 after yesterday afternoon’s loss to the Reds in the first game of a four-game series.

The Redbirds have called up Jose Barraro from Memphis and they’ve sent Thomas Saggese down. Saggese had come up to fill in for Masyn Winn while he was out with an injury.

Barraro signed as a free agent in the offseason and had an impressive spring she he played 24 games, hit two homers drove in eight runners and stole four bases. At Memphis he was hitting .299 with ten extra base hits (four homers, 13 RBIs) and a recent 19-game on base string. He’s 5/6 in steal attempts this year at Memphis.

The Royals went into a four game series with the Rays last night after a 6-4 week that brought them back to near break-even at 14-15.

-0-

Let’s return to football for a couple of notes.

(THICK)—The Thicker Kicker is ten out of eleven for the Birmingham Stallions of the UFL.  But he can’t hit them all—-and his first miss of the season became a spectacular touchdown last weekend that helped the Memphis Showboats beat his Stallions 24-20 in overtime.

Harrison Mevis is 10/11 in the UFL this year and remains consistent from mid-field.  But 63 yards was a little much. The Stallions trailed 10-3 as the first half wound down. Mevis’s field goal attempt was picked up by the Showboats’ Isiah Hennie, who took it 108 yards for a touchdown.

Mevis was an undrafted free agent last year who spent three months with the Carolina Panthers.

(ANOTER EX-TIGER)—Maty Mauk, an Ohio kid whose career with Missouri was cut short by three suspensions and an eventual dismissal from the team despite his talents, is now the head football coach at Principia High in the St. Louis suburb of Town and Country. He was an assistant coach at Springfield Glendale, along with his brother, while his father was the head coach there. His brother went to Monett last season with Maty and their father as assistants.

Principia was 1-9 last year. They are 3-33 in their last four seasons. Principia College used to have a football program but ended it after the 2009 season.

At Missouri, he emerged as a red shirt freshman in 2013 when starting QB James Franklin was hurt. The Tigers went 3-1 with him. He tied a school record with five TD passes in a game against Kentucky. He was a starter the next year and led the team to its second strait SEC East conference championship. But he had his problems and was finally dismissed in 2016. He finished his college career at Eastern Kentucky, and spent some time with the Saskatchewan Rough Riders in the CFL but injuries ended his pro career.

Speeding along—

(INDYCAR)—Thirty-four drivers aiming for the 33 positions in the Indianapolis 500 field a month from now have run 5,804 test laps (14,510 miles) in their first major test runs on the Speedway using the new hybrid power plant.

2024 Pole winner Scott McLaughlin had the hottest lap at 232.686 mph, with the extra boost allowed for qualifying. In race trim, the fastest driver was defending national champion Alex Palou, who was about ten miles an hour slower.

Takuma Sato, who has won the 500 twice, was second fastest to McLaughlin in the boosted runs at 232.565. But he crashed shortly afterwards and sat out the rest of the test day.

The day also ended badly for NASCAR star Kyle Larson, who is back for his second attempt at running “the double”—the 500 in the afternoon and the Charlotte 600 that night in his regular NASCAR ride. He crashed his car, too, ending his test session.

The hybrid engine debuted last year after the 500 so the test provided drivers with their first experience on the track, and at racing speeds. The added 100 pounds or so that the new system puts at the rear of the car left drivers feeling their cars were more ticklish. Palou said the added weight makes cars “tougher to drive, so it’s a lot easier to see people do mistakes.”

The new power plant provides for bursts of sixty extra horsepower for a few seconds. The tests gave drivers a chance to adjust to some new handling characteristics and a chance to test when and how to use the extra surge of horsepower. But Pato O’Ward, who has had two second-place finishes in the 500 says the new power plant will make the cars “less forgiving.”

INDYCAR runs at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama this weekend, then heads to the Speedway for a road course race and two weeks after that, the 109th running of the 500.

(NASCAR)—The Big One never happed at Talladega this time, leading to the last 69 laps being run caution-free and an eyelash win by Austin Cindric, ending a 30-race winless streak.

Cindric picked up the win over Kyle Larson with a last-lap pass and hung on for a in by .022 second.  It’s the first win of the year for Penske Racing.

The race was typical for a NASCAR superspeedway contest, with 23 drivers leading at least one lap and 67 lead changes. Cindric’s win makes him the tenth different winner in the last ten races on NASCAR’s longest track (2.66 miles). But the race was uncharacteristically free of crashes.  The  yellow flag came out only twice for on-track incidents.

(Photo Credit: Rick Gevers)

 

Sports: Bad, Awful, Terrible Week for Baseball Teams; Mizzou Gymasts Jumping, Vaulting, Balancing for Joy; Portals and Pros.

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(ROYALS)—A sacrifice fly by Bobby Witt Jr., in the tenth inning against Detroit ended the Royal’ six game losing streak.  Utility man Mark Canha provided the tying run earlier in the final game of the weekend series.

The Royals headed home after a 2-8 road trip through Cleveland, New York and Detroit that dropped them to 3-10 away from Kauffman stadium this year and 9-14 overall.  The offense continues to struggle. The Royals have scored only 67 runs in their first 23 games. Opponents have 27 more runs than the Royals do.

Kansas City could get well with the Rockies coming to Kansas City for three games. The Rockies have won only three of their twenty games this year,.

The  Royals picked up Canha in the off season from the Brewers for a player to be named later. That player turns out to be reliever Cesar Espinal, a 19-year old right-hander in his third minor league season.

(CARDINALS)—A visit to New York became a disaster for the Cardinals, who apparently left their bats on the plane.  Batter struck out 43 times in the four-game set, hit only .171 and only .148 with runners in scoring position.  They’d gone into the series leading the major leagues in batting average and on-base percentage despite their mediocre record.  They lost their final game of the series 7-4. “There are no excuses,” said manager Oliver Marmol.

One, maybe the only, bright spot was shortstop Tomas Saggese, went 4/12 with a air of RBIs. Since coming up from Memphis three weeks ago, Saggese has hit .400.

(MIZ)—No University of Missouri women’s athletics team has ever finished higher in the national rankings than the Tiger women gymnasts did last weekend at the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Tournament last weekend.  A review of Amy Wier’s routine on the balance beam raised her score just enough for Missouri to finish third, .0125 points ahead of Utah.

The team entered the event as the lowest seed to make the final four—7th—against fifth seed UCLA, fourth-seed Utah, and number two, Oklahoma.

Helen Hu won the national championship in the balance beam with a score of 9.9625.  Hu took the year off last year and returned for a spectacular career conclusion at Missouri. He had her first perfect score on the beam against Oklahoma, then the number one women’s gymnastics team in the country. Only three other gymnasts in the country scored 9.975 or better on theeam at four times this year.

Two years ago, she “retired” from gymnastics because of chronic back problems and spent most of the next year backpacking in a number of countries before returning to her home town of Chicago. But during a visit to Columbia, she went to a session at a local gym and felt good enough to give the beam a try….and the rest is—you know.

(MIZFB)—The college football portal has opened for ten days and Missouri is seeing some people step through it.  Nine players are leaving the program through it.

The newest players coming into the Missouri program are Iowa tight end Gavin Hoffman and Illinois State wide received Xavier Lloyd. They join transfers from the earlier portal opening.

(BATTLEHAWKS)—The St. Louis Battlehawks have slipped to 2-2 after winning their first two games of the UFL season and now they’ve lost their quarterback.

Manny Wilkins tore his right Achilles tendon on the fourth play from scrimmage in Saturday’s loss at Arlington. Max Duggan took over in the eventual 30-15 loss to Arlington. He threw a couple of bad interceptions on his way to an 8/17 day, for just 78 yards. He nonetheless had the team on the verge of winning the game but wide receiver Gary Jennings couldn’t hold on to a go-ahead touchdown pass and it became and Arlington defensive back Ajene Harris turned it into a 100-yard interception that sealed the game.

Duggan will pick up a valuable target for next weekend’s game against Michigan. It’s a home game.  Butler has been inactive since a hamstring injury in the season’s first game. Last year he led the league with 652 reception yards and was the league’s offensive player of the year.

The Michigan Panthers go into the St. Louis dome at 3-1.

(Photo credit: Sports Illustrated)

Sports: Trying to Stay Even; Swinging Portals, And Big Wins

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(STADIA)—as in more than one stadium.

The discussion about whether Kansas City can keep either or both of its major league football and baseball teams ratcheted up yesterday when several civic leaders, including team officials, put out a joint statement calling for “swift and decisive” action to keep the Royals and the Chiefs on the Missouri side of the state line.

“All of our major league franchises are more than teams; they fuel our economy, strengthen our community, and are a beloved part of the region’s identity,” said the statement signed by the city sports commission, the area development council, tourist group Visit KC, and the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City.

John Sherman, the CEO of the Royals, said in a separate statement, “Greater Kansas City is our team’s home. For our fans, our partners, and our major league community, we want to keep it that way.”

Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt told KSHB-TV the team is glad to see the local support and said, “We remain committed to the continued growth and success of our entire region.”

State officials have been talking, secretly, with the teams and Kansas City officials but no specific plan has come but of the discussions. Some bills have been filed to create a funding system to keep the teams on our side of the line but the only one that is moving is one that was approved by the Missouri Senate yesterday that would make it possible for one of the teams to move to Clay County.

Clay County could create an organization  similar to the Jackson County Sports Authority which presently hands the leases for both Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums. The bill would allow a new Royals stadium or a new training facility for the Chiefs.

Either proposal, particularly the stadium, would draw three million dollars a year from the state—a far cry from the anticipated cost of either facility.

The bill still must be approved by the House of Representatives and signed by the governor. The session ends in a month.

(CARDINALS)—Back to back quality starts by Matthew Liberatore and Sonny Gray have boosted St. Louis back to the .500 mark.

Gray shut down the Houston Astros last night, going seven innings and giving up only three hits while the offense pummeled Houston starter Framber Valdez for ten hits and six earned runs in four innings. St. Louis wound up with 14 hits and eight runs. Nolan Arenado was 3 for 4 with a homer. Behind him, Bendan Donovan was 4 for 4. Roddery Munoz gave up a three-run homer in the ninth for the Astros’ only runs.

Liberatore and the bullpen shut out the Phillies Sunday, giving the Redbirds their first series win since the opening weekend. Liberatore went six innings, gave up only three singles, and struck out seven to get his first win of the year. The last twenty Phillies batters went hitless.

Wilson Contreras is swinging one of those “torpedo” bats now and doing it effectively. Saturday, he had two hits and Sunday, he got the Cardinals on the board with a two-run homer.

Masyn Wynn, who left the series opener Friday with back spasms was put on the ten-day disabled list Saturday. As he was going on the injured list, the Cardinals reactivated Norman Gorman off the DL where he had dealt with a right hamstring pull..

(ROYALS)—The Yankees got four solo home runs, three in the fifth inning, against the Royals last night and won the series opener 4-1. Starter Seth Lugo gave up all four of them. Bobby Witt homered after a ten-pitch battle with starter Carlos Carrasco to put the Royals’ only number on the scoreboard.

The Royals drop to 8-9. The Yankees reach 9-6.

(COMINGS AND GOINGS)—It’s portal time for college basketball and it’s getting hard to keep up. Here’s where we think the Missouri Tigers are:

Center Peyton Marshall is jumping ship after his first year of college b-ball. He was a four-star recruit. Mashall was a seven-foot 300 pounder was in 22 games for an average of 4.4 minutes and one point. Another member of his 2024 class, Marcus Allen, also is looking for pastures with more green in them.

Replacing Marshall is 7-foot center Shawn Phillips Jr., who has decided Missouri has greater opportunities than Arizona State. His agency has made the announcement. Phillips has been a basketball gypsy, starting at LSU in the class of 2022 before going to Arizona for the last two years. He hits 56% of his field goal attempts, none of which have been tried from outside the arc.

He is the fourth transfer through the portal for Dennis Gates’ newest-look Tigers. Jontay Porter, Luke Norwether, announced earlier, and now-former UCLA guard Sebastian Mack announced heir plans earlier.

The Mizzou football team is going to lose at least four players when the football portal opens in a few days.

One of those taking off is linebacker Mikai  Gbayor just transferred to Missouri from Nebraska.  He leaves without ever taking the field for Missouri.

Also leaving is cornerback Ja’Marion Wayne, defensive end  Jahkai Lang, and backup quarterback Drew Pyne.

Coach Drinkwitz says he would not be surprised to lose four more guys.

Coming to Missouri is linebacker Josiah Trotter, who has some bigtime genes as the son of former NFL all-pro linebacker Jeremiah Trotter, and the brother of Jeremiah Trotter Jr., who was a member of the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles, who have put Jeremiah Senior in the tam’s hall of fame. Josiah comes over from West Virginia, where he was the Big 12 Freshman of the year last year.

Now, let’s look at the people who come and go even faster:

(INDYCAR)—Andretti Global doesn’t have Michael Andretti in the ownership structure anymore but it has kept the Andretti name and now it has an INDYCAR victory.  Kyle Kirkwood started P2 and finished in the same place at the 50th Long Beach Grand Prix Sunday.

Kirkwood’s win is his first since he won at Long Beach in 2023, his third series in overall. To win, he had to hold off Alex Palou, the winner of the first two races of the year.

The race was a milestone for last year’s winner, Scott Dixon. Dixon came  home eighth for his 300th career top ten finish. The 11th place finish of Santino Ferrucci might not seem particularly noteworthy—except that he started 27th.

There were no caution flags in the race. In fact, the only crash in INDYCAR this year was on the first lap of the first race.

(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin, who had won the two previous NASCAR races, outran everybody but Kyle Larson in the 500-lapper at Bristol Sunday.  Larson led 411 laps and gave up the lead under the green flag only once. Larson and Hamlin have finished 1-2 seven times but this was the first time Larson was ahead at the end. Ty Gibbs got close to ending his 81-race winless streak with Joe Gibbs Racing, the longest any JGR driver has gone without picking up his first win for the team. He’s the grandson of the former NFL coach who owns the team. He called his finish “really nice” and says he thinks “we’re really capable of winning a lot this year.”

(FORMULA ONE)—F1 was in Bahrain last weekend with Oscar Piastri started in his McLaren from the pole and holding the lead throughout. Mercedes’ George Russell finished 15 seconds back. Piastri teammate Lando Norris overcame penalties to come within less than a second of giving McLaren a 1-2 finish.

Sports: An Uneven Start, a solid start, an addition for the future, and a victory with a memory

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BASEBALL)—Both of major league baseball teams finished their first full week of the season with 4-5 records. They got there by different routes, one positive and one negative. Both represent where fans think the teams are going this year. The Royals are likely to be better than their first week. The Cardinals would surprise many if they didn’t continue to decline from their season’s peak when they won three in a row.

(ROYALS)— Royals starter Chris Bubic has become the first pitcher to win his first two Royals starts since Danny Duffy did it four years ago. He went 6 2/3 against Baltimore and allowed only one run. He now has thrown 12 2/3 innings, given up only one run, walked only three and fanned sixteen. The Royals won 4-1 and got their first series win of the  year.

Bobby Witt had a triple, double, and single in his first three at-bats but missed the cycle when he struck out in his fourth trip to the plate. No Royals hitter has  completed the cycle in almost 35 years; George Brett did it on July 25, 1990.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals three-game sweep at home to start the season degenerated into a 1-5 week since and a 4-5 record that many fans expect will worsen as the summer wears on.  The Boston Red Sox added the most recent two losses to the record in Sunday’s day/night doubleheader, beating the Cardinals in extra innings in the first game and then clubbing them 18-7 in the second.

Fans who have been saying Miles Mikolaus isn’t worth keeping were fortified by his performance in the second game Sunday when he basically threw batting practice for the Red Sox. By the time he finished his much-abbreviated stint, he had given up nine runs in 2 2/3 innings and his season ERA had been pounded up to 11.25 in his first two starts. Fans who remember that he had one of the worst ERAs of all major league starters last year at 5.35.

Reliever Gordon Graceffo, called up for the day as the 27th player on a doubleheader roster, guaranteed a quick trip back to Memphis by going two innings and giving up five runs in his two innings.

By the end of the game, Cardinals pitchers had given up 18 runs, the most scored against the Redbirds in eight innings since 2020.  The game was played in Boston so there was no need for the Red Sox to bat in the ninth.

The Cardinals did set a positive National League record by racking up at least ten hits in their first nine consecutive games of a season. But last night they lost the opener of their series against the Pirates and had only nine hits. Cleveland retains the major league record of ten times, set in 1999.

The ‘birds had the first game won but reliever Ryan Helsley suddenly lost home plate and allowed Boston to win 5-4 in 11 innings.

Catcher Ivan Herrera is likely to be lost for the next ten days because of an inflammation o his left knee.

Nolan Arenado is on a 15-game hitting streak, the longest one in the majors so far.

(HOCKEY)—The  St. Louis Blues have finally lost a game. Their team-record 12 game winning streak was ended last night by the Winnipeg Jets 3-1.

(MIZbaskets)—The Missouri Tigers have picked up another big guy and a new guard through the portal. Luke Norwether is coming home from Oklahoma. Norwether, who was Missouri’s Mr. Basketball in his senior year at Blair Oaks (Wardsville, near Jefferson City) in 2022, has two years of eligibility left. He’s 6-11 and shot 34% from outside last year in limited action at OU.

In his senior year, Blair Oaks played Father Tolton High of Columbia for a district title. Father Tolton, led by 6-11 Jevon Porter, won that game. Porter announced his transfer to Mizzou last week.

Coach Dennis Gates now has the intriguing possibility of having one of the tallest (maybe the tallest) front lines in the country with these two guys at 6-11, and 7-foot-5 center Trent Byrnes.

It’s also been reported that Missouri is picking up UCLA guard Sebastian Mack. The Athletic says Bass, a Chicago native, will have two years of eligibility at Mizzou.

He averaged 10.8 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in 67 games for the Bruins but saw his playing time reduced this past season after starting 30 games as a freshman. He started only once in 34 games this year. He’s expected to have more of a defensive role than acting as a shooting guard. He has hit less than thirty cent of his shots from the arc, 40.4% overall, and hits just under three-fourths of his foul shots.

(UFL FOOTBALL)—Some 32,115 St. Louis fans watched their hometown pro football team win its second game of the year Sunday. The Battlehawks beat the San Antonio Brahmas 26-9.  The other three UFL games had a TOTAL attendance of 32,783.

In its first two weeks of its second season, UFL crowds are averaging 12,344.

The St. Louis domed stadium has installed new turf, replacing the material that produced “The Greatest Show on Turf” in the Rams days, and improved the lighting for the games as St. Louis continues to hope its support for minor-league quality football will someday produce an NFL franchise.

Quarterback Manny Wilkins was 12/16 for 162 yards and Running back Jacob Sailors, who ran for 46 yards on 11 carries scored three touchdowns. The Hawks scored on three of their first four possessions, led 17-0 at the half and put a fork in the Brahmas with a 12-play, 70-yard touchdown drive early in the second half.

Now, looking at faster things:

(NASCAR)—When he needed his fastest pit stop in the race, Denny Hamlin got it in a race that had been dominated by William Byron who started from the pole and led the first 243 laps of the 297-lap race.  Byron’s pit stop dropped him back. He was able to get back to second but didn’t have enough laps to catch Hamlin, who got his 56th career win and his second in a row.

The victory moves him past retired Missouri driver Rusty Wallace, putting him alone at 11, his car number, on the all-time winners list. He’s four behind Kevin Harvick. Only Kyle Busch, with 63 wins is above him among active drivers.

The spring Darlington race is known as a “throwback” race because the cars are decorated to recall cars driven by retired Cup drivers.  Hamlin’s car was painted (actually it’s a very large decal) to carry the colors of the Home Depot car driven by Columbia driver Carl Edwards

Edwards drove a similarly-painted car in 2008. One of his wins was at Michigan, celebrated by his usual backflip from the driver’s side window.

Edwards, who was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame earlier this year, will be the co-grand marshal at the All-Star race in May.

Ty Gibbs finished 9th, extending his winless streak to 80. That’s the longest any driver for Joe Gibbs Racing has gone before getting his first Cup victory.

(INDYCAR)—IndyCar is back on track next weekend for a special race at one of its favorite venues—the street circuit of Long Beach, California.  Long Beach is the second longest continuously held race on the circuit. Sunday will be the 50th race. Only the Indianapolis 500 has been held longer. The 108th edition of that race comes up on Memorial Day weekend.

Former University of Missouri football Tiger Jay Frye, who lost his job as IndyCar President earlier this year, has become the President of Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing, founded by 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal and co-owned by television personality David Letterman and businessman Mike Lanigan, the owner of Lanco, an aerial lift equipment company.

(FORMULA ONE)—Max Verstappen has made it to the winner’s circle for the first time this year, taking the Grand Prix of Japan, two seconds ahead of Lando Norris.

Back in the pack, Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli was making history. He became the youngest driver in F1 history to lead a race and the youngest to record the fastest lap in a race. He was 18 years, 224 days old. He finished sixth.

Becoming the youngest winner in F1 history is out of reach. Verstappen holds that record—18 years 228 days.

(photo credits: NASCAR)

All They Did—-

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It will take a while, maybe several years, before some high school students living in an unincorporated area of 140 people of central Missouri fully appreciate what they have done.

They have won the State High School 2A basketball championship. But it’s more than just a trophy for the town of Eugene.

The exhilaration that comes from championships is a temporary thing. It might linger for several hours or for a few days before life takes over.

But legacies are eternal. And they have created a legacy.

All these students did was to give their little community where the number of students in the Cole R-V School District outnumbers the population of the community by more than four to one, the first state championship in community history—in any category.

The best at something in the entire state of Missouri, population 6.2-million.

It was not exactly a “Hoosiers” moment because they did not beat the dominant big-city team for the title, but to Eugene, Missouri, it IS a “Hoosiers” moment because it is the first time the school has won a state title in anything.

For the rest of their lives they will bound together by this historic event, For the rest of their lives they will be remembered as members of the first team in school history that—-

The chance to be a state champion comes rarely. Even if there are more trophies in the future, theirs will be the historic one, the one that says for the first time, Eugene was the best of its kind in the whole state.

They shall grow old, but they will always be young when others look at their trophy decades from now. They’ll be the ones every team to come wants to be like.

All they did was to give a120-year old community —that has never thought itself big enough to incorporate as a real town —the chance to proclaim itself the best of its kind in Missouri.

And these children shall become legends.

 

Sports: Preoccupied Edition

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

We have time just for a few headlines;

Missouri Tigers get Drake in the first round of the NCAA tournament, in Wichita. Thursday night, we’ll see how they do against a 30-win team.

The Kansas City Chiefs revolving door continues to turn with some free agents leaving and others coming in.

The Cardinals and the Royals are running out of time in the sun and they continue to home whatever skills they will have to make the 2025 season live to expectations, which are low for one, higher for the other.

In racing—NASCAR has a first time winner at Las Vegas, Josh Berry, who drives for one of the oldest teams in the sport, the Wood Brothers, that is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.

INDYCAR won’t race again until next month but that doesn’t mean its drivers are twiddling their thumbs. Some of them ran the Sebring 12-Hours this weekend but none went to the winners circle.

The Porsche Penske team did, however, and with another Penske Porsche finishing just 2.2 seconds behind after a half-day of racing. Brazilian Felipe Nasr, Belgium’s Laurens Vanthoor, and Britain’s Nick Tandy combined to get the win, with Frenchman Mattieu, Australia’s Mat Campbell and Kevin Estre of France right behind them.

Formula 1 began its season in rainy Australia with McLaren’s Lando Norris staying on track while others slid around and got the first win of the new season. Defending F1 champion Max Verstappen threatened but couldn’t get the upper hand.  Former F1 champion, Lewis Hamilton, was tenth in his first drive for Ferrari.

Your speedy correspondent hoped to have a more complete report next week after he and his wife have finished their move to a new zip code in Jefferson City.  Things have reached the frantic shoveling stage this week.

Nick Stays; Robin Goes; Mizzou Men Choke down the Stretch; Three Missouri Teams in D2 Tournament  

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BOLTON—Fears that Nick Bolton would bolt from the Kansas City Chiefs have been laid to rest with a three-year, $345-million deal. In just three years after leaving the University of Missouri, Bolton has become one of the premier line backers in the NFL.

The Chiefs have lost wide receiver Justin Watson to the Houston Texans. Watson’s main value has been as a fill-in when other receivers have gone out with injuries. He might not be the last receiver who becomes expandable. Juju Smith-Schuster, DeAndre Hopkins, and Mecole Hardman are headed toward free agency.

Kansas City is losing Joe Thuney, a mainstay on their offensive line and a guy who moved from guard to tackle to try to provide protection to Patrick Mahomes that had been missing most of the season.  Thuney’s going to the Chicago Bears and is taking his $16 million salary with him, freeing up some cap space financially to let the Chiefs restructure some pieces. Andy Reid says Thuney is one of his favorite guys but he’s a victim of the salary cap, which Reid calls “a nightmare.” The Chiefs hope Mike Caliendo or Kingsley Suamataia will fill the left guard spot next year.

Some of that help might come from two now-ex 49ers, Left tackle Jaylon Moore and running back Elijah Mitchell, whose star has been eclipsed by Christian McCaffery,

The Chiefs got a scare in the last few days with the arrest of star rookie receiver Xavier Worthy on a felony assault charge in Texas. But the prosecutor has refused to press charges after Worthy’s lawyers argued the woman involved was an ex-girlfriend who refused to leave Worthy’s apartment after the pair had broken up, and had filed the complaint after Worthy refused her extortionist demands.

The prosecutor says the case is still open, though.

(MIZZMEN)—Legendary Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summit once said, “Offense sells tickets, defense wins games, and rebounding wins championships.” The Missouri Tigers sold a lot of tickets but the rest—–

The Tiger basketball team has forgotten how to play defense and in the process has thrown away (another problem) a higher national ranking and a more favorable seeding in the NCAA tournament.

Missouri has allowed opponents to top 90 points in five of their last six regular-eason games. The Tigers go into the post-season on a three-game losing streak, have gone 2-4 to close out the season, and have dropped from fourth in the conference standings to seventh.

Missouri is clinging to the top 25 polls—22nd in the coaches poll and 21st in the AP sportswriters poll. They are a seventh seed in the SEC tournament and play Thursday night against the winner of the Mississippi State-LSU game.

Three Tiger have won some recognition from the conference.  Caleb Grill is the 6th-man of the year. Antony Robinson III has been named to the all-defensive team. And Mark Mitchel is on the Third All-Conference team.

(LADY TIGERS)—Mississippi State scored 31 unanswered points on the way to ending the season for MU’s women’s basketball team. The final margin was twenty—75-55. Missouri missed 18 consecutive shots during that string. They also finishd with 30 turnovers for the game, hardly a distinguished going-away performance for coach Robin Pingeton, who has coached her last game at Missouri after fifteen years.

Her 250 wins are the second most for any women’s coach at MU.

Here’s something that’s been overlooked in the reporting about her coaching career—

She was a fine player.  Her record of 2,502 career points at Saint Ambrose University remains a school record after 35 years. She was an All-American in basketball AND softball and played three seasons in the old Women’s Basketball Association.

A search for a new coach will kick into high gear after post-season tournaments wrap up.

(LADY BEARS)—The Missouri State Lady Bears are wrapping up the school’s last year in the Missouri Valley Conference by being co-champions of the regular season. They’re the number two seed in the conference tournament this week. The winner of the tournament gets the conference’s automatic slot in the NCAA tournament. They went 24-7 in the regular season, 16-4 in the conference regular season.

(LINCOLN)—Lincoln University in Jefferson City is headed to the NCAA Division II tournament for the first time in 44 years.  The Blue Tigers put defensive clamps on Missouri-St. Louis 58-51, holding UMSL to just 18 field goals.to win the Great Lakes Valley Conference crown.  Lincoln (23-8) will play Lake Superior Sate University from Michigan in the first round of the Midwest Regional.

Other Missouri teams will play a few more games. UMSL will face Ferris State in the D-2 tournament’s first round.  Missouri S&T has the top seed in that tournament.

(THE BASEBALL)—A couple of former Cardinals greats are taking headlines away from this year’s players.

(ALBERT)—Albert Pujols has shown he can manage, and how. His first two jobs as a manager have been eye-opening. He won the Dominican Winder League Championship with the Leones del Escongido and then managed the Dominican Republic national team to the Caribbean Series Championship. He’ll manage the Dominican Republic national team in next year’s World Baseball Classic.  But he has his eyes on a Major League manager’s job.

He’s one of two Cardinals greats considered as possible replacement for Oliver Marmol. The other is Yadier Molina.

(MOLINA)—Yadier Molina wants to manage in the big leagues but for now, his focus is on his family.  He has told The Athletic’s Kaatie Woo, “I’ve been away from my family for many years. I decided to take a break and put them as my priority right now.”

He’s been a “special assistant for the Cardinals for a couple of years but hasn’t been active. But for now, he wants to focus on family life, including watching his 16-year old son play catcher on the high school team in Texas, where the Molina family lives.

In 2023, Yadi managed the Puerto Rican national tam in the World Baseball Classic and is considered the likely manager for the team next year. He also has managed in the winter league short season after the regular season for MLB.

He has given a little jolt to Cardinals fans, though, telling Woo he so badly wants to manage that he would take an offer from the Cubs if one is made. But he’s not in any hurry to by in a major league dugout.

(OUR TEAMS)—The Cardinals are 8-9 through the weekend, 2 ½ games behind Toronto in the Grapefruit League. The Royals are 10-7. The Giants lead he Cactus League at 11-7.

(A few brief notes about those who go in circles or run on squiggly tracks, too)

(NASCAR)—Christopher Bell has won his third straight NASCAR Cup race, holding off Denny Hamlin in a two-lap overtime shootout at Phoenix in the second-closest finish in track history  0.045 second.  Bell had the race under control until a crash brought out the yellow and required a restart.

Bell and Hamlin both drive for Joe Gibbs Racing, giving the team its first 1-2 finish of the year.

Kyle Larson finished third, right on Hamlin’s rear bumper with Josh Berry and Chris Buescher rounding out the top five.

Far back in the field was Katherine Legge (LEG), who was 30th and spun twice as she became he first woman to start a Cup race since Danica Patrick ran the Daytona 500 seven years ago. Legge, who has made several Indianapolis 500 starts and who has won sports car races, is only the eighth woman to compete in NASCAR’s top series in the last 43 years considered the modern era.

The next race is at Las Vegas where Bell hopes to equal Bill Elliott’s 1992 record as the only driver to win four of the first five races of a season.

(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR returns to the rack next weekend at the Thermal Club road course in Thermal, California.

(FORMULA 1)—The F1 season opens next Saturday with the Grand Prix of Ausralia.

The End at Mizzou and in KC; Grapefruit and Cactus; Youth is Served on the Track

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(WOMENMIZZ)—The fifteen-year career of Robin Pingeton as women’s basketball coach at the University of Missouri is stumbling to an sad ending.

The Lady Tigers lost their last regular-season game to Vanderbilt 100-59, the first time an opponent has topped 100 points against a Missouri women’s team in 25 years.

Pingeton’s Tigers will be the 15th seed in the SEC tournament, facing Mississippi State tomorrow evening. Mississippi State is the 10th seed. Missouri won a regular season game against MSU, 78-77 on January 27.

Her departure is not a surprise.  Missouri has gone 79-98 in the last six years with losing records in four of those seasons, twice racking up only nine wins. Going into the likely last game of the year and of her career, Missouri is 14-17.

Overall at Missouri, Pingeton is 250-217 and has taken the team into ten postseason appearances and made four trips to the NCAA women’s tournament. She’s 584-373 including her stint with Northern Illinois.

(MIZZ)—The Missouri Tigers again have shown an inability to capitalize on a big win, losing to Vanderbilt 97-93 in overtime after holding a three-point lead with nine seconds left in regulation.

Missouri had led most of the game but could never put the Commodores away.

It’s a costly loss that drops Missouri out of a top-four seed in the SEC tournament and the double-bye that would have been part of that seeding.

Coach Dennis Gates blamed himself for the loss, saying he hadn’t done what he had to do.

Missouri plays Oklahoma in Norman tomorrow night.

The loss drops Missouri to 19th in the coaches poll. They’re 15th among AP sportswriters. They’re 10-6 in the conference now.  Auburn, the nation’s top team, is 15-1 with Texas A&M second at 12-4 and Florida and Alabama at 12-4. (zou)

(MOOSE)—Former Kansas City Royals third baseman Mike Moustakis is coming home to retire. The Moose is going to sign a one-day contract before a game on May 31 so he can retire with the team he helped win the 2015 World Series. The team will host a pregame ceremony for him before they play the Tigers.

He hit 139 homers in his eight seasons with a n 11.5 WAR before he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers, where he played for a season and a half before going to Cincinnati for three years. He split 2023 between the Rockies and the Angels, signed a minor league deal in 2024 but was cut before the season started.

He hit .284 with 22 homers and 82 RBIs in the championship year of 2015. He hit .304 against the Mets in the World Series.

(SPRING TRAINING)—How are  the Royals and Cardinals doing in spring training?

The Cardinals are last in the Grapefruit League at 3-6 through Sunday. They’ve been outscored 37-46 and are winless (0-5) outside Roger Dean Stadium. As a team, the ‘Birds are hitting only .193. Nolan Arenado is 3 for 12. Masin Wynn and Nolan Gorman are hitless in 12 at-bats each. Jordan Walker is 1 for 11. Victor Scott and Wilson Contrares are having a good spring. Both are 5 for 9 (.556). St. Louis is averaging five hits per game.

The Royals 6-4, sixth in the Cactus League. They’re 65-65 in the runs-scored, runs-against sats and hitting .257 as a team through Sunday. Bobby Witt is at 294. Michael Massey is at .417. Vinnie Pasquantino, coming back from a fractured wrist last year, is looking for his stroke at .188.

(CHIEFS)—  The offseason for the Chiefs already is producing changes and apprehension. Early speculation is focusing on three guys.

Linebacker Nick Bolton will become a free agent next month. He knows he’s a hot commodity. The Chiefs know it, too.  The former Tiger has racked up at least 100 tackles in three of his four seasons. He’s indicated he’s like to stay in KC, but—–

Offensive guard Trey Smith is not under contract for 2026 and coming off his first pro-bowl season. He also is 25 and is the kind of guy a lot of teams would like to pick up. But he was a stalwart in a leaky offensive line last year. Ian Rapaport with NFL insider thinks Kansas City will make him a franchise player for 2026 and pay him about $23 million for a one-year deal, making him the highest-paid guard in the league.

But the financial impact goes beyond Smith because it affects the players’ budget.  The big loser, according to some analysts, could be Isiah Pacheco, who missed ten games but the Chiefs didn’t seem to miss him much. The running game led by a rejuvenated Kareem Hunt might make Pacheco expendable.

Moving Along.    At about 200 mph:

(INDYCAR)—Defending INDY car champion Alex Palou dominated the race on the streets of St. Petersburg, the first race of the series schedule.

The win gives him a leg up on winning his third INDYCAR championship. It’s his 12th career win in the series.

But six-time champion Scott Dixon thinks he could have won he race if his radio hadn’t quit working, forcing him to make pit stops based in dashboard information rather than communications from his crew chief.

Even with that difficulty, Dixon’s runner-up finish gave Chip Ganassi Racing a 1-2 finish with the cars of rival Penske Racing’s Josef Newgarden and pole sitter Scott McLaughlin.

Two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Josef Newgarden closed to within nine-tenths of a second late in the race but faded to third, passed by an onrushing Dixon, who finished less than three seconds behind Palou.

Palou called his win “amazing,” which it might have been because of his past struggles at St. Pete.

The season opened poorly for the third Penske driver, Will Power, who had to replace his engine before the start and was then caught up in a crash on the third turn of the race. Power, who turned 44 earlier in the week, is in the last year of his contract with Penske. He wants to keep racing, would prefer to stay with Penske but says serious contract negotiations have not yet begun.

McLaughlin announced before the race that his contract with Penske had been extended.

(NASCAR)—Christopher Bell has become the first driver since 2018 to win two of the first three NASCAR Cup races, crossing the finish line at the Circuit of the Americas after a tough but clean race. He also won at Atlanta last week.

Bell finished second at COTA last year. This year seemed like a replay of 2024 in some ways. “These road-course races are so much fun,” he said afterwards. But he didn’t want to wreck Busch to get past him. “We tried to be so cautious…His car started falling off, and ours was still strong. I kept thinking ‘don’t beat yourself.’”

Kyle Busch seemed on the verge of ending his 59-race winless streak when the last caution came out that allowed the field to bunch up with him. He and Bell raced hard and clean before Busch’s worn tires forced him to slow, allowing Bell to get past him with ten laps to go, and then William Byron and Tyler Reddick got past him, too.

Byron was able to get to Bell but couldn’t get an opening to pass. Chase Elliott, who came back from an early spin to finish fourth, watched the three fight it out in the closing laps and called the contest “a great example of three very respectful talented race car drivers duking it out for the win without crashing each other.”

Busch is looking for his first win since June, 2023 at Madison, Illinois. After the race he told interviewers, “I feel like maybe the two-lap fresher tires the No. 20 (Bell) had was the difference. All things considered, I’d love to have equal tires to the No. 20 and get back after it and see what we could do that way. But I also hated to see that yellow that came out. I felt like we had a little bit of a gap there, enough of a gap that I was protecting my tires.”

(photo credits: Moustakis—KC Royals; Bell—Bob Priddy; Palou—Rick Gevers)