Category Archives: Sports

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     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)

 

 

 

Sports: Missouri Stays Put; Missouri Wants Royals, Chiefs to Just Stay; Games Are Being Played in Arizona, Florida; and an Intense Final Lap at Atlanta

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(KEEPING THE CHIEFS)—Meetings are being held in Kansas City keep the Royals and the Chiefs on this side of the state line. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas (pardon the use of an inappropriate word to describe a baseball issue) huddled with civic leader in Kansas City to discuss another run at financing a new stadium near downtown Kansas City, near Union Station.

And the Chiefs are in the mix, too, because Arrowhead Stadium either needs a major refresh or a replacement.

Kansas has given itself a big tool to get the teams to cross the line—the STAR Bond law, passed last June that allows the Kansas Commerce Department to negotiate with both teams. The STAR Bonds (Sales Tax and Revenue) are intended to improve economic development in Kansas.

The program lets Kansas pay almost three-quarters of the cost of a new stadium by issuing bonds that would be paid off through thirty years with a a heightened sales tax.

The teams have leases through 2031.

(KEEPING THE ROYALS)—Although one Kansas state legislators has said the state is close to a deal with one of the big pro sports teams in Kansas City, the owner of the Royals is reportedly still looking at a site on our side of the line.

A few days ago, Mayor Lucas said owner John Sherman is still look for a downtown location for a new baseball stadium and that he’s considering Washington Square Park, east of Union Station and the Crown Plaza shopping area.

(CHIEFS TEAM)—Regardless of what comes out of  geopolitical machinations about news stadiums, the Chiefs know they’ll be playing football again in six months and they know a Standing Pat does not need a team that is standing pat.

The team has cut several practice squad players and has added replacements while it plots a draft strategy.

The coaching staff already has undergone a slight facelift with the hiring of Matt House as the senior defensive assistant and Chris Orr who will be the defensive quality control coach. House left the Chiefs to spend the last three years at LSU and the last season as the linebackers coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Round Ball:

(MIZZ)—The Missouri Tigers’ inability to capitalize on the big win against #4 Alabama last week by being outrun Saturday night hasn’t cost them much in the national polls. They’re up one slot in the AP poll, to 14th.  The coaches have left them at 16th in their poll.

Missouri’s destiny remains in their own hands. They play lowly South Carolina tonight at home. South Carolina is having last year’s Missouri season. The Gamecocks are 1-13. It will be the second of four games in a row against lower-tier conference teams.

Auburn still leads the conference at 13-1 with Florida (11-3) and Alabama (also 11-3) behind them. Missouri is one of three times tied for fourth at 9-5. The Tigers are joined by Tennesee (22-8 overall) and Texas A&M (20-7, the same as Missouri overall.

The Tigers disappointed themselves against Arkansas with too many mistakes and an ice-cold hand by Caleb Grill, who was only 2/14 overall and 2/12 from three.  Missouri had 18  turnovers, six by Mark Mitchell and four by Tony Perkins.

The Baseball:

(CARDS)—St. Louis has started its Grapefruit League season 1-2 with a win yesterday and an encouraging start by Steven Matz, who hasn’t lived up to his paycheck, at least partly because of injures. Match went two innings, and used 26 pitches to hold the Astros at bay in the first two innings. The Redbirds won it 7-4.

(ROYALS)—The Royals are 1-1-1 in the Cactus League. They tied the A’s at one yesterday.

Now we get the motors running—

(NASCAR)—The weekend race at Atlanta was notable for its wild overtime finish—but first we want to mention somebody who wasn’t there.

Martin Truex had not missed a NASCAR Cup start since the 2006 Daytona 500.  His 685 consecutive race streak ranks him sixth on the all-time starters list.  Joey Logano now has the longest string of races, 578. Brad Keselowski has 546, the only other driver with more than 500 consecutive starts.

A consecutive-race string of a different sort ended for Christopher Bell and for Joe Gibbs racing at Atlanta Sunday night.  Christopher Bell won his first race on a super speedway and gave car owner Joe Gibbs his first win since last June.

Bell led only the last lap and was slightly ahead with several cars crashed behind him, bringing out the caution flag and freezing the positions. Second-year driver Carson Hocevar was second and Kyle Larson was third. It’s Hocevar’s best finish in his young career and the best finish on a superspeedway for Larson, who hasn’t won in 48 tries on a drafting track. One third of those finishes were DNFs.

NASCAR heads to the Circuit of the Americans next week.

(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR starts its season next weekend at a traditional location, the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.  A lot of familiar faces return but the interim between seasons has been a busy one.

Jay Frye, the former Missouri Tiger football player who has headed INDYCAR for a decade was let go a few weeks ago. He’s been replaced by Doug Boles, who also is President of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Arrow McLaren team has named Indianapolis 500 winner its team principal. Kanaan drove his last Indianapolis 500 two years ago, joined McLaren later that year as a consultant and has worked his way up to a position that will have him oversee team and driver development.

Michael Andretti is no longer a team owner. Neither is Sam Schmidt.

The final test runs at Sebring found Joseph Newgarden and Will Power pacing the field of 27 drivers. The lap times indicated a lot of close racing is in store for this year.  All 27 drivers lapped without eight-tenths of a second of each other.

And while we weren’t looking, A. J. Foyt turned 90 in January.  He won with everything he drove—a four time Indianapolis 500 champion, a winner of the Daytona 500 in NASCAR, a winner of the LeMans 24 Hours, and the 24 Hours of Daytona.

(Photo Credits: Atlanta—NASCAR/ Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images; Kanaan—Bob Priddy, Indianapolis 2023.)

 

Sports: Tigers climb back in the polls; We’ll look at where they might rank in the tournament; Cardinals, Royals, climb back into uniforms; Racers Climb Into Cockpits

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing edit

(MIZ)—Missouri has climbed back into the teens in both national polls after two strong bounceback wins after their first two-game loss streat this season. Wins at home against Oklahoma and on the road against Georgia have put them 15th in the AP sportswriters poll and 16th in the USA TODAY coaches poll.

Mizzou is 19-6 now with six games left. They’ll play #4 Alabama at home tomorrow night.

(NCAA)—March is madly approaching and various prognosticators are telling us who will be in the NCAA tournament and what the seeding will be.  Most projections we’ve seen indicate Mizzou would be a 5-seed after splitting the last six  games of the regular season to finish 22-9.

(CARDINALS)—Nolan Arenado is in camp with the Cardinals, as he usually would be, despite his off-season being one of rampant speculation that he wouldn’t be.  And the team’s president of baseball operations seems resigned to his failure to get rid of him. John Mozeliak told reporters last week that Arenado is “likely to be part of our club at this point.”

Arenado has three years left on his eight-million dollar, $260 million contract (pro-rated annually until 2041). He was hoping a team more likely to play in the World Series would cut a deal with the Cardinals this winter.

He told reporters on the first day he was in camp, ”I’m in the right place.” He heard a lot of things in the offseason but, “I try not to get caught up in it too much. I’m ready to focus on getting ready for the season.

Arenado’s contract has a list of teams for which he would accept a trade. But he told MLB.com he wasn’t going to talk about which teams they are and says the talk about those teams “doesn’t really matter anymore.”  He’s indicated there’s more to his situation than signing a lucrative free agent deal: “I got a family now and to be willing to pick up my family and move them, it has to be something that’s worth it.”

Sounds as if his head is on pretty straight.

His presence is not a guarantee he will be with the Cardinals on opening day. Mozeliak’s comment can be seen to indicate the Redbirds are s till looking to move him.

(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals have extended the contract of VP and GM J. J. Picollo through 2030 with a club option in ’31. Piccolo is considered the architect behind last year’s surge back into contention last year.

The Royals also have exercised their option with manager Matt Quatraro. Piccolo and Quatraro finished second in balloting for executive of the year and manager of the year.

Royals owner John Sherman has hinted that conversations have resumed about a new stadium. WDAF-TV has him talking about “a very exciting thing for our community” as he advocates for “securing a long=-term home for the Royals.”

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs have dropped some people from the Taxi Squad and have signed some people to it and they’ve told Travis Kelce they hope he’ll tell them by the middle of next month if he wants to keep playing.

(BATTLEHAWKS)—The UFL season opens March 28 with the St. Louis Battlehawks playing six of their ten games in the dome in St Louis. The first game, however, is on the road against the Houston Roughnecks. They’ll play the San Antonio Brahma’s twice. Last year, the ‘Hawks beat the Brahmas twice but lost to them in the first round of the playoffs.

Sports with Motors

(DAYTONA)—Nobody was surprised  he had won the Daytona than the driver who did it.

William Byron, seventh with one lap to go, won the Daytona 500, his second straight win of the Great American Race.

Byron dodged the last big crash, which happened at the front of the field halfway through the last lap, to win by about 1.1 seconds over Tyler Reddick.

NASCAR heads to Atlanta next weekend.

 

A Lost Weekend for Missouri Sports—Except for One Guy

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

—Tigers lost. Chiefs overwhelmed. Thank Heavens for Baseball.

(CHIEFS)  Look for a lot of new names on the Kansas City Chiefs offensive line next year. ESPN reports Patrick Mahomes was pressured on 29 of his 56 dropbacks in the Super Bowl and was sacked six times, more times than in any other game in his career.  The Eagles helped him to a forgettable record with those 29 pressures, breaking the record of 25 held by Buffalo’s Jim Kelley in Super Bowl 26.

And the Eagles did it without blitzing. They just rolled over the Chiefs’ offensive line.

Mahomes was sacked eleven times in the Chiefs’ three post-season games. In the regular season, the defense got him on the ground 36 times.

The Eagles dominated the Chiefs, especially in the first half when the Chiefs became the second team in Super Bowl history to have fewer total offense yards than the number of points they gave up. Their total offense in the first half, on 20 plays, was only 23 yards. They had only three running plays (Kareem Hunt and Isiah Pacheco combined for three yards) and trailed 24-0 at the break.

The highlight of the game for the Chiefs was the winning the coin toss.  By the end, they had suffered the worst loss of any team in a Super Bowl since since losing to Tampa Bay 31-9 four Super Bowls ago.  The loss, however, was far from the worst in a Super Bowl.  SB24 saw the 49ers clobber the Broncos 55-10.

Statmuse.com says this is the 26th time in the entire history of the franchise that the Chiefs have given up 40 points and the first time it’s happened since they lost to the Vikings 45-20 on December 20, 2003.

Travis Kelce set a new record for most catches in a Super Bowl. He finished with four in the game and 35 in his career, two more than Jerry Rice. Earlier in the playoffs he had broken Rice’s record for 100 yard playoff games, with 117 yards against the Houston Texans, his ninth playoff game getting 100 yards or more. Going into the game Sunday night, Kelce’s 350 Super Bowl yards ranked him fourth in the record book. He was first with 174 catches and now has 179. He went in ranked second with 2,039 receiving yards and second with 20 receiving touchdowns.

Andy Reid’s career coaching record now is 301-162-1 in 26 seasons. Including playoffs. He’s up one on Bill Belichick for most playoff games coached, with 45. Belichick has 31 wins. Reid has 28. He will be 67 when the Chiefs start the 2025 season.

(mizz)—Dropping two games to top-10 teams last week have has led to Missouri, not surpisingly, dropping six spots in both of the major polls. They’re down to 22 in the coaches poll and

he Tigers fell to No. 22 in the USA Today Sports Men’s Basketball Coaches Poll in Monday’s top 25, down six places from their previous ranking. They also dropped six positions in the AP sportswriters  ranking.

Both Missouri losses were by a combined seven points against top-10 teams. Tennessee remained at No. 4 in the coaches poll and Texas A&M moved up four spots to No. 9.

The teams that beat Missouri last week rose in the polls.

A last seconds heart-breaker of a three with 1.8 seconds left gave Texas A&M the win in Columbia Saturday but the Tigers sowed the seeds of their defeat with two long dry spells.

They went the first 5:40 without a point before Tamar Bates hit a three from the corner. Missouri didn’t scored in the last 8:13 of the half. The Tigers dominated the second half and tied the game with ten minutes left. They took the lead with 53 seconds left but left too much time on the clock and Wade Taylor got the game winner.

(The Baseball)—That’s what Hemingway’s Old Man called it in The Old Man and the Sea.  Pitchers and catchers are drifting into the camps in Florida and Arizona. Full squads are due by the 17th.

Both teams start the season with questions.  For the Royals, it’s “Can they do it again—and do more?”  For the Cardinals, the question is “What are they going to do, anything?”

Now, The Wheel Guys, one in particular:

(EDWARDS)—Retired Columbia NASCAR driver Carl Edward never was close to being the most popular driver of the year during his career. But any self-doubts he had about being an outsider were erased last Friday night when he joined the NASCAR Hall of Fame. In his 8th year of retirement, Edwards talked about why he abruptly retired and how he learned he was part of the NASCAR family.

Edwards was headed for the NASCAR championship when a crash took him out of his last race in 2016. A few weeks later he met with his  team owner, Joe Gibbs, and told him he was not coming back for the 2017 season.

“I’m grateful that we didn’t win that championship because it gave me time to go home and think about a few things…I didn’t know my kids and because of brave men like Dale Earnhardt Jr., and other athletes, I was aware that there are real risks to hitting your head over and over.”

Edwards told Gibbs from the dais, “You said , ‘If this is important to you, I’ve got your back’…You changed my life. You gave me permission to do something I needed to do.”

Carl’s full speech:

Bing Videos

Next weekend, big-time NASCAR racing returns at full throttle with the Daytona 500.

(Photo credit: Yahoo Sports)

Sports: Another Big Win; A Big Game to Come; And a Talk with a Hall of Famer 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor.

(MIZ)—We’d buy a ticket, if the University of Missouri didn’t require a second mortgage on our home to buy one AND to park somewhere in Boone County, to see Missouri’s Caleb Grill and the WNBA’s Katlin Clark have a three-point shootout from near-center court.

Grill’s latest three-pointer blitz was a major factor in Missouri’s impressive win Saturday against another top-15 club. But it wasn’t just his long-range shooting that led Missouri to crush a team by 27 points that was ranked seven slots higher in the rankings. The Tigers defense was impressive against Mississippi State and Missouri rebounding has made us almost forget last year’s regrettable rebound record.

This was a landmark win. No Missouri men’s basketball team in the entire history of MU roundball had beaten a ranked team on the road by 27 of more points. Ever. It was Misosur9’s fourth top-25 win of the year, the second top-15 road game win.

Missouri posted a season-high 15 three=pointers.

The win has boosted Missouri not the teens in the rankings—16th in the coaches poll and 15th in the sportswriters poll—the highest ratings for a Tiger eam since February 8, 2021.

It’s February now.  Only eight regular season games are left. Missouri is seventh in conference power rankings, third in the overall standings and is considered “the league’s biggest surprise.”   The Tigers are 17-4 overall and face fifth-rated Tennessee tomorrow night. That game also is on the road. . (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—We were sorting though some stuff the other day and came across what we first thought was an old handball.  But nobody in our family ever played handball.  But one bounce confirmed the second thought; it was a Super Ball, a popular plaything in the mid to late 60s.

Why mention it here?

Because it is part of the big game next Sunday.

Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt had seen some kids playing with the “mystery ball with 1,000 bounces” and his mind quickly moved Super Ball to “Super Bowl.”  His Chiefs were playing the Packers in what was termed the “AFL-NFL Championship Game,”  and sometimes referred to as the “World Series of Football.”  But Hunt’s nick name for the game caught on so quickly that NFL Films’ coverage of the game (The Packers blew open the game in the second half to beat KC 35-10) called it the “Super Bowl.”

It became the official name of the game for Super Bowl III, when the Jets became the first AFL team to win.

The odds makers say this could be a super game.  The Chiefs have been listed in the early line as favored by half of a field goal.

(FASTBALLS  AND FAST CARS)

Two sports are starting to rev up now that we’re in February.

By this time next week, pitchers and catchers will be pitching and catching in Florida and in Arizona.

(CARL/NASCAR)—Friday night, Columbia retired NASCAR driver Carl Edwards will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  Edwards drove his last race in 2016 although he didn’t know it was his final race at the time.  He was headed for his first Cup championship with ten laps to go in the last race of the year when he tried to block challenger Joey Logano from going beneath him. His left rear fender hit the nose of Logano’s car and Edward’s car crashed hard into the infield wall.

Carl Edwards HUGE CRASH Final round 2016 Nascar Sprint Cup series

The NASCAR world was stunned when Edwards abruptly walked away.  Last year he was named one of the 75 greatest drivers in NASCAR’s 75-year history.

Edwards cut his teeth on the local tracks in Central Missouri and was the track champion at the now-gone Capital Speedway in Jefferson City.  He finally drew the attention of NASCAR team owner Jack Roush who put him in some NASCAR truck series races in which he finished in the top ten in 35 of his sixty races, with six wins.

In his 13-year career he won 28 Cup of 445 races, was in the top five 124 times and in the top ten 220 times.  In his last year his average starting position through 36 races was 7.2.  He finished second in the standings twice including one year when he and Tony Stewart finished tied in points but Stewart took home the trophy because he won more races.

For ten years, eight of them with full-time rides, he ran in the top feeder series for the Cup program, racing on Saturday before the Cup races on Sundays, posting 38 wins in 245 starts and finishing outside the top ten only 71 times. He won what was then the Busch Series championship in 2007 and finished second in the standings four times and third once.

Edwards was known for his backflips from his car when he won. He was a prominent image in NASCAR marketing, and was considered a likely race winner every time he buckled into his seat.

Then he left after the final race and what became a career-ending crash. He has seldom been seen at the track since although he admits a pull back to the sport, not as a driver but as a respected retiree.

We confess, we miss him and looking at the picture above, taken while he was in the pits at Indianapolis, reminds us what a pleasure it was to watch him race—and to talk with him. When we talked the last time, he admitted privately that he was considering what he should do for the second half of his life. I couldn’t tell him what he should do but we did discuss what he shouldn’t do, and he didn’t. And whether that conversation influenced his decision is not material. But it was nice of hm to ask.

Carl told an interviewer last year after learning he’d been elected to the Hall of Fame, “I just needed time. I woke up…and I realized I’m not spending time doing anything other than racing and that’s time I would never get back.”  He also felt he had done everything he wanted to do in NASCAR racing and, “I understood that I was the best that I could be…I escaped without any injuries” of the kind of concussion problems Dale Earnhardt Jr., had worked through.

He admits it took “a couple of years” to adjust to non-racing life, “to get a balance,” as he put it. But 2016 was the first time, he said, that he “ looked around and thought, ‘there are some other things that I really need to tend to. My family, nobody else is going to take my role there,” so he had to make the clean break he did.

Carl Edwards Talks Hall of Fame, NASCAR Exit: “How I Left Was Misunderstood…”

He has no desire to climb back into a Cup car again. He’s 45, a little grey at the temples now, comfortable with his life-decision, and knows the sport has moved beyond him—although he confesses he has been on a simulator a few times.

He still lives in Columbia, travels a lot, and says he keeps busy with a lot of things. And he’s a good guy.

Next week in this space we’ll be telling you about NASCAR’s opening race, the Daytona 500.

(Screenshot from his interview; photo by Bob Priddy at Brickyard 400, 2014)