Category Archives: Racing

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:

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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)

Chiefs: Let’s Play Three; Tigers Rise

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

The Kansas City Chiefs scored more than thirty points for the first time since 24 games and they needed every one of them to break the hearts of Buffalo Bills fans again and head to their third Super Bowl in a row.

Harrison Butker’s field goal with 3:33 left provided the points. The Chiefs defense kept Buffalo from getting close enough to tie and clutch Marhomes to Pacheco and Mahomes to Perine passes made sure Buffalo never got another chance.

The Chiefs shut down the bills on third downs, letting them succeed only five times in fourteen changes. The Chiefs went 5 for 9.  The Bills also converted four fourth downs but coiuldn’t make it happen in their last possession.

In about ten days the Chiefs will try to something no other team has done in the 59-year history of the Super Bowl—with a third straight Lombardi Trophy.  They’ll face The Philadelphia Eagles, a team they beat to start the string of championships.  Kansas City rallied from ten points down to beat the Eagles 38-35 on a Butker field goal.

Philadelphia demolished the Washington Commanders 55-23, a record scoring output since the beginning of the Super Bowl era.

The Bills and the Chiefs have met 56 times.  The Chiefs have won just 25 of them—but four have kept the Bills from playing in the Super Bowl for the first time since they went to the game four straight years, 1990-93 with Jim Kelly at quarterback and Marve Levy as the coach. Levy coached the chiefs for five years before going to Buffalo.  Levy will be more than halfway to his 100th birthday when his Chiefs, not his Bills, play another Super Bowl.

(MIZZ)—The Missouri Tigers split their two games last week but still moved up a little in the rankings.  They’re 21st in the USA TODAY coaches poll.  They’ve hopped up two slots in the AP sportswriters poll, to 20th.  Missouri was up to 20th one week during the 2022-23 season, the first one for Coach Dennis Gates.

The Tigers face #5 Tennessee Thursday night and  Tennessee Sunday afternoon. (ZOU)

(BASE BALL)—It originally was two words.  Former Jefferson City Mayor John Christy pronounced it that way.

It’s getting closer.  Pitcher and catchers are less than two weeks away from throwing their first pitch and catching it  in Florida and Arizona.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals head into the 2025 season with three guys who were part of the 2011 rally-back World Series on the coaching staff to help the young Birds brow into a competitive team this year.

Three members of the “Memphis Mafia” are on the coaching staff this year==Jon Jay,  Daniel Descalso, and David Freese.  Descalso will start the season as the bench coach. Jay will work with young outfielders. And Freese will be on hand during Spring training as a consultant working with third basemen and first basement. At this point, he’ll be working with young backup candidates at third. The Cardinals have not yet moved Nolan Arenado but the speculation continues about what will happen with him, including

(ROYALS)—The Royals have made only minor adjustments during the off-season but they, too, have their speculators.

The first engines have started running hot at Daytona—

(RACING)—The Daytona 24-hours is the first major auto race of the new season each year and the final results at Daytona show that the race cars of Roger Penske will be another major problem for everybody else.

Penske Porsche driven by 2023 winner Felipe Nasr  teamed with Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanhoor.  Close behind was the Acura with Indycar drivers Felix Rosenqvist and Scott Dixon, with Colin Braun and Tom Blomquist, who had a few Indycar rides earlier.

Several other drivers from Indycar and NASCAR drove in other classes.

 

Sports: Two big ones for the Tigers, one big one for the Chiefs; we’re counting the days until pitchers and catchers report—and an old lion turns 90 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor.

(MIZZBB—The word should be spreading among the SEC: Don’t let the Missouri Tigers get a double-digit lead on you in the first half.  Comebacks against this year’s team—unlike the previous year’s team—are very hard and present evidence indicates, not working.

Last year’s team seemed to crumble when the other team came back and once they gave up the lead, they had nothing to come back with—and often lost by double digits,.

Not so this year as two games last week proved.

Missouri is 4-1 in the conference now, tied with three other teams a game behind Auburn. They have the league’s best home-court record, with 14 straight wins.

These guys also do something the other team didn’t do.  They rebound.

They are starting to attract national poll attention. Missouri is basely in the top 25 but they haven’t been there in a long time.  They’re 24th in the USA TODAY Coaches poll, their first appearance in the top 25 since March 13, 2023. They fell out of the top 25 after the season and, of course, never smelled the rankings last year.

The Tigers head to Texas tonight for an 8 o’clock game. The Longhorns are 12-6.  Missouri is 15-3 and seems to be headed to its first 20-win seasons since Gates’ first year when they went 25-10. It could be only the only the fourth season in the last eleven when they hit that mark.  They were 2-13 in Cuonzo Martin’s first season, 2017-18 and unofficially 23-12 under Frank Haith.  The University later voided all 23 wins after finding violations throughout Haith’s career at Missouri.

(GRILLING THE OPPONENTS)—Mizzou Guard Caleb Grill is the SEC Player of the Week.

Against the Florida Gators last week, he rang up 22 points on 7-for-eleven shooting, eighteen of those points coming from behind the arc. It included a critical three-pointer that gave Missouri a seven-point lead with two minutes left in the game that Missouri won 83-82. The Gators were the nation’s fifth-ranked team that night.

Against Arkansas, he was 7 for 10 from the field, finishing with 17points.  For the season he’s averaging 12.5 points per game and his 49.3% accuracy from the three-point line is one of the nation’s best. (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs keep playing and the griping gets worse from fans who thnk the officials are giving Kansas City too many breaks and opponents too many penalties.

Whatever.

The Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills meet in the AFL Championship game late Sunday afternoon to determine who goes to the Super Bowl.

Kansas City kept the Houston Texans from reaching the AFL title game for the sixth year in a row and made it themselves for seven seasons in succession with a 23-14 victory at Arrowhead Stadium Saturday.  As usual the Chiefs defense rose to the occasion, sacking Houston quarterback C. J. Stroud eight times.

The Chiefs (15-2) are narrow favorites over the Bills (13-4), playing at home against a Buffalo team that beat them 30-21 earlier in the season. But that game was in Buffalo. It was the fourth straight time the Bills beat Kansas City in the regular season.

Last year, the Chiefs won when Buffalo’s Tyler Bass missed on a field goal from 44 yards that would have tied the game.

The games are often portrayed as duels between Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.  Both are the only quarterbacks with at least 26 touchdowns in their first ten playoff games.

(CARDINALS)—St. Louis Cardinals President John Mozeliak says a top priority of the team is to get rid of Nolan Arenado, who has asked for a trade. The problem is the no-trade clause in Arenado’s contract that lets him decide where he’ll go. He’s already vetoed a trade to the Astros. A top issue is how much of Arenado’s salary the Cardinals are willing to pay his new team to take him off their hands.

(ROYALS)—The Royals have signed infielder Harold Castro, who spent last year playing—and playing well—in Mexico. He’s 31. It’s a minor league contract but he’ll have a chance to improve his standing in spring training.

He played a dozen years for the Tigers and one season with the Rockies before going to the Mexican League where he hit .320 with six homers in 84 games and an .813 OPS. He also played 51 games in the Venezuelan Winter League and hit .332 with 15 more homers, 41 more RBIs, six more stolen bases and a 1.021 OPS.

He’s seen as an injury replacement if one of the Royals regular infielders goes down the an injury. Heading into spring training, Nick Loftin is expected to be the infield utility man.

(AHHHH, SPRING)—For the baseball fan, the opening of Spring Training is the equivalent of the first Robin on the season.  Royals and Cardinals pitchers and catchers are to report Wednesday, February 12. The Royals training in Arizona and the Cardinals in Florida.

Now—to the noisy stuff:

(INDYCAR)—A. J. Foyt turned 90 last week and he’s still all there—and kind of surprised about it.  “I don’t think I’m supposed to live this long! I’m living for a reason, but I don’t know why!” he said in an interview released by his team.

His story goes back to a time when it was said, “There are old race drivers and there are bold race drivers but there are no old-bold race drivers.”

He’s the first four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, a winner of the Lemans 24-Hour sports car race, a winner of the Daytona 500 in NASCAR.  If it had four wheels, he won in it. “I always drove hard, even at the local tracks, because I liked to win,” he said. “And when I got to Indy, the fans made want to win even more. I know they loved winning and I loved winning, so we had a good combination together.”

He saw some pretty bad stuff in his career at Indianapolis and elsewhere.  In his first 500, he got through a terrible first-lap crash that killed Pat O’Connor, one of the most popular drivers of the time, who had been Foyt’s mentor that year. In his 1983 autobiography, Foyt said that he was shaken by the experience. “When I turned around to see the car burning and his arm hanging out, I figured maybe I better go back to Texas, It’s a little bit too rough for A.J. Foyt. … I (had) come from little racetracks, nothing like this. My biggest dream was to qualify for the race. Here I qualified in 1958 (for the first time) and all of a sudden, it turned into a major disaster. I decided I don’t know about this.”

But he went back and three years later he won the big race for the first time. But he carried an emotional scar from that day through his career. He never let fellow drivers get too close to him off the track. “I lost a lot of friends. That’s the reason I didn’t run with too many people. I kinda stayed by myself ’cause I didn’t want it on my mind,” he said in his birthday interview.

Three years after that was the worst crash in Speedway history and was the first time the race was red-flagged.  Dave McDonald spun coming out of the fourth turn and crashed into the inside retaining wall. His car exploded in flames and rebounded back to the middle of the track where it was T-boned by Eddie Sachs, causing another explosion. Sachs died instantly. McDonald died later that day in a hospital.

Indianapolis race cars ran on gasoline then. The new rear-engined cars carried as much fuel as the front-engine roadsters of the kind Foyt drove that day, including a center fuel tank that, in effect, encased drivers is tanks full of gasoline.

Foyt won that race and afterwards conceded rear-engine cars were the future of the race. He said afterwards, “If I drive one, it won’t be on gasoline, you can ge sure of that. I am scared of having all that gasoline around me in that type of chassis…Maybe it would be wise to ban gasoline and also limit the account of fuel in a car and make it mandatory to make either two or three pit stops.”

Foyt had just become the first winner of the 500 to run the entire race without changing tires. The industry took notice.  Gasoline was replaced by methanol (and that was replaced a few years ago with renewable versions of it). The rear-engine cars were re-designed and as they took over from the roadsters, became safer.

In his birthday interview, he commented that the cars are “ so much safer than what they used to be. They carry a lot less fuel, and that’s the biggest thing that racing has gained. I don’t say it’s any better, but it’s a lot safer. I’m always looking for safety too ’cause I had a lot of friends that lost their lives. I was one of the lucky ones ’cause I made it through all that.”

The next year, however, Foyt was one of two drivers to still use gasoline (Al Unser was the other) in the 500.  Methanol was the fuel of choice for everybody else.

Ultimately, however, the last lap comes for even the greatest:

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That was 1993.  He was 59 years old that day. He had driven in 35 consecutive 500s, a record unlikely to be broken. Nobody else has done it 30 or more times. His closest competitor is Mario Andretti, who was in 29. The only driver still active is Helio  Castroneves, who will try to make his 25th 500 in May. Castroneves is one of three other winners of the 500.  Rick Mears and Al Unser Sr., are the other two.

Foyt, who had fielded his own cars for several years, continues to be active with Foyt Racing although his sons have taken over the operation and have shifted its headquarters from Houston to Indianapolis.

Foyt is a FIVE time winner of the 500, four times as a driver and as the owner of Kenny Brack’s car in 1999.

In 2019, Foyt settled recalled his for ABC17 in his home town of Houston.

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Years after he ran his last competitive race, he still holds a ton of records and distinctions and he is still the fastest man to ever drive a car on a track.  In 1987, at age 52, he turned a lap at 257.123 mph in the Oldsmobile Aerotech around the 7.712 test track near Fort Stockton, Texas.

Today?

“I keep buying land and try to develop it. I love to get on my bulldozers and tractors. I do that almost every other day. People say you’re out there by yourself. And I say: ‘It’s peaceful. I don’t have to listen to anybody but me.’”

He is the only surviving member of the 1958 Indianapolis 500 starting field.  Thirteen of those who started the race with him were killed in racing crashes.

A new biography of Foyt came out last year.  Art Garner’s book, A. J. Foyt; Survivor, Champion, Legend captures the first part of Foyt’s story which is so extensive that 656 pages is not enough.  A second volume is in the offing.

(Photo Credit: Bob Priddy, Indianapolis 2019)
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(NASCAR)—We are eleven days away from the opening of the NASCAR season. A non-points exhibition race will be February 1.  The real season starts with the Daytona 500 in a little more than three weeks.

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Sports: Chiefs rest; #2 Tigers show other Tigers Why They’re #2; and Brady goes forth; and a story of an inspirational racing figure

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZBB)—Missouri’s SEC losing streak is now 21 after falling to Auburn Saturday afternoon, 84-68—and the game was not as close as the final score indicates.

Missouri was miserable from beyond the arc, going 2-17 to start and finishing 7-23. They were below 40% in overall shooting and their usual penetrate-and-draw-fouls or buckets offense also was ineffective.

Auburn, on the other hand, hit 57 percent of its shots from the field and was 10-21 from the outside.

Missouri is at home for the next two games—against Vanderbilt and LSU, two of the lower-ranked teams in the conference.

MIZFB)—Missouri Quarterback Brady Cook says he’s making himself available to the NFL NFLDRAFTBUZZCOM evaluates him as a clipboard-holding backup quarterback, a late day three choice or a high-priority undrafted free agent.

Here’s how the page rates him;

Strengths

  • Boasts elite wheels for a QB, clocking a blazing 4.62 in the 40, putting him in the 88th percentile at his position
  • Shows good touch on his dimes, especially in the short game, consistently hitting receivers in stride for YAC opportunities
  • Possesses above-average escapability, demonstrating the ability to extend plays and pick up chunk yardage on designed runs
  • Exhibits poise under fire, showing the ability to climb the pocket and reset his base while keeping his eyes downfield
  • Demonstrates sound mechanics when throwing in rhythm, utilizing proper weight transfer and shoulder alignment
  • Displays good touch on intermediate and deep balls, able to drop it in the bucket over defenders with appropriate arc
  • Shows football savvy with pre-snap reads, identifying favorable matchups and leverage situations
  • Exhibits plus leadership qualities and toughness, earning respect from teammates as a two-time team captain

Weaknesses

  • Possesses only average arm strength, limiting his ability to drive the ball consistently on deep outs and seam routes
  • Can be late to process post-snap rotations, occasionally missing open receivers or throwing into clouded windows
  • Footwork in dropbacks can be choppy at times, affecting timing and rhythm with receivers on timing-based routes
  • Tends to predetermine deep shots, leading to some ill-advised throws into double coverage
  • Lacks elite physical tools to consistently create off-script, limiting his ceiling as a playmaker at the next level

To summarize, says Wyatt Brooks, Cook “looks like a potential QB@ at the next level…His local ties and leadership qualities could make him an attractive option for teams looking to bolster their QB room with a high-character backup who can run the scout team effectively and step in if needed.”

(PORTAL)—The newest addition to the football program is a third-team all-American safety Jalen Catalon, who is moving to Columbia from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He’s the fifteenth portal player joining the program.

Missouri will be his third school and 2025 will be his SEVENTH college football season. He was a four-star recruit for Arkansas but played in only 21 games in four years, most of them in 2020 when he was an all-SEC pick by the Associated Press, with 99 tackles for then-coach Barry Odoms.  For his Arkansas career, he had five interceptions, four fumbles forced and 158 tackles.

He moved to Texas in 2023 and got into eight games, then joined Odoms at UNLV in ’24.

How has he managed to play college football for seven years? He redshirted his freshman year in 2019, got an additional year because of the pandemic in 2020 and had a season-ending injury at the start of 2022. (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—-The Chiefs had nothing to play for against the Broncos, except for some opportunities to meet some financial incentives. Resting the key first-string guys was the goal, giving them three weeks between their last regular season game and their first game in the playoffs.

The result was the first shutout for the Chiefs in the Andy Reid era and kept him for recording his 300th victory as an NFL coach, a milestone unimportant to him in this game. More important was resting the regulars—which he did brilliantly, resulting in a 38-0 loss.

Kansas City has joined the 1971 Vikings and the 1977 Broncos as the only teams in NFL history since the 1970 merger to finish with the best record in the NFL without scoring more than 30 points in any single game.

Several players went into the game looking for some milestones. Xavier Worthy needed one touchdown to tie Rashee Rice for most TDS by a first-year Chiefs player. Obviously that did not happen.

Center Creed Humphrey started against Denver, continuing his consecutive game streak that began when he was a rookie in 2021. Only one Kansas City player has more consecutive starts since  his rookie year than Humphrey—Gary Barbaro, who started his first 101 games.

The Chiefs have two weeks to prepare for their first playoff game.

The playoff brackets for next weekend:

Chargers at Texas; Steelers at Ravens (both Saturday; Denver at Buffalo, Packers in Philadelphia, Commanders against the Buccaneers in Tampa Bay on Sunday and the Vikings against the Rams in Los Angeles on Monday night.

Motoring along

We haven’t checked in on motorsports very much lately, so let’s do a quick rundown:

(INDYCAR)—Sam Schmidt, one of INDYCAR’s most inspirational figures is leaving his “life’s work” as he gives up his final share of ownership in McLaren Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports, leaving McLaren the sole owner of the team.

He was a rising star in the Indy Racing League and raced in three Indianapolis 500s and finished fifth in points in 1999. But during offseason testing at Walt Disney World Speedway, he crashed and was left a quadriplegic.  For five months he was on a respirator.

He became the most successful car owner in the Indy Lights series, the feeder series for the top series in open-wheel American racing. He bought out Fazzi Motorsports in 2011 and fielded his first INDYCAR entry that year with driver Alex Tagliani grabbing the pole for the Indianapolis 500.

The team has been sponsored by Arrow Electronics since 2019. In 2016, Arrow developed a system that enabled Schmidt to drive again—a modified 2014 Corvette that utilized infrared cameras to capture head and breathing movements to control the car.

Arrow later developed the SAM suit that enables Schmidt to stand and walk.

His team became Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports when Canadian businessman Ric Peterson brought in, in 2013. It became Arrow McLaren SP in 2021 when McLaren stepped back into American motorsports, buying 75% of the team with an option to buy the rest after 2024. The final buyout came with the start of the new year.

For the past five years, Pato O’Ward has been the team’s leading driver. He’s finished in the top ten at the Indianapolis 500 four times, second twice—both times by narrow margins.

Schmidt and Peterson will stay connected as members of the team’s board of directors.

Schmidt commented, “This team has been my life’s work, growing from a dream into a competitor at the highest level. I’m endlessly grateful to the drivers, team members, partners and fans who made it all possible, and to McLaren for elevating the team’s potential. While I’m stepping back from ownership, my heart will always be with this team, and I’ll be cheering for its continued success every step of the way.”

The first race for the all-McLaren team will be March 2, when INDYCAR will race on the street course in St. Petersburg, Florida.

(Photo Credits: Schmidt—Bob Priddy; O’Ward—Schmidt Peterson Motorsports)

 

Sports: Another Bowl-Bound Missouri Team; Workmanlike Tigers Win; Chiefs Play Down to Opponent’s Level; & etc.

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by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing editor

(Friends;  For some reason, Mediacom failed to publish all of last week’s postings. One looked at ten Missouri counties that were especially interested in the Lake of the Ozarks Casino proposition defeated last month.  The second one will look at what the casino industry might have up its sleeve next.

However—–

For blog history reasons, we are publishing last Tuesday’s sports essay today–or we hope we are—and we will then publish our regular Tuesday sports post later today–or we hope we will. Actually, we hope Mediacom publishes it. At last.

We solicit your interest particularly in the story about the two OTHER Missouri football teams headed for bowls.

On Wednesday, we will post the piece we intended to post last Monday and on Thursday we will post the column intended for last Wednesday.

With some luck we should be back to our regular schedule next week.

Or maybe not.  We aren’t sure Mediacom, our long-standing internet supplier, will do its job this time either.)

(BOWLS)—A second Missouri football team is headed for post-season play.  Truman State University rallied from an 0-3 start to finish 7-4, demolishing Southwest Baptist 55-3 in the regular season finale.

The Bulldogs are off to the America’s Crossroads Bowl for the fourth time in five years. Their game December 7 will be a rematch with Tiffin, a team they beat 28-27 in 2022.  Truman State is in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The Tiffin Dragons represent the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.  The school is in Tiffin, Ohio and finished the regular season 8-3. The schools are similar in offense and defense. Truman outscored opponents an average of 33-21. Tiffin came in at 35-18. Tiffin QB Alex Johnson threw for 2780 yards. Truman Sophomore QB Dylan Hair thre for 2235 yards and ran for 516 more.

The America’s Crossroads Bowl is played in Hobart, Indiana. The game is played on the field of Hobart High School. It is one of three bowl games for Division 2 teams that do not make the 28-team field playing for the national championship. Six of the remaining 134 D2 teams play in the post-season bowl games, held on December 7 this year.

Last week we mentioned that the University of Central Missouri Mules will play a Heritage Bowl game on December 7 against the University of Texas-Permian Basin in the Heritage Bowl in Corsicana, Texas. It is played at the Corsicana High School stadium.

(MIZBOWL)—And where will Missouri go bowling?  Depends on who you consult.  CBS Sports thinks the Music Bowl against Michigan on December 20 in Nashville, giving Missouri a second straight clash with a Big 10 team. College Football News says it’s the Las Vegas Bowl December 27 against former Big 8 rival Colorado. Athlon Sports likes Missouri in Las Vegas, too, but against Washington. And ESPN thinks it will be USC that will be the opponent in the Las Vegas Bowl. Action Network says it’s the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville Florida January 2 against Louisville. 24/7 Sports agrees on the Gator Bowl but would match Missouri with Duke.

(MIZCONNECT)—Only two quarterbacks and three receivers in Missouri history have connected for 20 or more career touchdowns.  Brady Cook and Luther Burden III linked up for their 20th TD in last weekend’s game against South Carolina. Chase Daniel did it twice—25 with Chase Coffman and 22 with Jeremy Maclin.

(MIZARK)—Missouri looks to go 9-3 against Arkansas Saturday, a team that is 6-5 and still smarting from last year’s 48-14 whipping. Arkansas is 0-6 against Missouri on Faurot Field and 2-9 overall. But the last two games there have been Missouri’s by only two points each.  (ZOU)

Oh, about the basketball team. It has won five straight games against lesser opponents after opening with a loss at Memphis. (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs are 10-1 after wasting a 20-9 halftime lead against the Carolina Panthers with their too-familiar second half doze threatened them with a loss to team with clearly less credentials. The Panthers got a two-point conversion with 1:46 to go to tie the game at 27-all. Patrick Mahomes bailed out the Chiefs again with a 33-yard run that put them in field goal range and backup kicker Spence Schrader gave them the win with a 31-yard field goal as the clock reached zero.

One expected the Chiefs, now 10-1, to have an easier time with the Panthers, who drop to 3-8.

Individually, Travis Kelce moved into the number three NFL career record book for most career receiving yards, moving past Antonio Gates and now trailing only Jason Witten of the Cowboys and Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez, who got most of his years while playing for Kansas City.

(SPEAKING OF GREAT CATCHES)—A young Chiefs fan, who looks to be 9 or 10 years old, hoping to get a high five, or at least noticed, by his favorite player—Nick Bolton—was reaching over the railing at the Chiefs’ tunnel and went over it head first.

But Defensive Tackle Tershawn Wharton caught him. He was lifted, unharmed, back to the grandstand.

(CARDINALS)—Weekend reports contain nothing significant for the Cardinals but, as is sometimes the case, tell about the good fortunes of FORMER Cardinals. In this case it’s about former closer Giovanny  Gallegos.  He has signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers. He’s 33 and didn’t live up to expectations with the Redbirds last year, appearing in only 21 games and posting a 6.53 ERA. In 2021 and ’22, Gallegos saved 14 games in each year. His lifetime ERA is 3.49. This means the players are eligible for arbitration.

On the outside looking in are relievers Adam Kloffenstein

The Cardinals have offered contracts to NL reliever of the year Ryan Helsley, and four other pitchers—JoJo Romero, Andre Pallante, and John King as well as position(s) player Brendan Donovan.  They did not offer a contract to pitcher Adam Kloffenstein.

Speeding right along—

(ANDRETTI)—-Michael Andretti’s dream of fielding a Formula 1 team appears at last to be coming true.  The key has been the alignment with Cadillac for engines—the team will be known as Cadillac F-1—and with TWG Global, owned by billionaire Mark Walter who owns, among other things, the Los Angeles Dodgers. TWG also owns Andretti Global.  Michael’s role in the operation is unclear after stepping away from the team several weeks ago and taking an advisory role.

Father, Mario, has been named to the board of directors of the team. Mario ran Formula 1 races for 15 years, 1968-1982 and was the F1 champion in 1978 while driving for Lotus, becoming only the second American (Phil Hill in 1961 was the first) to win the title. He is the only driver to win the Indianapolis 500 (1969), the Daytona 500 (1967) and the F1 championship. Until recently he had been one of the drivers for the IndyCar Experience in an Indy car made into a two-person vehicle driven at racing speeds before Indycar races. He’s 84.

The CEO of the TWG Global business will be Dan Towriss, who joined Andretti as co-owner of Adretti Global Motorsports. Andretti stepped away from the team several weeks ago and will be an advisor.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen wrapped up his fourth straight Formula 1 championship with a sixth place finish at Las Vegas. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton gave Mercedes their first 1-2 finish of the year with Carlos Sainz in a Ferrari taking the other podium slot.

Verstappen is the fifth  driver in F1 history to win four straight world championships. Two races remain but Verstappen’s points lead cannot be overcome.

(INDYCAR)—Two men, one face, one trophy.  Sculptor will Behrends has carved his second bust of Josef Newgarden, the winner of this year’s Indianapolis 500. The face will be engraved into the famous Borg-Warner trophy, the second consecutive year Newgarden’s image has been through this process, by Reid Smith.  Behrends has been creating winners’ busts since 1990 and Smith has been the engraver since 2021.

Newgarden will try to become the first driver to win three straight 500s next May 25th.

(NASCAR)—Joey Logano has celebrated his third NASCAR Cup championship with a reflective speech on the culture of NASCAR. Here’s the highlight:

“When I think about what we do on the racetrack sometimes, it’s kind of pointless, right? We drive around in circles just to end up in the same place at the end of day. You kind of think about it, that’s kind of goofy. But if you take the opportunity God’s given us to talk to people, to inspire others to live a life of generosity, that’s when these scenarios and driving in circles isn’t just driving in circles anymore. … When you think about (the flooding) in Western North Carolina, I’d say probably at least one person at each table around here probably made a huge impact at some point for the Hurricane Helene victims. I saw a lot of too people up there helping out and that, to me, is probably something that I’m most proud of this industry, being a part of that.”

He’s the fifth driver to win three NASCAR championships.

(Photo credit: Bob Priddy, Indianapolis 2019)

 

Sports: The Weekend of Improbables 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(GENERALLY)—A team that tried to give away a game wins. A team about to give away a game keeps it. And a guy who once was on the outside is at the top of the heat. It was a weekend of virtual sports whiplash.

(FOOTBALL)–The gods of football giveth. And the gods of football taketh away.

(MIZ)—It’s interesting to see what two weeks of taking all of the snaps with the number one unit does for a backup quarterback whose credentials are better than many Missouri Tiger fans know.

Drew Pyne had been less than impressive in his two previous appearances this year. But this is a guy who stepped in after a bad start at Notre Dame and led the Irish to an 8-2 record during a 9-4 season that saw them win a Gator Bowl championship.

Missouri beat Oklahoma 30-23 in a game that focused almost all of the excitement in the closing minutes of the last quarter.

Scores had been hard to come by and the Tigers trailed 9-3 at the half, their only score coming from Missouri’s longest drive of the half—24 yards. But Missouri took a 10-9 lead in the third quarter. Nobody was expecting a fourth quarter that featured four touchdowns and three field goals.

Missouri got the action started on a 5-yard TD pass from Pyne to Brett Norfleet but the extra point was missed, giving Missouri a 16-9 lead.

But Oklahoma answered with 3:48 to play on a trick play that saw quarterback Jackson Arnold become a receiver on an 18-yard play that put Oklahoma up 17-16.  And then the roof seemed to fall in when running back Jamal Roberts fumbled with 2:06 left and the ball was scooped up by OU Safety Billy Bowman Jr, who took it to the end zone, giving the sooners a 23-16 lead.

But Oklahoma couldn’t stop Missouri and with 1:03 left in the game, Pyne with time and downs running out, Pyne, on a third and 16, found Luther Burden III for a catch and run that went 33 yards.  He then hit former Oklahoma receiver Theo Weese who kept the tip of his toe in bounds and, with the extra point, tied the game at 23.

Oklahoma still had some time to get back to field goal range But with three seconds left, But linebacker Triston Newson forced an Oklahoma quarterback fumble that as scooped up by defensive end Zion Young,  who ran the ball into the end zone. The extra point made it 30-23.

Oklahoma still had about 30 seconds to answer but the Sooners ran out of space on the field and on the clock and Missouri moved to 7-2, winning a game that was all but lost.  All but.

The wind, exciting as it was, barely moved the needle in the rankings for the week. Oklahoma is not the usual Sooners.  They’re now just 1-5 in their first SEC  year, 5-5 overall. The rankings announced yesterday returns Missouri to the AP poll at 24. The coaches poll puts them 21st.

Missouri goes to South Carolina for a late Saturday afternoon game next weekend. South Carolina is 6-3 but only 4-3 in the SEC. (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—How many more times will the Kansas City Chiefs keep pulling rabbits out of hats this year?

They beat Denver Sunday in a game they had all but lost.  Denver was ready to kick a 35-yard field goal as time ran out but the Chies again made the play they had to have when Leo Chenal broke through and the kicked ball hit him just below the palm of his hand and rolled away.

Chiefs are now 9-0 and the record has NFL statisticians shaking their heads.  Here are some key “shake  your head” stats;

No team in NFL history has started the year 9-0 with a points differential lower than the Chiefs plus-58, an average winning margin of 6.4 points. They have won 15 games in a row, the most since the Packers ran off 19 in 2010-11 and the most in franchise history.  Twelve of those fifteen games have been won by one score. They are 9-0 in games in which they have trailed by seven or more points in the third quarter, the longest streak in NFL history. They have spent more time trailing than being ahead in five of their games.

Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs are 19-14 in games where they have been down by ten or more  points. They are 39-19 during his career when they have trailed by seven or more points. They have eight comeback wins this year, tying the NFL record.

The Chiefs’ 24.3 ppg ranks 11th this year. They are giving up 17.9 ppg, fifth in the league. They are 21st in rushing with 115.1 yards per game. They’re tenth in passing with 245.3 yards per game.

Individually, Travis Kelce has tied Tony Gonzalez for the most touchdown passes in franchise history, 76.

All they do is win, it seems.

But next weekend will be a huge challenge. They’ll be in Buffalo to play the 8-2 Bills.

—Our third  improbable story takes place on a racetrack.

(NASCAR)—NASCAR’s champion for 2024 started the playoffs as a man who wasn’t there. Now he’s the king of the series for the third time, only the tenth driver in all of NASCAR history to have three or more championships.

A month ago, Joey Logano thought he was out of the competition for his third national championship. Alex Bowman had finished ahead of him in the NASCAR race at Charlotte, becoming the eighth and final driver in the semi-final round of runoff races.

Hours after the race, however, NASCAR ruled Bowman’s car because it was underweight, putting Logano back in the hunt.

He immediately won his second race of the year to put himself into the final four and at Phoenix he held off teammate, and defending champion, Ryan Blaney to nail down his third championship.

His win, however, has triggered renewed criticism of NASCAR’s playoff format that automatically places anyone who wins a race in the 16-driver first round.

Logano would have been 15th in the regular season points chase if NASCAR used the format it had used for most of its history, crowing a champion based entirely on points. The playoff format, however, has allowed drivers who did not lead the series in points to take home the NASCAR Cup.

Logano brushed aside criticism that the NASCAR playoffs were unfair to the drivers who have consistently better seasons than he did, telling reporters after the race, “The playoff system in other sports is not much different than what this is.  You can have a great regular season. It seeds you better for the playoffs. That doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to go all the way to the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup Finals or the NBA Finals. It doesn’t matter. It might help you.”

But sports with long seasons—and NASCAR’s season goes for nine months—often pay off for the team that gets hottest at the end, as Logano’s team did.

The list of drivers with three or more championships now adds Joey Logano to Seven-time champions Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Sr., and Jimmy Johnson; four time winner Jeff Gordon; three time winners Tony Stewart, Darrel Waltrip, David Pearson, Lee Petty, and Cale Yarborough.

Logano has been racing for the NASCAR Cup for 17 years but he still has many more to go it he wants to continue. He’s only 34; he drove his first Cup races when he was 17. The only drivers in his first race who are still running fulltime in the Cup Series are Martin Truex Jr., who ended his career with the race at Phoenix, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, and Michael McDowell.

The Phoenix race ended a record winning streak for Kyle Busch.  He had gone nineteen years in a row with at least one victory.

NASCAR is done until February when the gang goes to Daytona.

(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR won’t be running hot and fast again until March 2 at St. Petersburg. The series is expecting 27 teams to be involved, pretty much the maximum, says series president Jay Frye (the Indianapolis 500 has 33 starters).  The top twelve drivers in this year’s standings will be back. Ten other drivers have seats and teams with open cockpits have plenty of veterans and newcomers to choose from.

The 500 is expected to draw Helio Castroneves in a one-off deal for 2025 along with NASCAR’s Kyle Larson making his second attempt to run 1100 miles in one day with the 500 in the afternoon and the 600-mile race that night in Charlotte, and former 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay.

(Photo credit: Logano at Brickyard 400: Rick Gevers)

Sports: Chiefs go 8-0; Tigers 0-2; Baseball Wheeling and Dealing Season Underway, and other stuff.

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs are 8-0 for the first time since 2013 but they had to go into overtime to nail down the win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last night 30-24.  The Chiefs have won their first eight games only three times in their long history. The other time was 2003.

They hope to avoid the collapse at the end of both seasons this time.  In 2003, they went 5-3 the rest of the way and in 2013, they limped to the finish going 3-5.

The Chiefs now have won 14 games in a row and hit the 30-point mark for the first time since last November 26, twenty-two games ago.

Acquisitions Kareem Hunt and Deandre Hopkins were keys, Hunt grinding out 74 yards on the ground and Hopkins getting eight catches for 86 yards and two touchdowns. Hunt rushed for 74 yards.

The Chiefs again failed to score in the third quarter, allowing the Buccaneers to take a 24-17 lead before the comeback that tied the game late and forced it into overtime. Patrick Mahomes led them on a 78-yard 15-play drive at the start of overtime with a 15-play, 78-yard drive that ended with a five yard pass to Hopkins.

Mahomes finished 34-44 for 291 yards and three touchdowns, no interceptions.  Travis Kelce had his biggest game of the year with 14 catches for 100 yards.

(MIZROUNDBALL)—21 in a row in a familiar way for the Tiger men’s team; a big disappointment in Vermont for the women.

Missouri played a good first half against Memphis State last night and then couldn’t stop the home team in the second half.

Missouri was up by ten at the half but had no answer for Memphis’s P. J. Haggerty who picked up 22 of his 25 points in the second half and Missouri forgot how to hit free throws. Missouri finished 15 of 23 in free throws while Memphis shot 58% in the last twenty minutes. Haggerty started the second half with five points as Memphis went on a 16-2 run to rally from eleven down to go ahead 58-55 and an 83-75.

The Tiger men have a half-dozen softer opponents next as they try to get things sorted out.

The Tigers women’s team handed Vermont its first win ever over a Southeastern Conference team last night, scoring only 26 points in the last three quarters and falling 62-46, thanks to 26 turnovers that helped Vermont outscore Missouri 30-15 on TOs. Coach Robin Pingeton said afterwards that her players failed to play team basketball. (zou)

(BASEBALL)—Some folks live with the philosophy that if they can’t root for their home team in the World Series, they’ll root for the team that beat the home team in the playoffs.  As hard as it might have been, some Royals fans found themselves rooting for the Yankees against the Dodgers and found themselves disappointed again when the Dodgers took the New Yorkers in five games. But the Royals had a satisfying year and fans in KC are looking for the good times to continue.

The Cardinals?  Who knows how their offseason is going to shape up, given comments from the money folks in the front office.

(ROYALS)—The Royals have started the offseason by retaining part of the pitching staff that put them into the playoffs for the first time since 2015 while the Cardinals began the process of jettisoning some of the players who gave them a winning season in a rather torturous year.

Sunday, the Royals announced they have signed Michael Wacha to a three year deal that guarantees him $51 million with a potential of $72 million if a team option is exercised. Wacha had been considered a mid-rotation arm in the post-season bidding.

Wacha is 33, a seven-season starter for the Cardinals who never reached the expectations of some that he would be the next-in-line dominant starter in the Carpenter-tradition. He has bounced around with the Rays, Mets, and Red Sox in recent seasons.  But he says his family “fell in love with the city, fell in love with the team, the staff here, everyone involved in the stadium, and it was something where we didn’t want to go somewhere else…It was honestly a no-brainer.”

Wacha was a solid 13-8 for the Royals this year with a 3.35 ERA in 29 starts. His signing retains the front-line starting rotation of Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans.  The two remaining slots are expected to be a competition between Kyle Wright, Alec Marsh and Brady Singer. Some forecasters say the signing of Wacha frees the team to sign someone who can add muscle to the offense. Perhaps with the addition of some power in the outfield.

(CARDINALS)—For some Cardinals fans, Wacha’s re-signing in Kansas City ruined their hopes that he might come back to St. Louis.  But the front office has not been talking about big-contract off-seasons acquisitions and at the first move that has been made is to sign a hardly-all-star arm.

The Cardinals started the off-season by letting six guys enter free agency right off the bat, so to speak: Paul Goldschmidt, the NL MVP just a year ago although the team has said it might retain him “under the right circumstances.”; Lance Lynn, gone again despite continuing to be a solid inning-eating pitcher the ‘birds needed; and right-handed pitchers Kyle Gibson, Keyann Middleton—who didn’t play all year because of injury—and Andrew Kitteridge; and Matt Carpenter, who played sparingly and hit .234 in only 137 at-bats. Carpenter has shown interest in coming back next season. He will be 39 and has hit above .200 in just two of the last five seasons. He’s young yet and is considered to have potential.

(MIZFB)—The Tiger football team is in the second week of recovery from the beat-down at Alabama that left Quarterback Brady Cook even more battered, a hand injury adding to his high-ankle sprain. Missouri heads into next weekend’s game against Oklahoma ranked 22nd in the AP poll. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:45 at Faurot Field. Oklahoma is unranked, 5-4 after whipping the Maine Black Bears 59-14 in Norman on Saturday. The Sooners are only 1-4 in the SEC. Missouri is 2-2.

The game is the first between these two former Big 12 rivals since 2011 and the first one in Columbia since 2011, a year before Missouri joined the SEC. Oklahoma has not won a game in Columbia since 2006. They’ve lost in Columbia only twice in the last 44 seasons (1983 and 1998).

The Sooners are 67-24-5 all-time against Missouri. Oklahoma gave Missouri its worst loss ever, 77-0 in 1986. Missouri’s biggest win against Oklahoma was 44-10 in 1969. Missouri last beat Oklahoma in 2010 when Gary Pinkel’s Tigers won 36-27. Before that, it was Larry Smith’s Tigers that beat the Sooners 20-6 in 1998. The last time Missouri beat Oklahoma in consecutive seasons was under Dan Devine in 1965 and ’66.

The last word from Coach Drinkwitz on the status of Cook?  He expects him back at some point.

The Tigers are bowl-eligible with their six wins. Various forecasters are forecasting several bowl possibilities but nobody thinks they’ll meet the pre-season hype about making the playoffs.

(MIZBB)—Dennis Gates’ third edition of Tiger basketball officially opened last night—and against a significant opponent, unlike the football team and some other major basketball teams start the season against some small college marshmallows. Missouri is waiting until the opener to play the s’mores schools—Howard, Eastern Washington State, Mississippi Valley State, and Pacific, Arkansas State, and Lindenwood before facing Cal and then number one Kansas.                  -0-

Moving along to moving along—

(NASCAR)—NASCAR’s chaotic season seems to grow more chaotic by the week. As the season has wound down, some teams have sued the series on what amounts to antitrust issues.  On the track, allegations of race-fixing have ratcheted up as the playoffs have narrowed to four contenders for next weekend’s championship finale.  Whoever finishes highest will be the champion even if they don’t win.

Defending champion Ryan Blaney had to win at Martinsville last weekend and he did, joining Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, and William Byron.

After the race, charges and counter-charges came thick and fast, starting with allegations that Bubba Wallace slowed on the final lap and allowed fellow Toyota driver Christopher Bell to pass him and gain enough points to tie Byron for the final playoff spot. Bell had the tie breaker because of a higher finish in an earlier race.  But after Bell passed Wallace, his car slid up the track in the third turn and banged against the wall through the fourth turn, a situation that was later deemed a violation of NASCAR rules against riding the wall to improve a position. That put Byron into the finals and led some competitors to suggest Wallace’s slowing was intentional. He denied it and said something happened with his car and he was trying to avoid causing a last-lap crash.

Bell, on the other hand, suggested Chevrolet drivers Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon blocked other drivers from passing Byron, also in a Chevrolet, from being passed by other competitors, and dropping back in the points.

The race next weekend in Phoenix matches Byron and Reddick against two former champions in Joey Logano and Blaney.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen’s 10-race winless streak has come to a spectacular end in San Paulo, Brazil to put himself on the verge of wining his fourth straight championship.  Verstappen, relegated to 17th starting position gained six cars on the first lap and ten more on the second and finished more than 19 seconds ahead of the next competitor—and it was done during an intensifying rainstorm. He has extended his points lead to sixty over Lando Norris with only three races left.

(picture credits: Kansas City Royals, NASCAR/Fox Sports)

Sports: Mizzou Miracle Doesn’t Impress Pollsters; Chiefs Roll to 6-0; Logano is Out, Then In, and Then REALLY In. 

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(Before we get started, we invite our readers to check on our series about Amendment 2, the sports wagering proposal on the November ballot, in which we address why the amendment is a bad idea for our teachers, our veterans, and even the host cities of our casinos.  We are not telling you how to vote, but we hope you’ll get a more honest understanding of what you will be voting on when  you read those three (so far) entries.)

(MIZ)—It might have been a legendary game but it was just a ho-hum event for the people who compile college football rankings.

Brady Cook’s dramatic return to the field after missing most of the first three quarters with an injury and engineering a 21-17 win against Auburn capped with a clock-beating 95-yard drive for the winning touchdown undoubtedly will show up on “greatest games” lists in the future.

But both major polls took Missouri down, perhaps noting that the Tigers again barely beat an opponent it was expected to beat.

The Tigers lost a spot in the coaches’ poll, falling to 17th.  The Associated Press took them down two spots, to 21st.

Auburn led 17-3 at the half, seven of those coming on a muffed punt reception that was recovered by Auburn in the Missouri end zone.  The Tiger Defense was stout all day while the offense was mediocre after Cook left early in the first quarter. His return put life back into the offense and that last methodical 95-yard drive was electric for the crowd.

The loss was a historic one for Auburn, which had been 150-1 in games in which they led by 14 in the second half.

ESPN’s Gamecast tells a crushing story for the other Tigers.  ESPN at one time said Auburn had a 94.3% chance to win the game.  And with 1:44 left, they were still at 88%.  But it all turned to ashes when Jamal Roberts scored a touchdown with 46 seconds left and no time outs remaining for Auburn.  Auburn drops to 2-5 with their third one-score loss of the year.

Missouri is 6-1 and is bowl eligible.  The significance of the bowl they’ll play in will be determined by the way they finish the seasons, beginning next week against Alabama.  The Crimson Tide dropped eight slots in the ratings after losing to Tennessee 24-17. The Tide will go into Saturday’s game ranked 15th.

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs are the NFL’s only undefeated team after beating the San Francisco 49ers 28-18 in the Golden Gate City Sunday. That’s a season high in points for the Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes had one of his lowest-rated games of his career with his second-lowest passing yardage totals.  But his personal-best 33-yard scramble kept a drive going that generated points. The backfield otherwise ground out time-consuming yardage and the defense didn’t let 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy have much breathing room.

The defense kept San Francisco out of the end zone until the third quarter, stopping for 49ers by forcing four punts, intercepting a pass, and surrendering only two field goals before a touchdown.

The Chiefs added JuJu Smith-Schuster to its list of walking (or limping) wounded. He went down with a hamstring injury he had been nursing all week in practice.

With Mahomes struggling in the passing department, the offensive line created opportunities for running backs. The Chiefs gained 186 yards on 37 rushes that led to four touchdowns.

The Chiefs take on the Raiders next weekend.

(SEC BASKETBALL)—The Southeastern Conference has held its pre-season basketball media days last week. Both the men’s team and the women’s team from Missouri haven’t gotten much love from media pollsters, with both teams forecast to be in the bottom half of the conference.

Missouri was winless in conference play last year. The Tigers lost five rotational players for 111 combined games last year, leaving men’s coach Dennis Gates “your hands are tied behind your back.”

Men’s coach Dennis Gates hopes his top ten portal class will and his high school recruit class that is rated number three nationally will produce a blend of “unbelievable talent.”

“I’m excited about our guys, meaning the first-year guys that’s in our program. I see how they’ve been able to adapt to our institution, to our community, and our entire community has accepted those guys with open arms, and these guys are comfortable…The portal guys that we did sign, we made sure that they’ve come from some great respectable coaches, and that’s where I wanted to kind of identify earlier to make sure that that took place also,” he told the media.

The spotlight recruit is Annor Boateng, a two-time Arkansas player of the year, “a 4.0 student, oung man who played in the band, plays the saxophone. His talents off the court is tremendous….As a basketball player, he’s a tremendous young man, multitalented, straight line driver, strong, physical…I look for him to make an impact.”

But there are several returnees Gates thinks deserve attention—Caleb Grill, who missed most of last year with a wrist injury, Trent Pierce, Ant Robinson, Aiden Shaw, and Tamar Bates. “They don’t shy away from confrontation [who] receive information like a sponge,” Gates said.

Missouri was an NCAA tournament team in his first year, a loser of every SEC game last year.
“Life happens in seasons,” aid Gates. “In real life you can’t start back at zero. That’s the unique part about basketball or college sports. We’re 0-0, just like everyone else.

Also hoping for a big turnaround in women’s coach Robin Pingeton who will be coaching her 15th year at Mizzou. Some observers are thinking her career at Missouri is on the line in the season ahead. Her team won two more games in the SEC last year than the men’s team.  But the Lady Tigers haven’t been to an NCAA tournament since 2018.

But Pingeton thinks bad times can lay the groundwork for better times. She told the media, “We all want the end result, which is a championship; we all want a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. That scoreboard is really, really important. But I also don’t want to shy away from the fact that sometimes when you go through hard times, those are where you really grow the most.”

The team has more height than it has last year with Tionna Herron, who is 6-4, joining Angelique Ngalakulondi, a 6-2 forward who was sidelined after eight games with an injury.

Pingeton is looking for an offensive boost with the addition of Nyah Wilson, who averaged 15.5 points a game for New Mexico last year along with 4.5 rebounds, two assists and 1.3 seals a game.

(BASEBALL)—The end of the World Series will end the baseball news blackout on coaching and managerial changes and player deals.

The Post-Dispatch has reported one of the first items to come from the St. Louis Cardinals will be the return of center fielder John Jay, who has been a coach with the Florida Marlins this year after a 12-year career that got him a Cardinals World Series ring in 2011. (the Marlins were managed this year by former Redbird Skip Schumaker, who has left the team because of “philosophical differences.”

Assistant coach Willie McGee is moving on to become a “special advisor.”

Speeding along—

(NASCAR)—-A week earlier, Joey Logano thought he had missed the NASCAR Championship semi-final round of races.  Sunday, he became the first driver guaranteed to run for the NASCAR Cup.

Logano stretched his fuel while leading the last 72 laps of the first race in the semi-final playoff round, and got the win that makes him one of the four drivers who will compete in the last race of the year for the Cup.

He ran just fast enough to beat pole-sitter Christopher Bell to the finish line by two-thirds of a second.

Logano is in the running only because Alex Bowman’s car was found to violate car weight rules a week earlier at Charlotte, forcing Bowman out of the playoffs and elevating Logano into the championship picture.

Some of the championship contenders had a rugged day in the desert.  Tyler Reddick rolled his car when he got together with Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney on lap 90.  Reddick drove his bent car to the pits but it was too badly damaged to continue.

(FORMULA 1)—Formula 1 returned to the United States to run t the Circuit of the Americas, near Austin, Texas.  Charles Leclerc in a Ferrari led teammate Carlos Sainz across the finish line to give Ferrari its first 1-2 finish in the United States in eighteen years.  Lando Norris fought off series points leader Max Verstappen to finish third.

Formula 1 has one more race in this country—on the street circuit in downtown Las Vegas on November 23.

(photo credits: Cook, Missouri Athletics; Gates, Power Mizzou; Pingeton, Fulton Sun; Jay, MLB; Logano, Bob Priddy)