Category Archives: Racing

Sports: Another tune-up for Mizzou; a Tiger loss; Baseball Teams Drifting Out of Contention

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZZFB)—The Missouri Tigers finished their tune-up schedule by rushing past, over, and through the Ragin’ Cajins from Louisiana-Lafayette Saturday.

Ahmad Hardy was the big battering ram, gaining 250 of the team’s 427 rushing yards and scoring three of the seven touchdowns in a 52-10 win. Only six players in Tiger history have gained more yards in a game than Hardy did Saturday. And he went to the bench with the other starters after the first series on the second half.

For the second straight week, Missouri had two running backs gain more than 100 yards. Marquise Davis rushed for 113 and a touchdown.

The 52-10 score wasn’t as close at the score makes it seem.

Missouri totaled 606 yards to Louisiana’s 121. The defense held Louisiana’s passing game to only two completions in 14 attempts for just four yards. Most of Louisiana’s 121 offensive yards came on an 84-yard run by Zylan Perry in the second quarter.

Quarterback Beau Pribula, coming off his recognition as the Maxwell Player of the Week after his performance against Kansas, had his worst yardage day of his three-game Missouri career, gaining only 174 yards passing on a 15/22 day. Of course that’s because he only played slightly more than one half of football. In his three games as a starter, he is 68/89 passing (76.4%) for 791 yards.

Next up for Mizzou is their first SEC game, against South Carolina, which went into Saturday night’s game as the nation’s 11th ranked team and was clobbered by Vanderbilt 31-7. CBS Sports dropped South Carolina to 36th, down 20 from its previous ranking. CBS says Missouri is 20th, a couple of positions below Vanderbilt, the team that beat South Carolina last weekend.

The Tigers are 23rd in both AP sportswriters poll and the USA Today Coaches Poll.

(HORN)—The Sam Horn era as a Mizzou quarterback is over. His leg injury turns out to be a fractured tibia, the large bone in the right lower leg. He’s undergone surgery and is out for the football season of course. He’s expected to make a full recovery.

Getting the surgery done now will give him to rehab his right leg, important because that’s the push-off leg that helps a right-handed pitcher gain momentum on his pitches, an important factor for Horn who was a 17th round pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers in this year’s MLB draft. He has signed a contract with the Dodgers that left him with the opportunity to play football this year for Missouri.

(MIZZHOF)—MIAHOF has inducted six new members—that’s the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame we’re talking about.

Former Athletics Director Mike Alden, who led the athletics department 1998-2015 and engineered MU’s move to the Southeastern Conference called the shift, “transformational…for our university and the state.”  His 17-years in that position is the second-longest in school history. Only Don Faurot served longer, his first stint being eight years, 1935-1941 and his second one the longest, 22 years, from 1946-1967.

Longtime Sports Information Director Bob Brendel (1980-2000) is credited with modernizing the sports information office and for helping create the Hall of Fame. After several years in the information office at the State Transportation Department, Brendel has returned to the MU information office as its historian.

One still-active athlete was elected to the Hall this year—WNBA star Sophie Cunningham, who says, “I bleed black and gold to the core,” is the women’s basketball team’s all-time leading scorer who helped the Lady Tigers get to four NCAA tournaments and was a first-team all SEC choice three years.

Volleyball star Alyssa Munlyn, the first four-time AVCA All-American from Mizzou, played 2015-2018 and still holds the record for most blocks in a career.

A member of Coach Eli Drinkwitz’s staff and former record-setting running back Brock Olivo referred to Mizzou “home for me” in his inaugural remarks. Olivo is now the special teams consultant for the Tigers. When he left Mizzou after the 1997 season for a career in the NFL and the Italian Football League, he was the Mu career rushing and touchdown leader.

The final inductee is basketball player Kareem Rush, a first-round NBA draft pick, the key guy in Mizzou’s run to the Elight Eight. He played for five NBA teams and several minor-league pro basketball teams.

They are the most recent of the 262 members of the Hall who are recognized in the concourse of the Mizzou Field House. (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—A 14-point turnaround play was the difference for the Philadelphia Eagles, who flew out of Kansas City with a 20-=17 win, giving the Chiefs losses in their first two games for the first time since 2014, and handing Patrick Mahomes his third straight loss for the first time in his pro career.

The backbreaker for the Chiefs was a touchdown-bound pass Travis Kelce couldn’t handle at the goal line that wound up in the hands of the Eagles’ Andrew Makuba, who took it back 41 yards before being knocked out of bounds by the last Chiefs player who could have stopped him.  From where the Eagles scored the touchdown that turned a possible 17-13 Chiefs lead into a 20-10 Eagles advantage.

The Chiefs came back to score a touchdown at the two-minute mark but an on-sides kick failed and the Eagles ran out the clock.

Rashee Rice has started practicing with the team but wasn’t ready to play against the Eagles.

(BASEBALL)—The Cardinals’ faint hopes of making the playoffs are almost invisible. The Royals seem to be drifting out of the picture.  Neither is likely to play more than 162 games this year. The only real question is whether either team will finish with a winning season.

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals stopped their five-game losing streak with a 3-2 win in Milwaukee Sunday, a day after the Brewers became the first MLB team to clinch a playoff berth.

Miles Mikolas had an up day in this up and down season. He went five innings and gave up only two home runs to move closer to a .500 record for the season. He’s 8-10 now and probably has a couple more starts. The Cardinals scored all three of their runs in the second inning on RBI singles by Jose Fermin and Nathan Church. Reliever Riley O’Brien struck out the last batter of the game to get his fourth save in seven chances one day after he bave p three runs without recording an out in Saturday’s 10-inning 9-8 loss.

Mikolas is finishing strong. In his last four starts, he’s thrown 21 innings and given up six runs, no more than two in any of those four games. He has his ERA down to 4.80.

The Cardinals ended the road trip and the week with a 73-77 record. They need to win nine of their next 12 games to finish over .500, eight of 12 to finish break-even.

Yesterday, the Cardinals announced that Nolan Arenado is being reactivated after a rehab stint shows his throwing shoulder is ready for regulatr duty. He hasn’t played July. 30.  Freddie Fermin has been sent down to Memphis to make roster room for his return.  He’s had a below-average year at the plate this season, coming back to his usual third base position with a .235 average.

(CARDSWYNN)—The Cardinals and shortstop Masyn Winn have decided not to wait for the end of the season to have surgery done on his torn meniscus cartilage.  He had hoped to play through the pain to the end of what was being a historic season in which he was well-positioned to win a gold glove.

He’s officially on the ten-day disabled list but that will take him through the end of a solid season highlighted by his defense. He’s made only three errors all year and his .994 fielding average is the best in the National League.  He leaves with 22 outs above average, also tops in the National League, equaled only at the time of his departure by the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr.

He’s being replaced on the roster by infielder Jose Fermin, called up from triple-A.

The Cardinals have activated Brendan Donovan, who has been on the IL while recovering from a straight left groin that has kept him out of 25 games. He made his first All-Star game appearance this year. Also coming back is left-handed reliever John King, who has been recovering from a back strain since August 26. To make room for Donovan and King, the Redbirds have optioned pitcher Nick Racquet to Memphis and have released second baseman Garrett Hampson.

(ROYALS)—Kanss City’s loss to the Phillies Saturday dropped them below break-even for the first time in a month as the bullpen gave up a lead. The loss left the Royals 6 ½ games behind Seattle for the last playoff spot in the American League and ruined a night that otherwise would have been a big celebration for a landmark game by Salvador Perez.

Perez hit a home run that gave him 300 for his career AND resulted in his 1,000th RBI.  He got number 301 later in the game.  Perez now ranks eighth on the all time list of homer-hitting catchers. Mike Piazza leads the list with 399.

Sunday, Perez brought the Royals back to .500 to wrap up the week on Sunday. They’re 75-75 gong into the last dozen games. Perez had a three-run homer and finished the day driving in half of the Royals’ runs in a 10-3 win over the Phillies.

Despite the loss, Philadelphia became the second team to clinch a playoff position after San Fancisco lost to the Dogers.

With a dozen games to go, the Royals pretty much have to win all of their remaining twelve games.

(KCRAGANS)—Cole Ragans will be back on the mound for the Royals. He’s missed the entire second half of the season so far. He’s expected to start tomorrow night’s game against Seattle.

(NASCAR)—A fiery night race at Bristol Saturday night reduced the playoff field to a dozen and produced the fourth win of the year for Christopher Bell. Only teammate Denny Hamlin has more victories this year—his fifth coming at World Wide Technology a week ago.

Bell’s win gives Joe Gibbs Racing a sweep of the first round of the playoffs. Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin won the first two races.

Bristol was the end of the line for four of the playoff contenders—Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Shane Van Gisbergen, and Josh Berry.

Joining the three JGR drivers for the first of three races in round two (at Loudon, NH) are Ryan Bleny, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, Joey Logan (who on his third Cup title last year), Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott and Austin Cindric.

(NASCAR)—The after-race behavior of a three competitors in the race at WWTR has drawn a warning from NASCAR officials.

 

Cars of Ross Chastain, on the left and teammate Shane Von Gisbergen (right), were seen dropping off the inside of the track on the lap after the checkered flag, a technique sometimes used to pick up some rocks and dirt that adds weight to a car that might be fudging on the lioght side of the weight limit.

Joey Logano also was caught taking a dive into the infield on his cool-down lap.

NASCAR has told teams that similar behavior from now on could incur penalties, including disqualifications.  Logano was fifth, Chastain finished 24th, and Van Gisbergen finished 25th in the race.

(NHRA)—We don’t usually say much about the National Hot Rod Association, but the retirement of one of its best drivers to focus on raising a family topped a lot of the NHRA news this week. It’s a historic announcement.

Brittany Force announced she will end her 13-year drag racing career, for now, at the end of the season so she and her husband, Bobby Lyons can start a family.

She is the two-time top Fuel world Champion who recently set a record with a top speed of 343.51 mph (did you know that drag strips for the fastest cars are only 1,000 feet long; the traditional quarter mile having been abandoned in 2008 because of the extreme speeds cars were reaching at that distance?).  She and her three sisters are daughters of 16-time NHRA Champion John Force. With her departure there will be no one named Force running in NHRA for the first since her father entered the business in 1971.

She is following the lead of Leah Pruett, who stepped aside to give birth to her first child last November. Her husband, former NASCAR champion Tony Stewart, has taken her place in the car and has become the NHRA Top Fuel regular season champion.  He recently survived a 300 mph-plus crash with a competitor’s car  in the shutoff zone that saw his car  land on its side and slide some distance before righting itself and hitting a wall.. He later said he had a bad headache and had banged up his left hand.  But he later said, “I’ve been through sprint car crashes way worse than this, I’m pretty sure. We’re good. We’re good. We’re fine. I promise we’re fine.”

Leah says she’s taking back her seat next year.

(INDIANAPOLIS)—The Indianapolis Speedway isn’t done with racing yet this year.  IMSA brings its sports car racing series to the track this coming weekend.

Next month, The Indy 8 Hour race will be run October 16-18. Cars from seven classes will compete on the road course, the last event until next spring at the Speedway.

(Photo Credits: Hardy—Instagram; Perez—MLB;  Meniscus—orthoedge.com; Chastain & Van Gisbergen—Bob Priddy)

 

 

 

 

Sports: Chiefs Challenge; Tigers Respond and Recruit; The Twilight of the Baseball Season; Moves on the Track, and off.

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor.

(MIZFB)—-The Missouri Tigers picked on someone their own size last weekend and roared back from a first-quarter deficit to beat Kansas 42-31. The performance has earned Mizzou 25th place in the weekly AP poll. The nation’s coaches feel the same way.

there were some prognosticators who thought Kansas could win this one and the first quarter gave them plenty of evidence they were right.

Buthe last three quarters destroyed those expectations  as Missouri dominated, allowing kU only four plays while the Tigers ran up fifteen points to tie the game at 21.

The game was the first MU/KU game in almost fifteen years but fans celebrated in their seats at the end.

Here’s why MU’s officials were glad to see that behavior with no fans rushing onto the field to celebrate.

Mississippi State fans celebrated with a field rush after their team beat then 12th ranked Arizona State 24-20, their first win over a top-20 team since 2022. The NCAA carried out its threat to fine any school that has an incident like that one-half million dollars.

(MIZBB)—Basketball is starting to shoulder its way into the sports picture and Mizzou basketball is making another wave with the signing of its second five-star recruit for its class of 2026.  He’s Toni Bryant Jr., a 6-foot-9 forward who’s listed as the 14th top recruit by ESPN and the 21st by 247 Sports. He’s playing now at Zephyrhills Christian Academy in Florida. He also was being courted by Kansas, North Carolina and North Carolina State.

Coach Dennis Gates picked up his first five-start guy for the class of 2026 when Jason Crow Jr., signed. He’s the number three recruit on 247’s ratings list.

Crow is a 6-3 guard described as a “prolific scorer” out of Inglewood, California.

(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs have some soul-searching to do after losing to the Chargers 27-21 in front of 17-million fans.

That’s right. 17 million. YouTube, which live-streamed the game to 230 countries from Sao Paolo, Brazil, says 16.1 million viewers watched on their devices in the Unite States and another 1.1 million from other countries also turned on the app for the game.

It was the biggest audience YouTube has had for a single event but it did not break the NFL record for a streaming audience. That belongs Netflix, which drew 24 million streamers for an NFL doubleheader last Christmas.

The Chiefs were flat the first half but showed life in the second, just not enough. They lost Xavier Worthy early in the first half. He dislocated a shoulder. Rookie Jalen Royals missed the game with a knee injury. His evaluation is a day by day thing.

The Chiefs meet the Eagles next weekend. The last time they met, Philadelphia embarrassed Kansas City in the Super Bowl.

Wide Receiver Xavier Worthy will be out of the lineup for a while with a dislocated shoulder. The Chiefs hope he can play eventually while wearing a brace.

As an aside, we offer this:

(REALLY, REALLY OLD)—The Chiefs’ biggest rival through the years as been the Oakland/LA/Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders. They picked up their first win under new coach Pete Carroll. With that win, Carroll, who is 74, has become the oldest head coach in NFL history. Carroll will be 74 next Monday.

For may years, George F. Halas, one of the founders of the NFL, held the record at 72 years and 318 days. Romeo Crennel became the interim head coach of the Houston Texans five years ago at 73 plus 115 days and took over that record.

Carroll not only is the oldest coach NFL history, he’s the oldest winning coach, thanks to the Raiders’ 2013 win over the Patriots.

Andy Reid is 67.

(BASEBALL)—The Royals have a shot at the playoffs. The Cardinals appear not to have a change. But it’s baseball, folks, and the fat lady hasn’t sung for either of our teams. She might be warming her vocal chords for the Cardinals, though.

St. Louis made it back to break-even at the end of the week, winning seven of their last ten games, and needs to win ten of its remaining eighteen games to finish above that. The Redbirds need nine wins to equal last year’s total.

The Royals are three games above .500, missing a change to draw closer by splitting their last ten games. The first round of playoff games is only three weeks away from today.

(ARENADO)—Nolan Arenado could be headed to Springfield for a rehab assignment if his second day of batting practice today works out. Post-Dispatch beat writer Derrick Gold says hehopes to return in time for the last homestand next week. He’s been out about six weeks with a right shoulder strain.

Now the Speedy Stuff

(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin sounded pretty convincing this past weekend when he indicated he’s giving himself two more years of racing at NASCAR’s highest level.  But he showed at World Wide Technology Raceway just across the river from St. Louis that he still has a lot left in the tank at 44, he plans to do whatever he has to do to be competitive enough to go out a winner at the end of 2027.

He became he first five-time winner this year, starting from the pole and locking in his spot in the second round of the playoffs with a 1.6 second over Ryan Briscoe.

The win is his 59th, one away from his goal of 60 “or more.” Another win will tie him with Kevin Havick for tenth on the all-time NASCAR winners list. He has the most wins by a driver who has never won a Cup championship. His win also is the 200th NASCAR Cup win for Toyota.

World Wide Technology Raceway has one of the narrowest pit lanes in the series and sometimes it gets pretty congested.

Hamlin signed a two-year contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing in May and has maintained that he plans to bow out of active racing at end of that contract. He has seen too many athletes, including some in NASCAR who have held on, even racing with lesser teams that have not fielded winning equipment. He says he doesn’t want to be one of those drivers.

“I’m just not going to leave this sport on my deathbed, you know, just leaking oil, running in the back of the pack. I have way too much pride for that. I’m way too cocky for that. There’s just no way. I want to be able to win my last race. To do that, I’m going to have to retire when I’m racing like this.”

At 44, he is a year older and considerably more competitive than the next-oldest driver, A. J. Allmendinger who has three wins in 474 races and a career average finish of 21st: Michael McDowell is 40 and has never finished better than 15th in points; and 40-year old Brad Keselowski, the NASCAR champion in 2012, like Hamlin involved in a team ownership, but who has had mediocre seasons the last two years.

“I’m sure there’s someone me competitive than me. I just have never met them. I just think that there’s a few people in every sport that are just built a little different, and they just won’t settle for anything but winning,” he said in his post-race news conference at WWTR Sunday night.

(INDYCAR)—Within days after the last race at Nashville, two major events came to the surface: the end of Will Power’s career with Penske and a major shift by Colton Herta, who leaves Andretti Global to pursue his Formula One dream.

Andretti Global quickly signed Power to a contract fill Herta’s seat and to join Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson for 2026. Power will be switching to Honda power with his new team after spending his career with Penske powered by Chevrolet engines. “This is a whole new chapter for me,” he said at the announcement event. “I have to say that sometimes a change of scenery and a fresh start is very energizing. I can’t wait.”

Power holds the IndyCar record with 71 poles. He’s fourth on the all-time wins list with 45, and is fourth in both number of podium finishes (108) and top fives (142) in more than 300 starts.

In 20 full years of top-level open wheel racing, Power has finished in the top ten in points 19 times. In more than 315 career races, his average starting position has been sixth and his average finish has been ninth. He has two series championships and an Indianapolis 500 win on his record, too.

Colton Herta, who has dreamed of racing in Formula 1is leaving IndyCar to pursue that dream with the new Cadillac Formula One team.  Cadillac has signed veterans Valterri Bottas and Sergio Perez as its drivers for next year but Herta will be the team’s test driver and likely will run some Formula 2 or 3 races to accumulate the number of points needed to become a full-time drivber on the circuit.

Herta became the youngest winner in IndyCar history six years ago. He leaves the series with nine victories and 16 poles in 116 races.

He’s had a taste of Europe already. He tested a 2021-spec McLaren F1 car in 2022. He also competed in some lower-level races before coming back to the states to race in IndyCar.

(FORMUA ONE)—When it comes to money—HUGE money—Formula 1 makes the two major American series look very small. This past week is an example. McLaren announced that it is now entirely owned by companies in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, making it a five-Billion dollar team. Mumtalakat, a sovereign wealth fund in Bahrain will be the majority stockholder. CYVN, which is majority-owned by the Abu Dhabi government will be the minority stockholder.

The deal involves these two companies buying the remaining thirty percent of McLaren that they did not already own from three five other investment funds.

McLaren has been the dominant team in Formula 1 with nine straight constructors’ titles. It has won twelve of the fifteen grands prix run so far this year and both of its drivers are in the fight for the driver’s championship.

Last weekend, Max Verstappen picked up his first win since May, taking the Italian Grand Prix by more than 19 seconds over McLaren’s Lando Norris.

(Illustrative material: University of Missouri, Kansas City Chiefs, Racing—Bob Priddy)

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

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Former Missouri Tigers on NFL Rosters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NFL Practice Squad Salaries

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Many Players Can Be on an NFL Practice Squad?

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

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

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

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

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

Who Is Eligible To Be on an NFL Practice Squad?

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

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

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

ESPN adds more information:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do NFL practice squad members receive Super Bowl rings?

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

And finally, from fluentrugby.com:

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

NFL practice squad players receive the following benefits:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Going a longways to get back to where you started—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

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

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

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

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

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

The Bengals’ announcement of his honor summarizes his career:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Speaking of being on a track—

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

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

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

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

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

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

The IndyCar season wraps up next weekend in Nashville.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Moving right along. Rapidly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

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

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Off to the Races:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sports: MLB teams muddle along as trading deadline nears: and a special win in NASCAR)

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals post all-star game drive to the playoff has been an unsteady one with a terrible turn in Colorado, where the worst team in major league baseball this year took two out of three—and wrapped up the series by holding the Redbirds scoreless, 6-0.  It’s the first time in 220 games that Denver has shut out an opponent. The win left Denver 26-76.

The Cardinals, thus, helped set a major league record by ending the Rockies record run of no shutouts.  The shutout is only the third time St. Louis has been shut out in the 32-year history of the Rockies. It was the second straight series loss since the break and dropped them to just one game over .500 after losing five of their first six games on the road trip and being outscored 20-1 in the first three innings.

The only win in those first six games was the middle game in the Denver series when Michael McGreevy, just up from Memphis picked up the victory.  His performance was solid enough that the team decided it’s time for one of its younger pitchers to become a starter. But that meant that a veteran had to go. In this case, it was Erick  Fedde, who has been a bust for St. Louis this year. He’s 3-10 with a 5.22 ERA. In his last 17 2/3 innings he gave up 26 earned runs. He’s 33-52 in eight major league seasons. The Braves have decided to pick him up. They’ll give the Cardinals some cash or a player later.  Fedde will be a free agent at the end of the season.

We start the week still waiting for the Cardinals to make the blockbuster trade that various sorts experts have been predicting.

(ROYALS)—The Royals  have continued to muddle along but they have gone to the free agent market to pick up former Cardinals outfielder Randall Grichuk from the Diamondbacks in exchange for pitcher Andrew Hoffman.  Grichuk, who is expected to immediately improve the outfield offensively and defensively, went one-for-four in his first game with the new team.  For now, he takes the roster place of rookie outfielder Jac Caglianone, who has gone on the 10-day DL with a strained left hamstring. Caglianone has struggled at the plate in his first season.  Grichuk was hitting .240 with 175 AB this year. He’s a lifetime .252 hitter  with five teams in a 12-year career.

Also going on the DL is starting pitcher Kris Bubic, our for 15 days with a rotator cuff strain.

The Royals did make a major commitment to the pitching staff, signing Seth Lugo to a two-year, $46 million guaranteed contract extension.

Last night, the Royals lost 10-7 to the Braves.  The game is memorable because Royals pitchers tied a club record with fourteen walks.  Six of those walks were dealt by Rich Hill, the 45-year old journeyman pitcher making his second start with his record-tying 14th team. He also gave up four runs and gave up two homers.

Now, the story of a man named Darrell and his record-setting day

(NASCAR)—

This is William Darrell Wallce, who goes by his middle name and more often is known as Bubba.  He’s a NASCAR driver who had gone three years, 100 races, since his last victory. When he broke that string this past weekend, he made significant auto racing history.

Bubba Wallace became the first Black driver to win a major race in the 116 year history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He and Wendell Scott are the only black drivers to win a NASCAR race. Scott won one race in 1963. Wallace now has three NASCAR Cup winner’s trophies.

He only the third black driver to compete in one of the major races at the Speedway and the first since George Mack in 2002. The first was Willy T. Ribbs in 1991 and 1993

Wallace took the lead with less than twenty laps to go and held a three second lead over defending race champion Kyle Larson when a crash brought out the caution flag and bunched up the field for a restart. But he got the jump—twice—on Larson on two overtime restarts and took the checkered flag two tenths of a second ahead of Larson.

The win makes him the thirteenth entrant in the 16-driver playoff field with four races to go before that field is set.  Three non-winners are in the top ten in points and could be eliminated from the championship run if three other drivers win one of those four races.

Two other drives merit special attention:

Denny Hamlin, who was on a pole-setting run, wrecked on his second qualifying lap and started dead last, 39th. He and his pit crew got him to fifth for the last restart (that’s his 11 in the picture) and he picked up two more positions third place at the end.

And the only woman racing in NASCAR, Kathryn Legge (she pronounces the first three letters of her last name) drew praise for finishing 17th, far better than her average finish this year. She was on the leader’s lap on the last restart and held her position during the wild two-lap green-white-checker flag scramble to the end.

 

(INDYCAR)—Alex Palou puts more points distance between himself and challenger Pato O’Ward with a win at Laguna Seca, near Monterey, California. It’s his eighth win of the year. It has been eighteen years since anybody won eight races on the INDYCAR schedule.

Sebastian Bourdais did it in 2007.

The record for most wins in a season has been set and equaled at 10. A. J. Foyt in 1964 and Al Unser Senion in 1970 are the only ones to hit that mark.

Now he has eight of those. The record is 10 by A.J. Foyt in 1964 and Al Unser in 1970.

Two wins in the last three races of the year would let Palou tie the record.

(Photo credits: Wallace speaking and winning, restart and Legge—Bob Priddy; Wallace car—Rick Gevers)

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

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twelfth, to be exact.

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

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

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

  1. Texas (96)
  2. Georgia (44)
  3. Alabama (29)
  4. LSU (20)
  5. South Carolina (5)
  6. Florida (2)
  7. Ole Miss (1)
  8. Texas A&M
  9. Tennessee (1)
  10. Oklahoma (3)
  11.  Auburn (1)
  12. Missouri
  13. Vanderbilt (2)
  14. Arkansas
  15. Kentucky
  16. Mississippi State

Vanderbilt got TWO first-place votes???

Missouri starts its fall practices one week from today.

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

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

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now, the More:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

INDYCAR heads west to race at Laguna Seca next weekend.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now, on to some fast moving sports stories.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(BATTLEHAWKS)—We’ve heard this before:

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

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

Now: Where the rubber really meets the road—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Photo Credit: Visit Kansas City)