It’s Time to Order Another Obelisk 

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The Missouri Veterans Memorial at the Capitol is a quiet place,  of a slow-moving cascade of water flowing into a reflecting pool around which people can ponder how much is lost to war.

And how much will be.

To the east of the pool is a shaded walk that takes visitors past nine memorial obelisks remembering the nine wars in which Missourians have fought since statehood in 1821—Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, and finally the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, less than a year after the ninth obelisk was dedicated—after an end date of that long war was determined—it is time to plan for a tenth one.

As this is written, no Missourian has been killed in Trump’s War—-which is not what it will be called in the black granite when the tenth obelisk is installed.  As of now, it probably will say “Iran War,” but it’s too early to carve anything into stone because we don’t know what the scope of this conflict will finally be.

Nor, apparently, does the man who ordered it. He started the war and now he is whining that NATO is giving him no help.

NATO, the people he has spent the last several years insulting and threatening, seems content to letting President Trump stew in his own juice.  NATO is more about protecting Ukraine (remember Ukraine, Mr, President?) and itself than helping President Trump.

The Coalition of the Willing has become the Coalition of the Unwilling.

To refresh our minds:  then-President George W. Bush declared at a NATO summit in 2002 that if Iraq President Saddam Hussein did not disarm (he was accused of having weapons of mass destruction), that the United States would assemble a “coalition of the willing” to do it for him.

Saddam didn’t. So George Bush’s United States and troops from 48 other countries backed the plan. Four countries eventually put boots on the ground—us, the UK, Australia, and Poland). More than three dozen other countries provided some troops but not major numbers. Some don’t even had standing armies but provide other kinds of help.

The coalition did not hold and it became a topic of political ridicule (Busch had offered foreign aid to participants, a policy that one columnist termed “a coalition of the billing” and another observer considered “a coalition of the shilling.”) By mid-2009 everybody but the United States and the United Kingdom coalition had backed away.  The Coalition of the Willing was considered ended in 2010.

President Bush assembled his coalition before the fight began.  President Trump just barged right in—BOMBED his way right in—to a new war and did not ask for help until Iran fought back and closed the Straits of Hormuz. Only then did he look for friends in NATO only to find he didn’t have very many anymore.

He’s watching his foreign policy by sledgehammer wielded by amateurs turn into quicksand. He is so desperate that he has lessened some sanctions against Russia—imposed as a reaction to the invasion of Ukraine—in an effort to relieve some pressure on the oil supply which seemingly could help finance further Russian operations against Ukraine, if we understand where this policy is leading.  He’s firing missiles the way kids fire bottle rockets on July 4th while China watches our war-making or defensive armaments dwindle and also watches Taiwan. The early talk about not using troops is ominously sounding like —using troops.

Some observers have suggested that Iran is Trump’s Ukraine.

“Some people will die, I guess,” the President has said.

Order the tenth obelisk. Too bad the state can’t send the bill for it to President Trump.

A few weeks ago, my state representative, Dave Griffith, asked me if I could find how many Missourians died in the wars of the eighth and ninth obelisks (Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan).  I could not locate numbers but I did find a website that listed the names of all of the military people who died in those conflicts. I picked out the Missouri names and sent them to him.

Their names won’t be on the obelisks although the number of those who died will be someday.

Their names are on their own monuments scattered throughout the graveyards of Missouri and elsewhere, unfortunately soon to be joined by similar monuments from Trump’s War.  Here is the list from President Bush’s War, with the date of official notification.  We pray their tragic coalition will not be joined by a new coalition from Mr. Trump’s War, but we fear it will be.

Let us know if your loved one killed in these long wars is not on the list.

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The Boodle Scandal, part Two

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Monday we promised you an opportunity to see a forgotten Missouri political, one of the most sensational ones of the Twentieth Century. Muckraker Lincoln Steffens described how money can distort public policy, a common and visible public concern today.

What was this scandal about?  An innocent everyday-used substance that is part of our diet today. Steffens’ magazine article is long. As you read it, you might think, “Nothing has changed.”  We’ll comment afterward what happened to some of the participants in his historic controversy.

Enemies of the Republic

Lincoln Steffens

[Reprinted from McClures, VOL. XXIll, October, 1904 No.6]

THE POLITICAL LEADERS WHO ARE SELLING OUT THE STATE OF MISSOURI, AND THE LEADING BUSINESS MEN WHO ARE BUYING IT – BUSINESS AS TREASON-CORRUPTION AS REVOLUTION

EVERY time I attempted to trace to its sources the political corruption of a city ring, the stream of pollution branched off in the most unexpected directions and spread out in a network of veins and arteries so complex that hardly any part of the body politic seemed clear of it. It flowed out of the majority party into the minority; out of politics into vice and crime; out of business into politics, and back into business; from the boss, down through the police to the prostitute, and up through the practice of law, into the courts; and big throbbing arteries ran out through the country over the State to the Nation-and back. No wonder cities can’t get municipal reform! No wonder Minneapolis, having cleaned out its police ring of vice grafters, now discovers boodle in the council ! No wonder Chicago, with council-reform and boodle beaten, finds itself a Minneapolis of police and administrative graft! No wonder Pittsburg, when it broke out of its local ring, fell, amazed, into a State ring! No wonder New York, with good government, votes itself back into Tammany Hall!

They are on the wrong track; we are, all of us, on the wrong track. You can’t reform a city by reforming part of it. You can’t reform a city alone. You can’t reform politics alone. And as for corruption and the understanding thereof, we cannot run ’round and ’round in municipal rings and understand ring corruption; it isn’t a ring thing. We cannot remain in one city, or ten, and comprehend municipal corruption; it isn’t a local thing. We cannot “stick to a party,” and follow party corruption; it isn’t a partizan thing. And I have found that I cannot confine myself to politics and grasp all the ramifications of political corruption; it isn’t political corruption. It’s corruption. The corruption of our American politics is our American corruption, political, but financial and industrial too.

Miss Tarbell is showing it in the trust, Mr. Baker in the labor union, and my gropings into the misgovernment of cities have drawn me everywhere, but, always, always out of politics into business, and out of the cities into the state. Business started the corruption of politics in Pittsburg; upholds it in Philadelphia; boomed with it in Chicago and withered with its reform; and in New York, business financed the return of Tammany Hall. Here, then, is; our guide out of the labyrinth. Not the political ring, but big business,-that is! the crux of the situation.

Our political corruption is a system, a regularly established custom of the country, by which our political leaders are hired, by bribery by the license to loot, and by quiet moral # support, to conduct the government of city, state, and nation, not for the common good, but for the special interests of private business. Not the politician, then, not the bribe-taker, but the bribe-giver, the man we are so proud of, our successful business man-he is the source and the sustenance of our bad government. The captain of industry is the man to catch. His is the trail to follow.

We have struck that trail before. Whenever we followed the successful politician his tracks led us into it, but also they led us out of the cities-from Pittsburg to the State Legislature at Harrisburg; from Philadelphia, through Pennsylvania, to the National Legislature at Washington. To go on was to go into state and national politics and I was after the political corruption of the city ring then. Now I know that these are all one. The trail of the political leader and the trail of the commercial leader are parallels which mark the plain, main road that leads off the dead level of the cities, up through the States into the United States, out of the political ring. into the System, the living System of our actual government. The highway of corruption is the ” road to success.”

Almost any State would start us right, but Missouri is the most promising.

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Sports: Tigers Could Play Billikens in NCAA Tournament; St. Jo Goats; An Explanation of NFL Contract Restructuring; And More, as Usual. 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(NCAA)—It is possible.

But it is not likely.

The Missouri Tigers and the St. Louis University Billikens could meet in the NCAA Tournament.

The winner would play for the national championship.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The Billikens are a nine seed in the west regional and will play 8th seed Georgia in the first round.  Missouri, a ten seed in the Midwest regional will play number 7 Miami. The second round will be much tougher.  St. Louis likely would go against number one Michigan and Missouri’s likely opponent would be second seeded Purdue.

(MIZZOUBB)—-The question for Missouri is the same question we’ve had all year. Which Tigers will show up?   

Three straight losses, two in the regular season and one-and-gone game in the SEC tournament—three games they might have won on one of those proverbial “any game” situations.

Good enough to beat teams in the last ten of the top 25 most of the time but far from being called “elite.”  Except for Mark Mitchell, who paid a price for being with a mid-pack team by being only a second-team all SEC choice.

To start the NCAA Tournament, Missouri will face a Hurricanes team that was 25-8 under new coach Jai Lucas after finishing 7-24 a year earlier and going to an interim coach at mid-season. They lost in the semifinal round of the ACC Tournament.

Tipoff of the game, which will be in St. Louis, is scheduled for 9:10 p.m. Friday.

Coach Dennis Gates: What to know about the Miami Hurricanes ahead of Mizzou’s NCAA Tournament matchup

(BILLIKENS)—-The St. Louis University Billikens finished the regular season 28-5 after losing to Dayton in the ACC tournament semifinals.  Coach Josh Schertz, in his second season, is taking the school into its first NCAA tournament since the 2018-2019 season.

They’re a nine seed and they’ll play Georgia, seeded 8th. Georgia was 22-10

Their game will be Saturday afternoon in Indianapolis.

(MOSTATE)—The Missouri State men’s tean is done for the year but the women are headed to the tournament after winning the Conference-USA tournament title, beating Louisiana Tech 43-38.  The Lady Bears had gone into the conference tournament as the sixth seed. They’re 22-12. Techn finished 26-6. They’re into the NCAA tournament for the 18th time.

It’s a play-in game against the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks. If the Lady Bears win, they’ll go into the tournament as a 16 seed against top-ranked Texas.

The Missouri State Men’s team finished 9-23 under former Missouri Coach Cuonzo Martin, who coached previously in Springfield 2008=2011 and was Dennis Gates’ predecessor (2017-2022) at Missouri. It might have been a losing record but it was an improvement over the previous year’s 9-23.

(PORTER)—Former Missouri basketball player Jontay Porter, banned for life from the NBA, appears to have found new life with the independent United States Basketball League.

Porter’s His first few games have been sad reminders of what might have been.

In his debut with the Seattle Superhawks, he racked up 21 points, 14 rebounds and an equal number of assists plus a couple of steals and three blocked shots.

 

 

 

 

Later, against the Salem Capitols, he broke the USBL rebounding record with 32, breaking the record of 28 jointly held by former NBA players Manute Bol and Anthony Man. He finished the game with 29 points, seven assists, four steals and five blocks.

Porter, whose Missouri career was shortened by a knee injury, was with the Toronto Raptors when he got involved with sports gamblers.

(CARDINALS)—A key figure in one of the big offseason trades for the Cardinals won’t be ready for opening day. Pitcher Hunter Dobbin had ACL surgery last July is still rehabbing the knee. He’s been throwing on the back fields but the Cardinals don’t want him to rush his recovery. He had been the 13th best prospect in the Red Sox’s organization when he was hurt. He came to the Cardinals in the Wilson Contreras trade.

He did pitch in thirteen games for the Red Sox last year before he was hurt. He struck out 45 and walked only 17 in 62 innings while hanging up a 4.43 ERA.

Seven more players were cut on Sunday as the roster-whittling goes into the final days before opening day in less than two weeks.

Ten Cardinals are at the World baseball Classic representing eight countries. None are on the United States team.

(ROYALS)—The Royals started the weeks with 21 pitchers, 2 catchers,  eight infielders, two catchers, and nine outfielders on the roster, as of yesterday morning.  Second baseman Jonathan India is sidelined with a groin strain that he felt this weekend.

They’re hoping this will be the breakout year for Joe Caglionone, who struggled against big time pitching last year.  He’s on Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic and has heled the team get to the semifinals while hitting .364 in four games.

He’s joined on the team by first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino who became the first WBC player to hit three home runs in one game. Before leaving the Royals camp, he was ripping the ball—three balls at more than 115 mph including one home run that was measured at 120.2 coming off his bat.

The Royals have seventeen players at the classic. Only three, pitchers Michal Wacha and Matt Strahm and shortstop Bobby Witt are playing for the USA team. The others are playing for teams from nine other countries.

(GOATS)—For those who need a football fix in the gap months between the UFL season and the resumption of NFL play can catch the St. Joseph Goats, who start their Arena Football League play on May 29 against the Arkansas Diamonds in Hot Springs.

The Goats are moving from Kansas Cit mto St. Jo his year.Their home opener is a week later, June 6 against the Ozark Lunkers at St. Joseph’s Civic Arena.

They’ll also have games against the Iowa Woo (Waterloo), the Eau Claire (Wisconsin) Axemen,

Memphis (Tennessee) Hound Dogs,  Grand Island (Nebraska) Siege,  and the Monroe (Louisiana) Greenheads.

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs have upgraded their backfield with the signing of Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III away from the Seattle Seahawks. They’re investing $45 million in him hoping he’ll have three years that are at least as solid as his 2025 that saw him rush for more than a thousand yards including 65 carries for 313 yards and four touchdowns for the Super Bowl and two other playoff games.

Walker hit the market after the Seahawks refused to name him a franchise player, which would have given him about $14 million next year.  The NFL Network says his contract with Kansas City makes him the highest paid running back in NFL history.

In his four-year career in Seatle, he’s averaged better than four yards per carry (821/3555). He’s also caught 131 asses for another 1005 yards. Walker is 25, five feet-9 and 211 pounds. He played college ball at Wake Forest and at Michigan State.

They’ve also grabbed former Chargers safety Alohi Gilman for three years and $24.75 million. He’ll replace Bryan Cook, who found Cincinnati’s three-year deal for $40.25 million irresistible. Gilman is two years older than Cook but the Chiefs are familiar with him because he has spent most of his career with the Chargers before going to the Ravens last year.

The Chiefs have gained about $2.5 million in cap space by renegotiating the contract of linebacker Drue Tranquill, who drops from $6 million to $3.5 for the coming season. Three million dollars of that is guaranteed.

IF YOU ARE CURIOUS ABOUT HOW RESTRUCTURING FREES UP CAP SPACE, TAKE A LOOK AT :

NFL Compensation: Contract Restructure Mechanics

Travis Kelce decided not to go the free agent route to his fourteenth season. He has signed a one-year deal for $12 million. He said on the Pa McAfee Show, “I’m still in love with this game. I still love going to work, putting on the pads, grinding it out and just playing the game.”

The Washington Commanders have signed DE Charles Omenihu for one year and as much as seven million dollars.

Penalty-prone right tackle Jawaan Taylor was released after a Chiefs career marked by false stars and illegal formation penalties. He has joined teammate Trent McDuffie with the Rams.

As we were going to press, ESPN’s Adam Schefter was reporting Kansas City is giving the New York Jets a 2027 sixth-round draft pick to get Justin Fields to be Parick Mahomes backup. The Jets were ready to let Justin Fields to go after an undistinguished career with them and after trading for Geno Smith with the Raiders.  The Chiefs are paying only $3 million of his ten million dollar salary.

The Chiefs have been looking for a replacement for Gardner Minshew, who left for the Cardinals. They still have their backup to the backup and the backup to the backup to the backup quarterbacks, Chris Oladokun and Jake Haener, who combined to start three games.

Fields was drafter by the Bears in 2021. With the Jets last year he was 2-7 as a starter had a QB rating of 37.3, which was 31st out of 36 passers. He is 16-37 in his career starts.

The Jets still have former Missouri quarterback Brady Cook and Bailey Zappe on their roster as backups to Smith.

(MAHOMES)—Coach Andy Reid says Patrick Mahomes is doing serious work rehabbing his knee.  Reid told reporters recently, “He spends a ton of time here, seven hours a day. He’s in there cranking away and making progress every day. It’s great to see. Julie grinds on him and makes sure he stays on task and challenges him. He keeps showing up. That’s about half the battle on these things when you have these injuries. It’s not going to be a pleasant thing. Every day, you’ve got to fight through it, and you’ve got to attack the challenge of the workout and rehab. He’s doing a great job with that.”

(“Julie” is trainer Julie Frymyer.  She helped him deal with his ankle injury in 2022.)

Enough of the stick and ball stuff.

(INDYCAR)—Kyle Kirkwood ran down Alex Palou from more than two seconds back and made an aggressive pass with fifteen laps to go and won the first Grand Prix of Arlington—a race on a special track laid out around the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Cowboys stadiums in Arlington Texas.

Kirkwood and Palou made their last pit stops with 21 laps left and Palou’s team got him out almost two seconds faster than Kirkwood’s crew finished its work.  He caught and passed Palou on lap 55 and seven laps later turned the fastest leader lap of the race in building a five-second lead.  The lead was closed, however, by Christian Rasmussen’s crash on the last lap led to a one-lap shootout.

Kirkwood  and teammates Will Power and Marcus Erricsson took three of the top four positions in the race. Palou’s second kept the race from being a podium sweep for Andretti Global. Will Power’s third-place finish is his first top ten for his new team.

The win boosts Kirkwood into the IndyCar points lead over Palou. But it’s only the third race of a schedule that runs into September. The series is taking next weekend off before a race at the Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama on the 29th.

(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin has become  the tenth biggest winner in NASCAR history, driving through the field to win his first race of the year, at Las Vegas. He tied Kevin Harvick for tenth last year. Hamlin was 31st after a pit speeding penalty but came back to lead 134 laps and finish a half-second ahead of Hendrick teammates Chase Elliott and William Byron.

Hamlin said after the race that he’s “fortunate” to be on the list with legends of the sports, men who “were far more talented than I have ever thought about being.”

His sixtieth career victory last year was a personal goal that he wanted to reach while his father was still alive. His father, in failing health, died a few weeks later in a fire that destroyed his parents’ house.  His loss in last year’s championship race and the loss of his father left him questioning whether he wanted to get back in a race car.  “I knew it took a few eeks to feel like driving,” he said. Over the last couple weeks, I definitely regained my love of it, got refocused. These are great opportunities for us.”

(FORMULA1)—President Trump’s War in the Middle East has forced Formula 1 to cancel two of its scheduled races—Saudi Arabia on April 12 and Bahrain a week later.

Kimi Antonelli became the second-youngest driver to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix at Shanghai during the weekend.  He finished ahead of his veteran Mercedes teammate, George Russell. Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton took his first podium finish since joining Ferrar two years ago.

Antonelli was 19 years, six months, and 18 days old. Max Verstappen, was 18 years, seven months and 15 days old when he won the Grand Prix of Spain ten years ago.

(Photo Credits: Missouri-Miami—MU; Porter—Anthony Hopkins, Goats Shirt—St. Jo Goats; Kirkwood—Rick Gevers; Hamlin—Bob Priddy)

The Boodle Scandal, Part One

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I want to take you back to the early Twentieth Century when muckraking reporters such as Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker, Upton Sinclair, and Jacob Riis—to name a few—were writing powerful newspaper and magazine articles exposing the ugly underside of government and business and the partnerships between the two that sometimes amounted to a betrayal of our country or our state for their personal or corporate benefit.

Today we call them investigative reporters, people who burrow into the inner workings of business/government relationships that corruptly enrich a few and harm the many—not unlike too many things we are seeing today at the national and even the state levels wherever you might live.

In our entries today and on Wednesday we are going to bring you Lincoln Steffens’ “Enemies of the Republic” from the October, 1904 issue of McClures magazine.  But first, we need to set the stage.

“Boodle” in those days referred to bribery.  A boodler was one who gave or who accepted bribes to influence public policy.

The story of the great boodle scandal in Missouri came to me many years ago in researching the stories of the ministers of my church in Jefferson City and the brief career here of Crayton S. Brooks, a fiery temperance preacher who came to what was then a pretty wide open town particularly when the legislature was in session every other year.

On Sunday evening, March 1, 1903 Rev. Crayton S. Brooks—whose preaching earlier had led to the closing of pool halls and gambling houses—asserted from his pulpit at the First Christian Church four blocks from the Capitol that “there were $1,000 bills being exchanged in Jefferson City by men not in the habit of handling such amounts of money,” the implication being that they were buying votes in the legislature.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Joseph J. McAuliffe happened to be in one of the pews that night and wrote about the sermon. There is a lot I wish we knew about their relationship  and why a St. Louis reporter “happened” to be at the church that night, but we do know that Brooks admired St. Louis prosecutor Joe Folk for his earlier work to bring down Ed Butler, the St. Louis political boss and had made a trip to St. Louis earlier in the year, although the accounts do not say why, leaving the door open to some speculation.

Representative Edward Eversole of St. Louis was named to lead a committee investigation and started summoning witnesses from among the lobbying corps. He said, “We saw men we wanted standing about the corridors and lobby of the Capitol four deep, but as soon as one or two were served there was a wild stampede and the greatest time you ever heard of getting out of town.”

He investigation eventually led to the indictments of four Senators who were accused of taking bribes for their votes on a bill concerning the ingredients of baking powder. Steffans will explain that in  his article.  Lieutenant Governor John Adams Lee, who planned to run for governor in 1904, was exposed as the middle man who delivered the bribes from the Royal Baking Powder Trust to the four legislators, resigned and fled to Chicago.

Steffens’ article said, “There is nothing partisan about graft. Only the people are loyal to party. The ” hated” trusts, all big grafters, go with the majority. In Democratic Missouri, the Democracy is the party of “capital.” The Democratic political leaders, crying down the trusts, corner the voters like wheat, form a political trust, and sell out the sovereignty of the people to the corporation lobby. And the lobby runs the State, not only in the interest of its principals, but against the interest of the people.”

In 1992, Missourians adopted term limits, an amendment that missed the target it should have hit and as we have seen in the years since opened the door to loss of legislative independence and replaced it with—too often—outside influence.  As it was put in 1992, adoption of term limits will end corporate memory in the legislature and the power to set public policy will pass from the legislative chambers to the hallways.

I watched it happen. Only after term limits went into effect did I hear the sponsor of a bill ask someone with an amendment, “Have you run this by so-and-so in the hall?” The question became unnecessary as cell phones proliferated and lawmakers could get messages while debating bills.  House and Senate rules ban lobbyists from the legislative floors.  But the cell phone’s texting app puts them there electronically.

Ineffective campaign spending limits and a U. S. Supreme Court ruling that corporations are, for political speech purposes, to be considered “people,” have had a profound effect on who gets access, how much of it they get and how they become manipulative of the process.

Understand that this is not saying all of our elected officials are crooked or can be bought. We have to trust the people we elect but we also must be aware of the awful pressures they endure to serve and the all-consuming world they live in for four intense months every year. Political courage sometimes is weakened in that climate because they are human and we sometimes are disappointed when the podium we put them on is not as high as we think it is.

We voters have a responsibility to pay attention to the issues they are dealing with so that our lawmakers are regularly reminded who they really work for.

Citizen cynicism is easy to come by and is a reflection on the citizen who refuses to maintain at least a modicum of awareness and is therefore less likely to be “cornered like wheat.”

That is where the reporter has a place—to expose as well as report. A good reporter has to have a bit of the spirit of Lincoln Steffens inside and our media must recognize the responsibility they have to be unafraid to rake muck when necessary.

Good reporters do not want to be liked by the people they report about. Nor do they want to be hated. They do hope to be respected as a necessary element of a free society. And they should be conscious of their responsibilities to citizens on both sides the aisle. They also must be unafraid, and expect those who employ them to be unafraid, too.

On Wednesday, you will read Lincoln Steffens’ Enemies of the Republic. It, unfortunately, has elements of truth that you will recognize in our present times.

(Picture Credit: Brooks—St. Louis Republic

The Missouri  Optimist

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Two years from now, we will observe the sesquicentennial of the publication of the first edition of the Blue Book, the Official State Manual as it is more formally called. Secretary of State Michael McGrath published it in 1878 not only to list the people and agencies that constituted Missouri government then but to use it as a one-man state chamber of commerce.  Amidst his extensive horn-blowing, we find some things still true of ourselves. We also find some things to which we still should aspire almost 150 years later.

This is his Foreword to “The Almanac and Official Directory of Missouri:”

MISSOURI. It is a truth that must be admitted, that very many outside of Missouri, and some even in it, know but little of its vast resources or of its immense wealth and unexampled prosperity, and when told scarcely believe it, so great is the extent and magnitude thereof.

There is no territory of equal size on the continent which contain so varied and such large quantities of the most useful minerals. Missouri may safely challenge the world to produce a Superior in this respect.

It is estimated by those who have computed the quantity of Iron in Pilot Knob and Iron Mountain, that there is, above the surface of these mountains alone, iron sufficient to afford an annual supply of 1,000,000 tons for two hundred years.

Lead and Zinc Ores are found almost everywhere in South Missouri, and the lead mines of Granby, Joplin, and Mine LaMotte, are almost inexhaustible.

Iron and Coal underlie some of the richest lands in the State. In many cases it is difficult to determine whether the agricultural or mineral resources are most remunerative. If Missouri were as densely populated as England, it would have a population of 25,000,000, and by the extent and diversity of its resources is far better able to support this vast number in competency and independence than England is to maintain its present population. This seems incredible but is nevertheless the fact.

 Missouri presents to the farmer conditions of soil and climate favorable to his calling. The richness of the soil cannot be surpassed. Farms, after bearing without artificial fertilization twenty-five successive crops, have failed to show scarcely any decrease in productiveness; water is abundant, and streams and springs are found in every portion of it,

Its climate is delightful; the winters are short and mild, and the summers long and temperate. In Missouri, agriculture will compensate the skillful and industrious follower with independence and wordly riches. To it manufacturers are invited, with the offer of rich facilities, and if natural adaptation, be any evidence of the future, Missouri will at no distant day become the workshop of the Great Valley of the Mississippi.

It is unnecessary to enumerate the articles that ought to be manufactured in it; there is scarcely a want or luxury of domestic manufacture known to the human family but what can be readily supplied from it. Railroads traverse all portions of the State, and reach almost every city, town and village in it.

Missouri, being already rated the fifth State in the confederation, and soon to become the fourth with an area exactly equal to that of all the New England States put togeiher, and once and a half as large as tbe great State of New York; and in the City of St. Louis, now the third in size and population in the Union, as its Metropolis, it requires no prophecy to foretell the millions who will within the next twenty years seek homes within it.

A calculation based upon the census is all that the prediction demands. The present population, according to the last State census of 2,100,000 is entirely insufficient to develop her vast resources, and it therefore seeks the co-operation of colonists from the Eastern, Northern, and Southern States, and of the sturdy and industrious immigrants who annually arrive in this free country, fleeing from oligarchal and despotic governments, to better themselves. It invites also the overcrowded of the seaboard cities of this country, to cross the father of waters and make their homes within her.

Missouri may be regarded as offering greater inducements, as to climate, soil and fertility to the farmer, artisan, laborer, colonist and immigrant than any of the other States or parts of the country. Missouri promises to all a cordial welcome, and liberal compensation for labor. Millions may settle within her borders without exhausting the ample means in store for them. Her schools, both public and private, are the best in the country.

It may be said without fear of contradiction that Missouri is today the most prosperous and best governed State in the Union. In fact, no location in the Republic presents a more encouraging field for the honest laborer or the aspiring citizen.

Tbe contentions of the war have long since disappeared. Liberalism and toleration in politics and religion, are noted characteristics of her people. They are generous, hospitable and enterprising. Among them poverty and humble birth present no barrier to the attainment of wealth, distinction and honor. True merit is the criterion of success, and is fostered by hearty encouragement and profitable recognition.

Occupying, as she does already, a front rank among the States of the Union, it is easy to forecast her future as one of glory and renown! M. K. McG.

We recognize this is a certain amount of puffery intended to promote Missouri and we frankly see the same sort of thing today although in modern language.

One line jumps out, however.

The present population, according to the last State census of 2,100,000 is entirely insufficient to develop her vast resources, and it therefore seeks the co-operation of colonists from the Eastern, Northern, and Southern States, and of the sturdy and industrious immigrants who annually arrive in this free country, fleeing from oligarchal and despotic governments, to better themselves.

Would he write that about us today?

 

Sports: Inconsistent Tigers; Chiefs Major Rebuilding Moves; A Penske Sweep 

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZBB)—The Missouri Tigers limp into the SEC tournament, salvaging a bye for the first round and likely to face a bottom-half opponent in the second round. But with this team, there is no guarantee that Missouri will be playing in the third round.

But then again, there’s no guarantee with this bunch that they won’t.

The Tigers’ last two regular season game, both considered winnable, became losses. They took a two-game winning streak, including a win over then 22nd ranked Tennessee, into their game in Norman and let the Sooners run up an 80-64 win.  In their last game at home, against an Arkansas team that had beaten them in Fayetteville by eight points, Missouri again made crucial mistakes at crucial times and lost in overtime.

Mark Mitchell set a new game high for himself with 32 points and along the way became the eighth Tiger to top 1,000 points in two years. He scored 700 more in his first two years at Duke. He has at least two more games to add to his 1713 total collegiate sports.

He joined two of last year’s players, Caleb Grill and Tamar Bates on the list of two-year thousand point players.

Arkansas Coach John Calipari also reached a milestone—his 900th win.

Missouri got a first-round bye and will play Thursday morning in the second round against the winner of Wednesday’s first round game between Kentucky, the 9 seed, and LSU, the 16th seed.  Kentucky matched Missouri’s 10-8 conference record and went 19-12 in the regular season. LSU finished last in the conference at 3-15.

Kentucky, the expected Thursday opponent, closed out the season the same way Missouri did—with two straight losses. Missouri beat Kentucky 73-68 in Lexington earlier this year.

If Missouri gets past Kentucky it runs into Florida, the top seed.  Kentucky went 25-6 in the season and was 16-2 in the conference with one of those losses to Missouri, in Lexington—the only time the two teams played this season.

(OUT)—Former Missouri Tiger star Kim English will not be back to coach the Providence Friars next year.  He’s been at Providence for three years. With a team he inherited from coach Ed Cooley, English took the Friars to a 21-14 record and an NIT appearance. But his teams went 12-20 and then 14-16.  They were 7-12 in the Big East this year. Before going to Providence, English led George Mason to a 20-13 record in his only season there. English played all four years of his college ball at MU, winning the MVP award in the Big 12 Tournament in his last year, 2012. He scored 1570 points in his Tiger career.

He played a few games for the Detroit Pistons in a short NBA career.

(BILLIKENS)—The St. Louis University Billikens took a bad tumble in their last game of the regular season, falling to George Mason 86-57. St. Louis finishes 27-4 but still have the number one seed in the Atlantic Ten conference.

Team leader, center Robbie Avila got into immediate foul trouble in the first half and was benched five minutes in, scoreless. He finished with two points and one rebound in the two minutes he was in the game in the second half.

St. Louis U gets a bye in the A-10 tournament and will play the winner of a game between Fordham and George Washington on Friday.

(CHIEFS)—-The Kansas City Chiefs are looking to the 2026 NFL draft as a way to shake off “Super Bowl Fatigue,” a condition in which a championship team has been saddled with generally low draft choices year after year.

The Chiefs continued their dealings in the last week with a major trade sending cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Rams for a flock of draft picks—in the first, fifth, and sixth rounds this year and a third-round pick next year.

Some speculation has Kansas City and Tennessee doing some swapping that could bring Notre Dame running back Jeremiya Love or edge rusher Rueben Bain from the Miami Hurricanes.

Chiefs GM Brett Veach told reporters at the Combine a few days ago, “Every year when we were picking 31 and 32, I’d always say, ‘Man, if we were just at (pick) 24 or 25, we’d be exactly where we want to be.’ Now, we’re at nine and I’m like, ‘Man, if we were just at four, five, we’d be exactly where we want to be.”

—Meaning that he’s probably not done.

As for the recently-traded cornerback Trent McDuffie, whose trade to the Rams brought the Chiefs those draft picks: The Rams have made him the highest paid cornerback in NFL history with a four-year, $124 million dollar contract, $100 million of it guaranteed.

McDuffie had been in line for $13.6 million if he had stayed with the Chiefs this year.

The deal is especially sweet for McDuffie, who played his high school ball in California with two guys who are Rams this year. Last August, at a charity event, he was asked if there was another team he would like to play for. “That’ll probably be the LA Rams, so that my family can come see every single game,” he replied.

(BATTLEHAWKS, ETC)—Spring football, the UFL, starts in a couple of weeks. Several players from Missouri schools are on the rosters for seven of the eight teams in the league.

The St. Louis Battlehawks open the season with two Missourians on their roster. Former Tiger kicker Tyler McCann, who hopes to follow          of the LA Rams into the NFL, and Kevon Latulas from Missouri State.

The Birmingham Barons have Missouri running back Nate Noel.

The Columbus Aviators have  former Tigers WR Keke Chisum, a wide receiver, and DT Walter Palmore.

Three Missourians are on the roster for the DC Defenders—former Tiger center Michael Maieti, Missouri State WR Tyrone Scott, and Missouri Southern OT Lacolby Tucker from Missouri Southern.

The Louisville Kings have OL Keith Russell from Missouri Western.

Moving along to a spring sports with a round ball—

(CARDINALS)—Word from Jupiter is that outfielder Jordan Walker has been doing a lot of work on the back fields on his hitting, looking for better swing rhythm. Results of that part of his training aren’t impressive. He’s 4 for 19 (.211) after hitting .215 last year.  and his fielding. Manager Oliver Marmol says his outfield work is better than last year. Former Cardinals and Royals outfielder Jon Jay is getting credit for that.

Lars Nootbar’s heels still not being counted on for opening day. The Cardinals have used thirteen left fielders in spring training so far.  One possible prospect is Joshua Baez, who is hitting .333 in 18 at-bats.

Pitcher Andre Pallante is impressing the coaches in Florida after an awful second half last year.  He went four innings and struck out two Sunday in a 2-2 tie with the Marlins. Marmol said afterwards he looked to be throwing his five pitches “in midseason form.”  Marmol says his attitude is better, that he’s more relaxed than when he was going 1-10 after last year’s All-Star break with a 6.64 ERA.

Several players and coaches in the Cardinals system, including some on the major league roster, are involved in the World Baseball Classic that goes for another week.  Some are pitching for other nations’ teams.  A player musts be a citizen of the country they represent or have been born in that country or have permanent residency or have at least one parent who was born of a citizen of the nation.

Leonardo Bernal, a strong catcher prospect in the system, is playing for Panama. Mexico has one of the team’s most recent international signings, Luis Gastelum. Gordon Graceffo, who was and down from the minors last year and is considered a likely bullpen member this year, is playing for Italy, as is Thomas Saggese, a “super-utility man in the making,” according to the Cardinals..

Great Britain has outfielder Matt Koperniak. Some think he might come up to the bigs later in the year.  A member of the Israel team is Zach Levenson, an outfielder and Noah Mendlinger, a third basemen.

Outfielder Brian Torres, who has hit .328 in his last two minor league seasons, is an outfielder for Puerto Rico.

Four Cardinal coaches are involved in the tournament: Yadier Molina is managing Puerto Rico’s team for the second tournament. His team reached the quarterfinals in the last tournament, in 2023. Coach Stubby Clapp is the third base coach for Canada; Julio Rangel is with the Panamanian team; Chris Conroy is  Puerto Rico assistant trainer.

(ROYALS)—Some of the big name major leaguers and some littler names from the Royals system are in the World Baseball Classic:  Bobby Witt Jr. and Michael Wacha represent the United States: Salvador Perez, Maikel Garcia, and Luinder Avila are with the Venezuelan team. Vinnie Pasquantino  and Jac Caglianone are with Italy; Seth Lugo is pitching for Puerto Rico; Carlos Estevez is with the Dominican Republic. Israel has Eli Morgan; Nicaragua has Oscar Rayo; and Jorge Alfaro is with Colombia.

Back in Kansas City, the Royals have welcomed Eric Hosmer home.

He’ll join the Royals TV broadcast crew as a part-time analyst, one-third of a rotation that includes Jeremy Guthrie and Rex Hudler. Regular play-by-play guys Ryan Lefebvre and Jake Eisenberg will be in their usual slots. Jeff Goldberg and Jeff Montgomery will be the pregame and postgame hosts. New to the broadcasts will be host and sideline reporter Bridget Howard.

Hosmer’s first show will be March 13 when the Royals play the Diamondbacks.

Hosmer retired after the 2023 season after 13 years in the big leagues, half of those years with the Royals. He was a member of the 2025 World Series championship club before signing a big deal with the San Diego Padres. He was there for five years before wrapping up things with the Red Sox and the Cubs. He was a lifetime .276 hitter

Motoring on—-

(INDYCAR)—-Phoenix became a great place during the weekend to celebrate Roger Penske’s sixtieth year in auto racing.  His drivers won both of the major races, the IndyCar race on Saturday and the NASCAR race Sunday.

Penske’s first race as a team owner was the 1966 Daytona 24 Hour endurance race. His cars have raced in several major racing series—with his first IndyCar entry in 1968 and his first NASCAR entry in 1972.

Penske driver Josef Newgarden tracked down race leader Kyle Kirkwood and got past him in the closing laps to go on Saturday for his 32nd career win. Newgarden admitted he was surprised to win, given his mediocre performance in the middle of the race.  But adjustments by his pit crew gave him “a rocket ship” after his last stop that let him get past pole-sitter and teammate David Malukis and then Kirkwood.

It’s the second win in a row for Newgarden and Penske on the one-mile oval at Phoenix—-although it took eight years go to it. IndyCar had not raced there since 2918.

It was a highly-competitive race with a record 565 on-track passes but none was as important as Newgarden’s power move past Kirkwood. Newgarden had pitted for new tires under the last yellow of the race, caused when former teammate Will Power cut a tire in close racing with another car. Kirkwood was among the drivers who gambled they could go the rest of the way with what they had.

Kirkwood took the lead on lap 242 of the 250 laps but his tires gave up and he faded to 11th while Newgarden started eating into Kirkwood’s six-tenths of a second lead and flew past him with six laps left.

The win puts Newgarden on top of the point standings, ending a long string of races at the top for defending series champion Alex Palou, who had not been out of first place since June 2024. Palou was the victim of an early crash and finished 24th.

IndyCar moves on to a new venue next weekend in Arlington, Texas on a course that winds its way around the baseball and football stadiums of the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Cowboys.

(NASCAR)—Ryan Blaney finished the Penske-first weekend on Sunday. He clawed his way back from 24th after a poor pit stop and took the lead in a fiercely contested race with ten laps left and then held off Christopher Bell the rest of the way.  The race featured 23 lead changes and a record dozen cautions.  Bell had dominated the latter part of the race until the last restart gave Blaney the break he needed to pull in front.

Blaney twice had problems with loose wheels that forced him to drive from the back to the front. Bell’s car was the 49th car he passed during the race, a record.

Penske driver Joey Logano started from the pole but was eliminated in a crash early.

Tyler Reddick, who had won the first three races of the year, a NASCAR record, finished eighth.

NASCAR heads to Las Vegas for next week’s race.

(Photo Credits: McDuffie–YouTube; Pallante—STL Cardinals;  Hosmer—MLB; Newgarden –Rick Gevers, in Phoenix; Blaney—Sean Gardner, Getty Images)

The Four Freedoms 

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In a far distant time, a President would deliver a State of the Union address free of bombast, lies, and accusations.

Here’s one, delivered as one part of the world was back at war and the other part was likely to erupt somewhere, sometime.   Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke on January 6, 1941. The contrast to what we heard from our present occupant of the White House  jumps out at us.

Just as our national policy in internal affairs has been based upon a decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all our fellow men within our gates, so our national policy in foreign affairs has been based on a decent respect for the rights and dignity of all nations, large and small. And the justice of morality must and will win in the end.

Our national policy is this:

First, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to all-inclusive national defense.

Second, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to full support of all those resolute peoples, everywhere, who are resisting aggression and are thereby keeping war away from our Hemisphere. By this support, we express our determination that the democratic cause shall prevail; and we strengthen the defense and the security of our own nation.

Third, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to the proposition that principles of morality and considerations for our own security will never permit us to acquiesce in a peace dictated by aggressors and sponsored by appeasers. We know that enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people’s freedom…

The Nation takes great satisfaction and much strength from the things which have been done to make its people conscious of their individual stake in the preservation of democratic life in America. Those things have toughened the fibre of our people, have renewed their faith and strengthened their devotion to the institutions we make ready to protect.

Certainly this is no time for any of us to stop thinking about the social and economic problems which are the root cause of the social revolution which is today a supreme factor in the world.

For there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy. The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:

Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.
††††††††††† Jobs for those who can work.
††††††††††† Security for those who need it.
††††††††††† The ending of special privilege for the few.
††††††††††† The preservation of civil liberties for all.

The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.

These are the simple, basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding strength of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations…

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

To that new order we oppose the greater conception—the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.

Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change—in a perpetual peaceful revolution—a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions—without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.

This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory.     

Less than a year later the nation knew the principles it was fighting for when a two-ocean war was threatening “the simple, basic things” we stood for…then.

T

 

(Image credit: Norman Rockwell exhibition, New York Historical Society)

0900909090

 

Heroes and Hats

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I don’t remember when I decided I liked Willie Nelson.  Maybe it’s because I spent my Saturday afternoons at the Grand Theatre in Sullivan, Illinois watching western double features, sometimes with a serial and a cartoon or two, sitting next to my friend Chuck Woolen in a pair of seats that he had marked by cutting a small notch in the shared arm rest.

The last time I was in the old theatre, now called the Little Theatre on the Square where they do stage shows and musicals, that notch was still there.

I was a member of the Roy Rogers Riders Club and was distressed that a family trip caused me to miss that Saturday’s “meeting” and a chance to pick up the latest Roy Rogers souvenir—a drinking glass one day, as I recall.

It’s awfully hard to resist a good western movie—High Noon, Shane, the Searchers, The Gunfighter, 3:10 to Yuma, Broken Trail, Open Range, Tombstone/Wyatt Earp, Silverado and the ultimate television series—Lonesome Dove (the book grabbed me like no other with first line: “Augustus McCrae walked out onto the porch to discover his two pigs fighting over a dead rattlesnake.”)

I can’t think of another actor who was made to wear a battered cowboy hat better than Robert Duvall was—

Poe and Faulkner, Salinger and Fitzgerald, Vonnegut and Hawthorne and Melville and Hemingway, the Russian greats that I gave up on by the third page because I couldn’t pronounce their character’s names, and all those other high-faulutin’ writers my English professors thought I should adore never started a book that caught me like Lonesome Dove.  I’ve read stuff from most of those guys but none of them wrote about anybody like Gus McCrae.

The other day, I started thinking about two of Willie’s songs that I always have liked as a sad dialogue by a old cowboy wistfully evaluating his life—and also a gypsy touring artist wondering if he shouldn’t have listened to his mother.

Wonder what it would sound like if somebody did a mix of Willie singing the first part and Waylon singing the boldface lines—–

Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys
Don’t let ’em pick guitars and drive them old trucks
Make ’em be doctors and lawyers and such
Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys
‘Cause they’ll never stay home and they’re always alone
Even with someone they love

I grew up a-dreamin’ of bein’ a cowboy
And lovin’ the cowboy ways
Pursuin’ the life of my high-ridin’ heroes
I burned up my childhood days
I learned all the rules of a modern-day drifter
Don’t you hold on to nothin’ too long
Take what you need from the ladies, then leave them
With the words of a sad country song

Cowboys ain’t easy to love and they’re harder to hold
They’d rather give you a song than diamonds or gold
Lonestar belt buckles and old faded Levis
And each night begins a new day
If you don’t understand him, and he don’t die young
He’ll probably just ride away

Cowboys are special with their own brand of misery
From bein’ alone too long
You can die from the cold in the arms of a night man
Knowin’ well that your best days are gone.

Pickin’ up hookers instead of my pen
I let the words of my youth fade away
Old worn-out saddles, and old worn-out memories
With no one and no place to stay

Cowboys like smoky old pool rooms and clear mountain mornings
Little warm puppies and children and girls of the night
Them that don’t know him won’t like him and them that do
Sometimes won’t know how to take him
He ain’t wrong, he’s just different but his pride won’t let him
Do things to make you think he’s right.

My heroes have always been cowboys
And they still are, it seems
Sadly, in search of, and one step in back of
Themselves and their slow-movin’ dreams

Sadly, in search of, and one step in back of  themselves and their slow-movin’ dreams

Willie and Waylon sang them but Ed Bruce and his wife, Patsy, wrote “Mama…” He first recorded it in 1975 and his version hit number 15 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles charts that year and into ’76. It’s one of the top 100 country songs of all time. Rolling Stone in 2024 ranked it 69th on its 200 greatest country songs.

Waylon recorded “Heroes” in 1976 and Willie made it even more popular in 1980 as part of the soundtrack to the Robert Redford/Jane Fonda movie, The Electric Horseman.  Sharon Vaughn wrote it and Willie took it to number one on the country hit list. The Western Writers of America say it’s one of their 100 favorite western songs.

Regardless, my heroes always have been cowboys although I grew up to be one of those who became an “and such.”

Photo credits: Slaker Hats, Open Range)

SPORTS: Critical Week for Mizzou; Bills win but sink; MU, StL football seasons; Baseball roundup and a historic weekend in motorsports.

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZBB)—Missouri still has gotten no votes in either of the major basketball polls and has this week to win some friends. SI.com has Missouri as a 9th seed in the NCAA tournament, however, facing off against 8th seeded North Carolina State in the first round of the Midwest tournament.

All of this might be interesting but it’s worthless speculation as the Tigers face the last two games of the regular season with an opportunity for a first-round bye in the SEC tournament, and maybe a double bye.

Missouri, 20-9, plays Oklahoma, 15-14 in Norman tonight and wraps up the season at home against Arkansas, ranked 17th and 20th.   The Tigers squeaked past Oklahoma 88-87 in Columbia earlier and lost 94-86 at Arkansas earlier.

(MIZFB)—-Spring football practice is underway at the University of Missouri. Workouts started last Friday and Saturday and resumed today.

Yep, already. Coach Drinkwitz is getting his first look at how his recruits and transfers might fit together for the fall season.  Missouri lost 26 players to the transfer portal but they brought in 27 transfers and signed more than a dozen incoming freshmen in the 25th-ranked 2026 class according to 247 Sports.

Stadium renovations will prohibit a spring scrimmage for the second year in a row.

(BILLSBB)—The St. Louis Billikens dropped five spots in the rankings last week but remain in the top 25.

The Billikens’ 6-10 center Robbie Avila scored all of the teams’ points in a 15-2 run that closed out the 91-76 victory over Duquesne Saturday.  Avila finished with 23 points, all but two in the second half. The Bills are 26-3 overall, 14-2 in the Atlantic 10, and have won 21 straight at home.

The closing run was the second big scoring spree of the second half. St. Louis was down 41-39 at the break but outscored Duquesne 31-6 in the two runs. The Billikens host Loyola of Chicago tomorrow night.

(BATTLEHAWKS—This is the second week of the St. Louis Battlehawks spring football camp.  The UFL is training at the league headquarters in Arlington, Texas. Head Coach Ricky Proehl, a St. Louis Rams Super Bowl winner,  will have an eight-man coaching staff.

His defensive coordinator, Corey Chamblin, was a championship head coach with the Toronto Argonauts and the Saskatchewan Roughriders  in the Canadian Football League. He coached Gray Cup champions in 2008, 2013, and 2017. He also won the NFL Europe championship with the Frankfurt Galaxy in 2006.

Another coach is Frank Gansz Jr., whose father coached the Chiefs for a couple of unsuccessful years that were part of his 40-year coaching career. Frank Junior has coached the college level as well with the old USFL, the CFL, several universities, and in the NFL.

The coach’s son, Austin, will work with wide receivers. He had a short NFL career with the Bills, Rams and Chargers.

Two-time Super Bowl winner Todd Washington will handle the offensive line and tight ends. He was with the Buccaneers as a player when they won Super Bowl 37 and was an assistant offensive line coach for the Ravens in Super Bowl 47. He’s one of 13 people to win Super Bowl rings as a player and as a coach.

Defensive line coach Jeff Zgonina was a defensive lineman with Super Bowl-winning Rams. He had a 17 year playing career with eight teams.

Only one player from a Missouri school is on the pre-season roster—Missouri State running back Kevon Latulas  from Missouri State.

The first game is on the 28th, against the DC Defenders at the Dome. The regular season ends on May 29th.

On the Diamond—

(ROYALS)—Pitcher Kris Bubic had a promising start in his first time back on the mound since last summer when he developed a rotator cuff strain last summer. He didn’t need surgery, though.

He went two innings, 31 pitches, against Milwaukee Sunday, gave up four hits and a run but struck out three. His fastball averaged 91.9. He also threw his slider, sinker, sweeper and his changeup. Bubic said he felt no pain. This is his final contract year and could become a free agent at the end of the season.

The Royals have bolstered their outfield/DH lineup and, they hope, their offense with the signing of free agent Starling Marte, who was crowded out of the Mets organization by the arrival of several new guys including former Royals J. J. Melendez.

Marte found himself in a part-time role in his last contract season with the Mets last year. Health problems have curtailed his production in the last three seasons. He hit .270 with nine homers and 34 RBI in 85 games with New York last year. He’s 37

(CARDINALS)—Ollie Marmol will be the Cardinals manager for the near future.  His contract has been extended to 2028 with a club option for 2029.

It’s a big vote of confidence from Cardinals president Chaim Bloom, who says Marmol realizes the Cardinals have to “compete relentlessly to set new standards in everything that we do…He is invested in the progress of our young core and is unafraid to challenge himself and to help those around him grow.”

The Cardinals have made their first cuts of the spring training, sending 11 players out. One of them is switch-pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje, one of eight players assigned to minor league camp.

Cijntje was one of the players picked up in the Brendan Donovan trade with Seattle. He has made one appearance this spring, throwing from the right side, went two scoreless innings, gave up a hit and got two strikeouts.  He has thrown from the right side in the big league camp but still plays catch throwing with both arms. Pitching Director Matt Pierpont and assistant GM Rob Cerfolio will be meeting with him soon to discuss his future development.

On the track:

(NASCAR)—Tyler Reddick is the only person in NASCAR history who has a chance to win the first four races of the year.  He notched number three on a hot afternoon at the Circuit of the Americas with road-racing ace Shane Van Gisberghen waiting for him to make a mistake.  But Reddick never did

He became the first driver in NASCAR history win the first three races of the year, pulling away from Van Gisbergen with about ten laps to go.  VanGisbergen was trying to tie Jeff Gordon’s record of six-straight road course wins.

Several drivers struggled with the heat during the race. A. J. Almendinger was one of he several drivers who reported their cool shirts, which circulate cool water about the driver, had quit working. A. J. Allmendinger crawled out of his car and laid down on the pit lane. He was taken to the infield care center on a stretcher but later released.

Alex Bowman became ill during the race and pulled into the garage area with 10 laps to go.  The team drafted Myatt Snider, a driver from a lower-tier NASCAR series and put him in the car. He finished 36th out of 37 competitors six laps down—most of those laps happening during the change of drivers in the garage area.

No driver has won four NASCAR Cup races in a row since Harry Gant did it in 1991 at Darlington, Richmond, and Dover.  Gant was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame last year.

Reddick will take his shot at Phoenix next weekend.

(INDYCAR)—Alex Palou won the season opening IndyCar race by more than 12 seconds Sunday, a huge margin of victory in the series. Palou has won the last three IndyCar titles and four of the last five.

The day was a disappointment for some drivers making their first series race or driving for a new team.  Former Formula One driver Mick Schumacher was caught in someone else’s crash on the first lap. Six-time series champion Scott Dixon’s day ended early when he lost a wheel. Will Power, making his first start for a new team after a career with Penske, finished the race but was twenty laps down because of a crash early that sent his car to the garage for suspension repairs. He went back onto the track to salvage as many points as he could before retiring for good.

IndyCar and NASCAR have a joint weekend at Phoenix next weekend. IndyCar will race on Saturday and the NASCAR Cup race will be Sunday afternoon.

Photo credits:  Avila—St. Louis University; Bucic—Kings of Kauffman; Marmol—Redbird Rants; Battlehawks—Dilip Vishwanat/UFL/Getty Images; Palou—David Jensen, Lumen via Getty Images; Reddick—NASCAR)

 

War

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It was an interesting juxtaposition of events last Saturday night at a birthday party for a submarine at the American Legion Hall—the USS Jefferson City, which was launched on February 29, 1992.

The boat is based in Guam but none of us knew where it was at that moment.  We hoped it and its crew were safe regardless of whether they were involved in the war with Iran—and I think most of us believe it is in the area.

The Jefferson City isn’t the largest class of submarines; the USS Missouri. It is part of the first class of submarines beneath the group of which the USS Missouri is a part. It’s an attack sub longer than a football field with about 140 crew members. It is loaded with missiles.

So, our capital city has a reason to pay attention to what’s happening and what’s going to happen.

There’s not much doubt that the world is a better place without the Iran’s religious leader and ruler but there’s no guarantee his successor will be any less troublesome.

There are many things that are problems with this conflict, the biggest one being Trump pulling this country out of the landmark Iran Nuclear Deal, more formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. We have heard one talking head suggest the President Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA was done because it had been achieved during the Obama administration and we’re all well aware of  Trump’s disdain for anything Obama did. Among other things, the agreement required interference-free inspections by an international group looking for any signs Iraq was generating bomb-capable amounts of uranium.

The Obama White House said the agreement “blocks every possible pathway Iran could use to build a nuclear bomb while ensuring—through a comprehensive, intrusive, and unprecedented verification and transparence regime—that Iran’s nuclear program remains exclusively peaceful moving forward.”  The deal went into effect in January, 2016 after the Center for Arms Control reported Iran had “significantly reduced its nuclear program and accepted strict monitoring and verification safeguards to ensure its program is solely for peaceful purposes.”

President Obama called the issue the “most consequential foreign policy debate that our country has had since the invasion of Iraq.” The deal went into effect in January 2016 after inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency had dismantled and removed two-thirds of Iran’s centrifuges and certified that Iran had shipped 25,000 pounds of enriched uranium elsewhere and dismantled.

President Trump pulled this country out of the agreement, calling it “horrible,” a “decaying and rotten structure,” and “defective to its core.”

It’s too bad nobody has ever been able to pin him down on what was so wrong with the agreement that merited his flamethrower verbiage.

Time and the flow of information will tell us if he is repeating George H.W. Busch’s entrance into a Middle Eastern war because of Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction and an assumption that a populace relieved of the despotic rule of Saddam Hussein would welcome our troops as heroes—and adopt a democratic form of government.

Regime change is acknowledged as one reason for this war—with Israel as our only apparent ally— against Iran. He has not explained how his attack is a guarantee of peace and stability in the region.

Trump promised he would not involve this country in another endless foreign war.  But he has not announced any ending goal. Nor has he announced how Iran will be transformed into a peaceful democratic republic that is grateful to him to for eliminating the Ayatollah.  It is unlikely the Iranian military will give up easily or quickly. And it is hard to think that this war can be won without American boots on the ground and American bodies in it.

It is already more than an American-Israeli war against Iran.  Iranian missiles have hit other countries friendly to the Trumpian effort. Three American lives have been lost. Nine Israeli people are dead. The United Arab Emirates reports three deaths.

Trump has admitted, “Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends.”

“That’s the way it is,” he said.

His actions have united our allies and our enemies. Russia has called it “an unprovoked armed aggression” China has expressed “deep concern” and has urged respect for Iran’s security, territorial integrity, and respect for its sovereignty—-something it has not suggest Russia do in is Ukraine war. Europe is keeping its distance. The European Council President calls the attacks “deeply disarming” and calls for full respect for international law.

Good luck with that one.

France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have condemned the Iranian retaliatory missile attacks that have expanded the conflict to other countries such as Sudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan and the Arab Emirates agree.

Congress is waiting to hear about all of this, officially, and might soon be considering stiffening the War Powers Act because of Trump’s attack on Iran as well as his miliary action in deposing Venezuela’s leader.

Is it only an effort to take away Iran’s nuclear capability.  Or are his conquests, or planned conquests in Venezuela and Iran focused on controlling much of the world’s oil supply and weaponizing it? Trump has offered no cogent reason for his attack, especially after withdrawing from an agreement that might have made it unnecessary.

If he thinks this conflict with Iran is going to reverse his increasing unpopularity, he’ll find that each American soldier death in what we now can call Trump’s War certainly will not improve his standing.

The United States fought a two-front foreign war in the 1940s in Europe and in Asia. But no President ever has fought a war against an enemy abroad and also fought one against people in his own country until Donald Trump.

Lord knows how all of this will end. But there will be more American blood spilled.  In every war there has been a first casualty and nobody ever has found a way to calculate how many more there will be.

“That’s the way it is,” says the man who is causing this.