In life, we have lots of CROSSING OVER from one phase of our life to another. It’s true in sports also.

….The Cardinals just finished it’s 1^st CROSSING OVER this off season.  After being inactive on a major scale, the Cards “jumped in deep” with the Trade of Sonny Gray. It wasn’t surprising that the Cardinals dealt Gray. His salary no longer fits into the narrow range sought by Chaim Bloom, the President of Cardinal Baseball Operations.

 …Gray was traded along with $20m to Boston but who did they get in return? They received 2 pitchers—that’s good, our staff really needed some upgrades on the mound.

…Before CROSSING OVER into the BAD or GOOD trade islands, let’s look closer at those two prospective starting pitchers from Boston for our ace pitcher. But, both have some concerns. One concern to me is that neither one of these pitchers were listed in the Top 10 Boston pitching prospects in 2025! But, before making judgment, let’s look closer at their stats.

 …Richard Fitts, 25 years old RHP, was one the pitchers acquired. He’s already CROSSED OVER to the MLB. His ’25 Boston stats were: 45 innings of pitching, 43 hits allowed including 11 home runs, won-lost record of 2-4, ERA of 5.00, gave up 76 fly balls, 58 ground balls. At that same HR rate, it’d be 39.6 HR over a season—yikes!!!

…The other pitcher, Brandon Clark, brings in some very impressive set of evaluations to this point of his career. Clark underwent Tommy John surgery as a HS junior, and thoracic issues forced him to redshirt in his lone season at Alabama. He only pitched 78 total innings across two seasons at the State College of Florida, although he was perhaps the country’s best juco pitcher in his final season. He was throwing a 97mph fastball in high school, and he’s added an additional three ticks since that time. The 22-year-old is much more of a ground-ball pitcher than a “strikeout guy”.  

…Professional MLB Scouts concerns about Clark: He only pitched just 78 total innings in 2 seasons at the State College of Florida. Despite that, some thought he was perhaps the country’s best JUCO pitcher in his final season. However, when he has been healthy, Clarke has struggled with his control—which could be a major concern. He issued 27 walks in 38 innings — including an alarming 18.1 % walk rate at High-A.  Further, He only threw strikes 56.8 percent of the time, putting him in the 6th percentile of Minor Leaguers in full-season ball. According to scouts, he has the athleticism to approach average MLB control in the future. But… it just hasn’t manifested yet. Before CROSSING OVER to the “it’s a great trade” circle or its “bad news”, let’s wait & see. It MIGHT BE….but neither has proven their ability to get outs regularly in the MLB to this point.

…CROSSING OVER from the easy, preseason cupcakes to “real” games are the St. Louis U Mens Basketball team with a trip to the West Coast for 2 games. The Bills brought a 5-0 record into the games that were part of the Acrisure Tournament and each was a 1-point game!! In the 1^st game, the Billikens defeated the Santa Clara Broncos 71-70, with a game-winning circus shot  by Kellen Thames in the final seconds of the game. Trey Green (SLU) led all scorers with 21 points, including six 3-point baskets. In the 2^nd game, Stanford won the 2^nd game 78-77 as Benny Gealer hit a last-second, buzzer-beating 3-pointer to win the game. From my view, the experience of these two 1-point games will be very valuable experience for future conference games.

…Now Let’s CROSS OVER to mid- Missouri and take a look at the Tigers Mens- Basketball team who hold a spotless 8-0 record in 25-26 season. Easy wins over Howard 88-67, VMI 106-68, Minnesota 83-60, Prairie View 91-73, S. Dakota 102-68, S. Carolina St  98-66 provide plenty of time to evaluate the starters, top 3 bench players and then going deep into the bench. The only close game thus far in the season was an 89-84 win over SE Missouri!! Big games this week against Notre Dame & Kansas will be fun to watch as the Tigers will have to compete hard in each games.

…We’ve sure CROSSED OVER quickly in the salaries of SEC football coaches. The resigning of Head Coach, Eli Drinkwitz, this week raised his already high $9.1m salary to $10.25m/year. It’s a 6 year contract, worth $64.5m.  The pay increase for Coach Drinkwitz was $1.15m/year.  It wasn’t that many years ago that a $1.15m college coach’s salary was considered “high”. Now…it’s the amount of the raise!!

…As I write about the Coaches receiving 8 digit salaries, I guess it’s CROSSED OVER to the players. Now they transfer, some of them a couple times, to receive higher NIL money on each transfer. Mizzou/St Marys HS wideout, Kevin Coleman has played “the game”. He’s played for 4 schools in 4 years. I guess he learned quickly how to play the “transfer $$ game”.

…We’re hoping that the Blues are CROSSING OVER from the poor start to the 25-26 season to brighter days. The Blues have won 2 of the last 3 games. One goal victories over Utah Mammoth ( I didn’t know what that is…so looked it up.. its   any species of the extinct elephantid genus!!??) A hockey team with an elephant as its name?? I guess since I can’t skate…I can’t figure that one out 😊

…As I look at the +/- scores for each player, it’s alarming that many of our key players are a negative (a – sign)—Brayden Schenn is -16 (that means that when he’s on the ice, that the opponents have scored 16 more goals than the Blues have scored);  Pavel Buchnevich is -12; Cam Fowler (-11); Jordan Kyrou (-10), Dylan Holloway (-12). All of the names listed are veteran players. Most are in the upper echelon of the pay scale…yet, the Blues are “losing—i.e. negative results), when these guys are on the ice…ugh!!!

…Before we completely CROSS OVER from fall sports to winter sports, let’s congratulate UMSL Volleyball Coach, Ryan Young. The CBC grad, who I knew in his HS days, has really reached a tremendous coaching success level @ UMSL. This season has been another exceptional season. This may be (from my view), his best team ever!  The Volleyball Tritons are 26-4 for the season and 13-0 in the tough GLVC (Great Lakes Valley Conference). All 4 of their losses have come against teams from outside of Missouri!!!  As you would expect, many UMSL players are listed in the TOP LEADERS of the conference. At #2 in kills is , Iyannah Jackson (UMSL) With 272 kills  & a .363 hitting percentage.  Hannah Copeland (UMSL) is 3^rd in Kills with 247,her hitting % is #3 in GLVC @ .347. Of course with this dazzling record, it’s far more than a 2 person team. Good Luck to the Tritons! If any of you are volleyball fans/players/coaches, check their schedule  & get out to watch them in person!

…Before closing, I’ll be moving the initial distribution day of the REWIND from Wednesday’s(like this week) to Saturdays starting next week.  Be back on December 13.   Bob