We decided one day to Zip-around the Sports World from city to city with key sports teams/events taking place.  You’re just in time for our “take-off”…

….We started to leave but then saw some kids playing soccer…oops….soccer is still a “big thing” in the Lou. So we decided to take a look @ the City SC team’s progress/change from its opening year. In 2024,  City is tied for 18th in the league of 29 teams in scoring goals. In conversion rate, City is 25th in the MSL showing a 13% conversion rate. City is 28th (of 29 teams) in passing accuracy. Shockingly, City is 2nd in the MSL in shots. Sooo…from an outsider’s view…..either we’re taking low percentage shots &/or missing too many shots or both! Attendance @ the City games has held. After 14 home games, City show an attendance of 22,462/game. That puts them in the 12th spot of the league. Since maximum attendance for City Park is 22,500 for all practical  purposes, City is selling out every game!

..…before “blasting off”, we looked around the Lou. The Cardinals, at times, looked like the worst team in the NL.. Then…they’d look like a decent, sound team in another week. The up & down performances by the pitching staff & the inconsistency of the batters had made for an uneven season. The primary goal of offense is to score runs. In the 15 team National League, the Cards are 12th in scoring runs; 12th in HR; 7th in Hits; 12th in slugging %; 8th in OBP; 12 in stolen bases. The Cards are 4th fewest strikeouts in the NL! On the pitching mound the Cards are up & down…they are 8th in ERA; 14th (of 15 teams) in striking out opposing batters; and the Cards are 10th most in number of hits allowed (#1 gave up the fewest hits).

….Soooo…it’s clear that the Cards need change up & down the roster. While the Brewers have won 3 straight division titles, their roster doesn’t appear to be overwhelming. The Cards CAN get back into the race but…..can the current front office do it? Or…will the ownership allow the front office to do it? The Cards need to add another “Sonny Gray” type.  A #1 or a solid #2 starter is required for the rotation. The Outfield has several candidates….but several young players have yet to establish themselves as every-day players. 3 Catchers is 1 too many. Trade bait there!  Goldy won’t be back so a 1b has to be on the “shopping list”. Free agency isn’t the usual road traveled by the Cards but one has to consider these 1b free agents: Pete Alonso, Rhys Hoskins (opt-out), Anthony Rizzo (club option), Josh Bell, Rowdy Tellez, Christian Walker, Ryan O’Hearn, Carlos Santana. Hoskins seems like the best fit to me!

…how much will the Cards spend to replace 1 of our 2 veteran sluggers? Some experts are wondering if the Cards management has “lost their touch” as they look @ the moves over the last 2 years. Currently Cards are 11^th in spending in MLB for 2024 with a mark of $179,553,567.

… Finally…. We got off…we Zipped to Bloomington Indiana for our 1st stop. Generally, the sports excitement in Bloomington centers around basketball (Indiana folks love their b-ball). But at this point the Hoosier’s 5-0 record in football has the campus buzzing (instead of dribbling)! QB Kurtis Rourke had a fantastic game against UCLA in a conference game.  Yea…it’s crazy, UCLA and a handful of west coast teams are now in the Big 18…ooops Big 10…UCLA, Washington, Rutgers, Oregon, Maryland, Nebraska, So Cal, Penn State. This week Indy rolled past Maryland 42-28. We blasted off quickly to our next city.

…We headed for the biggest NCAA football game of the day as we Zipped to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. What a game! #2 Georgia & #4 Alabama tangled in a “Classic”. Alabama led 28-0 in the 2^nd Quarter (it was ALL Bama in that 1^st half). Sitting in the stands, Nick Saban had to be squirming as Georgia rallied all the way back to grab a 34-33 with just 3 minutes remaining in the 4^th quarter. Bama controlled the 1^st half and held the lead all the way until there was only 2:31 left in the game when the Bulldogs QB Carson Beck found Dillion Bell for a beautiful 67 yard TD pass to give the Bulldogs their 1^st lead of the game– 34-33. Just 13 seconds later, Bama regained the lead with a 75 yard pass from Jalen Milroe to Ryan Williams on a really incredible catch. The 2 pt conversion made it 41-34. In this new era of offense-passing prevailed for both teams. Georgia piled up 439 passing yards while Bama finished with 374 passing yards. It was the type of game that you hope to see between two of the very best teams in the USA.  The Tide QB Jalen Milroe,  “put on a show” and pushed himself into a Heisman Trophy-worthy consideration throughout the entire game. Despite the “packed crowd”, we were able to exit quickly.

…we Zipped back North to Minneapolis, we had heard all about the design of the New stadium. If you haven’t seen, find it on-line, its something. Right now, the city was in an NFL frenzy! Despite losing not 1…but 2 starting QB, the Vikings are 4-0. 1st the Vikings lost their 1st round pick QB J.J. McCarthy after losing Kirk Cousins to injuries.  3rd string-Sam Darnold has taken over the duties and led the Vikes to a shocking 4-0 record after sneaking by Green Bay yesterday 31-29! Further, the Vikes have been a potent, dependable offensive teams.  They’ve scored 119 points  in these 4 games! We left before the euphoria wore off for the fans!

…Next, we Zipped quickly to Chicago where the feelings were “exactly” opposite!!  Somehow, where we landed was “decorated” in a black décor. It was in honor the White..oops..Black Sox. These Sox  now hold the all-time record for most losses in a season-121 lost games!  CWS set a franchise record with a 14-game skid that ended in June and then “doubled up” on it later with a 21-game losing streak, tying the American League record.  The White Sox had a streak where they won 4 of 46 games. That’s like 4 wins over a 1.5 months of playing every day!  Amazingly, more than 17,000 fans — and 375 dogs, attended the season’s final Dog Day promotion! They saw the Chicago White Sox set the modern-day mark for losses in a single season. Ugh(and we thought the Cardinals were tough to watch 😊)…we hurried up to get out of this dreary place.

…We took a short ride as we ZIPPED TO Milwaukee. The Brewers are winning the division again in 2024 despite trading away their ace pitcher(Corbin Burnes) last off-season. Burnes was coming off a strong 2023 season- he finished 8^th in the Cy Young voting(4^th straight year in the top 8)  & led the NL in WHIP(1.07). He is still in his prime but he was traded. He went 15-9 this year as he was a key pitcher for Baltimore’s battle for the top spot. The Orioles fell short but they WILL be in the playoffs. ….Meanwhile, Milwaukee won the division title for the 2nd straight year & 3^rd time in the last 4 years. (Remember when the Cardinals ruled the division?) Like all MLB teams, they had to overcome injuries to key players. NL Reliever of the Year Devin Williams was “out” for the first 4 months and NL batting leader Christian Yelich missed the last 2 months of the 2024 season! Seeing the Brewers hoisting up the Division Title Flag brought our spirits down. Milwaukee has assembled the most athletic team in the division (not just baseball players but athletes). That “plays” to their defense, their running the bases and “small ball” when necessary. It was time to “move on”.

…Staying in the Great Lakes area, we ZIPPED to Cleveland. The Guardians had just won their 12^th division title. Like all winning teams, the Guardians had to overcome obstacles. All the way back to opening day when a virus caused many players to miss the opening game. Then, James Karinchak and Trevor Stephan — the team’s seventh- and eighth-inning bullpen arms — suffered injuries that kept them out all year. Like all teams, injuries kept piling up. Ace starting pitcher Shane Bieber was lost for the season after 2 starts. Triston McKenzie, who was penciled in as the #2 starter faltered and ended up in the minor leagues. Yada-yada-yada… good teams find a way to win. Similarly, bad teams falter in games due to a key mistake here or there. Off we went….

….We ZIPPED due South…back to the Lou. There we checked out one of the best, if not the best, HS Football recruits in Missouri. 5 of the top recruits ranked in the top 100 nationally. Here they are: Lee’s Summit North defensive lineman Williams Nwaneri (Missouri signee), St. Louis University High wide receiver Ryan Wingo (Texas), Rockhurst offensive tackle Andrew Sprague (Michigan), CBC wide receiver Jeremiah McClellan (Oregon) and Raymore-Peculiar tight end Jaden Reddell (Georgia).  Those are some really big-time schools. Congrats & wishing them the best of luck in the future. After the ceremony, we were wishing that Mizzou had signed 2 or 3 of this group.

…Next, we ZIPPED across town. We wanted to get some ideas about the Cardinals needs. With Paul Goldschmidt (1b) a free agent and his play declining, I suspect the Cards will let him go. Who’s left?

Other free agent 1b are: Pete Alonso, Rhys Hoskins (opt-out), Anthony Rizzo (club option), Josh Bell, Rowdy Tellez, Christian Walker, Ryan O’Hearn, Carlos Santana. Only the first 3 names interest me. It’ll come down to salary & # of years (MONEY).  None of them will be another, younger Paul Goldschmidt.

…Then we ZIPPED almost directly southwards towards Oxford, Mississippi.  You’re wondering why go to Mississippi? What’s there?  Well…. Ol’ Miss has Jaxton Dart as their QB!  He leads the country in passing yards (1815), passing percentage (77.3%– that’s almost 4 of every 5 passes!!). He has only 2 Interceptions for 2024! I suspect that he’ll be in the NFL next year even though most of us had never heard of him (until now😊)

…then we heard some startling news, so we ZIPPED back north to Lexington, Kentucky. Our destination was the U of Kentucky. Long known as a basketball powerhouse (all the way back to Adolph Rupp), things have changed. Unbelievably, the Wildcats don’t have ANY players returning to their roster for Head Coach-Mark Pope. At this moment, the starting lineup looks like this–Kerr Kriisa (11.0 PPG from West Virginia);Otega Oweh (11.4 PPG from Oklahoma); Jaxson Robinson (14.2 PPG from BYU); Andrew Carr (13.5 PPG from Wake Forest); Amari Williams (12.2 PPG from Drexel). I guess that this is the new NCAA format. Players will come & go almost annually, depending where they can make the most NIL money. If the players don’t like the school, setting, teammates, whatever or can make more money elsewhere…off they go. I really think that this will severely damage the image of Collegiate sports, especially basketball. In the future, instead of having divisions (1A, 2A, 3A, 4A) based on the size of the school. I think that the divisions will be based on how much schools are paying their players with NIL money.

…Well, I checked the gas gauge…it was low, so I ZIPPED back home. Thanks for joining me on the ride. Please respond with your thoughts about any part of the Buzz. Bob