The NFL released the teams, but not the dates for the preseason schedule. Of course, the Governors Cup will be up for grabs once again when the Chiefs travel to play the Rams in St. Louis at the end of preseason.
The Chiefs will host Houston, then travel to Minnesota before returning home to host the Seahawks. They will finish up with the Rams. Meanwhile prior to the game with the Chiefs, St. Louis travels to New York to play the Jets. They’ll also travel to Cincinnati after hosting Atlanta.
The NFL draft takes place on April 25th and 26th with the Rams holding the number two pick, followed by the Chief at three.
NFL releases preseason schedule
March 30, 2009 By
Nixon to pay off bet with Connecticut governor
March 30, 2009 By
He might well be Mizzou’s number one fan. Now, he’s paying up.
Governor Nixon will soon be sending a package of Anheuser-Busch beers from St. Louis, Gates Barbeque from Kansas City and "throwed rolls" from Lambert’s Cafe in Sikeston to Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell to pay off his bet that the Missouri Tigers would defeat the Connecticut Huskies for the West Regional of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Rell had offered to send Nixon maple candies from Connecticut if the Huskies lost. The Tigers lost 82-to-75 to the Huskies in Glendale, Arizona.
Nixon spokesman, Scott Holste, says the governor traveled to Glendale to watch the games, pleased with the Tigers’ upset of Memphis, but disappointed that the Tigers failed to reach the Final Four in losing a tough game to Connecticut, the number one seed in the West. The Tigers were the third seed.
Nixon is a University of Missouri graduate and can, at times, be distracted from official business to talk MU sports.
Holste says the governor was upbeat this morning, despite the loss, especially since it appears the Missouri basketball team has such a bright future.
Download/listen Brent Martin interviews Scott Holste (3 min MP3)
Greinke not concerned with spring shellings
March 30, 2009 By
Zach Greinke called it his second best outing of the spring, telling kcroyals.com, "stupid pitching maybe, but I was locating decent." Greinke gave up eight runs in two innings, but the Royals beat Seattle 17-12.
Greinke, who will start the second game of the regular season, had a seven-run lead going into the second inning and a one-run deficit when the inning finally ended. He surrendered 10 hits and eight runs in the inning.
The bats were there all game for Kansas City. Shortstop Tony Pena hit a two-run homer, and pinch-hitter Ryan Shealy topped off a nine run seventh inning with a three run blast.
Second baseman Alberto Callaspo went 4-for-5 with three doubles. Center fielder Coco Crisp went 3-for-4 and scored two runs and second baseman added three hits and two RBIs. Jose Guillen went 2-for-3 and drove in two runs. Third baseman Alex Gordon went 2-for-3, scored a run and drove in one with his third spring home run.
Carpenter gives up first earned runs of the spring
March 30, 2009 By
It wasn’t as bad as his line score may look and there is no need to panic. Chris Carpenter will be just fine after yesterday’s 4.2 innings and four runs given up in the Cardinals 5-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins.
Carpenter gave up seven hits and two walks, but at least three of those hits were not very hard and one was an infield single that led to a big inning. The upside to Carpenter’s appearance was that he also struck out seven hitters.
As the Cardinals come down to the final week of spring training, there are still two big issues that need to be resolved. The first is third base. It appears that David Freese has the inside track over Joe Mather. Freese had four hits and a couple of RBIs this weekend. He even played first base yesterday while Mather covered third. Mather had two hits to break out of a 1 for 28 slump, but will it be enough to overtake Freese.
The other pressing issue for manager Tony LaRussa is the final right handed spot in the bullpen. It appeared a couple of weeks ago, Chris Perez would be in Memphis, but he has bounced back from shoulder discomfort early in the spring to have two good back to back outings. LaRussa will carry five righties to go with Dennys Reyes and Trever Miller from the left side. Joining Perez in that battle from the right side is Jason Motte, Ryan Franklin, Kyle McClellan, Josh Kinney and Brad Thompson.
One of those pitchers will be left out. Right now, I’m figuring McClellan will be the odd man out. He’s struggled this spring giving up another earned run in two innings on Saturday. His ERA is 9.69.
Controlling the price of automotive paperwork
March 29, 2009 By
When you buy a car, you often wind up paying the dealer another chunk of money for the paperwork that has to be filled out before the car is yours. The legislature is moving to either limit those charges or establish them, depending on your point of view.
Missouri is one of only fourteen states not regulating the administrative fees car dealers can charge. Some dealers don’t charge customers for the work. But the sponsor of the legislation, Senator Tom Dempsey of St. Peters, says some dealers charge 600-dollars or more for the cost of notaries and temporary vehicle permits, state and federal odometer disclosure forms, documents required by a lender, vehicle sales tax and registration research–and more.
Dempsey’s bill caps the fee at $199.95.
But one critic, Senator Delbert Scott of Lowry City, thinks the bill is less about a ceiling than it is about a floor. He thinks the bill lets every dealer charge 200-dollars, even if they charge less than that now. And he says they will.
Despite his opposition, the Senate has sent Dempsey’s bill to the House.
