March 19, 2024

Racin’, smilin’ and representing

The Pressbox

I love sports. No. really, I love the people who play sports — their stories.

Since returning from a much-needed week off at the start of July, I’ve had a steady stream of sporting events to cover. Baseball, softball, IndyCar races and more softball have been on the area menu for the Newton Daily News. We’re getting ready for Iowa Speedway’s final race weekend — July 31-Aug. 1 — of NASCAR Xfinity Series and K&N Pro Series racing.

My column this week might resemble my colleague’s column name “This & That” since I’m going to jump around a bit.

First, I don’t follow auto racing that closely. When the races are in town at Iowa Speedway, I gather information, but the ins-and-outs are not in my wheelhouse. Last Saturday during the IndCar Series Indy Corn 300, veteran driver Ed Carpenter took issue with the driving of rookie Sage Karam.

Carpenter confronted Karam after the race to complain about the way the rookie drove in the closing laps. Karam was unapologetic and Carpenter ultimately walked off, but said afterward that IndyCar should have penalized Karam.

Carpenter ended the monologue at Karam’s car by saying, “You need to grow up.”

“I said that he has no respect for anyone out there,” Carpenter later told NBCSN. “If it wasn’t for guys with experience driving with their heads on he would be hurting himself and other people.

“He has no clue.”

Karam’s responded with, “He’s just angry at my driving. He says I squeezed him a few times, but it’s the same way he drove me. It’s hard racing. I’m going for wins and that’s how we’re driving. It’s close racing, it’s IndyCar racing. This ain’t go-karts or anything anymore. We’re going to race each other hard and we’re professionals and we know each other’s limits. Tough luck for him, I don’t know.”

There was no penalty assessed. Should there have been? I have no clue. I interviewed Carpenter on the telephone before the race and was impressed with him. He seemed to be a nice guy. Karam took part in the Speedway’s Kids Q&A and appeared to be a decent guy.

I’ll stick with those assessments until otherwise proven wrong.

Did you see the “best smile in (Major League) baseball” Tuesday night? According to one sports writer, Kansas City Royals’ center fielder Lorenzo Cain has the best smile in baseball, and it showed on one play in the Royals’ 3-1 win over visiting Pittsburgh Tuesday. I watched a replay several times just to see the final scene of Cain smiling as he leaned against the wall.

Cain misread a ball hit by the Pirates’ Jung Ho Kang and as the fly ball soared over his head, Cain managed to embody the Royals in six seconds. Cain made the perfect throw to shortstop Alcides Escobar. And his perfect relay to catcher Salvador Perez. And his perfect tag on Starling Marte for the first out of the ninth inning.

Cain has fun playing the game and you see it in his smile.

Closer to home — Lynnville-Sully’s softball players, coaches and fans again represented their school and community well at the Iowa Class 1A State Softball Tournament in Fort Dodge this week. The Hawks didn’t come out with the trophy they wanted — they wanted to be playing Friday night for a state championship.

But, it was not meant to be. The Hawks lost their first game Tuesday sending them to the consolation bracket for the third straight year. The best they could do is fifth, and they knew it.

Lynnville-Sully showed why it has one of the top softball programs in the state. The Hawks played their brand of softball Wednesday winning two games — outscoring opponents 23-3 — to claim their third consecutive fifth-place trophy.

High school summer sports are finished for area teams. We’ll bring you all-conference teams as soon as we have them released to us. Conference’s embargo the release to media until all conference teams are finished with playoffs.

Softball all-conference honors will be in next week starting Monday. Baseball honors will come as soon as teams are done with state playoffs.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535
or jsheets@newtondailynews.com