Sports this 'n' that

Nearly three weeks into the season, the Chicago Cubs have reverted back to being the pre-Joe Maddon Scrubs. Not a good way to start the season, especially if it is Maddon's walk year.

Last week, the Cubs sent relief pitcher Carl Edwards, Jr. to their Triple A team in Iowa. Edwards is carrying an abysmal 32.40 ERA with the Cubs, and right before his demotion, according to Yahoo!, some pea-brained Instadork served up some racist spew on Instagram, which the Cubs, the MLB Players Association, and MLB itself, are investigating.

One Yahoo! commentator noted that the timing is just flat out bad in the wake of the scandal surrounding actor Jussie Smollett's alleged fabrication of a hate crime earlier this year.

What some of these "fans" fail to understand is that all players go through slumps. You can't expect perfection from major league ballplayers. It just doesn't happen.
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As the Stanley Cup playoffs continue first round action tonight, two of the best teams in the East are in danger of being eliminated.

Tampa Bay, which had the best record in the league, is in a 3-0 hole vs. Columbus. Likewise, Pittsburgh is staring down the barrel of a possible sweep at the hands of the New York Islanders. Like, who saw that coming?
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The Knicks, per a newspaper report over the weekend, are recruiting one of their all-time greats, Patrick Ewing, to represent the team at the draft lottery. Like, they think lightning will strike twice, since Ewing was the overall #1 pick coming out of Georgetown when the Knicks won the very first draft lottery 35 years ago. It's official. Owner James Dolan is delusional.
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Multi-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson tried a race of a different kind on Monday, as he ran his first Boston Marathon. The goal was to finish in under three hours. Didn't happen. The rain didn't bother Johnson, since he's used to driving in the rain.

Well, at least sports fans in Boston had the distraction since the Red Sox lost another one, falling to Baltimore in the annual Patriots' Day game. No, I don't think any of the NFL Patriots threw out the first ball.
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As part of the run-up to Wrestlemania, WWE ran a series of matches during the Axxess fest two weeks ago, with matches taped for broadcast for their new miniseries, Worlds Collide, on WWE Network. One online commentator found it strange that the Undisputed Era, heels in NXT, were treated like babyfaces in New York.

Well, there is a good explanation for that, as we've documented in the past. Undisputed Era member Bobby Fish is from Albany, currently living in Saratoga when he's not with NXT, and likely had family & friends coming down from the 518 to cheer him and Kyle O'Reilly to victory over SAnitY (that's how it's spelled on TV, folks). Luke Harper, from the Buffalo area, also got some love from the Empire State as he put down Dominik Dijakovic (local fans remember him as Donovan Dijak), with both men showing some serious athletic prowess. Anyone that's seen Dijak on Ring of Honor would attest to that.
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The current NXT tag team champions, the former War Machine, then renamed War Raiders upon arriving in NXT, were called up to the big club on Raw, and greeted with a few more changes.

The team is now known as the Viking Experience, consisting of Erik (Hanson) & Ivar (Raymond Rowe). The name changes are for marketing purposes, but didn't sit well with online fans. Rowe is also the husband of Riott Squad member Sarah Logan, so they'll now travel together, provided, of course, that Logan doesn't get moved to Smackdown in the Superstar Shakeup tonight.
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America's Idiot, Stephen A. Smith, was recently gifted by ESPN with a contract extension worth $10 million. Smith is no more than a professional bloviator who came to the network as a basketball beat writer from Philadelphia, but has shown time & again that he has no clue when it comes to other sports. However, his penchant for putting his foot in his mouth draws ratings, when online viewers would rather see him get flushed with the dishwater. More often than not, his First Take partner, Max Kellerman, takes him to school, especially on boxing.

Kellerman, oh by the way, has a new short-form series, Max on Boxing, on the ESPN networks, which they should keep Screamin' A. Cosell (Smith) away from at all costs. Just sayin'.