Sports this 'n' that

Less than 48 hours after the sudden passing of Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitcher Tyler Skaggs, former NFL quarterback Jared Lorenzen, known as the "Hefty Lefty" in his college days at Kentucky, passed away as well. Lorenzen played for the NY Giants in 2007, but while he did get into a few games as a backup to Eli Manning, he retired after a stint in Indianapolis where he was a backup to Eli's telegenically challenged brother, Peyton.

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Kendrick Norton's NFL career is over before it really got started.

Drafted last year by Carolina, Norton spent the entire season on the Panthers' practice squad before signing with Miami in the offseason. Norton lost his arm in a auto accident, but other injuries sustained in the accident are not considered life threatening, per ESPN. Such a shame that Norton never made it to the field for coach Ron Rivera in Carolina, and moving to Miami promised a fresh start.

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Predictably, there are already changes afoot for next week's baseball All-Star Game.

Tampa Bay's Brandon Lowe had been added to the AL squad Wednesday, but that was before the Rays had any clue of the severity of an injury sustained when Lowe fouled a ball off his leg. Lowe was to replace Angels infielder Tommy La Stella, who broke his leg on a foul ball on Tuesday night. Yankees infielder Gleyber Torres was then selected to fill the vacancy on the roster. There was much complaint when the rosters were announced on Sunday, and Torres hadn't been picked by Boston/AL manager Alex Cora, not so much because of the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry, but Torres' overall numbers couldn't be ignored too much longer.

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On Sunday, the US Women's soccer team will play the Netherlands in the finals of the World Cup. Star midfielder Megan Rapinoe, however, won't accompany the team to Washington for the inevitable celebration with President Trump. Rapinoe is another outspoken athlete in opposition to Trump and his policies, but it might be better to keep such criticism of the President quiet, since that just adds fuel to his ego.

If President Donald John Archie Bunker Trump could focus on the job at hand, and not react like a child every time someone says something he doesn't like, he'd get more respect. Then again, more people would trust Rodney Dangerfield, if the comedian were still with us, than they would Trump.....

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With WWE's Smackdown moving to Fox in October after 9 seasons under the NBC-Universal-Comcast umbrella (SyFy/USA), the network that boasted attitude before there was the Attitude Era wants to pull out all the stops to ensure big ratings for the October 4 opener.

That includes inviting President Trump, a friend in long standing of WWE Chairman/CEO Vince McMahon, to appear at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, making his first appearance on WWE-TV in several years. Of course, having the Secret Service accompanying the President creates issues for fans attending the show, which is also expected to be jam-packed with celebrities in the audience, including former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who appeared on Smackdown during its run on UPN some 20 years ago. I'm not saying "Ahhh-nold" has already been invited, but it'd be inevitable if they do a 20th anniversary show.

Meanwhile, McMahon may have finally found the solution to his ratings problems, and at the same time, found a means to clear a path so he can focus on XFL 2.0, to launch in February.

Paul Heyman, already on board as Brock Lesnar's "advocate", was promoted to executive director for Monday Night Raw last week, and shared the "gorilla position" with McMahon on Monday in Dallas. The end result saw a spike in ratings, mostly from curious fans hoping Heyman, a renowned creative genius in ECW 25 years ago, could help turn the corner.

After the July 14 Extreme Rules show, Eric Bischoff will return to WWE as executive director of Smackdown. McMahon is counting on his old enemy's ties to Fox executives and sponsors---Bischoff has been producing mostly reality shows with his business partner, former actor Jason Hervey---to make a good first impression with Fox. Bischoff, however, is not expected to be on-camera talent this time, but then, he said the same thing 10 years ago when he signed with TNA-Impact Wrestling. Heyman, however, will appear periodically in his role as Lesnar's spokesman. The new deals with NBCUC and Fox could result in Lesnar's contract being restructured such that the former champion may be required to make more in ring appearances on free TV, something he's been loathe to do since returning to the company 7 years ago.

All we can say, then, is stay tuned.