Sports this 'n' that

 At this rate, they'll even let Joe Sixpack throw out the first pitch at a ballgame.

Kidding aside, ESPN bloviator general Stephen A. Smith was given the honor of throwing out the first pitch before Thursday's game vs. Toronto.....

Smith later acknowledged he was not happy with his performance. I'm sure a lot of pro athletes would appreciate that rare moment of clarity from the biggest poser on cable television today. Then again, it wasn't as bad as 50 Cent when he tried the same thing at Citi Field in 2014......

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In the last few years, Topps, now a part of Fanatics, had lost their licenses to produce NFL, UFC, & WWE cards, with all three signing deals with Panini America.

In the space of the last month, two of the three have announced they are terminating their deals with Panini America.

Last month, it was the NFL Players Association announcing the immediate termination of their licensing deal, which had been in effect since 2015, and would return to Topps/Fanatics.

Earlier this week, WWE, which, coupled with UFC, forms TKO Holdings, a division of Endeavor, announced they were terminating their deal with Panini America as well.

While I am not privy as to why this is happening, Panini does have a bad reputation with collectors for not honoring existing redemptions for premium cards that consumers are entitled to. Given how Panini has driven up the price of cards the last couple of years, forcing Topps/Fanatics to do the same with their baseball product (i.e. jumbo packs are now $8 per pack as opposed to $5 per pack just 3 years ago), that might'v eaten away at profit margins for the licensors. I would expect UFC to follow in lockstep with their new step-sister company, and withdraw from Panini not too long from now.

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WWE also announced that Smackdown will be leaving Fox after the current season, and returning to USA Network, where it aired from 2016-9. Rumors are that Monday Night Raw & NXT would, in turn, leave USA when the current deal expires next year.

Here is an opportunity to have all 3 primetime series on the same channel, at the same airtime on their respective nights, and, so far, either USA or WWE doesn't see the value.

Meanwhile, the Turk came a'callin' on Thursday, as 20 wrestlers across the three brands were cut, including two people in current storylines on NXT.

Dana Brooke had been acting as a mentor to Kelani Jordan, and they were building toward Brooke turning on Jordan in time for a match at next week's No Mercy premium event. Similarly, Mustafa Ali (Adeel Alam) was in line to challenge Dominik Mysterio for the NXT North American title at the same show, and even cut a promo to reference the event on Tuesday. Dragon Lee, who was screwed out of the #1 contender's spot on September 5, now gets a title match, airing on Raw on September 25, which could change the whole scenario in a heartbeat.

The biggest name on the cut list was former grand slam champion Dolph Ziggler (Nick Nemeth), who had been a main roster mainstay for 18 years. The popular belief is that Nemeth will join his brother, Ryan, in AEW, to help add strength to the tag team division.

The cuts were largely in order to balance the books after the merger of WWE and Endeavor, which was 10 days ago, but with rumors of former AEW star Jade Cargill reportedly on her way to WWE, maybe this was also a salary restructuring. We'll wait & see.