Cubs reliever Carl Edwards Jr. embracing next target: Baylor

SHARE Cubs reliever Carl Edwards Jr. embracing next target: Baylor
screen_shot_2017_02_16_at_5_10_05_pm.png

Carl Edwards Jr. celebrates the Cubs’ Game 7 World Series victory in Cleveland.

MESA, Ariz. – Monday morning in the Cubs clubhouse, barely 12 hours after South Carolina upset Duke to eliminate the men’s basketball bluebloods from the NCAA tournament, Carl Edwards Jr. was suddenly the most conspicuous Cub in the room.

“I heard Duke is going to win the tournament,” he said to no one in particular as he stood at his locker. “No, wait. My bad. Sorry about that, Duke.”

Edwards, the youngest pitcher in the Cubs’ bullpen – and maybe its best – grew up in tiny Prosperity, S.C., just 40 minutes up the road from the South Carolina campus.

“Hey, Grimm, you hear about the Gamecocks?” Edwards said when pitcher Justin Grimm walked into the clubhouse Monday.

“The what?” Grimm said.

“Hey, Montgomery!” Edwards called across the room as Mike Montgomery talked to reporters. “You hear about South Carolina?”

Now the skinny right-hander is talking again, as his seventh-seeded Gamecocks face third-seeded Baylor tonight in the Sweet 16 round.

“South Carolina by eight,” predicted Edwards, who was planning quick getaways to a TV in Las Vegas Friday night, because his big game conflicts with the Cubs’ flight to Vegas (for a two-game exhibition trip this weekend).

Edwards admits he is a little surprised his team has gone this far.

“yeah, but they’ve been playing good basketball all year. They are a team,” he said. “I’m not going to say they’re going to win the whole thing. But they’ll make a run at it. I’ve got them in the Final Four in my bracket.”

He had them losing eventually to Arizona, he said. But now that Arizona’s out?

“They get to the Final Four, we’re good,” he said.

South Carolina winning a national title in men’s basketball?

It can’t be any crazier than thinking the Cubs could win a World Series.

Today’s lineup against Cleveland (3:05 p.m., CT):

3B Tommy La Stella

CF Albert Almora Jr.

1B Anthony Rizzo

SS Addison Russell

C Miguel Montero

RF Jason Heyward

2B Munenori Kawasaki

RHP John Lackey

LF Jon Jay

The Latest
A 22-year-old man named Christian I. Soto was charged with murder, attempted murder and home invasion, official said during a Thursday media briefing. Rockford Police Chief Carla Redd said investigators haven’t determined a motive for the attacks.
Can a message generated by an algorithm ever match hearing from a human?
White Sox fans from all over will flock to Guaranteed Rate Field on Thursday for the team’s home opener against the Tigers.
Despite the addition of some new characters (human and otherwise) the film comes across as a relatively uninspired and fairly forgettable chapter in the Monsterverse saga.
Unite Here Local 1, representing the workers at the Signature Room and its lounge, said in a lawsuit in October the employer failed to give 60 days notice of a closing or mass layoff, violating state law.