YSU baseball to host prospect camp

The Youngstown State baseball coaching staff will host a Summer Prospect Camp at the Watson and Tressel Training Site (WATTS) on July 26 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The camp provides an opportunity for players to receive instruction from the YSU baseball coaches, participate in drills, develop a routine and see the work that collegiate players are expected to handle. The camp will feature a 60-yard dash, infield/outfield skill development, catcher pop times, bullpen sessions and batting practice.

The camp’s first session will feature pro-style workouts and defensive instruction from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. with check-in at 8:30 a.m., and the second session will feature offensive instruction and batting practice from 1-4 p.m. The camp is open to participants in grades 8-12 as well as junior college players.

The camp costs $185.50 for position players, $159 for pitchers only (first session) and $207 for two-way players (position and pitchers).

Each camper must bring all necessary baseball equipment. Players should bring a glove, bat, batting gloves, helmet, running shoes or turf shoes, hat and any other equipment they feel necessary to compete. Please mark the camper’s name on all items. The camp is not responsible for lost, damaged or stolen belongings.

For more information or to register, go to penguinsbaseballcamps.com or email Director of Player of Personnel Rodney Lopez at rllopez@ysu.edu.

Matt Martin retires from NHL

Matt Martin announced his retirement Tuesday after 16 NHL seasons, all but two with the New York Islanders, a departure that leaves the league with only a few players who take the ice without a visor.

Martin was one of just five holdovers in the league who played without a visor on his helmet. His move to the front office as special assistant to Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche makes Ryan O’Reilly, Jamie Benn, Zach Bogosian and Ryan Reaves the only visor-less players remaining.

The NHL and NHL Players’ Association agreed in 2013 to mandate visors for newcomers, grandfathering them like helmets were decades earlier.

Asked about it in November 2023, Martin figured it would be a major adjustment to put a visor back on, especially given how much of his job on the ice was fighting. He played his final of 1,075 regular-season and playoff games without one on April 17.

“If they mandated it, I would’ve wore it,” Martin told The Associated Press at the time. “I took it off because of the role I play, and at the time, everybody that played that role didn’t wear it. I got used to that, so I never changed.”

Craig MacTavish, who played until 1997, was the NHL’s last helmetless player. Martin called Benn and O’Reilly “the odds-on favorites” to be the last without a visor.

Sky’s Vandersloot has ACL surgery

CHICAGO — Chicago Sky guard Courtney Vandersloot underwent surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee, the team announced on Tuesday.

Vandersloot suffered the season-ending injury in Chicago’s 79-52 loss to Indiana on June 7. She had the operation at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

A five-time All-Star, Vandersloot averaged 10.6 points and 5.3 assists in seven games.

The 5-foot-8 point guard was selected by the Sky with the third overall pick in the 2011 WNBA draft and helped lead them to the 2021 championship. She spent the previous two seasons in New York and helped the Liberty win the WNBA title last year before returning to Chicago.

The Sky were 11th in the league at 3-10 entering their game against the Los Angeles Sparks on Tuesday.

Finals finale had viewership jump

BRISTOL, Conn. — The NBA generated more than 5 billion views across social media platforms during this season’s NBA Finals, up 215% from last season’s title series.

That figure, released Tuesday, follows a 10% leap in overall viewership for ESPN and ABC during the 34 games they carried in this year’s playoffs as opposed to their numbers from a year ago.

Oklahoma City’s 103-91 victory over Indiana in Game 7 was the most-watched NBA Finals game in six years.

Sunday night’s game averaged 16.53 million on ABC and ESPN+ according to preliminary ratings data from Nielsen. The audience peaked at 19.28 million during the second half (9:45-10 p.m. EDT).

It is the first time since Toronto wrapped up its title in Game 6 against Golden State in 2019 (18.34 million) that the finals have had an audience over 16 million. The last Game 7, when Cleveland beat Golden State in 2016, averaged 31.02 million.

This seven-game series averaged 10.27 million, down from the 11.31 million average for Boston’s victory over Dallas in five games last year.

The seven games were the most-watched television broadcasts since the first week of May. Game 7 was the most-watched finals game internationally ever on NBA League Pass, the league said, up 42% vs. last year’s title-clinching Game 5.

Pac-12 reaches deal with CBS

The Pac-12 struck a media-rights deal with CBS on Monday that sets up the network to broadcast a minimum of four football and men’s basketball games per season on its main network and provide a cable and streaming presence for the reconfigured league from 2026-31.

An inability to secure a media deal is what nearly cratered the league in 2023, with all but Oregon State and Washington State departing for the Big 12, Atlantic Coast and Big Ten Conferences.

The new deal with what the league calls its “primary long-term media partner” kicks in the next season, when Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Utah State and San Diego State will join the Pac-12 in all sports, with Gonzaga joining in everything but football.

The Pac-12 needs to add another football program to reach the minimum eight teams necessary to be in the Football Bowl Subdivision and, thus, the College Football Playoff. Multiple reports say Texas State has emerged as the top candidate.

Under the new deal, CBS will broadcast at least three regular-season football and men’s basketball games per season, along with the championships for both sports. The league also will have what it called a “consistent regular-season presence” on the cable CBS Sports Network.