Campbell to speak to Curbstone

Youngstown State softball coach Brian Campbell will be the guest speaker at Monday’s luncheon meeting of The Curbstone Coaches at the Avion Banquet Center on Western Reserve Road in Beaver Township.

The event begins at noon and the public is welcome to attend. For those arriving early the buffet lines will open at 11:45 a.m.

All sports fans are welcome and you do not need to be a current or former coach.

Twins sign catcher Caratini

Catcher Victor Caratini and the Minnesota Twins agreed Friday to a $14 million, two-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement was subject to a successful physical.

Caratini, 32, hit .259 last year in his second season with the Houston Astros and set career bests with 12 homers, 46 RBIs and 386 plate appearances. He caught in 49 games, played first base in 15 and was a designated hitter for 30.

A switch-hitter, Caratini batted .268 versus right-handers and .208 against lefties. He could wind up in a platoon with Ryan Jeffers, a right-handed hitter who batted .313 versus left-handers and .248 against righties.

Jeffers is on track to be eligible for free agency after the 2026 season, and the move sets the Twins up for his potential departure. They also acquired journeyman Alex Jackson for depth in a trade with Baltimore.

Caratini had signed a $12 million, two-year deal with the Astros.

He has a .244 average with 58 homers and 247 RBIs in nine big league seasons with the Chicago Cubs (2017-20), San Diego (2021), Milwaukee (2022-23) and Houston.

NFL sees WC viewership increase

After double-digit increases in its regular-season and wild-card playoff round ratings, the NFL is looking for another large bump in ratings during this weekend’s division round.

The league and Nielsen said last weekend’s six wild-card games averaged 32 million viewers, a 13% jump from last year. It was also the most-watched opening weekend of the NFL playoffs since the field expanded to 14 teams in the 2020 season.

Overall, it was the most-watched wild-card round since the 2015 season and the fifth highest since average viewer numbers started being tracked in 1988.

Five of the games saw increases compared to the same time frames a year ago while the sixth game was even.

The regular season averaged 18.7 million viewers per game, a 10% increase. It also was the second-highest average on record.

Some of the increase can be attributed to a change in the way viewers are counted. Nielsen began using its Big Data + Panel methodology for all events last September with the start of the current television season.

Earlier this year, Nielsen began measuring out-of-home viewers for all states but Hawaii and Alaska, along with including data from smart TVs along with cable and satellite set-top boxes.

Nielsen previously measured only the top 44 media markets, which covered 65% of the country.

Last year’s four divisional matchups averaged 37.1 million viewers. The record for the NFL’s second weekend of the playoffs is 40 million, set two years ago. That was led by the Kansas City-Buffalo matchup, which averaged 50.4 million, making it the most watched divisional or wild-card game on record.

Fox averaged 37.5 million for the Green Bay-San Francisco Saturday night divisional matchup two years ago, which was the most-watched Saturday NFL playoff game on record.

The 49ers will face the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday night, which drew some criticism in some quarters because they played in Philadelphia in the late afternoon Sunday window and have a short week. Meanwhile, the Rams and Chicago Bears both played on Saturday.

The Rams and Bears though will close the weekend on Sunday night on NBC.

The last time at least one team didn’t have a short week between the wild-card and divisional rounds was the 2018 season.

Chambliss sues NCAA for extra year

Mississippi quarterback Trinidad Chambliss sued the NCAA in state court on Friday for an additional year of eligibility so he can play for the Rebels next season.

The suit filed in Lafayette County came a week after the NCAA denied Ole Miss’ request for an extra year, saying the university and Chambliss’ previous school — Ferris State — failed to provide adequate medical documentation to back up the request.

The lawsuit filed Friday called the NCAA’s denial in “bad-faith, unreasonable and arbitrary,” and detailed Chambliss’ history of illness and included letters from physicians.

Ole Miss’ arguments revolve around the fact that the 23-year-old Chambliss, although he has been in college for five years, has only played three years of college football because of that medical history.

After taking a redshirt his first season at Ferris State in 2021-22, Chambliss was held out in his second season for medical reasons.

He played two more seasons at the Division II school in Michigan, leading the Bulldogs to a national championship before transferring to Ole Miss before the start of this season.

Chambliss completed 294 of 445 passes (66.1%) for 3,937 yards with 22 touchdowns and three interceptions for Ole Miss (13-2), which set a school record for wins, including two after making the College Football Playoff for the first time. He ran for 527 yards and eight more TDs.

The Rebels lost 31-27 to Miami in the College Football Playoff semifinals on Jan. 8.

The NCAA, when contacted Friday, did not have a new statement, but referred to its statement from a week ago saying “This decision aligns with consistent application of NCAA rules.”

The NCAA said in that week-old statement that approval of such waivers requires schools to submit medical documentation from a treating physician at the time of a student’s incapacitating injury or illness.