Quad County scholarships

SALEM — The Quad County Football Coaches Association awarded $6,000 in scholarships to recent area graduates Thursday at the Penn-Ohio Stateline Classic.

Scholarship recipients of $500 each include Austintown Fitch’s Anthony Ruggles, Boardman’s Zach Haus, East Liverpool’s Kasen Ramsey, East Palestine’s Brock Kleinknecht, Leetonia’s Carson Brock, Salem’s David Manges, South Range’s Gaven Nagy, Patrick Lally and Tristan Toy, Southern’s Noah Chase, Steubenville Catholic Central’s Camden Bradley and Wellsville’s Tyrell Watkins.

Sosa returns to Wrigley

CHICAGO (AP) — Legendary Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa returned to Wrigley Field for the first time in more than 20 years on Friday before Chicago’s afternoon game with the Seattle Mariners.

Sosa, who is set to be inducted into the Cubs’ team Hall of Fame this year, arrived at the iconic North Side ballpark in a black SUV. He was greeted by owner Tom Ricketts, who embraced him in a hug as he exited the vehicle.

Sosa became the face of the Cubs franchise where he played 13 seasons after coming in a trade from the crosstown White Sox in March 1992. A seven-time All-Star, Sosa hit 545 homers in 1,811 games with the Cubs and hit a franchise-record 66 in 1998 when he was named the NL’s MVP.

Stanley Cup ratings drop

Stanley Cup Final averaged 2.5M US viewers, a drop from last year’s Cup and the 4 Nations final

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. television ratings for the Stanley Cup Final rematch between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers declined from their first matchup a year ago.

An average of 2.5 million viewers watched on TNT, with 2.8 million tuning in for the Panthers’ series-clinching Game 6 victory. The overall number on cable is down from 4.17 million last year when the final was on over-the-air TV on ABC and the lowest since Tampa Bay versus Montreal in 2021.

The share of viewers increased 15% from TNT’s first Cup final in 2023 when Vegas defeated Florida. Social media engagements on NHL content were up 32% over the course of the playoffs.

An average of 4.39 million viewers watched the final in Canada on Sportsnet and TVA Sports, with Connor McDavid looking for his first championship. The 2.6 million on average for the playoffs in English and French, with five of the 16 teams involved being based in Canada, is a 14% increase from a year ago.

U.S. ratings for the Cup final were significantly lower than the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, the return of international competition featuring the NHL’s best players. The final between the U.S. and Canada was watched by 9.3 million people in the U.S. and 10.7 million in Canada, after the six round-robin games averaged 4.6 million in North America.