SPORTS DIGEST || Bench, Tressel set for YSU baseball breakfast

Bench, Tressel set for YSU baseball breakfast

YOUNGSTOWN

Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench and Youngstown State University president Jim Tressel will be the featured speakers at the 2015 YSU Baseball First Pitch Breakfast scheduled Jan. 17 at Blue Wolf Events at The Maronite Center on Meridian Road.

The event also offers fans the opportunity to meet the 2015 Penguins baseball squad, enjoy a breakfast buffet and bid on an impressive lineup of autographed Major League Baseball memorabilia and YSU baseball gear.

General admission tickets are $25 apiece, and reserved priority tables for groups of eight are $400. Corporate packages, which also include two tickets for dinner with the speakers the night before, are $700.

YSU softball has three team camps in winter

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown State softball program is offering three team winter camps during the 2014-15 school year. All camps are open to any and all entrants.

The Penguins will host a camp for 8th-12th graders on Nov. 22 and two camps for 8th grade and under on Jan. 17 and Jan. 31.

All three camps cost $370 per team and each camp is limited to 12 teams on a first-come, first-serve basis. All three camps will take place at the Watson and Tressel Training Site.

Onliine Registration and more information is available at www.penguinssoftballcamps.com/team-camps.cfm.

World Series scheduled to open on a Tuesday

NEW YORK

The World Series is scheduled to open on a Tuesday instead of Wednesday this year. The new schedule will skip Thursday, a big day for TV viewing, and add a game on Friday, when audiences are generally much smaller. But the switch means that the World Series will go up against the NFL on at most one night instead of potentially three.

Fox also announced that five of the seven NL championship series games would be on cable network Fox Sports 1 for the first time. Only Games 1 and 6, both on Saturdays, would be on Fox.

The postseason will open with the AL wild-card game Sept. 30 on TBS. The NL playoffs will start with the wild-card game Oct. 1 on ESPN. The regular season ends Sept. 28, and any tiebreakers would be played the next day.

Jets waive former Browns CB McFadden

FLORHAM PARK, N.J

The New York Jets have waived cornerback Leon McFadden, who was claimed off waivers from the Cleveland Browns two weeks ago. The move Thursday could be another sign that top cornerback Dee Milliner is ready to make his season debut. McFadden, a third-round draft pick by the Browns last year, was claimed by the Jets on Aug. 31.

Red Sox Pedroia has season-ending surgery

KANSAS CITY, Mo.

Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia had season-ending surgery on his left wrist Thursday to repair a tendon, clean out scar tissue and reduce some inflammation.

Red Sox manager John Farrell said before Thursday night’s game in Kansas City that Pedroia should be 100 percent in about six weeks, allowing him to have a normal offseason.

Staff reports/Associated Press