SPORTS digest

Scrappers game postponed

NILES

Tuesday night’s Mahoning Valley Scrappers game against the West Virginia Black Bears was postponed due to inclement weather. The game will be made up as part of a double header on Saturday with the first pitch at 5:05 p.m.

Anyone with tickets for Tuesday’s game can trade them for any regular season home game of equal or lesser value.

Poland to start selling sports tickets, passes

POLAND

The Poland High School athletic office will begin selling the following items on Aug. 19:

Football reserve season ticket holders, reserve parking passes for $25, adult activity passes that provide general admission to all home athletic events for $100 and student activity passes for $50. For more information, call 330-757-7021.

AGJA tournament a financial success

BOARDMAN

The Mahoning Valley Hospital Foundation’s American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Junior All-Star tournament had an estimated economic impact of $358,458 on the Mahoning Valley, Mill Creek Golf Course announced on Tuesday. The tournament has brought in $1,486,472 to the Valley through the past three years.

The tournament, which brought in 132 competitors and their families, 150-plus volunteers, 37 college coaches and a dozen staff and interns from the AJGA on the week of June 16, 2009.

In addition, an $11,000.00 donation was made to the Mill Creek MetroParks Foundation and AJGA Ace Grant which came from monies raised for the AJGA tournament and Junior-Amateur event held on the Monday prior to the main event. To date the AJGA event has raised over $43,000.00 for local charities.

Simmons accuses casino of racial profiling

MELBOURNE, Australia

Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons has explained a social media post that seemed to imply he’d been racially profiled by security staff at a Melbourne casino by saying he and his friends felt “singled out.”

Simmons posted a video on Instagram in which he asked why he and two black friends were asked for identification but another person in their group who is white was not. He deleted the post Tuesday morning, when it started making news and after the casino issued a statement saying its security staff routinely did ID checks on anyone who appears younger than 25.

The 23-year-old Simmons, who recently became the highest-paid Australian athlete when he signed a five-year, $170 million contract extension with the 76ers, apparently wasn’t recognized by security at one of the casino’s entry points Monday night. But he was allowed in at a second entry point after providing identification.

Redskins to have gambling telecast

The Washington Redskins will become the first NFL team to have a gambling-focused telecast of their games, offering cash prizes to viewers who correctly predict in-game outcomes during the preseason.

The telecasts on the regional cable network NBC Sports Washington will follow a formula established by the Redskins’ NBA neighbors, the Washington Wizards. The Wizards, however, offered the free-to-play contests during the regular season, while the Redskins will have them only during the four preseason games, when NBC Sports Washington has TV rights.

The network will continue to offer a traditional telecast on its main channel, while the gambling-focused telecast will air simultaneously on its secondary channel, NBC Sports Washington Plus. Damon Phillips, the network’s general manager, says Wizards games saw increased ratings and fan engagement when the in-game contests were available.

Staff/wire reports