Speculation that Montrose graduate Chris Snee’s career in the National Football League is over was heating up as the Susquehanna County Transcript went to press this week.

Multiple media outlets were reporting Sunday night that Snee had a meeting planned with New York Giants team officials Monday to discuss his future. Many of those reports suggested that Snee had already decided to retire because of lingering problems from three surgeries in the past two years.

The 32-year-old has had both hips and his right elbow surgically repaired in the last two years. Recovery from the November 2013 surgery on his elbow may have been the biggest of the continuing obstacles.

Snee was a prominent part of the Giants winning Super Bowls XLII and XLVII and is widely regarded as one of the best offensive linemen in team history.

After being selected 34th overall out of Boston College with an early second-round pick in the 2004 NFL Draft, Snee played in and started at right guard in 155 of a possible 161 regular-season and playoff games. That run, and possibly his career, ended when Snee missed the final 13 games.

If Snee in fact announced his retirement, as speculated, more details will be covered in next week’s County Transcript.

ELK LAKE’S BASEBALL TEAM DROPPING DOWN TO CLASS A

Elk Lake will drop from Class AA to Class A in baseball for district, and possible state, playoffs in the 2015 and 2016 seasons.

The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association has set up classifications for all sports for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years based on enrollment figures collected on grades 9-11 at member schools last year.

Elk Lake has 145 boys for three grades, dropping it just under the limit for Class A baseball, which includes schools with enrollments of 1-146.

The Warriors went 5-7 in the 2014 season to finish tied for fourth out of seven teams in Division 4 of the Lackawanna League. They finished two games in front of Blue Ridge, which went on to reach the District 2 final in the Class A playoffs.

Every two years, the PIAA recalculates enrollments and changes cutoffs between classifications to split teams as equally as possible. Each sport has its own enrollment cutoffs for the various classes.

Although the numbers were adjusted for each school in the state, there are no other major class changes for Susquehanna County schools.

Montrose is the largest school in the county with 211 boys and 207 girls.

Mountain View has the second-largest boys’ enrollment at 159, followed by Elk Lake, Blue Ridge 131, Forest City 105 and Susquehanna 86.

Elk Lake has the second-largest girls’ enrollment with 153, followed by Mountain View 133, Blue Ridge 127, Susquehanna 93 and Forest City 93.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Players from the Binghamton Mets and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders performed well in their respective league all-star games Wednesday.

Kyle Johnson went 2-for-2 and Cody Satterwhite struck out both batters he faced while representing Binghamton on the Eastern Division team that lost, 5-2, to the Western Division in Altoona.

Jose Pirela reached base two out of three times and scored a run while representing Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on the International League team that beat the Pacific Coast League, 7-3, in the Triple-A All-Star Game in Durham, N.C.

Johnson was one of two Eastern Division players, joining Portland’s Derrik Gibson (homer and triple), with two hits for the Eastern League.

Pitchers dominated the EL All-Star Game, combining for 25 strikeouts.

Johnson started in center field and had a pair of singles.

Binghamton teammate Brian Burgamy came off the bench to play third base and went 0-for-1.

Satterwhite and Jon Velasquez both pitched in the game. Velasquez gave up a hit and an unearned run while striking out one in one inning.

Former Binghamton Met Allan Dykstra won the Home Run Derby at the Triple-A All-Star Game after being selected for his play with the Las Vegas 51s of the PCL.

Pirela started at second base. He went 0-for-1 with two walks.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The Binghamton Mets have their last head-to-head chance to gain ground on the EL-leading Portland Sea Dogs tonight in Portland in the final game of a three-game series.

The Mets are second to the Sea Dogs in the Eastern Division.

At the all-star break, the teams had the league’s best two records. Portland was 63-34 for a 4 1/2-game lead, but Binghamton (58-38) was the hotter team.

TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.

ELLIOTT GETS THIRD NATIONWIDE WIN

Chase Elliott wins Nationwide at Chicagoland. Furnished by NASCAR

JOLIET, Ill.—Chase Elliott earned his third Nationwide Series win of the year by holding off Trevor Bayne at Chicagoland Speedway, this past Saturday night.

Elliott led four times for 85 laps, but it was his team’s pit strategy that secured the win.

“Everybody did a great job tonight and gave me a fast car,” said Elliott. “This was my first time here, but with the calls the guys made tonight, it was a great race.”

Runner-up Bayne, who was on a different pit strategy from the rest of the field took the race lead for the first time on Lap 163 of the 200-lap race, and led 14 laps before relinquishing it as he made his final pit stop.

Elliott, who was on a different pit stop sequence than Bayne, had pitted earlier. Once Bayne pitted, Elliott became the new leader.

After pitting for four tires and fuel, Bayne returned to the track in second and immediately began to close the distance between himself and Elliott. Running lap times consistently faster than Elliott, Bayne was able to cut the lead before ultimately running out of time.

“What a great finish tonight,” said Bayne. “It feels great to be able to race up front and battle for the lead. Our car was so fast in the second-half of the race that we were able to really make some moves out there on the high line. I hate that we came so close to getting the win. With that in mind, I’m definitely ready to head to Indianapolis next weekend. We’ve got momentum on our side right now.”

Kyle Larson was third, followed by Kasey Kahne, Ty Dillon, Brian Scott, Erik Jones, Chris Buescher, Ryan Blaney, and Elliott Sadler.

Top-10 leaders after 18 of 33: 1. Elliott-646, 2. Smith-639, 3. Sadler-638, 4. T. Dillon-616, 5. Scott-599, 6. Bayne-596, 7. Gaughan-526, 8. C. Buescher-523, 9. J. Buescher-492, 10. Reed-485.

Note: The Nationwide race was the only NASCAR racing this past weekend. It was an off week for the Cup teams so they could prepare for this weekend’s big race at Indianapolis.

STEWART WINS SPRINT RACE

Tony Stewart beat out Dustin Daggett in the feature sprint car race at Tri-City Speedway in Auburn, Michigan last Friday night.

“If you haven't heard already, I ran my sprint car tonight and won! Felt great to run it again. Was a second place car but had a little luck,” Stewart tweeted.

Stewart crashed last year at Southern Iowa Speedway after flipping his winged sprint car while leading with five laps remaining in the 30-lap feature, causing him to miss the final 15 Cup races last year after breaking his leg in two places.”

GORDON CELEBRATES INAUGURAL INDY WIN

When Jeff Gordon returns to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend, he will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of his inaugural win at the famed Speedway.

The first running of the Brickyard 400 in 1994 saw the largest crowd (over 250,000 fans) to date to witness a NASCAR event, and the single largest race purse ($2,857,900) to date. Rick Mast won the pole position, and became the first stock car driver to lead a lap at Indy. Second-year driver Jeff Gordon took the lead late in the race after Ernie Irvan suffered a flat tire.

Gordon qualified third in 1994, but it wasn’t until late in the race that he managed to get out front. But still, with two laps to go, Gordon was not assured of the victory.

There was a terrific battle that I had between Ernie Irvan and myself,” continued Gordon. “He had tire issues, and that was one thing that helped us get the win.

“Most of the things that stand out to me was really about just the madness and craziness of how big that event was, how popular it was among fans, not just traditional NASCAR fans but new fans to the sport. Even if you go back to the test that we had, the fans were just lined up on the fence around the garage area just wanting to see stock cars race at Indianapolis, and it was much of the same when it came to race day, just so many fans and you just couldn't walk anywhere without getting mobbed.

“I didn't grow up there but I went to high school there, and Indiana was very significant to me in my career because of how much racing I got to do there at a young age.

“But my love for Indianapolis and the Indianapolis 500 goes way back to when I was racing in California, and I was racing open wheel cars on an oval, and so sprint cars at Indianapolis were what I looked up to and what I loved to watch as a kid. The drivers were my heroes. The race was one that I always put on the calendar that I was going to watch. I got a chance to go there as a kid when we traveled from California to Indiana to go visit the museum, go out to the race track as well as watch the race one particular time, and I was just in awe of the place.

“I always wanted to race there, and to get that opportunity, especially an opportunity to win, it just is a way to live out a childhood dream.

“With the type of season that we're having, I'm extremely excited about going to Indianapolis. I think that the way that our cars are performing, the way our engines are performing, Indianapolis is a track that we certainly can win at. It's hard to believe it's been 20 years, but looking forward to celebrating those 20 years hopefully with another win.”

Gordon has three other Brickyard 400 wins; in 1998, 2001, and 2004.

NASCAR TV RATINGS CONTINUE TO SLIDE

The Sprint Cup race from New Hampshire was just the latest Sprint Cup race to suffer a decline compared to last year, according to Sports Media Watch. It earned a 2.7 U.S. rating and 4.3 million viewers on TNT Sunday afternoon, down 16 per cent in ratings and 13 per cent in viewership from last year and also down from 2012. This year's race ranks as the lowest rated since at least 1998 and the least-viewed since at least 2000. In 13 years on TNT (2001-14), the race topped out at 4.5 and 7.3 million viewers in 2005.

Keep in mind the race aired directly opposite the World Cup final, which had 26.5 million viewers on ABC and Univision. Even with that in mind, Sunday's results were part of an ongoing trend for NASCAR this season. The race was the 15th of 16 Sprint Cup telecasts to have a decline in ratings and the 13th to decline in viewership.

Weekend Racing: The Cup and Nationwide teams are at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway for weekend racing. The trucks race at Eldora Speedway on Wednesday night.

Wed., July 23; Truck Series race 10 of 22; Starting time: 8:30 pm ET; TV: FoxSports1.

Sat., July 26; Nationwide Series race 19 of 33; Starting time: 4 pm ET; TV: ESPN.

Sun., July 27; Sprint Cup Series race 20 of 36; Starting time: 12 pm ET; TV: ESPN.

Racing Trivia Question: Who was the oldest driver to win the Brickyard 400. A clue. He won it in 2002.

Last Week’s Question: Which Cup team does Paul Menard drive for? Answer. The No. 27 Richard Childress Chevrolet.

You may contact the Racing Reporter at: hodges@race500.com.