MLB power rankings at the season’s quarter-mark

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🚨 Headlines

🏀🏒 Playoffs recap: Victor Wembanyama (27 factors, 17 rebounds, 5 assists) and the Spurs crushed the Timberwolves, 126-97, to take a 3-2 collection lead; the Golden Knights beat the Ducks, 3-2 (OT), to take a 3-2 lead; the Sabres beat the Canadiens, 3-2, to even the collection at two video games apiece.

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💔 A tragic day in the NBA: Jason Collins, the first lively brazenly homosexual participant in NBA historical past, died Tuesday at age 47 after a battle with mind most cancers. Grizzlies ahead Brandon Clarke, a first-round select of Gonzaga in 2019, additionally passed away at age 29.

⚾️ CBA talks start: MLB and the MLBPA met Tuesday for his or her first official talks on a brand new collective bargaining settlement. The present deal, signed after a 99-day lockout in 2022, will expire on Dec. 1. Unless a brand new deal is in place by then, the league is anticipated to once more lock out the gamers.

🏀 Morey out in Philly: The 76ers have parted ways with Daryl Morey, ending his six-year tenure as president of basketball operations. The Sixers are retaining head coach Nick Nurse, whereas former Warriors GM Bob Myers will act as interim GM and lead the seek for Morey’s substitute.

⚽️ “Ted Lasso” star indicators professional deal: Cristo Fernández, who performs Dani Rojas on Apple TV’s “Ted Lasso,” has signed a contract with USL aspect El Paso Locomotive FC. The 35-year-old grew up enjoying earlier than a knee harm derailed his profession and pushed him towards performing.

⚾️ MLB power rankings

We’re about one-quarter of the method by way of the MLB season, which presents a chance to view groups by way of the lens of expectation vs. actuality.

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Now vs. then: Here’s the place every group landed in our latest power rankings, in comparison with their spot in our preseason rankings in March. No group has risen fairly like the Rays and Cardinals (up 17 spots), and no group has fallen fairly like the Mets (down 22 spots).

Top 10:

11-20: Mariners (+9); Reds (+9); Athletics (+9); Guardians (+5); Diamondbacks (+2); Rangers (+4); Blue Jays (-11); Royals (-6); Tigers (-8); Orioles (-12)

21-30: Red Sox (-14); White Sox (+7); Marlins (+1); Nationals (+3); Twins (+1); Astros (-12); Mets (-22); Giants (-10); Rockies (+1); Angels (-2)

Dive in: Full rankings

⛳️ In pictures: Aronimink Golf Club

The 108th PGA Championship tees off tomorrow at Aronimink Golf Club exterior Philadelphia, the place 156 golfers will compete for the Wanamaker Trophy in the season’s second main.

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It’s been some time: This is the first males’s main in the Philadelphia space since the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club, and simply the second PGA Championship ever held at Aronimink. The first was held in 1962, and gained by Gary Player.

Origin story: Aronimink, initially based as the Belmont Golf Club in 1896, bounced round numerous areas for 3 a long time earlier than touchdown in Newtown Square in 1928, when legendary architect Donald Ross was introduced in to work his Scotland links-inspired magic on the monitor.

Notable quotable: “I intended to make this my masterpiece,” Ross stated in a 1948 quote you are more likely to hear usually throughout this week’s protection. “But not until today did I realize I built it better than I knew.”

Timely restoration: It’s no mistake that Aronimink is internet hosting this yr’s match, on the 250th anniversary of America’s founding in Philadelphia. To put together for the milestone, the membership enlisted famed architect Gil Hanse in 2018 to restore the course primarily based on Ross’ unique imaginative and prescient.

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What modified? Hanse’s restoration targeted on subdividing the bunkers (there at the moment are practically 200), eradicating bushes and re-contouring and considerably increasing the greens, which now common 8,200 sq. toes. That’s roughly 25% bigger than the common PGA Tour greens.

The greens are the key: “You want to know the secret to Aronimink Golf Club? Look no further than the greens,” writes Yahoo Sports’ Jay Busbee. “Turtlebacked, sloping, with vicious swales and card-killing breaks, the greens will test the best.”

The final phrase: Players perceive this week’s match will likely be gained or misplaced on these devilish dance flooring, and that all the pieces else is truthful recreation. “Strategy off the tee is pretty nonexistent,” Rory McIlroy stated candidly on Tuesday. “It’s, basically, bash driver down there and then figure it out from there.”

🎓 Ole Miss catching strays

In a Vanity Fair piece printed on Monday, Lane Kiffin indicated {that a} stronger sense of “campus diversity” factored into him leaving Ole Miss for LSU.

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When he was teaching there, Kiffin says, prime recruits would inform him, ‘Hey, coach, we actually such as you. But my grandparents aren’t letting me transfer to Oxford, Mississippi.’

“That doesn’t come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus’ diversity feels so great: ‘It feels like there’s no segregation. And we want that for our kid because that’s the real world.'”

The very subsequent day, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian took a shot at Ole Miss’ academic standards in an interview with USA Today.

“At Texas, we will only take 50% of a player’s academic credit hours. You may be a semester from graduating, but you’re going all the way back to 50% if you play here and want a degree. But at Ole Miss, they can take you. All you have to do is take basket weaving, and you can get an Ole Miss degree.”

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The fallout: Kiffin has since apologized for his comments, but it surely’s protected to say that the Rebels fan base that already hated him hates him much more now. An ideal time for ABC to announce that this yr’s LSU-Ole Miss recreation (Sept. 19) will likely be in primetime!

Watch: The problem with Kiffin’s comments (Yahoo Sports)

📺 Watchlist: Wednesday, May 13

🏀 NBA Playoffs

The Pistons host the Cavaliers in a vital Game 5 (8pm ET, ESPN), with their collection tied at two video games apiece after each groups held serve at dwelling.

Cleveland’s excessive splits: The Cavs are 6-0 at dwelling in these playoffs, and 0-5 on the street. Can they flip the script tonight and take a 3-2 lead? Or will the pattern proceed?

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🏒 NHL Playoffs

The top-seeded Avalanche (up 3-1) will look to shut out the Wild at dwelling (8pm, TNT) and e-book their spot in the West Final.

Conn Smythe watch: Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon is the betting favourite (+250 at BetMGM) to win the Conn Smythe Trophy (postseason MVP), and teammate Cale Makar has the third-best odds (+900).

More to observe:

• ⚾️ MLB: Yankees at Orioles (6:35pm, Prime) … New York (27-16) has misplaced 4 of 5 to fall out of first place.

• 🏀 WNBA: Aces at Sun (8pm, USA); Fever at Sparks (10:30pm, USA) … Connecticut, Indiana and Los Angeles are all looking for their first win.

• 🎾 Tennis: Italian Open (7am, Tennis) … Men’s and girls’s quarterfinal motion in Rome.

• ⚽️ Premier League: Manchester City vs. Crystal Palace (3pm, USA) … A win would put City two factors behind first-place Arsenal with two matches left.

• ⚽️ MLS: New England vs. Nashville (7:30pm, Apple) … The prime two groups in the East face off in Foxborough.

Got plans tonight? Gametime is the greatest place to attain last-minute tickets to the occasions in your metropolis. Get tickets now!

⛳️ Golf trivia

Six lively golfers have gained a number of PGA Championships, however with Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh not on this week’s area, simply three are teeing it up.

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Question: Can you identify all three?

Hint: Two Americans, one European.

Answer at the backside.

👑 Charted: LeBron’s 4 HOF careers

If Monday was LeBron James’ closing recreation as a Laker, he’ll stroll away understanding he had a Hall of Fame profession primarily based solely on his eight seasons in purple and gold.

But wait, there’s extra: If we will set up that James had a Hall of Fame worthy profession as a Laker, it means one thing even larger. It means he has stacked 4 separate Hall of Fame careers on prime of one another, demarcated by the three offseasons wherein he switched groups.

Here are the numbers to prove it.

Trivia reply: Brooks Koepka (2018, 2019, 2023); Rory McIlroy (2012, 2014); Justin Thomas (2017, 2022)

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