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🚨 Headlines
🏀 Embiid shut down: The 76ers are shutting Joel Embiid down for the rest of the season. The former MVP was limited to just 19 games due to an injured left knee that needs more recovery time.
⚾️ Rose to be pardoned: President Trump plans to pardon Pete Rose, and commissioner Rob Manfred said he will consider a petition filed by Rose’s family to reinstate MLB’s hit king and open up a path to the Hall of Fame.
🏈 NFL offseason moves: The 49ers traded Deebo Samuel to the Commanders for a fifth-round pick, and Matthew Stafford agreed to a restructured contract with the Rams.
🥊 Controversy in Brooklyn: Gervonta “Tank” Davis (30-0-1) retained his WBA lightweight title and remains unbeaten after a controversial decision in his bout against Lamont Roach Jr. (25-1-2). Davis took a knee and wasn’t penalized for it.
🏒 Chasing Gretzky: Alex Ovechkin scored career goal No. 884 on Saturday, leaving him 11 shy of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record.
⚾️ MLB 26-and-under power rankings
MLB is awash with young stars, but which organizations boast the best collection of youthful talent?
26-and-under rankings: Yahoo Sports’ Jake Mintz and Jordan Schusterman evaluated all 30 teams based on their 26-and-under talent, a useful exercise to determine how well they’re set up for both present and future success.
The top 10:
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Red Sox: Despite these rankings valuing current big-leaguers over future ones, Boston snagged the top spot on the strength of minor league hitters Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer, all among MLB’s top 12 overall prospects.
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Orioles: Baltimore’s pitchers are decent; their hitters are transcendent. Gunnar Henderson is one of baseball’s best, Colton Cowser is the reigning ROY runner-up, and top prospects Samuel Basallo and Coby Mayo can both mash.
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Mariners: Center fielder Julio Rodríguez is still just 24, and righties Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo — both coming off superb campaigns with sub-3.00 ERAs — headline Seattle’s talented stable of pitchers.
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Reds: Shortstop Elly de la Cruz looks like a future MVP candidate, RHP Hunter Greene is a flame-throwing ace and the minors are well-stocked with arms.
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Dodgers: Yes, the defending champions who employ Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts also have the league’s fifth-best collection of young talent, headlined by the Japanese pitching duo of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Rōki Sasaki.
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Brewers: Outfielder Jackson Chourio, shortstop Joey Ortiz and second baseman Brice Turang lead the way for one of the highest-ranked groups of young MLB hitters on Jake and Jordan’s list.
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Braves: Even with Ronald Acuña Jr. aging out of this exercise, the young core of RHP Spencer Strider, outfielder Michael Harris II and RHP Spencer Schwellenbach will try to propel Atlanta to its eighth straight playoff berth this season.
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Pirates: Reigning NL ROY Paul Skenes, who introduced two new pitches in his spring training debut over the weekend, headlines a phenomenally talented group of young pitchers in Pittsburgh.
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Guardians: Cleveland’s reputation as a “pitching factory” rang true with last year’s lights-out bullpen, and it’s their young MLB pitchers, led by Tanner Bibee and Cade Smith, who tip the scales for their top-10 ranking.
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Nationals: Since winning the 2019 World Series, no team has lost more games than Washington. But the rebuild is finally bearing fruit, and the core of shortstop C.J. Abrams, outfielder Dylan Crews, outfielder James Wood and a host of young pitching talent shows tremendous promise.
11-30:
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11-15: Rays, Diamondbacks, Mets, Tigers, Padres
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16-20: Cardinals, Cubs, Athletics, Royals, Twins
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21-25: Astros, Rangers, Angels, Giants, Blue Jays
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26-30: Yankees, Marlins, White Sox, Rockies, Phillies
Full rankings: Team-by-team analysis
🇺🇸 Photos across America
Philadelphia — No, your eyes are not deceiving you. That’s Stephen Curry throwing down his first in-game dunk in six years, which he also said would be the final dunk of his career.
Columbus, Ohio — The Blue Jackets beat the Red Wings, 5-3, on Saturday at Ohio Stadium in an emotional matchup that featured a tribute to the late Johnny Gaudreau.
Glendale, Arizona — Well, that didn’t take long. Shohei Ohtani homered in his first at-bat of spring training, belting an opposite-field blast against, who else, the Angels.
🌎 Photos around the world
London — Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta needed 25 stitches on his ear after taking a cleat to the head from Millwall goalkeeper Liam Roberts, who was sent off for what Palace’s chairman described as “the most reckless challenge” he’d ever seen.
Singapore — New Zealand’s Lydia Ko won the HSBC Women’s World Championship, moving her into second place on the LPGA’s all-time money list ($20.6 million) behind Annika Sorenstam ($22.6 million).
Dubai — World No. 11 Stefanos Tsitsipas won the Dubai Championships with a straight-sets victory over No. 21 Felix Auger-Aliassime. This is the Greek’s 12th title, but first in an ATP 500 event after losing the previous 11 such finals.
⛳️ What are the odds?
Dale Whitnell pulled off one of the rarest feats in sports over the weekend, carding not one but two aces during the opening round of the South African Open.
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Hole No. 2: 185 yards, 7-iron
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Hole No. 12: 128 yards, 50-degree wedge
What are the odds? According to the National Hole-In-One Registry, the odds of one player making two aces in the same round are an astronomical 67 million to 1. For reference, the chances you get struck by lightning in your lifetime are about 15,000 to 1.
📺 Watchlist: Playoff spots on the line
The stakes are high in tonight’s TGL doubleheader* on ESPN2 ahead of tomorrow’s regular-season finale.
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Los Angeles vs. The Bay (3pm ET): Both teams have already clinched a playoff spot (as has Atlanta, who plays tomorrow), but tonight’s winner will secure the No. 1 seed.
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Boston Common vs. New York (7pm): New York clinches the fourth and final playoff spot with a win, while Boston is eliminated with a loss.
More to watch:
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🏀 NBA: Rockets at Thunder (8pm, NBA) … OKC (106.6 points allowed) and Houston (108.8) have the West’s best and third-best scoring defenses.
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🏀 NCAAM: Wake Forest at No. 2 Duke (7pm, ESPN); Kansas at No. 4 Houston (9pm, ESPN) … The Blue Devils and Cougars are both projected No. 1 seeds.
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🏒 NHL: Islanders at Rangers (7pm, NHL) … The Rangers are already 2-0 this season in the Battle of New York.
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🏀 Unrivaled: Rose vs. Laces (7:30pm, TNT); Phantom vs. Lunar Owls (8:30pm, TNT) … The final week of the regular season.
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⚾️ Spring training: Red Sox at Orioles (1pm, ESPN); Brewers at Reds (8pm, MLB)
*Lineups: Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala (L.A.) vs. Min Woo Lee, Shane Lowry and Wyndham Clark (The Bay); Cameron Young, Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele (New York) vs. Rory McIlroy, Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott (Boston).
🏈 NFL trivia
Kentucky cornerback Maxwell Hairston ran the fastest 40-yard dash (4.28 seconds) at the 2025 NFL combine.
Question: What’s the fastest 40-yard dash time in NFL combine history?
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4.19 seconds
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4.20 seconds
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4.21 seconds
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4.22 seconds
Answer at the bottom.
✍️ Extra points
🏀 Big Ten champs: No. 4 USC beat No. 2 UCLA on Saturday to complete the series sweep and clinch the Big Ten regular-season title in their first year in the conference.
⚾️ Another lockout coming? MLBPA director Tony Clark believes there will be another lockout when the current CBA expires after the 2026 season, just five years after the most recent lockout threatened the 2022 season.
🤸🏿 Clark lands rare move: Clemson’s Brie Clark became the first NCAA gymnast, and fifth woman overall, to land the Biles I on floor exercise. The double layout with a half twist is one of five moves named for Simone Biles.
🏀 ‘Cocks in a coin flip: No. 6 South Carolina earned the top seed in the SEC women’s basketball tournament over No. 1 Texas thanks to a coin flip after the two teams ended the regular season with matching 15-1 records and split their head-to-head matchups.
⛳️ From cutline to champion: Joe Highsmith won the Cognizant Classic for his first PGA Tour victory, becoming the first player in nine years to win a tournament after making the cut on the number.
Trivia answer: 4.21 seconds (set by Xavier Worthy last year)
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