Yahoo Sports AM is your daily newsletter for all things sports. Sign up here to receive it every weekday morning.
🚨 Headline
⚽️ Ballon d’Or drama: Manchester City midfielder Rodri wins the Ballon d’Or over Real Madrid forward and heavy favorite Vinicius Junior, whose club boycotted the award ceremony. Barcelona’s Aitana Bommatti won the women’s award for the second consecutive year.
🏈 Chiefs make new trade: A week after acquiring WR DeAndre Hopkins from the Titans, the Chiefs acquired edge rusher Joshua Uche from the Patriots in exchange for a 2026 sixth-round pick.
⚾️ “The best day of my life”: The 10-year-old boy who hit Freddie Freeman’s historic walk-off home run didn’t know he was going to a game until he got to Dodger Stadium. His parents told him to go to the dentist.
🏈 Tuttle retires: Michigan QB Jack Tuttle has suffered his fifth concussion and has been medically retired from football.
🎉 Sports Equinox: How it unfolded
The “big four” sports leagues all began action on Monday during the 31st Sports Equinox, which also included two MLS playoff games.
⚾️ Yankees on a cliff: Freddie Freeman homers in five straight World Series games, Walker Buehler throws another gem, Dodgers beat Aaron Judge (.140 average this postseason), Yankees 4-2 He won an overwhelming 3 wins. 0 series lead*
🏈 Pittsburgh loves Mondays: The first-place Steelers defeated the reeling Giants 26-18, improving to 6-2 and winning their 22nd straight Monday night home game dating back to 1992. Daniel Jones fell to 1-15 in prime time.
🏀 Banchero drops 50 points: Paolo Banchero recorded his first 50-point game of the NBA season (and added 13 rebounds and 9 assists) in the Magic’s 119-115 win over the Pacers. The former No. 1 overall pick scored 37 points in the first half alone.
🏒 No longer undefeated: Maple Leafs beat Jets 6-4, John Tavares scores 12th career hat trick (7th most among active players), Jets remain the only remaining in the NHL They entered the night as an undefeated team.
Headlines: MLB | NFL | NBA | NHL
*Yankees need a miracle: MLB teams that lead 3-0 in best-of-seven series have won the series 39 of 40 times (98%), including 31 sweeps. Who is the only team to come back from a 3-0 deficit and win? The Red Sox broke the curse in the 2004 ALCS (against the Yankees, of course).
🏀 Layoffs: 7 of 12 WNBA jobs open
There are 12 teams in the WNBA. After a spate of firings over the past five weeks, seven of them are now without a head coach.
Latest article: The Sun parted ways with Stephanie White on Monday. The 2023 Coach of the Year compiled a 55-25 record in two seasons and led Connecticut to back-to-back semifinal appearances.
Head coaches fired:
Sparks: Curt Miller (fired on September 24th)
Sky: Teresa Weatherspoon (September 27)
Dream: Tanisha Wright (October 2nd)
Wings: Latricia Trammell (October 18)
Mystics: Eric Thibault (October 23)
Fever: Christy Sides (October 27)
Sun: White (October 28)
what happened? “It’s very clear to me what kind of urgency the WNBA franchise is operating with right now,” broadcaster Ross Gold-Onwude said. “This feels like a period of fresh blood, new names, and the players joining the W are completely different players than in the past. And the expectations and attention on the league is unprecedented. We’re looking for excellence and The rewards for winning have increased exponentially.”
A TIME FOR CHANGE: The WNBA is truly in a season of change. What’s next? The off-season is full of change. Adding to the coaching merry-go-round, the players’ association just opted to opt out of the CBA, and the Golden State Valkyries will soon raid the league’s roster with the Dec. 6 expansion draft.
⚾️ Tommy John World Series
Last night’s World Series starters Walker Buehler and Clark Schmidt have more in common not only with each other, but with nearly 40 percent of MLB pitchers. They both underwent Tommy John surgery to repair torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in their elbows.
A wild statistic: An astonishing 38.8% of pitchers who pitched this season (or spent the year on injured reserve) had Tommy John surgery, according to data compiled by baseball writer John Rogel. It is said that there is This is up from 27.4% just eight years ago.
Tommy John World Series: The Dodgers (17) and Yankees (16) used the most Tommy John* pitchers during the regular season, and their respective World Series rosters include these pitchers. Contains 7 people.
Dodgers: Buehler, Daniel Hudson, Ryan Brazier, Brusdar Graterol, Brent Honeywell, Anthony Banda, Michael Kopech
Yankees: Schmidt, Clay Holmes, Mark Leiter Jr., Carlos Rodon, Tim Mayza, Tommy Kahnle, Luis Gil (tonight’s starter)
The new normal: Most pitchers agree that the exponential increase in velocity and spin over the past decade is the primary cause of the increase in UCL tears. Thankfully, the procedure invented in 1974 to repair them, named after the first pitcher to have it, has an incredibly high success rate.
*12 teams have used at least 12 “Tommy John” pitchers this season: Dodgers (17), Yankees (16), Rockies (15), Tigers (15), White Sox (14), Pirates (14) , Rangers (14), Braves (12), Reds (12), Angels (12), Marlins (12), Mets (12).
⚽️ Messi missed six months, but is still the clear MVP
Lionel Messi was named one of the five finalists for MLS MVP despite only appearing in 19 of Inter Miami’s 34 games (56%) this season.
MVP finalists:
Messi (Inter Miami)
Luis Suarez (Inter Miami)
Christian Benteke (DC United)
Evander (Portland Timbers)
Cucho Hernandez (Columbus Crew)
In terms of numbers, Messi missed nearly half of the year, but still contributed a league-leading 36 goals (20 goals, 16 assists). His 1.81 non-penalty goals and assists per 90 minutes was roughly 0.5 goals higher than any other single-season record in MLS history.
Unprecedented Candidacy: Yahoo Sports’ Henry Bushnell discusses the most MVP-worthy season ever…
No player in Major League history has ever missed nearly half a season and still been named MVP. But Messi is more than just a candidate for the MLS award. He should be an absolute favorite.
He’s my favorite because he packed an entire MVP-winning season into 15 starts and (four) substitute appearances. It’s also because his presence alone completely transformed Inter Miami from the worst team in MLS to perhaps the best team of all time. He is literally and clearly the league’s “Most Valuable Player” by a wide margin.
The big picture: Inter Miami was the laughing stock of the league until Messi arrived midway through the 2023 season. Fifteen months later, the club set MLS single-season records for points (74) and winning percentage (.765) and earned its first playoff victory.
Good read: How Miami built the best MLS team of all time and wooed Messi (Henry Bushnell, Yahoo Sports)
📆 October 29, 2018: Clay catches fire
Six years ago today, in the Warriors’ 149-124 victory over the Bulls, Klay Thompson set an NBA record with 14 3-pointers, surpassing teammate Stephen Curry’s previous record of 13. Broke it.
By the numbers, Thompson scored 52 points on 18-of-29 shooting and 14-of-24 threes in just 27 minutes. He didn’t even play in the fourth quarter.
From ice cold to red hot: “I knew we were in for a great night,” Thompson said. He started the season with a terrible slump (5-for-36 from deep). “The feeling you get every time you touch the ball and it goes in is one of the best feelings in basketball.”
📺 Watchlist: Game 4
The Dodgers and Yankees meet tonight in the Bronx (8:08 p.m. ET, Fox) in Game 4. Los Angeles is 27 outs away from winning its second World Series in five years.
Also noteworthy:
⚽️ MLS Playoffs: Columbus vs. Red Bulls (6:45 p.m., FS1); Salt Lake vs. Minnesota (8:50 p.m., FS1) … Round 1, Game 1.
🏀 NBA: Mavericks vs. Timberwolves (7:30 p.m., TNT). Pelicans vs. Warriors (10 p.m., TNT)
🏒 NHL: Rangers at Capitals (7:30 p.m., ESPN); Kings at Sharks (10 p.m., ESPN)
🏈 NCAAF: Louisiana vs. Texas (7:30 p.m., ESPN2)
⚽️ Serie A: AC Milan* vs. Napoli (3:45 p.m., Paramount+)
*Captain America is on fire: Milan striker and USMNT star Christian Pulisic has scored or assisted in seven consecutive Serie A games, with both his five goals and three assists this season. That’s the fourth-highest number in the league.
🏈 NFL Trivia
Travis Kelce scored his 75th career TD on Sunday, moving him into fifth place all-time among tight ends (regular season only).
Question: Which of the four tight ends has more pieces?
Hint: Their last names all start with the same letter.
The answer is at the bottom.
⚾️ Check out MLB’s latest experiment: Swing Challenge
Imagine this nightmare scenario. Tonight’s World Series game came down to the final at-bat, with the winner decided on an erroneous checking swing by an umpire 100 feet away. The millions of people watching at home can understand that the call was wrong, but they can’t dispute it.
Potential solution: MLB has begun testing a new Check Swing Challenge system in the Arizona Fall League that uses the same Hawkeye technology that allows RoboAmp to call balls and strikes.
Coming soon? The AFL, run by MLB, has become a testing ground for new rules. Pitching clocks, larger bases, no shifts, and restrictions on mound visits were all introduced before players reached the big leagues.
Trivia answers: Antonio Gates (116), Tony Gonzalez (111), Rob Gronkowski (92), Jimmy Graham (89)
We hope you enjoyed this issue of Yahoo Sports AM, our daily newsletter that brings you the latest in all things sports. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
