Yahoo Sports AM: Hometown hero

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🚨 Headlines

⚾️ New skipper: The White Sox are set to hire former MLB outfielder Will Venables, the associate manager of the Rangers, as their new skipper following their 121-loss season.

🏈 NFL roundup: The Colts are benching Anthony Richardson in favor of Joe Flacco, Texans WR Stefon Diggs (torn ACL) will miss the rest of the season, the Ravens acquired WR Diontae Johnson from the Panthers.

🏀 Flagg inks Gatorade deal: Duke freshman superstar Cooper Flagg has signed with Gatorade, joining Paige Bueckers and JuJu Watkins as the only college basketball players attached to the brand.

🏀 “Starting 5″ cast: The second season of the Netflix docuseries will follow Kevin Durant, Jaylen Brown, James Harden, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Haliburton during the 2024-25 NBA season.

⚾️ Volpe plays the hometown hero

The Yankees offense finally came alive on Tuesday night, bashing the Dodgers, 11-4, to avoid the sweep and earn the right to play at least one more game.

Quick recap: L.A. got off to an early lead after white-hot Freddie Freeman launched yet another homer — his MLB-record sixth consecutive World Series game with one — but it was a young Yankee who had the biggest swing of the night.

Hometown hero: Anthony Volpe, the 23-year-old shortstop who grew up in Manhattan and crammed his childhood bedroom with all things Yankee, lived out his wildest dream when his third-inning grand slam gave New York its first lead since Game 1.

• “I think I pretty much blacked out as soon as I saw it go over the fence,” Volpe, who 15 years ago attended the Yankees’ 2009 World Series parade with his family, said after the game.

• And though the Dodgers would get to within a run a few innings later, the Yankees put up six more runs in the final three frames to put this game on ice.

What’s next: History says Tuesday’s win merely delayed the inevitable. Just one of the previous 40 MLB teams to go down 3-0 in a best-of-seven series ultimately came back to win the series. But you’ve gotta start somewhere.

• “We started this year winning four games in a row,” said first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

• “So hopefully we can end this year winning four games in a row. That’s what we have to do to be champions.”

Game 5 is tonight at 8:08pm ET on Fox.

🏈 Charted: Starting QBs this century

Jameis Winston made his first start for the Browns on Sunday, becoming the franchise’s 38th different starting QB this century, by far the most of any team.

How does the rest of the league stack up? We crunched the numbers.

• Revolving door (20+ QBs): Browns (38), Bears (30), Commanders (28), Dolphins (26), Rams (26), Cardinals (25), Broncos (25), Raiders (24), Vikings (24), Cowboys (23), Panthers (22), Jets (21), Texans (21), Titans (20)

• Middle of the pack (11-19 QBs): 49ers (19), Bills (19), Ravens (19), Colts (18), Jaguars (18), Chiefs (17), Buccaneers (17), Lions (16), Steelers (15), Falcons (14), Saints (14), Eagles (14), Bengals (13), Giants (12), Seahawks (11)

• Consistency under center (10 or fewer QBs): Patriots (10), Chargers (9), Packers (8)

Dive deeper: We put together a full list of every starter, and it’s filled with guys I’d completely forgotten about (Seneca Wallace! Craig Krenzel! Gus Frerotte! Marques Tuiasosopo! Spergon Wynn! Elvis Grbac! Brooks Bollinger!). Click here to find your team.

🏀 NBA power rankings: Early season vibe check

The Celtics and Thunder, who are both in action tonight on ESPN, top our inaugural NBA Power Rankings, courtesy of Yahoo Sports’ Ben Rohrbach.

Top 10:

1. Celtics (4-0): After Boston tied the NBA’s single-game 3-point record on opening night, Nick Wright of Fox Sports asked for the league to change its rules, as if it was “terrible television.” The reigning champions, it seems, are too good for the game.

2. Thunder (3-0): Alerted to the fact that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is once again an early MVP candidate, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said, “We might have more than one.” Chet Holmgren may not be there yet, but you get the point: OKC is already feeling itself.

3. Cavaliers (4-0): Wins over the Raptors, Pistons and Wizards. A brutal seven-game stretch lies ahead. As Donovan Mitchell said, “That’s where we really see what we’re made of as a group and if our habits continue through with tougher opponents and tougher games.”

4. Magic (3-1): Paolo Banchero “put out a challenge to everyone to change the level” of the Magic, and he has met them on another stratosphere to start the season, including a 50-burger against Indiana. Banchero is here; Orlando has arrived.

5. Lakers (3-1): LeBron James declared, “I plan on playing every game.” This is good news, until it is bad news. How long can the Lakers lean so heavily on a 40-year-old? We are about to find out, which is, as coach JJ Redick conceded, “actually insane.” In a good way?

6. Suns (3-1): “Man, this motherf***er really is efficient.” Kevin Durant told Mark Medina this is how we should classify his career in relation to other all-time greats. Imagine being so good that you could say that about yourself — and be right. Did you see him close out the Lakers?

7. Mavericks (3-1): Klay Thompson on Luka Dončić: “It doesn’t make any sense because what we’re taught growing up is … you gotta jump the highest, run the fastest, but Luka defies that. He plays at his own speed and manipulates the game as good as I’ve seen anyone do it.”

8. Timberwolves (2-2): Anthony Edwards and Co. told newcomer Julius Randle, “Don’t fit around us, we’ll fit around you.” It worked in wins over the Kings and Raptors. Not so much against the Lakers. Be careful what you wish for; conforming around Randle is a dangerous game.

9. Grizzlies (2-2): “They’ll see,” Ja Morant declared before the season, preparing us for his return to superstardom. He has, for the most part, delivered on that promise when he has been available. But a minutes limit and thigh soreness have kept him from being unleashed.

10. Nuggets (2-2): “Going into the season, shooting was a concern of mine,” Michael Malone admitted after his team’s 0-2 start. Added Nikola Jokić: “We are not a very good shooting team.” Coach and superstar are not exactly dispelling rumors of friction with the front office.

Full rankings: Teams 11-30

🇫🇷 In photos: The 2025 Tour de France

The route for the 2025 Tour de France was announced on Tuesday, and after the last three editions began abroad, next summer’s race will be the first since 2020 to take place entirely within France.

Get ready to climb: Stages 12-14 are three straight mountainous rides in the Pyrenees ending with the infamous “Circle of Death,” a grueling set of climbs so named over 100 years ago by the press because it’s where hopes of a Tour de France victory go to die.

Riders beware: Stage 16 will ascend the moonlike landscape of Mont Ventouz, where British cyclist Tom Simpson died in 1967 due to heat exhaustion (made worse by alcohol and amphetamines). French philosopher Roland Barthes called this punishing stretch “a god of evil, to which sacrifices must be made.”

Back in Paris: The 2024 Tour de France ended outside Paris for the first time since 1905 to avoid the Olympics. Next year’s finish line will return to its famous location, with the race concluding on the iconic Champs-Élysées for the 50th time.

📆 Oct. 30, 1954: The shot clock debuts

70 years ago today, the 24-second shot clock made its NBA debut in a 98-95 Rochester Royals win over the Celtics.

Change was needed: In the NBA’s early days, teams often used a stalling tactic that brought offensive play to a standstill. The nadir came in 1950 when the Pistons beat the Lakers, 19-18, in the lowest-scoring game in league history.

“I remember those days. You give me a six-point lead in the last quarter, they’ll never catch me. You’d go out there and play catch all day long, and the fans are in there saying, ‘What am I paying to see?'”

— Celtics coach Red Auerbach in 1996

Why 24 seconds? Syracuse Nationals (now 76ers) owner Danny Biasone, who championed the change, arrived at that number using some basic math.

“I looked at the box scores from the games I enjoyed, games where they didn’t screw around and stall. I noticed each team took about 60 shots. That meant 120 shots per game. So I took 2,880 seconds [48 minutes] and divided that by 120 shots. The result was 24 seconds per shot.”

Immediate impact: NBA teams never averaged more than 84.1 points per game through the league’s first eight seasons. That number jumped to 93.1 in the first year with the shot clock, and hasn’t fallen below 91 in the seven decades since. “I think it saved the game,” said Auerbach.

📺 Watchlist: Game 5

The Yankees will try to stave off elimination again tonight in the Bronx (8:08pm ET, Fox), where Gerrit Cole and Jack Flaherty will start the season’s final game at Yankee Stadium — and, if the Dodgers win, the season’s final game period.

More to watch:

• 🏀 NBA: Celtics at Pacers (7pm, ESPN); Spurs at Thunder (9:30pm, ESPN)

• 🏒 NHL: Golden Knights at Kings (10pm, TNT)

• 🇺🇸 Friendly: USWNT vs. Argentina (7pm, TNT) … In Louisville.

• ⚽️ EFL Cup*: Tottenham vs. Manchester City (4:15pm, Paramount+) … Round of 16.

• 🏈 NCAAF: Jax State at Liberty (7pm, CBSSN)

*What is the EFL Cup? It’s like the FA Cup, but more exclusive. Instead of the entire English football system, only the top four levels participate. Preston North End, which plays Arsenal today, is the only non-Premier League team still alive.

🏈 NFL trivia

Commanders rookie QB Jayden Daniels has the fifth-best odds to win MVP (+1000 at BetMGM) as we approach the season’s midway point.

Question: Who is the only rookie to ever win NFL MVP?

Hint: Not a QB.

Answer at the bottom.

🏀 Stat du jour: Pay discrepancy

Everyone knows that NBA players make a lot more money than WNBA players. But the discrepancy is still shocking to see.

Crazy stat: There are 100 NBA players making as much this year ($17.26 million) as the entire WNBA did this past season.

Consider this: Celtics guard Jaylen Brown will be paid more than twice as much money for tonight’s game on ESPN ($49.2M salary / 82 games = $600k) as the highest-paid WNBA player earned all of last season (~$250k).

Trivia answer: Browns RB Jim Brown (1957)

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