1 hour ago 1

Raleigh and Ohtani homer their way to history

Yahoo Sports AM is our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it every weekday morning.

🚨 Headlines

🏈 Rematch draws huge ratings: The Eagles' Week 2 win over the Chiefs drew 33.8 million viewers on Fox, making the Super Bowl rematch the most-watched regular-season Sunday telecast ever.

🏀 Bueckers wins ROY: Paige Bueckers was named the WNBA's Rookie of the Year after the Wings guard finished fifth among all players in scoring (19.2 ppg) and steals (1.6), and ninth in assists (5.4).

⛳️ Masters on Prime: Starting next year, the Masters will feature four additional hours of broadcast coverage on Amazon Prime, with two hours during each of the first two rounds.

🏈 Dabo fires back: Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney got quite animated defending his program amid a disappointing 1-2 start. "If they want me gone, they're tired of winning, they can send me on their way because that's all we've done is win."

🏀 AU signs Charles: Athletes Unlimited signed Tina Charles for its fifth season this winter, making her the first former WNBA MVP to join the league.

⚾️ Homering their way to history

Cal Raleigh hit his 55th and 56th home runs of the season on Tuesday, passing Mickey Mantle (54) for the most by a switch hitter and tying Ken Griffey Jr. (56) for the most by a Mariner.

When Raleigh gets hot, he gets hot. In fact, he's now the first player in MLB history with a multi-home run game against 10 different teams in the same season.
Speaking of red-hot: The Mariners have won 10 straight games to claim their spot atop the AL West. They currently hold a half-game lead over the Astros.

What to watch: With 11 games left, can Raleigh match Aaron Judge's American League record of 62 homers?

Shohei Ohtani became the sixth MLB player to post consecutive 50 HR seasons, joining Alex Rodriguez (2001-02), Sammy Sosa (1998-2001), Ken Griffey Jr. (1997-98), Mark McGwire (1996-99) and Babe Ruth (1920-21; 1927-28).

McGwire and Sosa had their runs tainted by steroids, while Rodriguez had his own PED allegations later in his career.
Ohtani joins Raleigh and Kyle Schwarber in the 50-HR club, making 2025 the third season ever to see three players hit 50 homers (1998, 2001).

P.S. … Did I mention Ohtani also threw five no-hit innings on Tuesday?

🏈 NFL power rankings: Week 3

The Packers leapfrogged the Bills and Eagles to climb into the top spot of our latest NFL power rankings, courtesy of Yahoo Sports' Frank Schwab.

Historic start: With wins over the Lions and Commanders, Green Bay is just the fifth team since the 1970 merger to start 2-0 against teams that each won at least 12 games the previous season. And they didn't eke out those victories, either, with their +23 point differential leading the NFC.

Who's up, who's down?

Biggest risers: No. 7 Rams (up 5), No. 11 Colts (up 9), No. 14 Cardinals (up 4), No. 15 Falcons (up 7), No. 19 Seahawks (up 4)
Biggest fallers: No. 16 Vikings (down 8), No. 18 Bengals (down 4), No. 20 Steelers (down 4), No. 22 Jaguars (down 7), No. 25 Bears (down 4)

Dive in: Full rankings

🌎 The world in photos

🇺🇸 Seattle — The Storm stunned the Aces in an 86-83 comeback win, closing on a 16-4 run to keep their season alive and snap Vegas' 17-game winning streak. They play a winner-take-all Game 3 tomorrow night in Sin City.

Meanwhile, in Indiana: The Fever walloped the Dream, 77-60, to win their first playoff game since 2015 and force Game 3 in Atlanta tomorrow night.

🇯🇵 Tokyo — Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone broke the 400m American record at the World Athletics Championships, winning her semifinal in 48.29 seconds for the fastest time in the world this year. Seems her decision to focus on the flat 400m this year is paying off!

More from worlds: Kenya's Faith Kipyegon won her fourth 1500m world title, becoming the first woman to win four world titles in any distance-running event.

🇪🇸 Madrid — Kylian Mbappé converted a pair of penalty kicks to give Real Madrid a 2-1 win over Marseille in their Champions League opener. He now has 50 goals in just 64 matches with Los Blancos.

Thriller in Turin: The most exciting match of the day was in Italy, where Juventus scored twice in stoppage time to rescue a point with a 4-4 draw against Dortmund. Full scoreboard.

⚽️ Pay to play

The college sports revenue-sharing era is reshaping choices for young athletes. What does it mean for the U.S. men's national team?

From Yahoo Sports' Sanjay Sujanthakumar:

It's the timeless hypothetical hovering over American men's soccer: What if our best athletes played the sport?

USMNT and Crystal Palace center back Chris Richards isn't offended by it. "I understand it. I truly do," he said. "I just think it's very unrealistic."

Salivating for the shortcut to a dominant USMNT, the mainstream sporting public often wonders aloud if NBA or NFL superstars could have conquered soccer instead, and if their next-generation clones are the answer. But that's missing the point.

"I think the argument gets lost pretty quickly when it's about, like, 'If LeBron James was our center midfielder…' It's not really about that," said former MLS and USMNT midfielder Kyle Martino, who noted that Lionel Messi is 5-foot-7.

Indeed, peel off the literal layer of the question, and there's the socioeconomic connotation that Richards and Martino both address.

"I just think because of how accessible basketball and football are, our best athletes don't really choose soccer over any other sport," Richards said.

In addition to the inner-city accessibility of basketball, Martino highlighted its economic appeal. "It's upward mobility, it's a life-changing possibility, and it's the stakes of if it doesn't happen, what? What happens in your life?"

The life-changing potential of a career in football or basketball has dramatically expanded in the era of college athletes being paid. NIL compensation plus schools directly sharing revenue with athletes — funneled overwhelmingly to football and basketball players — has reinforced the stature and draw of those sports.

Could that ultimately limit the ceiling of the U.S. men's national team, preserving that hypothetical as no more than a fantasy?

Keep reading.

📺 Watchlist: Wednesday, Sept. 17

Rai Benjamin celebrates winning Olympic gold over Karsten Warholm last summer. (Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

👟 World Athletics Championships, Day 5 | 8am ET, Peacock

The men's 400m hurdles semifinals (8:30am) features all three medalists from last year's Olympics (USA's Rai Benjamin, Norway's Karsten Warholm, Brazil's Alison dos Santos), while the men's 1500m final (9:20am) will be without the defending Olympic champion after American Cole Hocker was controversially DQ'd for "jostling" in the semifinal.

🏀 WNBA Playoffs, First Round | ESPN

The defending champion Liberty (up 1-0) will try to clinch a spot in the semifinals at home against the Mercury (8pm), who hope to force a decisive Game 3. Out west, the top-seeded Lynx (up 1-0) visit the Valkyries (10pm) after winning Game 1 by 29 points.

Injury report: Breanna Stewart will be a game-time decision after injuring her knee during overtime of New York’s Game 1 win.

More to watch:

⚽️ Champions League: Liverpool vs. Atlético (3pm, Paramount+); Bayern vs. Chelsea (3pm, Paramount+); Ajax vs. Inter Milan (3pm, CBSSN) … Full six-game slate.
⚽️ U.S. Open Cup: Minnesota vs. Austin (8:30pm, CBSSN) … Winner faces Nashville in the championship.
⚾️ MLB: Guardians at Tigers (6:40pm, FS1); Yankees at Twins (7:40pm, Prime); Phillies at Dodgers (10:10pm, MLB)

Today's full slate.

🏀 WNBA trivia

Paige Bueckers is the fourth straight No. 1 overall pick to win WNBA Rookie of the Year.

Question: Can you name the last three?

Hint: Dream, Fever, Fever.

Answer at the bottom.

💔 RIP, Mr. Redford

Robert Redford passed away on Tuesday at 89 after a legendary career in film, with one of his most iconic roles coming as Roy Hobbs in 1984's "The Natural."

"When I walk down the street, people will look at me and say, 'There goes Roy Hobbs, the best that ever was in this game.'"

Fun fact: Redford played high school baseball with Hall of Famer Don Drysdale and earned a scholarship to play at Colorado. "At one time, I wanted to be a pro ballplayer," he said. "So it was very much in my DNA, and I always wanted to make a film about baseball."

🍿 Watch: The final home run

Trivia answer: Rhyne Howard, Aliyah Boston, Caitlin Clark

We hope you enjoyed this edition of Yahoo Sports AM, our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.

Read Entire Article