Yahoo Sports AM: The NL has flipped the script on the AL
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🏀 Detroit snaps streak: The Pistons beat the Knicks, 100-94, to snap their 15-game playoff losing streak (longest in NBA history) and record their first postseason win since 2008.
🏒 OT game-winners: Alex Ovechkin scored his first career playoff OT goal to lift the Capitals past the Canadiens; Colin Blackwell played the hero in Dallas as the Stars beat the Avalanche to tie the series.
⏱️ Record time in Boston: Sharon Lokedi of Kenya won the Boston Marathon with a time of 2:17:20, smashing the previous women's course record of 2:19:59.
🏈 QB swap: Joey Aguilar, who transferred to UCLA a few months ago, is now transferring again to Tennessee to replace QB Nico Iamaleava, who just transferred to UCLA.
🏒 Seattle cleans house: The Kraken fired head coach Dan Bylsma after one season and plan to replace GM Ron Francis.
The American League has historically been better than the National League. But early indications this season are that the Senior Circuit has flipped the script — in a big way.
The NL flexes its might: Five NL teams have already reached 14 wins this season, compared to just two in the AL.
Run differential tells a similar story, with nine NL teams sporting a positive mark compared to just five in the AL.
The top five teams in our latest power rankings all play in the NL, as do four of the five current favorites to win the World Series, according to BetMGM.
It's not just the teams, either: NL players comprise nine of the top 12 batters and seven of the top 11 pitchers by fWAR (wins above replacement calculated by FanGraphs), prompting "lots of talk among execs about the enormous disparity between the two leagues, how the NL is markedly better," tweeted ESPN's Buster Olney.
Changing of the guard: While this level of early-season dominance would have been tough to predict, there have been signs in recent years that the NL was catching up to its younger brother.
The AL had a winning record in 17 of the first 21 years of interleague play, but the NL has come out on top in four of the past six non-shortened seasons, and leads 61-51 so far in 2025.
The AL still holds a 68-52 lead all-time in the World Series tally (thank you, Yankees), but the NL has won four of the last six championships, and nine of the last 15.
More money, more wins: The recent shift towards the NL could be attributed to the cyclical nature of this interleague rivalry, which has been fueled by a back-and-forth spending spree in recent decades.
The Yankees unloaded their war chest in the '90s to immense success and the Red Sox soon followed suit, forcing the rest of the AL to field better teams in an effort to keep pace.
That balance began shifting last decade with the Dodgers, whose success has in turn forced other NL teams up the ante. To wit, the NL boasts four of the sport's five highest payrolls — and the Dodgers, Mets, Phillies and Padres all look like early contenders.
Looking ahead: For most of baseball history, disparities between the NL and AL weren't on display until the World Series. The advent of interleague play made those disparities more apparent, and they matter more than ever in the Balanced Schedule Era (2023-present), which includes 46 interleague games per team per year (up from 20). Moving forward, whichever league is in its bull cycle could really rack up the wins.
Bottom line: The MLB season is less than a month old, so the "small sample size" caveat is a must. But the eye test and data have both been pretty overwhelming thus far: the NL is the superior league.
Kenyan runners John and Wesley Korir now share a special bond no other siblings have: Both are Boston Marathon champions.
John crossed the finish line on Monday at 2:04:45, recording the second-fastest winning time in the history of the men's race.
Wesley won the race in 2012 with a time of 2:12:40. That's nearly eight minutes slower than his younger brother, but John didn't have to battle near-record heat like Wesley did.
The Premier League title race is all but over, with Liverpool set to clinch their record-tying 20th championship. Relegation, too, is nearly a done deal. But with five games left, the race for the Champions League is just getting started.
Where it stands: After Liverpool (79 points) and Arsenal (66) is a crowd of five teams separated by just three points, all fighting for the final three Champions League spots.
Nottingham Forest (60 points)
Newcastle United (59)
Manchester City (58)
Chelsea (57)
Aston Villa (57)
What to watch: Over the next five weeks, those clubs will engage in a live-action version of chutes and ladders, moving up or falling back by the smallest of margins with each result. The fun begins today when Manchester City hosts Aston Villa at the Etihad.
The 2025 NFL Draft will be held this week in Green Bay, Wisconsin — the ninth city to host the league's signature offseason event since it began touring the country in 2015.
From Yahoo Sports' Jay Busbee:
The millions of NFL fans who have enjoyed the league's traveling draft road show over the past decade can thank an unusual and unexpected source: the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. Yes, really.
For half a century, the NFL Draft called New York City home, and by 2014, the draft extravaganza was a key fixture at Radio City Music Hall. But the only organization with more juice at Radio City than the NFL was the world-famous Rockettes dance troupe, and in 2014, the Rockettes kicked — pun very much intended — the NFL out of its traditional late-April draft date into May.
That didn't go over well with the Powers That Be in the NFL, and neither did the news later that year that the Rockettes would likely claim all of April and May at Radio City. Surely the NFL could push its draft to June…?
Nope. The NFL decided to take its show on the road, and that has made all the difference in the 10 years since. What was once a televised job fair is now an extravaganza to rival the Super Bowl, traveling to cities that may not ever get the chance to host a big game of their own.
Previous stops:
2015: Chicago
2016: Chicago
2017: Philadelphia
2018: Dallas
2019: Nashville
2021: Cleveland
2022: Las Vegas
2023: Kansas City
2024: Detroit
Dive in: As the NFL prepares to head to the not-so-frozen tundra of Green Bay, let's look back at the biggest moments from the draft's unending tour.
Round 1 of the playoffs continues tonight with three NBA games and four NHL games.
🏀 NBA: Bucks (0-1) at Pacers (7pm ET, NBA); Grizzlies (0-1) at Thunder (7:30pm, TNT); Timberwolves (1-0) at Lakers (10pm, TNT)
🏒 NHL: Devils (0-1) at Hurricanes (6pm, ESPN); Senators (0-1) at Maple Leafs (7:30pm, ESPN2); Panthers at Lightning* (8:30pm, ESPN); Wild (0-1) at Golden Knights (11pm, ESPN)
More to watch:
⚾️ MLB: Phillies at Mets (7:10pm, TBS) … First vs. second in the NL East.
⚽️ NWSL: Portland vs. Gotham (10:30pm, CBSSN) … Ninth place vs. fourth place.
⚽️ Premier League: Man City vs. Aston Villa (3pm, USA) … Fifth place vs. seventh place.
*We meet again: The fourth postseason "Battle of Florida" since 2021 begins tonight in Tampa.
The Boston Marathon is one of six annual World Marathon Majors*. Can you name the other five?
Hint: Two in the U.S., two in Europe, one in Asia.
*Not including the Sydney Marathon, which was named the seventh major beginning this year.
Answer at the bottom.
Cool court.
Trivia answer: New York City, Chicago, London, Berlin, Tokyo
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