Hey there, puzzle enthusiasts! The New York Times (NYT) has a cool new challenge for all you sports fans out there. It's called Connections: Sports Edition, and it's currently in beta testing. This means the NYT is trying it out to see if it catches on before officially making it part of their Games app. For the next few weeks, you can play this new puzzle daily for free!

The game is pretty straightforward. You get 16 sports-related words and need to group them into four categories that are somehow connected. The words can belong to more than one category, making it tricky sometimes. The groups have different difficulty levels, but you won't know which is which until you solve them. Don't worry, you don’t have to be a sports expert to play. Just knowing a bit about various sports and athletes can help.

Today's puzzle has some interesting groups. The easiest, the "yellow" group, is about young athletes. The "green" group involves trophy names. The "blue" group is all about left-handed quarterbacks. And the toughest, the "purple" group, deals with MLB career strikeout leaders.

Want to know the answers? The "yellow" group's words are freshman, prospect, recruit, and rookie. The "green" group includes names like Cy, Ryder, Stanley, and Vince. For "blue", think left-handed QBs like Esiason, Stabler, Tagovailoa, and Young. The "purple" group's leaders are Carlton, Clemens, Johnson, and Ryan.

Give it a shot and see how you do!

NYT Launches New Sports Puzzle: Connections: Sports Edition

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