Team USA begins its quest for a World Baseball Classic title

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

🏀 Tatum’s return: Jayson Tatum is expected to make his season debut tonight against the Mavericks, just 10 months after going down with a torn Achilles. His rapid recovery, paired with Boston’s unexpected success in his absence, should make them a serious title contender.

Advertisement

🏈 Moore to Buffalo: The Bears are trading WR DJ Moore to the Bills, giving Josh Allen a new weapon in the passing game. Chicago will receive a 2026 second-round pick in return, while Buffalo will also acquire a 2026 fifth-rounder along with Moore.

🏒 Deadline day: The NHL trade deadline is today at 3pm ET, and there have already been more than a dozen trades this week alone. No fireworks yet, but here are some players to keep an eye on.

⚽️ Miami visits White House: Lionel Messi and Inter Miami, in town for a game against D.C. United, visited the White House on Thursday to commemorate the team winning the 2025 MLS Cup.

🏀 LeBron passes Kareem: LeBron James has broken yet another NBA record, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the all-time leader in field goals made. James previously passed Abdul-Jabbar in minutes played and points scored.

Advertisement

⚾️ USA’s superteam begins its title quest

After months of anticipation, the best roster ever assembled by USA Baseball begins its pursuit of a World Baseball Classic title tonight against Brazil (8pm ET, Fox).

From Yahoo Sports’ Jordan Shusterman:

Even as a relatively young tournament compared to the premier international competitions in other sports, the WBC has grown in reverence with each edition, as the star power has multiplied and the knockout stages have provided enduring highlights.

For Team USA — champions in the event just once in five tries — this edition of the tournament is an opportunity to reassert itself as the undisputed home of baseball’s very best. And if the rare strength of the roster is any indication, the opportunity is being taken quite seriously by those involved.

Advertisement

The motivation permeating Team USA’s star-studded roster is only amplified by how the last WBC ended: with Shohei Ohtani striking out Mike Trout to seal a 3-2 victory in the championship game and claim Samurai Japan’s third tournament title.

It’s an image that has lingered in the baseball ether, replayed relentlessly both stateside and abroad, especially as Ohtani’s highlight reel has grown. For Team USA manager Mark DeRosa, back at the helm after falling short three years ago, that final out lit a fire for him and the entire American baseball apparatus.

“I think there’s a fear of missing out on the United States’ side. My talks in recruiting the players were a heck of a lot different this time around than in 2023,” says DeRosa. “I just feel like there’s been a tidal wave of emotion, kind of wanting to win this thing.”

With the United States’ men’s hockey team’s dramatic triumph over rival Canada in the Olympics still fresh in everyone’s minds, it’s no surprise that members of USA Baseball have been quick to reference that victory as something to strive for in their own domain.

Advertisement

But the scenario on ice was much different: Team USA was playing the underdog role, while Canada had amalgamated a stunning amount of world-class talent — talent that was on display for much of the gold-medal game until USA seized victory in overtime.

If we’re drawing parallels to other national teams, USA Basketball is perhaps a more apt comparison. Even as the game of basketball has grown globally, with several of the best players on the planet hailing from other countries (sound familiar?), USA Basketball has usually had a deep enough pool of talent to emerge victorious in the highest profile international competitions.

That notably includes the Summer Olympics, in which the USA men have taken gold in eight of the past nine tournaments. The lone defeat in that span — to Argentina in 2004 — spurred the so-called “Redeem Team” four years later, a play on the “Dream Team” that dominated in 1992.

Taking it back to the diamond, it’s fair to say that Team USA is entering the World Baseball Classic with elements of both the Dream Team and the Redeem Team. This is an unprecedented group of talent that also has something to prove.

Advertisement

Read the full story.

💯 Big numbers

🏀 117 wins

Jon Scheyer is 117-24 since taking over at Duke in 2022, tying Butler’s Brad Stevens for the most wins by a D1 coach in their first four seasons. With one regular-season game left, plus the ACC and NCAA tournaments, it’s safe to say Scheyer and the top-ranked Blue Devils will soon stand alone at the top of that list.

Flashback: Stevens’ best of those first four seasons (2007-11) was the 2009-10 campaign, when his Bulldogs went 33-5 and came about two inches away from upsetting Duke in the national title game. And who was the Blue Devils’ point guard that season? A senior named Jon Scheyer.

Advertisement

🏒 14 years

The Sabres’ 14-year playoff drought, by far the longest in the NHL and the second-longest in major North American sports (Jets), should soon become a thing of the past as Buffalo hurtles toward clinching its first postseason berth since 2011.

Scorching hot: The Sabres (37-19-6) have gone 26-5-2 since Dec. 9, outscoring their opponents by 44 goals in that span to climb to third place in the East, just four points behind the first-place Hurricanes.

🎶 4.16 billion views

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show was the fourth-most watched ever in terms of live audience (128.2 million), but when accounting for YouTube and other digital platforms it drew a record 4.16 billion views globally in the first 24 hours after his performance. Hardly surprising given the Puerto Rican star has been Spotify’s most-streamed artist in four of the past six years.

Advertisement

4.16 billion?!? We throw around a lot of big numbers here (see: the literal name of this section), but it’s worth pausing to grasp just how massive 4.16 billion is. For starters, that’s more than half the world’s population (8.27 billion) — roughly the equivalent of every person in the Americas, Europe and Africa combined. Obviously not every view is a different person, but still… Kinda crazy.

⚾️ +225

The Dodgers are heavy favorites to win their third straight World Series (+225 at BetMGM), giving them the shortest preseason title odds since the Yankees in 2003 (+200). On the one hand, just four preseason favorites have won it all this century; on the other hand, two of those were the Dodgers the past two seasons.

Other contenders: The Yankees have the second-best odds to win the Fall Classic (+1000), followed by the Mariners (+1300), Blue Jays (+1300), Mets (+1400), Braves (+1600), Red Sox (+1600), Phillies (+1600), Cubs (+2000), Tigers (+2000), Orioles (+2200) and Astros (+2200).

Advertisement

📺 Weekend Watchlist

🥇 Winter Paralympics

The Milan Cortina Paralympics officially get underway this weekend, beginning with today’s Opening Ceremony (1:30pm ET, USA).

By the numbers: 665 athletes from 56 nations will compete in 79 medal events across six sports: Para Alpine Skiing, Para Biathlon, Para Cross-Country Skiing, Para Ice Hockey, Para Snowboard and Wheelchair Curling. Full schedule.

⚾️ World Baseball Classic

Team USA takes the field this weekend in Houston for its first two games in the 20-team tournament, facing Brazil tonight (8pm, Fox) and Great Britain tomorrow (8pm, Fox). Giants ace Logan Webb gets the ball for the opener, and two-time reigning Cy Young Tarik Skubal starts tomorrow.

Advertisement

Best of the rest: Japan, who won its opener this morning, faces South Korea tomorrow (5am, FS1) and Australia on Sunday (6am, FS1) in Tokyo. The Dominican Republic’s superteam faces Nicaragua tonight (7pm, FS2) and the Netherlands on Sunday (12pm, Fox) in Miami.

🏎️ F1 Season Opener

The 77th Formula 1 season kicks off on Saturday at the Australian Grand Prix (11pm, Apple TV), where McLaren and Lando Norris will begin their title defense. As a reminder, broadcast rights have shifted from ESPN to Apple, with all races available to Apple TV subscribers at no additional cost.

New era: How you watch isn’t the only thing changing this year. An 11th team (Cadillac) has also been added to the grid, meaning races will have 22 drivers instead of 20. Various new rules and regulations have also been implemented that will impact the car’s power units, aerodynamics, tires and fuel.

Advertisement

🏒 Hockey Day in America

USA Hockey’s annual weeklong celebration of the sport is capped off on Sunday by a quadrupleheader of nationally-televised NHL games: Wild at Avalanche (2pm ET, TNT); Bruins at Penguins (4:30pm, TNT); Red Wings at Devils (7pm, ESPN); Oilers at Golden Knights (9:30pm, ESPN).

Plus: There are four additional national broadcasts on Friday and Saturday: Panthers at Red Wings (Fri. 7pm, NHL); Capitals at Bruins (Sat. 12:30pm, ABC); Rangers at Devils (Sat. 3pm, ABC); Lightning at Maple Leafs (Sat. 7pm, NHL).

🏀 College Hoops

The final weekend of the men’s regular season is headlined by the sport’s greatest rivalry, as top-ranked Duke hosts No. 17 North Carolina on Saturday night (6:30pm, ESPN). Sunday’s marquee game isn’t too bad either, with No. 3 Michigan hosting No. 8 Michigan State (4:30pm, CBS).

Advertisement

Meanwhile, for the women: The Power Four all hold their conference championship games on Sunday, where Duke will be favored in the ACC (1pm, ESPN), UCLA in the Big Ten (2:15pm, CBS), South Carolina in the SEC (3pm, ESPN) and TCU in the Big 12 (5pm, ESPN).

More to watch:

• 🏀 NBA: Clippers at Spurs (Fri. 9:30pm, ESPN); Warriors at Thunder (Sat. 8:30pm, ABC); Celtics at Cavaliers (Sun. 1pm, ABC); Knicks at Lakers (Sun. 3:30pm, ABC); Rockets at Spurs (Sun. 8pm, NBC) … Full weekend slate.

• ⚽️ SheBelieves Cup: Canada vs. Argentina (Sat. 12:30pm, truTV); USA vs. Colombia (Sat. 3:30pm, TBS) … The USWNT (2-0) will clinch the title with a win or draw. A loss would open the door for Colombia (1-1) or Canada (1-1).

• ⛳️ PGA: Arnold Palmer Invitational (Fri-Sun, ESPN+/Golf/NBC) … Daniel Berger (-9) leads by three strokes at Bay Hill.

• 🎾 Tennis: Indian Wells (Fri-Sun, Tennis) … Early-round matches for Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and more.

• 🏁 NASCAR: Phoenix Raceway (Sun. 3:30pm, FS1) … Tyler Reddick already made history by winning the first three races of the season. Can he go 4-for-4?

• 🏁 IndyCar: Phoenix Raceway (Sat. 3pm, Fox) … No, that’s not a typo. The two biggest domestic racing series will share the track this weekend.

• 👊 UFC 326: Max Holloway vs. Charles Oliveira (9pm, Paramount+) … Two all-time greats square off in a rematch in Las Vegas for the lightweight “BMF” title (“baddest motherf***er”).

• 🥍 PLL/WLL: Championship Series (Fri-Sun, ESPN App) … Semifinals and finals of the men’s and women’s six-on-six tournaments in Springfield, Virginia.

Plus: ⚽️ MLS: Matchday 3 (Sat-Sun, Apple); LIV Golf: Hong Kong (Fri-Sun, FS1); 🏉 Six Nations: Week 4 of 5 (Fri-Sat, Peacock); 🏏 T20 World Cup Final: New Zealand vs. India (Sun. 9:30am, Willow TV)

Got plans this weekend? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events happening in your city. Get tickets now!

Advertisement

❤️ Why we love sports

Paul O. (Frederick, Maryland) writes:

It was November 1984, and I was one of four students at the University of Maryland covering sports for the college radio station.

We were the WMUC broadcast crew for the football team that year, and excited that the Terps were in the midst of another successful season under Bobby Ross. An upcoming game at No. 6 Miami in the historic Orange Bowl was not to be missed.

Given the limited budget of college radio, however, our only viable travel option was to drive the 1,000 miles from College Park to Miami. We piled into the best car any of us owned – a four-year old Toyota Celica GT – with our equipment, our bags and some snacks for the cramped 17-hour journey.

Advertisement

Upon arriving at the Orange Bowl to set up for our broadcast, we made our way into the iconic stadium and found that the host school had assigned us to the roof of the press box. As the only media members in that open air setting, we literally had a bird’s eye view of the field and most of Miami. A 31-0 first half drubbing by the Hurricanes did little to lift our spirits.

We had driven through the night to witness Maryland’s most embarrassing half of football in many years. Nobody was looking forward to another 30 minutes of this debacle. But somehow, things changed.

QB Frank Reich came off the bench to replace Stan Gelbaugh in the second half, and the Terps began moving the ball. On the other side, the Bernie Kosar-led Miami offense that could do no wrong in the first half suddenly began stalling.

Advertisement

With each possession, the Terps cut into the hefty deficit, and as the final minutes ticked down, the game was miraculously within reach.

Six touchdown passes by Reich in the second half eventually led to the largest comeback in NCAA history at the time, a 42-40 win for Maryland that we were there to witness and to broadcast… from the rooftop of the historic Orange Bowl (RIP).

Many great games were played in that classic stadium through the years, but none were ever better than that one for four college boys from College Park.

The 17-hour drive home didn’t seem nearly that long.

✍️ Submit your story: Do you have a fondest sports memory? Or an example of sports having a profound impact on your life? If you’d like to share, email me at kendall.baker@yahooinc.com. We’ll keep sharing your stories until they run out!

Advertisement

🏎️ F1 trivia

Cadillac has been added to the grid this season as F1’s 11th team, and Sauber has rebranded to Audi.

Question: Can you name the other nine teams?

Answer at the bottom.

📸 Photo finish

“The Olympics are where heroes are created; the Paralympics are where heroes come.”

— Ian Bonhôte, director of “Rising Phoenix,” a Paralympics documentary that I highly recommend watching. It’s on Netflix.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Trivia answer: Alpine, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Haas, McLaren, Mercedes, Racing Bulls, Red Bull Racing, Williams

Advertisement

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.