Yahoo Sports AM: The modern sports page

👋 Good morning! Welcome to the inaugural edition of Yahoo Sports AM. This is Kendall Baker, writing to you from my home in Washington, D.C. I’m joined by Jeff Tracy, who’s in Brooklyn. Sign up here to have it hit your inbox every weekday morning.

In today’s edition:

• ✍️ Welcome note

• 🎾 U.S. Open preview

• 🏈 Heisman trivia

Plus: Photo of the weekend, Fantasy Football player rankings, the SEC’s best nicknames, and so much more.

Let’s sports …

HEADLINES

🥇 Biles wins again: Simone Biles won her record eighth U.S. gymnastics championship on Sunday night, a full decade after she won her first. Will we see the GOAT compete at next summer’s Olympics? It sure seems like it.

⛳️ Season finale: Viktor Hovland won the Tour Championship on Sunday, clinching the FedExCup Playoffs and earning a cool $21.6 million in eight days. The 2023 PGA Tour season is now complete. Five weeks from now: The Ryder Cup.

🏈 Week Zero: No. 13 Notre Dame opened the college football season with a 42-3 blowout over Navy in Dublin. Half a world away, Caleb Williams tossed four TDs in No. 6 USC’s 56-28 win over San Jose State. Full Saturday scoreboard.

⚽️ USWNT tumbles: The USWNT dropped to No. 3 in FIFA’s world rankings after their early World Cup exit, falling behind No. 1 Sweden and No. 2 Spain. It’s the first time the U.S. has ever been ranked outside the top two.

🏎️ Nine straight: Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won a rainy Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday for his ninth straight victory, tying Sebastian Vettel for the longest streak in Formula 1 history.

See what else is trending on Yahoo Sports.

✍️ THE MODERN SPORTS PAGE

Modern sports fans (as in you, the person reading this) are spoiled. You can watch all the games (on your phone!). You can see all the highlights (within seconds!). News, scores, stats, fantasy, betting — it’s all at your fingertips.

There is, however, one big problem: An endless stream of content means an endless sense of overwhelm. There’s so much to watch, so much to read, so much to follow, that being a sports fan has become a part-time job.

Sure, you can watch all the games … if you can find (and subscribe to) the right streaming services. Sure, you can enjoy instant highlights … if you can avoid getting sucked down a social-media rabbit hole while scrolling your feed. Sure, there are endless news sources … but man, can someone just give me the information I want without serving me three pop-up ads?

That’s where we come in. Instead of adding to the noise, Yahoo Sports AM is here to turn that noise into music. Let us do the work for you.

We’ll pick the key stories and break them down. We’ll find the best highlights and put them in one place. We’ll tell you what happened last night and what’s happening tonight (plus when and where to watch). Who said TV Guide was dead?

We’ll also have trivia (and other games). Because why the heck wouldn’t we have that?

Think of us as the modern sports page: A thoughtfully crafted document with a beginning and an end, rather than an infinite social media feed that leads you nowhere.

We want you to read this thing, experience the joy of feeling caught up, then go about your day. Just as long as you promise to come back tomorrow!

The kicker: Yahoo was originally called “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web.” Consider this newsletter “Kendall and Jeff’s Guide to the Wide World of Sports.”

🎧 I joined “The Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch” to discuss my move to Yahoo Sports and why I’m so bullish on sports newsletters. Richard is a media reporter for The Athletic and one of the best in the biz. You can listen here.

🎾 STARTING TODAY: THE 143RD U.S. OPEN

The fourth and final grand slam of the year begins Monday in Flushing Meadows, New York.

Men: Defending champ Carlos Alcaraz, 20, holds the No. 1 ranking but still looks up to Novak Djokovic, who’s 2-1 against him this year. Djokovic is seeking his 24th major title, which would pass Serena Williams for most in the Open Era (1968).

Women: 19-year-old American Coco Gauff has gone 11-1 since her shocking first-round exit at Wimbledon and is a popular pick to run the table. But Iga Świątek, who’s been ranked No. 1 for 73 consecutive weeks, looms large.

Storylines:

• 20-year drought: No American man has won a grand slam since Andy Roddick at the 2003 U.S. Open. The five players with the best chance to end the streak: No. 9 Taylor Fritz, No. 10 Frances Tiafoe, No. 14 Tommy Paul, No. 28 Christopher Eubanks and No. 31 Sebastian Korda.

• American legends: Venus Williams, 43, is making her record-extending 24th appearance … 38-year-old John Isner, the ATP’s all-time leader in aces, will retire after the tournament.

📺 How to watch: All 16 courts will stream live on ESPN+, with select coverage on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. Full schedule.

⚾️ NEW MLB QUEST: BEAT ALL 29 TEAMS

MLB’s new balanced schedule means that for the first time ever, every team will play the other 29 teams at least once.

What to watch: With five weeks left, four teams still have a chance to make history by beating every team in the league.

• Blue Jays: 27 teams down, two to go… Still need to beat the Nationals (Today-Wednesday) and Rockies (Sept. 1-3)

• Orioles: 27 teams down, two to go… Still need to beat the Diamondbacks (Sept. 1-3) and Cardinals (Sept. 11-13)

• Dodgers: 27 teams down, two to go… Still need to beat the Mariners (Sept. 15-17) and Tigers (Sept. 18-20)

• Padres: 25 teams down, four to go… Still need to beat the Cardinals (Today-Wednesday; Sept. 22-24), Astros (Sept. 8-10), A’s (Sept. 15-17) and White Sox (Sept. 29-Oct. 1)

🚨 More MLB: Benches clear twice as Rays roll past Yankees (Yahoo)

🏈 FANTASY FOOTBALL: 10 DAYS LEFT!

We’re 10 days away from the start of the NFL season, which means it’s time to create or join a Yahoo Fantasy Football league.

Top 10 players, per Yahoo’s half-PPR rankings:

1. Justin Jefferson, WR (Vikings)

2. Ja’Marr Chase, WR (Bengals)

3. Christian McCaffrey, RB (49ers)

4. Austin Ekeler, RB (Chargers)

5. Cooper Kupp, WR (Rams)

6. Tyreek Hill, WR (Dolphins)

7. Travis Kelce, TE (Chiefs)

8. Stefon Diggs, WR (Bills)

9. Bijan Robinson, RB (Falcons)

10. Nick Chubb, RB (Browns)

🗣️ The QB debate … One of the season’s biggest questions is whether to invest in one of the elite QBs or look to find value later. Twelve of the top 18 all-time fantasy seasons at this position were delivered over the past five years, so there’s a strong case to be made to take one of the stars.

Quick links:

Sign up for Yahoo Fantasy Plus to get an edge on the competition with premium draft, trade and research tools. Try 7 days free.

📸 TEAM USA LAPS THE FIELD

Team USA dominated the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, winning more than twice as many medals as any other nation — and three times as many golds.

1. 🇺🇸 USA: 29 medals (12 gold, 8 silver, 9 bronze)

2. 🇯🇲 Jamaica: 12 medals (3 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze)

3. 🇰🇪 Kenya: 10 medals (3 gold, 3 silver, 4 bronze)

4. 🇬🇧 UK: 10 medals (2 gold, 3 silver, 5 bronze)

5. 🇪🇹 Ethiopia: 9 medals (2 gold, 4 silver, 3 bronze)

👌 Golden hat trick … Noah Lyles, 26, won gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m, becoming the first man to claim that treble at worlds since Usain Bolt in 2015.

📸 PHOTO OF THE WEEKEND

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A terrifying crash occurred on Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway when NASCAR driver Ryan Preece’s car flipped roughly a dozen times during the final laps of the Coke Zero 400.

🙏 Good news: Preece, 32, was able to climb out of his No. 41 Ford before being placed on a stretcher as a precaution and taken to an ambulance. He was released from the hospital Sunday morning after overnight observation.

SEC NICKNAMES, RANKED

Rankings are a big part of sports, whether they’re objective (stat leaders) or subjective (best sports movies). So each day, we’ll be ranking something. We look forward to all the hate mail!

College football is back. To celebrate, we’re ranking the nicknames of each team by Power Five conference.

First up, the SEC:

1. Razorbacks (Arkansas)

2. Gamecocks (South Carolina)

3. Crimson Tide (Alabama)

4. Rebels (Ole Miss)

5. Gators (Florida)

6. Commodores (Vanderbilt)

7. Volunteers (Tennessee)

8. Aggies (Texas A&M)

9. Bulldogs (Georgia, Mississippi State)

10. Wildcats (Kentucky)

11. Tigers (LSU, Auburn, Missouri)

Coming up: We’ll hit the Big Ten tomorrow, Big 12 on Wednesday, Pac-12 on Thursday and ACC on Friday.

📆 AUG. 28, 1994: THE COMEBACK KID

29 years ago today, 18-year-old Tiger Woods won his first of three consecutive U.S. Amateur championships, roaring back from five strokes down with 12 holes left to beat Oklahoma State junior Trip Kuehne* at TPC Sawgrass.

What they said: “[Tiger] is one of the best players to come out of this country in a long, long time,” his coach, Butch Harmon, told SI at the time. “That’s the good news. The bad news is that he has to live up to it now.” (Spoiler alert: He did.)

More on this day:

• 🎾 1950: Althea Gibson becomes the first Black player to compete in the U.S. Open, which was then known as the U.S. National Championships.

• ⚾️ 1992: The Brewers set an AL record (yes, they used to be in the AL) for hits in a nine-inning game, smacking 31 in a 22-2 win over the Blue Jays.

• 💵 2022: A 1952 Mickey Mantle card sold for $12.6 million at auction, the most ever paid for a piece of sports memorabilia.

*Fun fact: Kuehne played his freshman season at Arizona State, where he was roommates with Phil Mickelson.

📺 WATCHLIST: SUPERTEAMS SQUARE OFF

The Liberty host the Aces tonight (7pm ET, ESPN2) in the season’s fourth and final meeting between the WNBA’s two superteams.

Where it stands: Vegas (30-5) and New York (27-7) sit atop the standings as we near the end of the WNBA’s first 40-game season. The Aces won two of the first three matchups.

More to watch:

• 🎾 U.S. Open: Day 1 (11 a.m., ESPN+/ESPN)

• 🏀 FIBA World Cup: USA vs. Greece (8:40 a.m., ESPN2) … Team USA faces its toughest Group C opponent.

• ⚾️ MLB: 14 games … The Rays (80-52) and Marlins (66-65) have the day off ahead of their two-game series.

🍿 Now streaming: “BS High,” HBO’s documentary about the Bishop Sycamore scam, premiered last week on Max. Highly recommend.

🏈 HEISMAN TRIVIA

Reggie Bush has filed a defamation lawsuit against the NCAA in an attempt to get his 2005 Heisman Trophy reinstated. If that happens, it would give USC a record eight Heisman winners.

Question: For now, USC has seven Heisman winners, tied with three schools for the most. Can you name those three schools?

Hint: They’ve made a combined 11 College Football Playoff appearances, winning one national championship.

Answer at the bottom.

🔥 TOP 10 PLAYS: WEEKEND EDITION

12-year-old Louis Lappe headlines this weekend’s top plays after his walk-off home run lifted California past Curaçao, 6-5, in Sunday’s Little League World Series championship. An epic finish to an epic game.

1. ⚾️ Walk-off for the ages

2. ⚽️ Messi, again

3. 🥎 Air Aliyah

4. 🏈 Incredible TD grab

5. ⚾️ Speed vs. speed

6. ⚾️ No-look catch

7. ⚾️ George Springer!

8. 🏐 What a dig

9. 🏈 Sheesh, Caleb

10. ⚽️ Gorgeous finish

Watch all 10.

————

Trivia answer: Ohio State, Oklahoma, Notre Dame