Today’s Connections is a Sports Edition that leans a little tricky—mostly because two of the categories feel “sports-adjacent” before they snap into place. If you’ve been staring at the grid and wondering whether anything is supposed to click, this should help.
Hints
Yellow (easiest): This one is all about the fighting world—think martial arts and combat disciplines.
Green: You’re looking for specific varieties of passes in basketball. The answers describe how the ball is thrown (or delivered) rather than who throws it.
Blue: This category points to the LPGA—so the shared thread is something you’d associate with that organization and its members.
Purple (toughest): The clue is a bit “bizarre” on purpose: it’s about people who played for the Baltimore Orioles. Once you think of roster-related names, the rest becomes much less random.
When you’re stuck, a good technique is to sort by “shape” first: categories like combat styles and basketball pass types tend to have very distinct word forms. Then you can confirm your guesses by fitting the oddball words into the one remaining theme.
Answers
Yellow — Combat sports: boxing, judo, taekwondo, wrestling
Green — Types of basketball passes: baseball, bounce, chest, overhead
Blue — LPGA: association, golf, ladies, professional
Purple — Members of the Baltimore Orioles: Alonso, Baz, Beavers, Mayo
If you solved it, you probably noticed that the hardest part wasn’t knowledge—it was resisting the urge to force a theme too early. For puzzles like this, let the easiest category “anchor” your thinking, then work outward until the odd ones start to make sense.
