Yahoo Sports AM: Historic trio

👋 Good morning! The Orioles' best season in decades ended Tuesday when they were swept for the first time in 513 days. Congrats to Texas.

— Kendall Baker (email), Jeff Tracy (email)

Let's sports...

🚨 HEADLINES

🏀 LeBron and Shaq want Vegas: LeBron James has reiterated his desire to bring an NBA expansion team to Las Vegas. Shaquille O'Neal also wants to make his own bid.

⚾️ The Triple Crown king:Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who will be an MLB free agent this winter, won his third straight Triple Crown in Japan with 16 wins, 169 strikeouts and a 1.21 ERA.

🏀 Chicago's new coach: WNBA Hall of Famer Teresa Weatherspoon is reportedly set to become the Chicago Sky's next head coach.

⚾️ Garvey for Senate: Dodgers legend Steve Garvey, a 10-time All-Star and the 1974 NL MVP, is running for Senate in California to fill Dianne Feinstein's seat.

⚽️ Hazard hangs 'em up: Belgian midfielder Eden Hazard, 32, announced his retirement on Tuesday after 17 seasons with Lille, Chelsea and Real Madrid.

🏒 A HISTORIC TRIO

Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang made history Tuesday as they embarked on their 18th season together with the Penguins.

Why it matters: That makes them the longest-tenured trio in the history of North American major sports, passing Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada.

• The Penguins trio has won three Stanley Cups together (2009, 2016, 2017).

• The Yankees trio won four World Series together (1998, 1999, 2000, 2009).

Wild stat: Crosby, 36, has played more than half his life with the Penguins. This is his franchise-record 19th season.

Opening night scoreboard:

• Blackhawks 4, Penguins 2

• Lightning 5, Predators 3

• Golden Knights 4, Kraken 1

Further reading:How did Connor Bedard look in his NHL debut?

🏏 THE CRICKET WORLD CUP IS UNDERWAY

While America watches postseason baseball, much of the rest of the world is watching the bat-and-ball sport's spiritual cousin: cricket, Jeff writes.

What’s happening: The 13th edition of the men's Cricket World Cup is underway in India, where 10 countries are battling for global supremacy.

• Teams: India (world No. 1), Pakistan (2), Australia (3), South Africa (4), New Zealand (5), England (6), Bangladesh (7), Sri Lanka (8), Afghanistan (9), Netherlands (14).

• Venues:10 venues across the country will host matches, and the final in November will be held at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad — the world's largest cricket stadium (132,000 capacity).

• Format: The group stage is a 45-match round-robin, with every team playing each other once and the top four advancing to the semifinals.

How it works: Cricket is played in various formats ranging from T20, which lasts just three hours, to Test, which can take up to five days. But this tournament uses a format called One Day International (ODI), in which matches last up to nine hours.

• The basics: Teams of 11 take turns batting and playing the field with the goal of scoring the most runs. Batsmen can be dismissed (gotten out) in various ways, such as having their ball caught or having a delivery (pitch) get by them and dislodge part of the wicket.

• Innings and overs: Two key cricket terms to know are innings (similar to the baseball term, but always plural) and overs, which comprise six legal deliveries of the ball.

• Limited overs: In ODI, each team gets one innings to bat, which ends either when 10 of 11 batsmen have been dismissed ("all out") or after 50 overs, whichever comes first.

The world is watching: With 2.5 billion fans globally, cricket trails only soccer (3.5 billion) as the world's most popular sport.

• 706 million fans watched the 2019 edition, won by England*. That includes the 323 million who tuned in for India vs. Pakistan, the tournament's most-watched match.

• For reference, a record 171 million people watched the most recent Super Bowl (115 million in the U.S. and 56 million internationally).

*All-time results: England is one of six nations to have won the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup. The other winners are Australia (5x), India (2x), the West Indies (2x), Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

⚾️ STAT OF THE DAY: LEADOFF RBI'S

Entering 2023, just two leadoff hitters in MLB history had ever recorded 100 RBIs in a season. This year alone, there were three.

Prior to 2023: Charlie Blackmon had 104 RBIs for the Rockies in 2017 and Darin Erstad had 100 RBIs for the Angels in 2000.

This season:

• Mookie Betts: 107

• Ronald Acuña Jr.: 106

• Marcus Semien: 100

What to watch: Betts and Acuña are both in action tonight, and Semien's Rangers just advanced to the ALCS.

🌎 THE WORLD IN PHOTOS

Las Vegas — The Golden Knights raised their championship banner on Tuesday before their season-opening win. They also got a "This is SportsCenter" commercial!

Minneapolis — José Abreu became the first player in the Statcast era (since 2015) to hit multiple 440-foot HRs in a playoff game as he lifted the Astros past the Twins, 9-1.

Madrid, Spain — Luka Dončić and the Mavericks played an exhibition match against his former club, Real Madrid, losing 127-123 to the Euroleague champs.

🏈 NFL POWER RANKINGS, WEEK 6

The undefeated 49ers and Eagles sit atop this week's NFL power rankings, courtesy of Yahoo Sports' Frank Schwab, Jeff writes.

Where it stands: The Bengals and Steelers were the biggest risers (up six spots), while the Commanders took the biggest tumble (down 12 spots) after getting blown out by the Bears.

1. 49ers: 5-0 (–)

2. Eagles: 5-0 (up 1)

3. Chiefs: 4-1 (up 1)

4. Bills: 3-2 (down 2)

5. Dolphins: 4-1 (up 1)

6. Lions: 4-1 (up 1)

7. Cowboys: 3-2 (down 2)

8. Seahawks: 3-1 (up 1)

9. Ravens: 3-2 (down 1)

10. Jaguars: 3-2 (up 2)

11. Browns: 2-2 (down 1)

12. Buccaneers: 3-1 (down 1)

13. Chargers: 2-2 (up 1)

14. Saints: 3-2 (up 2)

15. Bengals: 2-3 (up 6)

16. Steelers: 3-2 (up 6)

17. Colts: 3-2 (up 1)

18. Falcons: 3-2 (up 5)

19. Rams: 2-3 (down 2)

20. Packers: 2-3 (down 5)

21. Texans: 2-3 (down 2)

22. Jets: 2-3 (up 4)

23. Vikings: 1-4 (up 1)

24. Raiders: 2-3 (up 5)

25. Commanders: 2-3 (down 12)

26. Titans: 2-3 (down 6)

27. Cardinals: 1-4 (–)

28. Patriots: 1-4 (down 3)

29. Bears: 1-4 (up 3)

30. Broncos: 1-4 (up 1)

31. Giants: 1-4 (down 3)

32. Panthers: 0-5 (down 2)

This week's slate: Broncos at Chiefs on TNF, Ravens vs. Titans in London, Giants at Bills on SNF, Cowboys at Chargers on MNF.

📆 OCT. 11, 2020: LAKERS WIN BUBBLE TITLE

Three years ago today, the Lakers won the NBA Finals in the Disney World bubble, beating the Heat in Game 6 for their first championship in a decade, Jeff writes.

History made: L.A.'s 17th title tied them with the Celtics for the most ever, and LeBron James became the first player to win Finals MVP with three different teams.

More on this day:

• ⚾️ 1911: Detroit's Ty Cobb (AL) and Chicago's Frank Schulte (NL) won MLB's inaugural MVP awards.

• 🏒 1972: The World Hockey Association debuted, hoping to compete with the NHL. The league folded in 1979, but four teams* lived on as NHL expansion teams.

*WHA to NHL expansion teams: Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques (now the Colorado Avalanche), New England Whalers (now the Carolina Hurricanes) and Winnipeg Jets (now the Arizona Coyotes).

📺 WATCHLIST: ACES-LIBERTY, GAME 2

The Aces host the Liberty tonight (9pm ET, ESPN) in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals as Vegas looks to go up 2-0.

Revenge game: The Liberty have yet to lose two games in a row this season. After their losses, they've won the next game by an average of 14.9 points.

More to watch:

• ⚾️ MLB playoffs:Astros (up 2-1) at Twins (2pm, FS1); Braves (tied 1-1) at Phillies (5pm, TBS); Dodgers (down 0-2) at Diamondbacks (9pm, TBS)

• 🏒 NHL:Blackhawks at Bruins (7:30pm, TNT/Max); Avalanche at Kings (10pm, TNT/Max)

• 🏈 CFB:UTEP (+2) at FIU (7:30pm, ESPN2); Sam Houston (+3.5) at New Mexico State (9pm, CBSSN)

• 🏀 NBA preseason*:Celtics at 76ers (7pm, NBA); Kings at Lakers (10pm, NBA)

*Two-week countdown: The NBA season tips off two weeks from yesterday with Nuggets-Lakers and Suns-Warriors.

⚾️ MLB TRIVIA

An AL East teamwill not be playing in the ALCS for the first time since 2011.

• Question: Which two teams played in the ALCS that year?

• Hint: The winner lost to the Cardinals in the World Series.

Answer at the bottom.

❤️ A HEART-SHAPED JOURNEY

A father-daughter duo set a Guinness World Record for "world's largest GPS drawing by bicycle."

• Frédéric de Lanouvelle and his daughter Mathilde cycled 1,343 miles in a heart-shaped route through France.

• The 16-day journey on a tandem bike raised $27,000 to save children with heart defects who need surgery.

You absolutely love to see it.

___

Trivia answer: Rangers and Tigers

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