Sports
10 Early World Series Contenders to Watch: 2025 MLB Playoff Sleepers & Favorites
May 4, 2025; Anaheim, California, USA; Detroit Tigers outfielder Kerry Carpenter (30) celebrates with teammates after hitting a three run home run against the Los Angeles Angels during the sixth inning at Angel Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images Sometimes, the World Series teams are two clubs that began establishing themselves as championship favorites by early May. While they weren’t yet leading their respective leagues, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees were each 23-13 entering play a year ago today.
But most of the time, the eventual World Series combatants didn’t yet look the part by the first week of May.
Eleven of the 20 teams to reach the World Series in the last 10 full seasons were within five games of .500 through May 5 of their pennant-winning season. Four of those clubs — the pennant-winning 2014 Kansas City Royals (14-17) and 2022 Philadelphia Phillies (11-15), and the championship-winning 2019 Washington Nationals (14-19) and 2021 Atlanta Braves (14-16) — were under .500 on that date.
Only two World Series teams since 2014 — the curse-busting 2016 Chicago Cubs (21-6) and the 2018 champion Boston Red Sox (24-9) — had baseball’s best record through May 5.
All of which is to say: we may be surprised by who emerges in the World Series in late October. Here’s a look at five potential pennant winners in each league.
American League
Apr 22, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; New York Yankees designated hitter Ben Rice (22) celebrates his solo home run with right fielder Aaron Judge (99) in the first inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-Imagn Images Detroit Tigers (22-13): Disregard everything we said about World Series teams not looking the part before May 5. The Tigers, who lead the AL with a 2.96 ERA and rank second with a .755 OPS, are the most well-rounded team in the Junior Circuit and seem to have found a little bit of magic during last year’s surprising playoff run.
New York Yankees (19-16): The defending champs of a mediocre league have the first-month MVP in .400-chasing Aaron Judge and the first-month Cy Young in Max Fried, who is flirting with a Bob Gibson-esque ERA. And, well, that’s it. Brian Cashman will surely be active at the trade deadline, but the Yankees will only go as far as Judge, Fried and a little institutional memory can carry them.
Seattle Mariners (20-14): With eight straight series wins and a surprisingly potent offense, the Mariners have already offered plenty of reasons to daydream they can finally end baseball’s longest World Series drought and reach the Fall Classic for the first time. But we’ve all been teased before by the Mariners, whose path to late October will require figuring out life without Logan Gilbert and George Kirby for an extended period.
Not the Sacramento Athletics (20-16): The surprising Athletics are a long shot to keep this up over the long haul. But imagine Major League come to life with a team that makes the World Series after the owner purposely tanks his way out of town. And how delicious it’d be seeing Rob Manfred squirming and trying to convince everyone how great it is that the World Series is being played in a Triple-A park with a media center that looks like a shed you’d buy at Home Depot.
Texas Rangers (17-18): The Rangers, with the fourth-lowest OPS in the game, have already begun shuffling desk chairs by firing “offensive coordinator” Donnie Ecker and replacing him with Bret Boone. But Texas also has the fourth-best ERA in the AL, and you can never underestimate the possibility of Bruce Bochy, in the last year of his contract, going out in style by winning yet another World Series.
National League
May 4, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Brendan Donovan (33) dives safely to home plate in the third inning as New York Mets catcher Luis Torrens (13) waits on the throw at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Vizer-Imagn Images New York Mets (23-13): Like the Tigers, the Mets look like they found something magical during a stunning playoff run last season. It also helps that Pete Alonso is mounting an early Triple Crown run and that David Stearns has constructed a deep bullpen behind an effective yet thin rotation.
Chicago Cubs (22-14): The Cubs are averaging a whopping six runs per game, which puts them on pace to finish with the most runs since the 2000 White Sox (978). They also lead baseball with a plus-69 run differential despite playing 30 games against over-.500 teams — by far the most in baseball. Pretty, pretty good.
Los Angeles Dodgers (24-11): The billion-dollar pitching staff fell apart almost as soon as the season began, but the Dodgers still have the best record in baseball because they are still the Dodgers. As always, the season will come down to Dave Roberts trying to MacGyver his way through October while everyone else gets the credit.
San Diego Padres (23-11): It’s now or never for the Padres, whose days of spending big in a small market are probably over following the death of owner Peter Seidler. But no team other than the Dodgers is as complete as San Diego, which leads the majors with a 2.73 ERA and has an early NL MVP candidate in Fernando Tatis Jr.
Cincinnati Reds (18-18): Here’s a long shot in a loaded NL. But nobody mixes and matches better come October than Terry Francona, the Hall of Fame-bound manager looking for one more Fall Classic trip. If the Reds can squeak in, they’ll be a team nobody wants to play — especially if Cincinnati can build some momentum with a wild-card series win.
Sports
Mammoth aim to continue ascent vs. struggling Blackhawks
Feb 27, 2026; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Mammoth left wing Lawson Crouse (67) scores a goal against Minnesota Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt (30) and defenseman Quinn Hughes (43) during the second period at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images The Utah Mammoth, winners of three of their last four games, are battling to remain in a playoff position as they prepare to host the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday afternoon.
The Mammoth, in the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference, defeated the Minnesota Wild 5-2 on Friday in Salt Lake City as Lawson Crouse scored two goals and Clayton Keller had a goal and two assists.
“I think we’re obviously a really fast team and can make a lot of plays, but I think that’s the biggest thing for us is sticking to our identity as much as we can,” Keller said.
“It’s hard to do, and I think we’ve got better as the year’s gone on, and the good teams are the most consistent. Even when you don’t feel your best, you find a way. I think we’re showing steps in the right direction, and we’ve got to be more consistent.”
Logan Cooley and Barrett Hayton also scored while Jack McBain, Nick Schmaltz and defenseman Mikhail Sergechev each had two assists.
“They’re hungry, they want to go at it and they stay on top of their opponent,” Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said of the top line of Crouse, Keller and Schmaltz. “You saw today, the goal of (Keller) is a turnover caused by a lot of pressure on one of the best defensemen in the world (the Wild’s Quinn Hughes). That shows how good they can be when they have that aggression.”
Karel Vejmelka made 21 saves for Utah to win three of his last four outings. Vejmelka is 28-15-2 with a 2.60 goals-against average and .902 save percentage.
“They’re a great hockey team,” Wild defenseman Brock Faber said. “They skate really well. They’re really skilled.”
The Blackhawks lost their third straight game on Saturday night, a 3-1 decision to the host Colorado Avalanche.
Chicago has lost eight of its last nine games (1-6-2).
“We need more depth scoring, for sure. We were close to having a lot of chances, and we just didn’t handle the puck great,” Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill said after the game. “Like we could have had probably three or four 3-on-1s, and we just kind of mishandled them.
“So I thought there was opportunities for offense there that we just weren’t able to take advantage of.”
Connor Bedard scored Chicago’s lone goal to give him 25 for the season. He also has 30 assists for 55 points in 46 games.
Seven points (five goals and two assists) have come in Bedard’s last seven games.
“We got to help him, obviously. I mean, it can’t just be on Connor,” Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno said. “He’s doing his job. He’s getting scoring chances. He’s making plays.
“I mean, he could’ve had five tonight. So it’s on the rest of us to pick it up and find a way to help him out, give him some run support, and that’s just only going to make our team better, right? I think we got to figure out how to get more than one goal here and make it count.”
Spencer Knight stopped 32 shots for Chicago in taking his third consecutive loss. He is 16-18-7 with a 2.62 GAA and .908 save percentage.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Hawks try again, this time against Blazers, to reach elusive .500 mark
Feb 26, 2026; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Hawks forward Corey Kispert (24) goes to the basket between Washington Wizards guard Sharife Cooper (13) and forward Anthony Gill (16) during the second half at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images The Atlanta Hawks will try to get to the .500 mark for the first time since December when they complete a five-game homestand by hosting the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday.
Atlanta has won three straight games, including a pair of wire-to-wire victories over woeful Washington. The Hawks haven’t had a .500 record since Dec. 21 when they were 15-15. Since then, they’ve been within a game of break-even three times and failed to win.
Portland is coming off a 109-93 loss to Charlotte on Saturday afternoon. The Blazers are 1-1 on their five-game road trip and 6-4 over their past 10 games.
Atlanta and Portland are in similar places as far as the playoffs, with both fighting to avoid participating in the play-in tournament. The Hawks are tied with Charlotte for ninth in the Eastern Conference, two games behind No. 8 Miami. The Trail Blazers are No. 9 in the Western Conference, 2 1/2 games behind No. 8 Golden State.
“It’s not out of the question,” Atlanta’s Corey Kispert said. “We play these games for a reason. We’re going to let it rip, no matter who’s on the other side.”
The Hawks played without their two leading scorers on Thursday against Washington — Jalen Johnson (left hip flexor) and Nickeil Alexander-Walker (sprained ankle). Both are listed as questionable for Sunday.
But the team’s new faces came out strong in the 126-96 win over the Wizards on Thursday. Kispert scored a career-high 33 points. CJ McCollum scored 25 and is averaging 18.6 points per game since Atlanta acquired him and Kispert in a trade with Washington. Jonathan Kuminga, who has played only two games since returning from a knee bruise, produced 27 and 17 points.
“It feels like even since I’ve been here we’ve kind of had a new team every couple of days,” Kispert said. “And now, with the roster set, we’re finally ready to go. We’re putting the pedal to the metal. We’re going to win some games. This is a really good group of guys, guys that want to win and play the right way.”
Portland’s Scoot Henderson, who grew up in the north Atlanta suburbs, has played nine games since missing the first 51 games with an left hamstring injury. He got his first start on Thursday and scored 12 points in a win over the Chicago Bulls. He has impressed coach Tiago Splitter since his return.
“He’s playing freely. I don’t think he’s second-guessing anything,” Splitter said. “He is playing great on defense, great on offense right now, pushing the pace, finding teammates. We expect more from him, as far as being young and still developing, but he’s done a great job after the injury.”
Portland’s Donovan Clingan returned to the lineup on Saturday after missing a game with an illness. The center is No. 3 in the league at 11.5 rebounds per game and has averaged 12.8 over the last five games. In that stretch, he had 18 in a win against Utah on Feb. 12.
Deni Avdija, who averages a team-leading 24.4 points per game, has missed the last three games because of injury management for his lower back. Shaedon Sharpe (21.4 points) has missed the last nine games and will miss four to six more weeks with a stress reaction of the left fibula.
The Trail Blazers have won the past three meetings against Atlanta, including a 117-101 decision on Jan. 15 in Portland.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Why Tiger Woods Playing the Masters Seems Unlikely
I think I’m getting ready to turn off mobile notifications for Tiger Woods’ tweets.
I must have turned them on sometime after the car crash in 2021, when he almost lost his leg and his remaining golf career hung by a thread. Or it could have been later on in 2023, as I waited to see how he’d address the ludicrous PGA Tour-LIV “merger” that never happened.
Really, I just want to hear when Woods will try to play again. But any golf fan knows the two kinds of Woods tweets.
1. The statement announcing he’s going to have another surgery. Or 2. The promotional post, for his foundation or something else.
I got a notification this week that Woods posted, only for it to be a retweet of his apparel brand, Sun Day Red. Did you know “The Pioneer Willow applies a clean blucher construction to our highest performance technology, built from the ground up to serve the athlete first”? Riveting stuff.
He didn’t tweet the week of the Genesis Invitational, perhaps too busy with his responsibilities hosting the event. But he knows how to make a headline, to keep the hype building.
That week, at Woods’ press conference in the capacity as host, he didn’t rule out playing the Masters in two months, or playing the PGA Tour Champions now that he’s 50, or captaining the 2027 U.S. Ryder Cup team. But the more you think about it, the more you see these as empty headlines. Not ruling it out means no decision has been made one way or another.
OK. Let us know when you know, I guess!
If anyone needs a brief refresher, Woods last played at the 2024 Open Championship. He had his sixth back surgery that fall for a nerve impingement, ruptured an Achilles while ramping up his training in March and had back surgery No. 7 for a disc replacement this past October.
As recently as December, he told reporters he could only chip and putt at that point, but he’s graduated to hitting full shots now. “Yeah, I’m able to. Not well every day, but I can hit them,” Woods said this month at the Genesis.
That’s why I’m skeptical about this Masters return.
He needs to be hitting full shots well, every day, by Round 1 on April 9. If not, his record streak of 24 made cuts will be in danger. The rest of the golf world is getting younger, more fit; Woods’ last three Masters finishes — 47th, WD after making the cut on the number, 60th — are his three worst since he was 20 years old.
I’m intrigued by the idea that he could sign up for the Champions Tour just to get a couple of rounds in while being allowed to drive a cart. Honestly, he’d be near the top of the leaderboard if not lapping the field, and it would send a bunch of people scrambling to figure out just how you can watch the old guys’ circuit.
But as his body breaks down, the real struggle for Woods has been to walk the course for four rounds, and as he’s said in the past, Augusta National is no breeze in that department.
So the not-ruling-it-out declaration was a salesman’s tactic from someone who’s been around the block and who knows the golf media and fandom all too well. Someone give me a ring if he’s playing in April. Notifications — off.
Mammoth aim to continue ascent vs. struggling Blackhawks
Hawks try again, this time against Blazers, to reach elusive .500 mark
