👋 Good morning! On Oct. 22, 2001, "Pardon the Interruption" debuted on ESPN. 25 years later, it's still on the air. What began as an experiment has become an institution.

Stat du jour: The Wizards season-opening win over the Bucks put them over .500 for the first time since Nov. 28, 2022 — 1,424 days ago. Welcome back, Wiz.

In today's edition: World Series preview, Ant makes history, no surgery for Ohtani, Atlanta takes 2-1 Finals lead, NFL power rankings, "The JMU Way," and more.

Yahoo Sports AM is written by Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy. For the web version, click here. Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.

Let's sports...

🚨 ICYMI

🏀 Ant makes history: The Timberwolves blew out the Heat, 131-106, behind a huge night from Anthony Edwards (45 points, 10 rebounds), who joined Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan as the only players in NBA history with multiple 40-point season openers. Full NBA scoreboard.

⚽️ St. Louis wins U.S. Open Cup: St. Louis City SC defeated the Columbus Crew in a dramatic penalty shootout to win the U.S. Open Cup, continuing their magic season and capturing the club's first trophy.

⚾️ No surgery for Ohtani: Though Shohei Ohtani dealt with knee and biceps injuries throughout the season, surgery is "not on the table," said Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. He's expected to heal over the offseason, and "I fully expect him to pitch next year."

⚽️ Kane scores again: Bayern Munich and Arsenal played to a 2-2 draw in the headliner of Wednesday's Champions League action as Harry Kane scored in his 10th straight match in the competition, one shy of Cristiano Ronaldo's record.

🏈 QB1 in NYC: The Giants will start J.J. McCarthy at quarterback on Sunday against the Texans after the former first-round pick threw for 243 yards and a touchdown in replacement of Jameis Winston in the fourth quarter last weekend against the Saints.

See what else is trending on Yahoo Sports.

Catch live games all season with NBA League Pass and follow the stars, rivalries and storylines as they unfold. Plus, get access to alternate broadcasts and nonstop NBA coverage. Blackout rules apply.

⚾️ WORLD SERIES

(Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports)

The 2026 World Series is shaping up to be a big celebration of everything, well, small. The Rays and Brewers are two of MLB's model small-market franchises, ranking in the bottom half of the league in both metro-area size and luxury-tax payroll. But they also play small — and that's a big reason they're still standing.

Where's the power? Unlike most modern contenders, neither team relies much on the long ball. Milwaukee hit the third-fewest home runs this season, while Tampa Bay hit the ninth-fewest. And even during their most homer-heavy stretches of the regular season or playoffs, neither produced a league-average share of its runs via homers.

So how do they score? Both teams ranked among MLB's Top 10 in offensive Wins Above Replacement (WAR) despite their relative lack of power. And while elite pitching and defense have helped carry them this far, their offenses have embraced a decidedly old-school approach: Singles, bunts, speed and situational hitting.

Take a look: Both teams ranked among the Top 10 in the following nine traditional "small ball" categories during the regular season:

Digging deeper: The Rays and Brewers were particularly good at putting the ball in play and making things happen.

Speed kills: In addition to measuring the ability to "manufacture" runs, these stats have a common thread: Speed. Both teams also ranked among MLB's Top 5 in fastest average home-to-first running time, giving them the wheels to turn routine grounders into something a lot more valuable.

Bottom line: Sure, a World Series built around singles, bunts and productive outs might sound like something only baseball sickos could love. But throw in a bunch of guys flying around the basepaths, putting constant pressure on the defense, and making every opposing defensive play into an adventure? That sounds like fun to us.

This story was written by Neil Paine, who we formally introduced in yesterday's edition. ICYMI: Here's a link to read.

🏀 WNBA FINALS

(Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

The Dream rolled to a 97-71 blowout win over the Valkyries in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals to take a 2-1 lead in the WNBA Finals in front of a sold-out crowd in Atlanta. The star of the night for the second straight game? Angel Reese.

Cassandra Negley, Yahoo Sports:

Angel Reese thrives on perceived disrespect. The mere mention of that to her is disrespectful. She turns, her face shutting off, an "I don't care" signaling the end of a one-on-one conversation toward the end of shootaround.

But she does care. Or else she wouldn't drop an aside that the goals she wrote down at the beginning of the season were ones "that many people may not think I can do." A shiny new Defensive Player of the Year trophy sat beside her on a black-clothed table.

In her first WNBA Finals, Reese and the Dream disrespected themselves. Despite leading late on the road in Game 1, they let a victory slip by in the final minutes. They didn't play their style, and were exposed in the process.

It pissed Reese off. That was exactly what she needed. "As soon as she stepped on the court, she was like, I'm going to be the best player on that court tonight," teammate DeWanna Bonner said ahead of Reese's Game 2 performance.

She did it again in Game 3. With 21 points and 12 rebounds, the third-year pro became the second player in Finals history with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in consecutive games. She also became the youngest, at 24 years old, with three straight double-doubles in the Finals.

Keep reading: Behind raucous home crowd, Angel Reese, Dream make statement in Game 3

🏈 THE MIGHTY NORTH

(Joseph Raines/Yahoo Sports)

The undefeated 49ers remain comfortably atop our latest NFL power rankings, but lurking beneath them lie eight teams — comprising two entire divisions — who've gotten off to a historic start.

Kings in the North: All eight teams in the AFC and NFC North are ranked inside the top 20, because all eight are currently over .500. How rare is that? Before this year, just three divisions since 2002 entered Week 7 with every team above .500, so pretty rare!

Déjà vu: In 2023, the AFC North became the first division in the Super Bowl era to have every team finish above .500. Last year, the NFC North joined them as the second. Could both of them stay hot and pull off the feat simultaneously this fall?

🏈 7-0

JMU WR Chase Pensyl leads the Dukes onto the field prior to their game against Marshall earlier this month. (Lee Coleman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

James Madison, playing tonight at App State, made the CFP last season and is now the only 7-0 team in the country. How did a former all-women's college, tucked amid the rolling hills and blue crest mountains of the Shenandoah Valley, become one of the nation's fastest-ascending Division I athletic programs?

Ross Dellenger, Yahoo Sports:

The old-timers in Harrisonburg, Virginia, remember where this all started. It wasn't so long ago, in fact. In September of 1972, a 30-year-old man named Challace McMillin recruited 60 men to form the first-ever football team at what was, just five years before, an all-women's university called Madison College.

As the story goes, McMillin wandered through class registration lines plucking the most burly of men. Half of them quit before the very first practice. It did nothing to slow then-president Ron Carrier's plans of creating a football program to "change the psychology" of a campus still transitioning to coeducational.

Three years later, in 1975, Madison College finished undefeated and won the Virginia College Athletic Association. More than a half-century later, James Madison University's athletic program buzzes with fervor.

Almost every fall sport is currently in first place in the Sun Belt; the school won 15 contests against power league programs last academic year; and the football program hasn't had a losing season since 2002. JMU's last two football coaches, Curt Cignetti (Indiana) and Bob Chesney (UCLA), are leading Top-10 ranked Big Ten teams, and its current leader, Billy Napier, has won his first seven games as coach.

Last week, more good news arrived: The school accepted membership in the American Conference, just four years after transitioning from FCS to FBS. JMU administrators raised $5 million from donors to fund the Sun Belt exit fee and another $23 million from school-affiliated corporate sponsors to fund the American entrance fee.

"If you are asking if I would have predicted 25 years ago or even 15 years ago, this level of success, no," said Charlie King, a now-retired, longtime JMU vice president.

Keep reading: Why James Madison keeps winning, no matter who's in charge

📺 VIEWING GUIDE

Maye and Williams after their first matchup in November 2024. (Quinn Harris/Getty Images)

🏀 LET'S PLAY

(Bart Young/NBAE via Getty Images)

Nikola Jokić, who makes his season debut tonight, has rattled off six consecutive top-two MVP finishes, tied for the longest such streak in NBA history.

Question: Who are the other two players to accomplish that feat?

Hint: Their numbers hang in the TD Garden rafters.

Answer at the bottom.

🏀 NBA ON PRIME

New game alert! We just launched Perfect 5, a free-to-play game connected to each week's marquee "NBA on Prime" slate, which kicks off tomorrow night with Knicks at Celtics and Rockets at Spurs.

How it works: Each player featured in the "Prime" doubleheader has a salary between $1 and $5, and you have a $15 budget to build a five-player roster. Players earn fantasy points in categories like points, rebounds, assists, steals and 3-pointers. The objective: Outscore the competition.

Build your roster.

Trivia answer: Bill Russell (1958-63) and Larry Bird (1981-86)

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