PHILADELPHIA — Outfielder Michael Harris II or starting pitcher Spencer Strider? Nobody on the Braves can figure out how they’d vote in the two-man National League Rookie of the Year race between Atlanta teammates. “It’s incredibly difficult,” Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson said, standing just outside the visiting clubhouse in Philadelphia ahead of batting practice last […]
It took the Indiana Fever 18 games to reach two wins in 2021 — a difficult season that ended with a league-worst mark of 6-26. But Indiana recorded its second win this season in just its fourth game, a spirited 92-86 overtime win on the road last Friday against the New York Liberty. Much of […]
Nothing brings more hope to an NFL franchise than a shiny first-round rookie quarterback. This year we have five of them, all selected within the top 15 picks. From San Francisco to Chicago, from New York to Jacksonville, hope was in the air. Even a famous grump like New England’s Bill Belichick felt optimistic enough […]
Plenty of rookies have taken Major League Baseball by storm through the years. Ted Williams. Mark Fidrych. Kevin Maas. But Yermín Mercedes, the hitting machine for the Chicago White Sox, has already achieved the ultimate in baseball immortality: There’s a burger named after him. It sounds delicious (Mercedes himself is a fan), but it can’t […]
Of all the WNBA awards, Rookie of the Year may have the most amorphous definition. Most Valuable Player tends to favor how well a player does at lifting her team, a nexus of individual accomplishment and team record. Most Improved Player is about measuring the distance from last year to this year. Sixth Woman is […]