The Wednesday edition of NYT Connections Sports Edition arrives with puzzle #653, and this one demands you know your baserunning rules, football blocking techniques, Florida bowl games, and Texas Rangers history. It's a four-sport gauntlet with zero wasted words.
What Makes Connections Sports Edition Tick
For newcomers, NYT Connections Sports Edition presents 16 sports-themed words that must be sorted into four thematic groups of four. The twist?
You're limited to four mistakes, and the color-coded difficulty system (yellow being easiest, purple being trickiest) means surface-level connections often mislead.
Connections Sports Edition brings the same addictive puzzle format to the world of athletics, featuring athletes, teams, sports terminology, and legendary moments. The game's genius lies in its red herrings, words that could fit multiple sports categories but belong in only one.
Today's Grid at a Glance
Here are the 16 words staring back at you in puzzle #653:
BURGER | CHOP | PICKLE | PASS
POP-TARTS | PICKOFF | GORE | CITRUS
CRACKBACK | DEGROM | ROCKER | PANCAKE
TAG | ORANGE | GASPARILLA | STEAL
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: Think about what happens when a runner leaves the base and chaos ensues.
Green Category Clue: These are specific moves and terms that clear a path or stop a defender in the trenches.
Blue Category Hint: Each of these words names a postseason event held in the Sunshine State.
Purple Category Teaser: This group is a roster, not of current players, but of history.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
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Yellow (Baserunning Outcomes): PICKLE, PICKOFF, STEAL, TAG
Every baserunner either gets caught in a rundown (pickle), gets thrown out trying to return (pickoff), swipes a bag (steal), or gets retired by a fielder's glove (tag). These four cover every way a runner's fate is decided between the white lines.
Green (Can Precede "Block," in Football): CHOP, CRACKBACK, PANCAKE, PASS
A chop block, crackback block, pancake block, and pass block are all fundamental football blocking techniques. "Pancake" is the only one that doubles as breakfast, the rest are pure trench warfare.
Blue (CFB Bowl Games in Florida): CITRUS, GASPARILLA, ORANGE, POP-TARTS
The Citrus Bowl (Orlando), Gasparilla Bowl (Tampa), Orange Bowl (Miami Gardens), and Pop-Tarts Bowl (Orlando) are annual college football postseason games played in Florida. The Pop-Tarts Bowl is the new kid on the block, but it's already earned a permanent spot in the rotation.
Purple (Members of the Texas Rangers): BURGER, DEGROM, ROCKER, GORE
Jake Burger, Jacob deGrom, Kumar Rocker, and Gerson, or just "Gore", are all pitchers who have suited up for the Texas Rangers. This is an MLB deep cut: deGrom is the superstar name, but Burger, Rocker, and Gore make this a real test of roster knowledge.
The Verdict
Puzzle #653 registers as moderate difficulty with a sting in the tail. Yellow falls quickly for anyone who knows baseball baserunning, while green requires a working knowledge of football blocking schemes.
Blue separates the true sports buffs from casual fans, you need to know your college bowl geography. Purple, predictably, is the streak-ender, requiring serious lateral thinking about sports terminology.
The real trap here is "PASS", it looks like a baserunning term (steal, pass, tag) or even a bowl game, but it belongs to the football blocking category. "ORANGE" could also mislead as a fruit alongside CITRUS, but it's actually a bowl game. And "POP-TARTS" sounds like food, not a postseason destination.
Reset and Repeat
Tomorrow's puzzle drops at midnight in your timezone. Until then, reflect on today's performance: did you spot the baserunning outcomes first, or did the Texas Rangers roster send you scrambling?
The beauty lies not in perfection but in training your brain to spot these hidden sports connections.
For now, puzzle #653 is solved. See you at midnight for round #654.
