The Friday edition of NYT Connections Sports Edition arrives with puzzle #704, serving up a grid that crosses baseball bookkeeping, college geography, global soccer, and uniform lore.
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 #704:
ZEN POSE | BERRA | TROY | AIKMAN
OVECHKIN | GOALS | RUNS | ALABAMA
UAB | RBIS | AUBURN | HOME RUNS
BATTING AVERAGE | NORWAY | JACKSON | MANCHESTER CITY
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: Think about the numerical columns that summarize individual performance in a baseball box score.
Green Category Clue: Shift from the playing field to a map, then look for institutions sharing one part of the country.
Blue Category Hint: One international superstar can connect a celebration, a national identity, a club setting, and an on-field result.
Purple Category Teaser: Compare notable athletes from different sports through a detail found on their uniforms.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
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Yellow (Stats For A Hitter): BATTING AVERAGE, HOME RUNS, RBIS, RUNS
HOME RUNS, RBIS, RUNS, and BATTING AVERAGE are all stats for a hitter, covering power, production, scoring, and success at the plate.
GOALS creates the clean red herring because it is also a scoring total, but it belongs to the soccer-centered set.
Green (Alabama Schools): ALABAMA, AUBURN, TROY, UAB
ALABAMA, AUBURN, TROY, and UAB are Alabama schools, turning four institution names into a compact geography group.
TROY is the sharpest piece of misdirection because it pairs naturally with AIKMAN to form the quarterback's full name, even though the two entries solve into different groups.
Blue (Associated With Erling Haaland): GOALS, MANCHESTER CITY, NORWAY, ZEN POSE
ZEN POSE, MANCHESTER CITY, NORWAY, and GOALS are associated with Erling Haaland through his celebration, club, national identity, and prolific scoring.
The set mixes a gesture, a team, a country, and an outcome, so its connection depends on recognizing the athlete rather than matching a single grammatical type.
Purple (Famous Number 8s): AIKMAN, BERRA, JACKSON, OVECHKIN
BERRA, AIKMAN, OVECHKIN, and JACKSON are famous number 8s, represented by Yogi Berra, Troy Aikman, Alex Ovechkin, and Lamar Jackson.
The trick crosses baseball, football, and hockey, asking for a shared jersey number instead of a shared league or position.
The Verdict
The hitter-stat group should fall first because all four entries use familiar baseball scorekeeping language.
The real trap is TROY beside AIKMAN, a convincing full-name pairing that pulls one entry away from the school set and the other away from the jersey-number set.
The number 8 connection is the decisive group because it demands a jump across three sports after the cleaner statistical and geographic links are removed.
Reset and Repeat
Today's best move was looking past leagues and positions to find four athletes joined by the same number. Reset the grid instincts and come back tomorrow for another round.
For now, puzzle #704 is solved. See you at midnight for the next round.
