Today’s sports puzzle

The New York Times’ sports-themed Connections puzzle for Tuesday, April 14, is game No. 568, with 16 words sorted into four groups of four. (cnet.com) Connections: Sports Edition is a daily word game made with The Athletic, the sports site owned by The New York Times, and it is played in The Athletic app or free on the web rather than in the main New York Times Games app. (cnet.com) Each puzzle gives players 16 sports-related words and asks them to find four linked categories, with yellow marked easiest and purple marked hardest; players lose after four mistakes. (mashable.com) For April 14, the yellow group is baseball pitching arm slots: overhand, sidearm, submarine, and three-quarters. Those are the release angles pitchers use, from high over the shoulder to low near the waist. (cnet.com) The green group is boxing gear: gloves, mouthguard, shorts, and speed bag. The blue group is “____ Ryan,” built from Buddy, Matt, Nolan, and Rex. (cnet.com) The purple group is NBA teams with the last letter changed: Bucky for Bucks, heap for Heat, spurt for Spurs, and sung for Suns. CNET called the April 14 board “a tough one,” and Mashable said it tested knowledge across multiple sports. (cnet.com) (mashable.com) The puzzle is part of a newer expansion of the Times’ games lineup. CNET reported in February 2025 that Connections: Sports Edition moved out of beta on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, after being offered in beta since September 2024. (cnet.com) That rollout tied the sports version more closely to The Athletic, which gives the game a narrower lane than the main Connections puzzle: athlete names, team names, equipment, positions, and sport-specific wordplay. (cnet.com) (mashable.com) Puzzle No. 568 leans hardest on baseball and boxing before finishing with a language trick on National Basketball Association team names. For solvers, that means April 14 is less about one league than about switching sports quickly without burning all four mistakes. (technobezz.com)