
What a college football 64-team playoff bracket would look like in 2023
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adminThe stalemate over playoff expansion in college football has ended. Finally.
In 2024, the format will go from four teams to 12, meaning refreshingly there will be a few new faces added to the postseason festivities. Of course, we here at ESPN have been ahead of the curve for a few years and will again count it down from 64 teams in our fictional 2023 NCAA football tournament.
Here’s the format: We’ve seeded the teams 1 through 64, and the seeds are based to some degree on ESPN’s latest SP+ projections entering the 2023 season.
The top four seeds are Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State and Alabama (yes, 17 playoff appearances among them). With the Crimson Tide being the fourth No. 1 seed, that means they will travel to the West Region. Keep in mind that seeds aren’t written in stone, and just like in any tournament in any sport, there will be upsets. The basketball committee insists it doesn’t look for compelling storylines when setting up its bracket. We’re just the opposite. We’ll do our best to create those storylines.
So let the second-guessing begin. We’re braced for it, the claims of SEC bias (even though 13 of the past 17 national champs were produced by the SEC) and the chastising over so-called snubs and perennial powers being slayed in the early rounds.
We’ve done our homework as we look ahead to the 2023 season, but remember to have a little fun. It’s called March Madness for a reason.
Today, we will examine the field and work our way through the first two rounds of the tournament, narrowing the pool from 64 to 16. We’ll then play the rest of the games and crown a national champion.
The Bracket
1-seeds: Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama
2-seeds: Penn State, Tennessee, LSU, Oregon
3-seeds: Florida State, USC, Clemson, Washington
4-seeds: Utah, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Ole Miss
5-seeds: Texas, UCLA, Oklahoma, TCU
6-seeds: Kansas State, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Mississippi State
7-seeds: Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Oregon State
8-seeds: Auburn, South Carolina, Minnesota, Arkansas
9-seeds: Tulane, Texas Tech, Missouri, Oklahoma State
10-seeds: Pittsburgh, Louisville, Baylor, Maryland
11-seeds: UCF, Illinois, Miami, Michigan State
12-seeds: NC State, Iowa State, Cincinnati, Nebraska
13-seeds: Purdue, West Virginia, Wake Forest, Houston
14-seeds: Troy, Duke, Kansas, Washington State
15-seeds: SMU, BYU, UTSA, Syracuse
16-seeds: Colorado, South Alabama, Western Kentucky, East Carolina
First four out: Indiana, Memphis, James Madison, Georgia Tech
SOUTH REGIONAL
FIRST ROUND
(1) Georgia 40, (16) East Carolina 14: For the first time since seemingly the Reagan administration, Stetson Bennett isn’t Georgia’s starting quarterback in a postseason game. Carson Beck, though, gets it done with three touchdown passes to three different players, and Mike Houston’s best season yet at ECU comes to a close.
(2) Oregon 34, (15) Syracuse 17: This one is closer than anyone expected in the first half, as Syracuse holds Oregon to just field goals inside the red zone. But a 13-10 halftime lead for Oregon quickly swells to a 24-point cushion thanks to a defensive touchdown by the Ducks and another touchdown set up by a Trikweze Bridges interception.
(3) Washington 31, (14) Washington State 21: It’s an Apple Cup rematch, and the Huskies complete the season sweep to win 11 games for the second straight season. Rome Odunze catches a 60-yard touchdown pass in the first half and adds a tackle-breaking 45-yarder in the second half.
(4) Ole Miss 40, (13) Houston 37: It’s never dull when a couple of offensive gurus like Lane Kiffin and Dana Holgorsen face off in the postseason. Both are known for their explosive, high-scoring offenses, but Ole Miss’ running game — Quinshon Judkins rushes for 164 yards — helps the Rebels play keep-away from the Cougars in the fourth quarter.
(12) Nebraska 28, (5) TCU 26: The time-honored tradition of a No. 12 seed knocking off a No. 5 seed continues with Matt Rhule making a resounding statement in his first season in Lincoln. The Huskers are led by a two-sack performance from linebacker MJ Sherman, a Georgia transfer.
(6) Mississippi State 38, (11) Michigan State 28: The Bulldogs’ offense looks a little different under new coordinator Kevin Barbay, but veteran quarterback Will Rogers is his usual productive self with 404 passing yards and four touchdowns in an emotional win the Bulldogs dedicate to their late coach, Mike Leach.
(10) Maryland 33, (7) Oregon State 30 (OT): Mike Locksley has been steadily building a winning program at Maryland, and this is his biggest step yet in a back-and-forth contest that sees Taulia Tagovailoa outduel Clemson transfer DJ Uiagalelei in a game that is decided in overtime.
(9) Oklahoma State 35, (8) Arkansas 31: Mike Gundy and the Cowboys entered the year stinging from a disappointing 2022 season that saw them lose five of their last six games. And while there were some bumps along the way with an overhauled roster, Oklahoma State finds a way to play its best game in the postseason and upset the Hogs.
SECOND ROUND
(1) Georgia 45, (9) Oklahoma State 12: This one is never really close. The Cowboys can’t get anything going on offense against a Georgia defense that allows a total of three first downs until the latter part of the fourth quarter. Once again, Beck plays turnover-free football and leads the Dawgs to touchdowns on their first three possessions.
(2) Oregon 38, (7) Maryland 34: Talk about a quarterback classic. Bo Nix and Tagovailoa take turns entertaining the crowd with one pinpoint throw after another. They combine for more than 900 yards of total offense, and it’s a 21-yard touchdown run by Nix that proves to be the winning points for the Ducks.
(3) Washington 26, (6) Mississippi State 23: The defenses (and turnover-prone offenses) do their part to make this more of a grind-it-out game. Washington’s talented pass-rush tandem of Bralen Trice and Zion Tupuola-Fetui lives in the Mississippi State backfield, and the Huskies hold on to win after coming up with a late fourth-down stop.
(4) Ole Miss 33, (12) Nebraska 24: Once upon a time, Kiffin and Rhule were both NFL head coaches. Their meeting in this second-round game boils down to Ole Miss quarterback Spencer Sanders time and time again scrambling for the first-down marker on critical third and fourth downs. The Rebels punt only once in the game, as Kiffin in vintage fashion keeps going for it on fourth down.
REGIONAL SEMIFINALS
(1) Georgia vs. (4) Ole Miss
(2) Oregon vs. (3) Washington
MIDWEST REGIONAL
FIRST ROUND
(1) Michigan 27, (16) Western Kentucky 24: This one is way too close for anybody’s liking at Michigan, and for a while, it looks like a No. 1 vs. No. 16 upset is a real possibility. But the Wolverines rally from a 24-17 deficit to avoid an embarrassing first-round exit. The Hilltoppers play valiantly and have a chance to put the game away, but they go three-and-out on their last two possessions.
(2) LSU 35, (15) UTSA 16: Way too much Harold Perkins Jr. in this game for UTSA, which simply can’t block the Tigers’ star pass-rusher. Perkins runs his sack total to 14 on the season with two sacks and another hurry that leads to an interception that LSU turns into a short touchdown drive.
(3) Clemson 37, (14) Kansas 21: One of college football’s most versatile players all season, Will Shipley cranks out 288 yards of total offense (138 rushing, 82 receiving and 68 in returns) to lead the Tigers to a first-round win. The highlight for the Jayhawks is a spectacular diving catch in the end zone by Jared Casey.
(4) Notre Dame 28, (13) Wake Forest 27: Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman goes up against his old team after transferring from Wake Forest, and the Deacons’ defense is ready for him. They force him into a pair of interceptions and lead most of the way until Audric Estime bullies his way across the goal line in the final minute of the game.
(5) Oklahoma 35, (12) Cincinnati 13: The Sooners save their most complete effort of the season for when they need it most. Highly rated freshman quarterback Jackson Arnold pushes Dillon Gabriel some during the regular season, but Gabriel’s 330 passing yards and a stifling Oklahoma defense lift the Sooners over the Bearcats in their second and last meeting as Big 12 foes.
(6) Wisconsin 31, (11) Miami 7: In his first postseason game as Wisconsin’s coach, Luke Fickell has his team focused and playing its best football. That’s bad news for the Hurricanes, who fall behind early and end up throwing the ball 40 times and repeatedly find themselves in unfavorable down-and-distance situations.
(7) North Carolina 35, (10) Baylor 32: Quarterback Drake Maye only further solidifies his position as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft with four touchdown passes, completing 10 in a row at one point, as the Tar Heels storm back from a two-touchdown deficit.
(9) Missouri 28, (8) Minnesota 21: One of the biggest offseason wins for Missouri was holding on to talented freshman receiver Luther Burden III and keeping him out of the transfer portal. Burden’s 10-catch, 178-yard receiving game (and two touchdowns) sends the Tigers into the second round.
SECOND ROUND
(1) Michigan 45, (9) Missouri 21: After a first-round scare against Western Kentucky, Jim Harbaugh and his Wolverines take out Missouri in a second-round contest that is never close. Michigan remains unbeaten on the season and plays a sixth straight game where its opponent fails to score more than 24 points.
(2) LSU 31, (7) North Carolina 28: Maye is again spectacular and avoids LSU’s fierce pass rush over and over again to keep drives alive. Jayden Daniels‘ ability to both run and pass is a nightmare for the North Carolina defense, and Damian Ramos boots a 43-yard field goal inside the final minute to win it for the Tigers.
(6) Wisconsin 34, (3) Clemson 30: After previous stops at Oklahoma and SMU, quarterback Tanner Mordecai picks up where he left off with the Mustangs. His experience pays off handsomely in this game against a talented Clemson defense that is unable to rattle him. Twice in the final three minutes, Mordecai and the Badgers convert on third down to pull off the upset.
(4) Notre Dame 41, (5) Oklahoma 24: Hartman is too good and too seasoned to struggle in back-to-back games, especially on big stages. He throws four touchdown passes, three in the first half, and the Irish cruise into the Sweet 16 with the kind of momentum that has been building since Marcus Freeman’s first season.
REGIONAL SEMIFINALS
(1) Michigan vs. (4) Notre Dame
(2) LSU vs. (6) Wisconsin
EAST REGIONAL
FIRST ROUND
(1) Ohio State 48, (16) South Alabama 17: Kane Wommack has done a terrific job at South Alabama and leads the Jaguars to their second straight 10-win season. But they’re no match for an Ohio State team that just seems to reload every year no matter how many players the Buckeyes lose to the NFL.
(2) Tennessee 45, (15) BYU 24: These two teams were originally scheduled to open the 2023 season in Provo before Tennessee opted to buy out of the game to instead face Virginia in Nashville. Eventually, they meet up in the first round, and the Vols reach the 40-point mark for the fifth time in their past six games.
(3) USC 38, (14) Duke 17: Like Wommack at South Alabama, Mike Elko has done a fabulous job at Duke. Here the Blue Devils are in the NCAA tournament after winning nine games in Elko’s first season. Their problem in this game is the guy playing quarterback on the other side. Caleb Williams accounts for all five of the Trojans’ touchdowns in a runaway win.
(4) Texas A&M 31, (13) West Virginia 20: Bobby Petrino’s stamp on Texas A&M’s offense is obvious from the beginning of the season. The Aggies are more consistent, more balanced and able to finish games. Sophomore quarterback Conner Weigman grows each week in Petrino’s offense and plays a mistake-free game in the win over West Virginia.
(5) UCLA 41, (12) Iowa State 17: The Bruins, coming off their best season under Chip Kelly in 2022, make a loud statement to open the 2023 tournament. What a story edge rusher Laiatu Latu has been after missing two seasons at Washington with a neck injury and then transferring to UCLA. The Cyclones have no answers for him in this game.
(11) Illinois 31, (6) Kentucky 30: In a matchup of two Hayden Fry disciples (Bret Bielema vs. Mark Stoops), Illinois pulls off the upset in one of the better games of the tournament. Kentucky quarterback Devin Leary, a transfer from NC State, is tremendous, but Illinois defensive tackle Jer’Zhan Newton is a one-man wrecking crew in the fourth quarter.
(10) Louisville 27, (7) Iowa 20: After a number of flirtations with his alma mater, Jeff Brohm is back home. And in his first season, he leads the Cardinals to a first-round upset of Iowa, which can’t overcome two costly turnovers in the red zone and can’t block a Louisville front seven that takes over in the fourth quarter.
(8) South Carolina 24, (9) Texas Tech 20: South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler lost a lot of his top playmakers on offense following the 2022 season, but he doesn’t flinch in his second season with the Gamecocks and makes up for an early interception with two fourth-quarter touchdown passes to send the Red Raiders packing.
SECOND ROUND
(1) Ohio State 44, (8) South Carolina 24: Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka take turns catching touchdown passes for the Buckeyes, and the Gamecocks simply can’t keep up in a game that’s close at halftime and gets away from them in the second half when Harrison hauls in a 57-yard touchdown pass on Ohio State’s first possession.
(2) Tennessee 28, (10) Louisville 24: Josh Heupel’s offense is plenty explosive but not automatic. The Vols and quarterback Joe Milton III struggle to move the ball, and defensive tackle Jared Dawson has a big game for the Cardinals. Ultimately, it’s the defense that saves the day for the Vols, as freshman cornerback Jordan Matthews has a game-clinching interception.
(3) USC 37, (11) Illinois 24: Defensive coordinator Alex Grinch took some serious heat in 2022, but one of the things USC did really well on defense a year ago was force turnovers (28). That’s the story of this game as defensive line transfers Anthony Lucas and Kyon Barrs both force turnovers that lead to points for the Trojans.
(4) Texas A&M 35, (5) UCLA 21: Texas A&M fans were restless after a losing season in 2022, and the grumbling was only getting louder. But Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies ease a lot of those concerns with their second straight convincing win in the tournament and their second straight game in which the defense is dominant in the second half.
REGIONAL SEMIFINALS
(1) Ohio State vs. (4) Texas A&M
(2) Tennessee vs. (3) USC
WEST REGIONAL
FIRST ROUND
(1) Alabama 42, (16) Colorado 14: We’ll call this the Aflac Bowl, although Nick Saban and Deion Sanders won’t be cutting commercials together. Coach Prime needs another recruiting class or two and some key additions out of the transfer portal before he and the Buffs can line up and play with the Crimson Tide.
(2) Penn State 42, (15) SMU 20: The Nittany Lions open the tournament on fire and showcase a running game that has been potent all season. Kaytron Allen flirts with 100 yards in the first half, and Nick Singleton goes for more than 100 yards in the second half.
(3) Florida State 34, (14) Troy 21: Florida State meets the big expectations surrounding its postseason chances head-on in its first-round win over a Troy team that wasn’t going to be an easy out for anybody. The Seminoles jump out front early and are simply too physical and too athletic on defense for Troy to make a run.
(4) Utah 34, (13) Purdue 16: Good luck finding a more underrated coach and a more underrated program than Kyle Whittingham and his Utes. All they do is win and win big games. Star quarterback Cam Rising only adds to his legacy with three passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown.
(5) Texas 30, (12) NC State 26: Nobody needed to announce his arrival. Arch Manning has been and is a big deal, and he shows just how big by leading the Longhorns into the postseason on the heels of a record-breaking season for a Texas freshman. His two clutch throws on third down help hold off the Wolfpack.
(6) Kansas State 24, (11) UCF 23: The Wildcats captured the Big 12 championship a year ago, and with UCF moving over to the Big 12 in 2023, this is an all-Big 12 showdown. It’s a good one, too. The Knights, with four new starters in their offensive line, stand their ground in the running game, but the Wildcats are the stronger of the two units in the offensive line.
(10) Pittsburgh 28, (7) Florida 20: Go back and look over the past couple of years, and Pittsburgh has produced some elite talent on both sides of the ball. It takes a while for the Panthers to find their identity on offense in 2023, but their defense is as good as ever. And with Florida starting over again at quarterback, the Gators aren’t good enough offensively to get out of the first round.
(8) Auburn 20, (9) Tulane 17: Nobody was necessarily predicting a defensive struggle, but that’s what we get in a game that sees almost as many punts as first downs. Part of it is the defenses on both sides play really well, but Auburn’s Jarquez Hunter cashes in on the only long run of the game, a 44-yard touchdown romp that seals it for the Tigers.
SECOND ROUND
(1) Alabama 34, (8) Auburn 17: The Iron Bowl being played in the NCAA tournament means a second Iron Bowl in one season. The state of Alabama is bursting at the seams, but it’s outside linebacker Dallas Turner who blows up everything the Tigers try to do on offense in Alabama’s fifth straight win in the series.
(10) Pittsburgh 30, (2) Penn State 24 (OT): Once annual rivals, these two schools have played only five times since 2000. The sixth meeting is memorable, albeit not in a good way for the Nittany Lions. After Penn State goes for it on fourth-and-short and doesn’t score in overtime, Pittsburgh quarterback Phil Jurkovec scores on a quarterback draw on the Panthers’ first overtime possession.
(3) Florida State 27, (6) Kansas State 21: Maybe it’s not quite the FSU of the Bobby Bowden glory years, but the Seminoles look a lot closer to that level than they have in a long time. Quarterback Jordan Travis is too much for the Wildcats to handle on offense, and edge rusher Jared Verse is too much on defense.
(5) Texas 31, (4) Utah 27: Rising’s experience is a huge factor for the Utes, who commit two early turnovers and dig themselves into a two-touchdown hole. But Rising never panics and leads Utah back to a 27-24 lead. That’s when Manning lives up to his last name and delivers a strike to Xavier Worthy for the game-winning touchdown.
REGIONAL SEMIFINALS
(1) Alabama vs. (5) Texas
(3) Florida State vs. (10) Pittsburgh
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Power Rankings: How has each Top 25 team’s quarterback looked through Week 4?
Published
8 hours agoon
September 23, 2025By
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As we approach the one-month mark of the 2025 college football season, the state of quarterback play among the contenders (and pretenders) across the country is becoming clearer.
LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, Penn State’s Drew Allar and Texas’ Arch Manning — all for different reasons — have followed hefty preseason hype with relatively slow starts this fall. Elsewhere, Josh Hoover (TCU), Haynes King (Georgia Tech) and Diego Pavia (Vanderbilt) are looking very much as expected, and some of the nation’s biggest offseason question marks, including Oregon’s Dante Moore and Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed, have emerged as surprise stars.
Week 4 was a big one for transfer passers as Joey Aguilar (Tennessee), Carson Beck (Miami), John Mateer (Oklahoma), Fernando Mendoza (Indiana) and Beau Pribula (Missouri) all built on impressive starts with their new programs. Meanwhile, fellow portal quarterbacks Jackson Arnold (Auburn), Devon Dampier (Utah) and Jake Retzlaff (Tulane) experienced their first stumbles in their new uniforms Saturday.
With four full weeks of college football in the books, here’s our take on the Top 25 and how early-season quarterback situations are developing across the country. — Eli Lederman
Previous ranking: 1
Freshman Julian Sayin is off to a terrific start through three games, having replaced national championship-winning quarterback Will Howard. Sayin ranks 29th nationally in QBR (77.2) and is completing almost 79% of his throws. Sayin didn’t put up big numbers in Ohio State’s season-opening 14-7 victory over then-top-ranked Texas. But he was accurate and avoided any big mistakes (sacks or turnovers), which allowed the Ohio State defense to salt away the win. In Week 2’s 70-0 victory, Sayin set a school record with 16 straight completions to begin the game. Then, in Week 3, he passed for 347 yards as the offense got rolling against Ohio in the second half after a slow start. Some big tests loom ahead, most notably on Nov. 1 against Penn State and in the regular-season finale at Michigan. But Sayin has impressed so far with his poise and precision. — Jake Trotter
Previous ranking: 3
Carson Beck has helped lead the Hurricanes to a 4-0 start following a 26-7 win over Florida on Saturday. Though his performance against the Gators was not up to his standard — Beck went 17-of-30 for 160 yards with one interception — he is still completing 73% of his passes on the season and has helped position Miami in the top five as a CFP contender. Beck has shown an ability to make big plays in the passing game with his receivers, who are skilled at going up and making acrobatic catches or coming down with jump balls. Following an open date, Miami plays Florida State in Tallahassee, and Beck said he is looking forward to playing in Doak Campbell Stadium for the first time. — Andrea Adelson
Previous ranking: 2
The Ducks continue to boast one of the most balanced offenses in the country as they totaled 305 passing yards and 280 rushing yards in their 41-7 win over rivals Oregon State Saturday. One slight difference about this week’s performance, however, was that they let quarterback Dante Moore loosen his arm a bit more. Whether it was by design or not, it worked; Moore threw 31 passes for 305 yards and four touchdowns, all season highs. It was another reminder that no matter how good the Ducks have been this season, Moore still has more in the tank. Even if he doesn’t have the kind of off-the-charts pop that others at his position might boast, the sophomore has proved he can be efficient, explosive when needed and, most importantly, capable of managing Oregon’s offense to perfection so far. — Paolo Uggetti
Previous ranking: 4
After a slow start to the season due to a torso injury, Tigers quarterback Garrett Nussmeier again looked like one of the best passers in the FBS on Saturday, albeit against FCS program Southeastern Louisiana. And with a trip to Ole Miss coming up next, it couldn’t have come at a better time for LSU. Nussmeier completed 25 of 31 passes for 273 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions in 2½ quarters of action against the Lions. It was the first game in which he threw for more than 250 yards this season. “This week was big about trying to find our rhythm and getting in stride heading into SEC play,” Nussmeier said. LSU coach Brian Kelly thought Nussmeier did a better job seeing the field and throwing in rhythm. — Mark Schlabach
Previous ranking: 7
Veteran Drew Allar is off to a bit of a slow start statistically. He ranks 111th in QBR (38.4) and has thrown just four touchdowns over three games. But the Nittany Lions have yet to be pressed, as they coasted past Nevada (46-11), Florida International (34-0) and Villanova (52-6). The spotlight, however, will be on Allar and Penn State next weekend when Oregon visits for a prime-time, “White Out” showdown. Allar admitted over the summer that the time has come for the Nittany Lions “to get over that hump” against big-time opponents. Under coach James Franklin, Penn State is 4-20 against teams ranked in the AP top 10 — and Allar has only one career top-10 win (Boise State last year) as Penn State’s starting quarterback. Beating the Ducks this time around would be a huge statement for Allar and the Nittany Lions. — Trotter
Previous ranking: 5
Any lingering quarterback concerns that Georgia fans had about Gunner Stockton were probably put to rest after his performance in a 44-41 overtime victory at Tennessee on Sept. 13. The sophomore completed 23 of 31 passes for 304 yards with two touchdowns and ran 13 times for 38 yards with another score. It was a much better performance for Stockton, who struggled to get the ball down the field in a 28-6 victory against Austin Peay the week before. He led the Bulldogs on four touchdown drives of 72 yards or longer, including one near the end of regulation that resulted in his 28-yard scoring pass to London Humphreys on fourth down. Georgia’s offensive line needs to get better, and Stockton needs to improve at keeping his eyes down the field while scrambling. — Schlabach
Previous ranking: 8
So far, things could not have gone better for the Seminoles with transfer quarterback Tommy Castellanos, who has been a perfect fit for the offense and the team in general. Castellanos has thrown for 594 yards and three touchdowns this season, completing 71% of his passes, while adding 139 yards rushing and three scores. Florida State has not had to rely on the passing game just yet, as the Seminoles have steamrolled their opponents on the ground. Castellanos did have a bit of a scare in a 66-10 win over Kent State when his leg got rolled up on, but he said afterward he was “all good.” — Adelson
Previous ranking: 9
Washington State transfer John Mateer has delivered on the hype that followed his offseason arrival in Norman. Through four games, he has already taken care of his principal objective: stabilizing a Sooners offense that finished 113th in total offense a year ago. But Mateer has also brought with him a brand of playmaking ability Oklahoma hasn’t had at the quarterback position since Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts rolled through the program in the late 2010s. Following Saturday’s 24-17 win over then-No. 22 Auburn, Mateer ranks sixth nationally in passing yards (1,215) and tied for second among Power 4 quarterbacks in rushing scores (five). He was far from perfect facing an SEC defense for the first time, and Mateer’s turnover tally (four) and propensity for working himself into trouble are worth keeping an eye on as Oklahoma stares down ranked matchups in six of its final eight games of the season. But there’s no doubt that Mateer has significantly raised the floor for the Sooners’ offense. The question now is just how high the ceiling can be this fall. — Lederman
Previous ranking: 6
The Aggies had a bye week, a fortuitous break after an emotional trip to Notre Dame where they won on a fourth-down touchdown with 13 seconds left. It was A&M’s first road nonconference win against a ranked team since 1979 and first road win against any ranked team at all since 2014. Marcel Reed was just 17-of-37 in that game but threw for 360 yards, and KC Concepcion and Mario Craver have provided the 3-0 Aggies with the big-play threats they lacked last season. Last year, A&M got off to a hot start, beginning 7-1, including a win over No. 8 LSU. Then, a slide started, beginning with a road loss to South Carolina followed by a 43-41 triple-overtime loss to Auburn. The Aggies get the Tigers at home next week, who are coming off a road loss to Oklahoma, to try to keep this year’s momentum rolling. — Dave Wilson
Previous ranking: 20
Although Indiana retained many of its top players from its 2024 CFP team, it needed to replace standout quarterback Kurtis Rourke. The team plucked one of the top available transfers in Cal‘s Fernando Mendoza, who joined his younger brother and fellow quarterback Alberto Mendoza at IU. How would Mendoza adjust? The answer came Saturday with a near-flawless performance, as Mendoza had three more touchdown passes (five) than incompletions (two), finishing with 267 passing yards and finding four different teammates for scores. He became the second FBS player with five passing touchdowns and 90% completions against an AP ranked opponent in the past 30 years, joining Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud in 2021 against Michigan State. Mendoza could end up being an upgrade from Rourke. — Adam Rittenberg
Previous ranking: 12
After four games, Rebels coach Lane Kiffin has a good problem on his hands. Ole Miss has two quarterbacks who are more than capable of running the offense. Starter Austin Simmons won the job in camp and has thrown for 580 yards with four touchdowns and four interceptions. Simmons injured his ankle in the fourth quarter of a 30-23 win at Kentucky on Sept. 6, and backup Trinidad Chambliss has played even better in his absence. In Saturday’s 45-10 rout of Tulane, Chambliss passed for 307 yards with two touchdowns and ran for 112 yards on 14 attempts. In the past two wins over Arkansas and Tulane, Chambliss threw for 660 yards with three touchdown passes and no interceptions, while running for 174 with two scores. With LSU going to Oxford, Mississippi, next week, Kiffin faces a difficult decision. “I’m not saying he’s Russell Wilson, don’t get me wrong, but there’s some similarities in that kind of in the ‘it factor’ and how he moves and holds himself, you know, that I’ve kind of said that since he’s gotten here,” Kiffin said of Chambliss, who won two Division II national championships at Ferris State in Big Rapids, Michigan. — Schlabach
Previous ranking: 17
Behren Morton took some rough hits on Saturday, including a hit to the head that knocked him out of the Red Raiders’ road test at Utah. But Texas Tech did not miss a beat when backup Will Hammond stepped in to replace him. The redshirt freshman threw for 169 yards, rushed for 61 yards and led a 21-0 scoring run in the fourth quarter for a massive 34-10 victory against then No. 16 Utah. Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said Morton will be fine, and a bye week is arriving at a good time for this team. But Hammond, who put up the second-best QBR (96.3) in FBS during Week 4, has done more than enough to prove he’s ready to help this team win if called upon. — Max Olson
Previous ranking: 10
A tuneup against 0-4 Sam Houston might have been what the doctor ordered for several scuffling Longhorns who had yet to find their stride this season. Arch Manning accounted for five touchdowns — three passing and two rushing — and completed 14 passes in a row a week after the Longhorns’ offense got booed after 10 straight incompletions against UTEP. Saturday, Manning finished 18-of-21 for 309 yards, including two touchdown passes of 53 and 13 yards to Ryan Wingo, who had just nine catches and one touchdown in the first three games, and edge rushing star Colin Simmons recorded his first solo sack of the year. The Longhorns head to Florida on Saturday hoping to keep building momentum in their SEC opener against the 1-3 Gators before facing Oklahoma, which beat Auburn to move to 4-0, in Dallas the following week. — Wilson
Previous ranking: 16
Joey Aguilar and Tennessee faced a unique test this week, needing to get back on track after a devastating loss to Georgia last week. Safe to say, they passed it. Aguilar threw for 218 yards and three touchdowns and needed to play only one drive in the second half as the Vols broke out to a 42-7 halftime lead and cruised 56-24 over UAB. The Vols are averaging 53.5 points per game through four games, and Aguilar has 1,124 passing yards and 12 touchdowns. They have an explosiveness that they lacked with Nico Iamaleava at quarterback last season, and the defense has been fine against teams not named Georgia. Starting next week at Mississippi State, however, the Vols embark on a run of three road trips in four games. We’ll see if Aguilar’s solid early form travels. — Bill Connelly
Previous ranking: 13
The Cyclones were idle this week ahead of next week’s home game against surging Arizona. At 4-0, Iowa State is off to a promising start, but it has to turn in a comprehensive win against an FBS opponent as all three such wins have come by one score. Quarterback Rocco Becht is finding a way to help pull these games out, but Iowa State needs more explosive plays from its offense if it expects to seriously compete for the Big 12 title. — Kyle Bonagura
Previous ranking: 15
Ty Simpson had to wait years to win Alabama’s starting job, and his tenure began as inauspiciously as possible with a dire loss at Florida State. Simpson has been almost perfect since, however, completing 41 of 46 passes for 608 yards and seven TDs against UL Monroe and Wisconsin. The Tide rolled in both games, setting the table nicely for an enormous and potentially season-defining trip to Georgia next Saturday. If Simpson looks good in a Tide win, he enters the Heisman discussion and Alabama’s CFP bona fides get a nice boost. If he struggles and Bama loses, the CFP starts to seem like a pipe dream. — Connelly
Previous ranking: 19
Beau Pribula has had it pretty easy early in his tenure as Mizzou’s starting quarterback. He has completed 72% of his passes with an 8-to-2 INT-to-TD ratio, he has been a solid scrambling weapon at times, and he has been able to turn around and hand the ball off to Ahmad Hardy and Jamal Roberts. They’ve taken it from there. The running back duo rushed 35 times for 214 yards and two touchdowns in Mizzou’s 29-20 win over South Carolina on Saturday night. Despite missing left tackle Cayden Green, Mizzou had 285 yards rushing, Pribula took only one sack and Mizzou went 7-for-13 on third downs. Only some third-down brilliance from the Gamecocks’ LaNorris Sellers kept this one competitive, but the Tigers moved to 4-0 by finishing the game on an 11-0 run. With a buy game against UMass and a bye week coming up, it looks like Pribula will lead an unbeaten team against Alabama in Columbia in a couple of weeks. — Connelly
Previous ranking: 18
Saturday’s win over Temple wasn’t exactly pretty, but then again, things rarely are for the Yellow Jackets. QB Haynes King likes it that way. Few quarterbacks in the country have proved their toughness more than King, who added three touchdowns in Week 4’s 45-24 win over the Owls. King’s ability to make plays with his legs is what sets him apart, but he has also been stellar as a passer — a big question coming off last season’s shoulder injury. Georgia Tech’s next two games are against Wake Forest and Virginia Tech — two of the ACC’s bottom-feeders — meaning he’ll have a shot to pad his stat line even more before a showdown at Duke on Oct. 18. — David Hale
Previous ranking: 21
Freshman phenom Bryce Underwood earned his first Big Ten road victory on Saturday with a 30-27 win at Nebraska. He didn’t put up crazy stats on the day — 105 passing yards, 61 rushing yards, one TD — but didn’t need to while the Wolverines’ run game overwhelmed a top-10 scoring defense with 292 rushing yards on 9.1 yards per carry (excluding sacks). Interim coach Biff Poggi loved the poise Underwood brought to the sideline and huddle that gave his team no doubt it’d win. The young QB’s developmental trajectory through four games remains extremely exciting to watch. — Olson
Previous ranking: 22
Diego Pavia fought for an extra year of eligibility in 2025 and is absolutely making the most of it. The sixth-year senior avenged last year’s upset loss to Georgia State with a 70-21 rout on Saturday night that has Vanderbilt off to a 4-0 start for the first time since 2008. Pavia has dramatically raised his completion percentage from 59.4% last season to an SEC-best 73.9%, ranks among the top 10 in QBR (85.7) and is powering a top-10 scoring offense that’s putting up 47.5 points per game. The Commodores have one more nonconference tuneup against Utah State before an epic October schedule against four of the SEC’s best in Alabama, LSU, Missouri and Texas. — Olson
Previous ranking: 25
The Horned Frogs played a bit sloppy but never panicked against SMU in a 35-24 win, the last iteration of a rivalry that dates back to 2015. Josh Hoover threw for 379 yards and a career-high five touchdowns, and a stacked receiving room saw Eric McAlister become this week’s star, with eight catches for 254 yards (second best in school history) and three touchdowns, narrowly missing two more, one on an interception that was wrestled away from him and another on a possible TD catch that was ruled incomplete and wasn’t reviewed by officials. The defense held SMU to 384 yards, 4-of-13 on third down and the Mustangs’ fewest points all season. The Frogs, who snuck into the AP Top 25 at No. 24 this week, head to Tempe to take on defending Big 12 champs Arizona State on Friday night, a test that could start to reveal if TCU is back on its 2022 trajectory. — Wilson
Previous ranking: NR
If there wasn’t much talk about Jayden Maiava‘s season so far, then let the chatter begin. The Trojans’ quarterback was impressive against Michigan State in a 45-31 win, looking as comfortable as ever in Lincoln Riley’s offense. Maiva completed 20 of 26 passes for 234 yards (and crossed the 1,000-yard mark for the season) while adding three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns too. It’s not clear yet just how good USC is and can be in the Big Ten and beyond this season, but through four contests, there’s no doubt that the explosive offense the sport has come to expect when Riley has a dynamic quarterback in tow is alive and well with Maiava under center. In fact, after putting up 517 yards of offense against the Spartans, the Trojans’ average yards per game for the year (604 per game, tops in the country) will go down. At the center of it all has been Maiava. — Uggetti
Previous ranking: 24
When the season opened, the biggest question looming over Notre Dame was at quarterback. It took until late in fall camp before CJ Carr won the job, and the Irish — fresh off a trip to the national championship game — might’ve reasonably been concerned about putting their fate in the hands of a QB with no starting experience. Turns out, Carr has been fine — throwing for 223 yards and two touchdowns in a 56-30 win over Purdue on Saturday — and Notre Dame’s Achilles’ heel has been the area the Irish might’ve felt best about: the secondary. Purdue threw for 303 yards and three touchdowns Saturday, and the battered and struggling defensive backs in South Bend showed little ability to adjust. Notre Dame might have its QB1, but the job now is stopping the other team’s quarterback. — Hale
Previous ranking: 11
When the Illini slogged through the first half Sept. 6 against Duke, struggling along the line of scrimmage, quarterback Luke Altmyer kept the team on track, avoiding major mistakes and buying enough time for a second-half surge. But Altmyer had no chance to be a hero at Indiana, which swarmed him all night, recording five sacks in the first half and seven in the game. Other than a 59-yard touchdown pass to Collin Dixon, Altmyer was limited to 87 passing yards on 13 completions and constantly faced pressure. He certainly can play better and will need to beginning this week against USC. But Altmyer was far from Illinois’ biggest problem in the Indiana debacle. He has given the Illini a veteran presence who, when given time, can pick apart defenses. — Rittenberg
Previous ranking: 14
The celebration in Utah about a revived Utes offense was premature, it turns out. Utah and Texas Tech were locked in a defensive tussle for much of Saturday’s 34-10 Texas Tech win before the Red Raiders finished the game with a flurry of touchdowns in the fourth quarter. The Utes struggled in both phases on offense, managing just 101 yards rushing on 31 carries (3.3 yards per carry) and only 162 yards through the air. The ineffectiveness of the offense was compounded by four turnovers that served as an unpleasant reminder of the past two seasons. — Bonagura
Sports
Yogi Berra, the Yankees and the biggest game of catch ever
Published
11 hours agoon
September 23, 2025By
admin
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Alyssa RoenigkSep 22, 2025, 09:02 AM ET
Close- Alyssa Roenigk is a senior writer for ESPN whose assignments have taken her to six continents and caused her to commit countless acts of recklessness. (Follow @alyroe on Twitter).
LITTLE FALLS, N.J. — Yogi would have loved this.
Hundreds of people, young, old and wearing matching commemorative T-shirts, just finished dancing the “YMCA” on the field at Yogi Berra Stadium at Montclair State University. Little League teams, former MLB players and local politicians laugh and clutch their gloves as volunteers hand out souvenir baseballs. Yankees organist Ed Alstrom plays “Charge!” from a stage in center field, and the crowd responds on cue.
“Yogi loved bringing people together,” says Yankees great Willie Randolph, who played for Berra from 1976 to 1988 and later coached the Yankees and managed the Mets. “He made everyone feel like they’re family. He would have been ecstatic. I think he’s looking down on this field and is so proud.”
They have all come here on a Sunday afternoon, from as far away as California and Florida, to celebrate a man who treated every interaction much like a game of catch. Berra cared as much about what he tossed into a conversation as how he received what was thrown his way. So, what better way to honor him than by playing the biggest game of catch? Ever.
The current record is 972 pairs, set eight years ago in Illinois. On its face, breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest game of catch sounds simple: Gather a couple thousand people, pair them up and ask them to toss baseballs back and forth for five minutes. Doing it, however, is anything but easy.
When Eve Schaenen, the executive director of the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center at Montclair State, approached Guinness with the idea, adjudicator Michael Empric, who is overseeing the day’s process, told her that many mass-attendance record attempts fail.
“That’s part of why we wanted to do this,” Schaenen says. “There are stakes. Yogi played a game where you could strike out. You could lose. That doesn’t mean you don’t try. He was told he couldn’t so many times and look at what remarkable things he did with his life.”
Berra was born 100 years ago and died before many of the kids gathered here were born. He made his MLB debut in 1946, retired as a player in 1965 and stopped coaching in 1989. Yet, everyone here on this day has a story about a time they were touched by his life. Berra connected deeply with people. It didn’t matter if he was talking to a teammate, a waiter, the president or his postman. With Berra, everyone got the same guy.
That this record attempt is taking place one day before the anniversary of his death (and his MLB debut) on Sept. 22 might have elicited him to create one of his popular Yogi-isms. “Well,” he might have said, “we’re a day early, but right on time.”
TO BASEBALL FANS, Yogi Berra is a legend. An MLB Hall of Famer. A man who played in 75 World Series games and won 10 rings — both records unlikely to be broken — and was one of the best “bad ball” hitters in history. The image of Berra leaping into the arms of Yankees pitcher Don Larsen after calling the only perfect game in World Series history in 1956 is indelible in the minds of baseball fans.
“All Yankees fans are Yogi fans,” says Paul Semendinger, a retired principal and adjunct professor at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey. He is wearing a replica 1939 Lou Gehrig Yankees jersey. “But you can be a Yogi fan without being a Yankees fan.”
Case in point: Semendinger, 57, is here with his 26-year-old son, Ethan, and 87-year-old dad, Paul Sr., “the world’s biggest Ted Williams fan.” (Paul Sr. is wearing a Red Sox jersey.) “You could root for Yogi even if you’re not a fan of his team,” Paul Sr. says, “because he was a good person.”
Semendinger and his son run a Yankees blog and play on a softball team together. He and his dad still meet up a few times a year to play catch in the backyard. “For 87, he still throws a pretty good knuckleball,” Semendinger says.
When Josh Rawitch, the president of the Baseball Hall of Fame, was 10, he sent Berra a baseball card from his home in Los Angeles and asked him to sign it. “It came back with his signature in this perfect penmanship,” Rawitch says. “I was a big fan of baseball history and although I was a Dodgers fan, he was Yogi Berra.” Over the years, Rawitch met Berra multiple times and became a fan of him as a man. “For someone with 10 rings, he never took himself too seriously,” he says. “He had such humility.”
Rawitch is here to display Berra’s Hall of Fame plaque, which a museum employee drove nearly 200 miles from Cooperstown, New York, to Little Falls on Saturday. It’s the first time the plaque has left the Hall since Berra was inducted in 1972.
“It’s rare that we do this,” Rawitch says. “But we knew we wanted to be a part of something so special.”
Anthony “Uncle Tony” Stinger turned 90 this year. He was in the right-field grandstands at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 22, 1946, when Berra made his MLB debut. “It was a Sunday, the second game of a doubleheader against Philadelphia,” Stinger says. “I took the 4 train from Harlem to the stadium, and the Yankees called Yogi up that day. He could hit anything, even a ball a foot off the ground. They didn’t know how to pitch to him.”
Stinger has lived in the Bronx for 53 years and came here with his nieces. Although he’s only spectating, he says he wouldn’t have missed this event for the world. “Yogi would be amazed,” he says, looking around the stadium.
TO MANY, BERRA was a war hero. The St. Louis native signed with the Yankees in 1943 but delayed his MLB career to enlist in the Navy on his 18th birthday and served as a gunner’s mate in World War II. He provided cover from a rocket boat for the troops who landed on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. He was wounded by enemy fire and earned a Purple Heart, although he famously never received the medal because he didn’t fill out the paperwork. He didn’t want his mother to worry.
Daniel Joseph Clair joined the Marines in 1966 and earned a Purple Heart for his service in Vietnam. He’s here to play catch with his wife, a lifelong Yankees fan. “I met Yogi outside the stadium once,” Clair says. “He took the time to talk to me before he got on the bus.”
To many of the players he coached, Berra was a lifetime friend and confidant.
“I’m getting goose bumps talking about him,” Randolph says, rubbing his arms. “Some of my best memories as a young manager are sitting in my office before games and talking baseball with Yogi. When I think about being the first African American manager in New York history, which I am very proud of, Yogi was very instrumental in that. He taught me so much. I miss him every day.”
Two months after his death, Berra was awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom for his military service as well as his civil rights and educational activism, although he would balk at being called an activist. He would say he was just treating people equally, as he would want to be treated.
Berra grew up on The Hill, a heavily Italian area of St. Louis, and later faced prejudice and ridicule for being Italian and not looking like a typical ballplayer. Throughout his life, whether by crossing racial lines or through his work with Athlete Ally on LGBTQ equality — an organization he joined in his 80s — he wasn’t trying to set an example, yet time and again, he did.
Berra befriended Jackie Robinson in 1946 when they played on opposing teams in the International League. The next year, Robinson broke MLB’s color barrier. Before games, Berra would walk across the field at Yankee Stadium to find Robinson and chat with his friend. “I don’t think he was doing it to make a statement, but 60,000 people saw him talking to Jackie,” Berra’s eldest granddaughter, Lindsay Berra, says. “This was 18 years before the Civil Rights Act. He was making a comment, whether he knew it or not.”
When Elston Howard became the Yankees’ first Black player in 1955, Berra began grooming him as his replacement behind the plate. During spring training in segregated Florida, Howard couldn’t ride on the same bus, eat in the same restaurants or stay in the same hotels as his white teammates. So, Berra often joined him at his.
TO PEOPLE WHO never watched baseball, Berra was a cultural phenomenon, a “Jeopardy!” answer, a man they quoted sometimes without knowing who they were quoting.
It ain’t over ’til it’s over.
It’s déjà vu all over again.
You can observe a lot by watching.
If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.
Berra was the personification of a cartoon bear, a Yoo-hoo pitchman and, as Wynton Marsalis once said while touring the museum, “the Thelonious Monk of baseball.” He was world famous and as recognizable as any figure in sports, yet he was also the guy his three sons would find downstairs in the mornings having coffee with the postman, garbage man and a few of Montclair’s finest.
Tommy Corizzi is too young to have seen Berra play or coach. In fact, he was born just one year before Berra died. He’s here with his “pop pop,” Tom Corizzi, who loved the idea of spending a Sunday afternoon connecting with his grandson and his favorite team. “Yogi was cool,” Tommy, 11, says. “I want to be in the world record book with him.”
Thirteen-year-old Jake Esarey Elmgart is here with his baseball team. He donated the $2,500 he raised for his bar mitzvah project to this event to help pay for kids with special needs to attend.
Just last week, a local woman handed Lindsay a letter she said she found in a drawer recently. The woman’s son, now in his 30s, wrote the letter to Berra in 2000 — 35 years after he retired — but never sent it. “You were in your car and while you were driving, you pointed at me and put your thumb up,” Justin LaMarca, then 8, wrote in pencil and in cursive. “I yelled to you and said you are my favorite player in the world.”
TO ME, BERRA was my best friend’s grandpa.
I met Lindsay in 2002 when I joined the staff at ESPN The Magazine in New York City, where she worked at the time. We became fast friends. Her family became mine in the way that happens when you live far from your own. Grammy Carmen was chic and sentimental. Grampa Yogi was funny and grumpy and warm and honest, and I think of them every Christmas when I hang the oversized red ceramic ornament they bought for me at New York’s 21 Club. Or at Halloween, because they always answered the door for trick-or-treaters in the same costumes: Grammy Carmen as an adorable witch and Grampa Yogi as Yogi Berra.
A half hour before the record attempt, I’m standing outside the museum with my dad, Fred. We came here in May 2012 to celebrate Berra’s 87th birthday. We toured the museum and watched the Yankees beat the Mariners from a party suite at Yankee Stadium. My dad remembers watching Grampa Yogi interact with fans and former players, singing him “Happy Birthday” and eating pieces of a pinstriped cake.
The previous night, my dad watched a few innings of a game with him in Berra’s living room. “Here’s your chance to ask him anything,” I told him.
My dad was 12 when Berra retired as a player. He grew up on a Belgian horse farm outside of Pittsburgh and never had the chance to see him play in person. He had few opportunities to watch him play on TV because the networks carried only local games back then, plus the Game of the Week on Saturdays. He does, however, remember watching the Pirates beat the Yankees in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. “I was 7,” he says. “I’m not sure if I remember it as much as I remember the photo of Yogi standing in left field watching Bill Mazeroski’s homer go over the fence. That’s an iconic Pittsburgh picture.”
At the top of the ninth inning in that shocking game (if you’re a Yankees fan), Berra hit a grounder to tie the score 9-9. Then, in the bottom of the ninth, Mazeroski hit a walk-off homer to seal the series for the Pirates. “Yogi said the worst day of his life was watching the ball go over the fence at Forbes Field,” my dad says. (I did tell him to ask the man anything.) “Imagine all he’d experienced in his life, and he said that was his worst day.”
Grampa Yogi died three years after that visit. That weekend was one of many times I watched my best friend share her grandpa with the world. Lindsay had watched her grandmother do so graciously throughout her life, listening with care as people told her how much they loved her husband. But Lindsay didn’t understand how people who had met her grandfather for only a moment, if at all, could feel the same kind of love toward him that she did. After his death, as tributes poured in from around the world, she realized that though their love might not be the same as hers, it is just as real. And it is flowing through this stadium now.
I’M STANDING ON the field precisely 3 meters across from my dad, a baseball glove on my left hand. My dad tosses a baseball my way. I catch it and look around. Baseballs are flying everywhere. People are laughing and dancing and dropping balls. We’re all singing along to John Fogerty’s “Centerfield.”
There’s a mystical quality to the relationship that develops between the two people on either end of a game of catch, and it’s happening for all of us now. Maybe it’s how attuned we’ve become to each other, to subtle shifts in our partner’s body position and the message those movements communicate. I’m ready. Send it my way. Maybe it’s the meditative rhythm of the back-and-forth and how quickly the world narrows to the space between us. Or maybe it’s as simple as the eye contact and focus the act requires.
My dad doesn’t remember the first time we played catch together. I don’t, either. But being here on this day, tossing a baseball methodically with him, I’m transported to a Little League field in Cape Coral, Florida. I am 11, wearing an oversized blue Expos jersey and stirrup socks, and warming up with him before a playoff game. The last time we played catch, I was likely in high school and playing shortstop for the CCHS Seahawks.
Lindsay is playing catch with her boyfriend, Peter, surrounded by her family. She remembers the first time she played catch with her grandpa. “My earliest memories are playing wiffle ball in the front yard at holidays,” she says. “Uncle Dale had broken a window at a neighbor’s house, so we played with something safer.” The real baseballs came out when her grandfather was asked to throw out a first pitch. “He’d call each of the grandkids until someone was available to come up to the house and play catch with him,” Lindsay says. “He didn’t want to embarrass himself on the mound.”
When Berra’s boys were young, he was coaching and away from home during baseball season, so they never had the chance to play catch with their dad. Dale says that while Berra loved to toss the football or shoot baskets with him and his brothers, he believes his dad never wanted them to feel pressure to play baseball. “When I signed with the Mets in 1972, I warmed up with him during spring training,” Larry says. “That’s the only memory I have of playing catch with my dad. But I feel him today.”
Larry is playing catch with his son, Andrew. While Empric watches from the stage, volunteers walk the neatly spaced rows of participants looking for rule breakers: people who are on their phones, rolling the ball rather than throwing it or too young to meet the cutoff (age 7). When the five-minute clock runs out, everyone hoots and cheers and high-fives.
“If Dad were here, he’d probably ask, ‘Why would all these people do this? They don’t have to be here,'” Larry says. “He never understood the impact he had on people just by saying hello, by waving, by inviting them in for coffee. He always said, ‘I just played baseball.’ He never understood the aura he created.”
After several excruciating minutes, Empric walks to the podium to deliver the result. “I can now announce that today … in Little Falls … New Jersey … USA … you had a total of … 1,179 pairs,” he says, and hands Schaenen an oversized plaque, which she thrusts into the air. The crowd erupts. “It’s a new Guinness World Record,” Empric says. “Congratulations! You are officially amazing.”
For a while, no one moves. For nearly an hour, many people stay on the field and soak up the magic flowing between the baselines. Some continue to play catch, others chat with the people they stood next to during the attempt. This is what today was all about. Yogi was many things to many people, and today, he brought us all together.
Sports
Braves, Morton reunite for final week of season
Published
12 hours agoon
September 22, 2025By
admin
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Associated Press
Sep 22, 2025, 05:51 PM ET
ATLANTA — The Braves signed veteran pitcher Charlie Morton to a major league contract on Monday, a day after the right-hander was designated for assignment and released by Detroit.
Manager Brian Snitker did not say if the 41-year-old Morton, who will arrive in Atlanta on Tuesday, will pitch for the Braves in the final week of the season.
“We don’t really have a plan,” Snitker said. “We got him back. I don’t know what that plan would be. I talked to him Saturday afternoon before batting practice [in Detroit]. It wasn’t even on the radar.”
This would be Morton’s third career stint with the Braves. He was drafted by Atlanta in the third round (95th overall) of the 2002 draft. Morton made his MLB debut with Atlanta in 2008 and from 2009 to 2020 pitched for the Pirates, Phillies, Astros and Rays, respectively, before returning to Atlanta for the 2021-24 seasons.
Morton signed a one-year, $15 million contract with the Orioles in January and was traded to the Tigers before July’s trade deadline.
Morton last pitched for Detroit on Friday, allowing six earned runs on five hits in 1 1/3 innings with two strikeouts and two walks in a 10-1 loss to Atlanta.
Morton won a World Series title with the Astros in 2017 and the Braves in 2021.
This season, Morton is 9-11 with a 5.89 ERA in 32 games, including 26 starts. Morton has a career regular-season win-loss record of 147-134 over 415 games (406 starts) and 2,266 innings. His 2,195 career strikeouts rank sixth among active MLB pitchers.
In a corresponding move, Atlanta optioned right-handed pitcher Jhancarlos Lara to Triple-A Gwinnett and designated right-hander Carson Ragsdale for assignment.
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