Today’s NYT Links: Sports Edition Tips, Answers for Dec. 18, #86

Search for the latest regular responses to Connections? Click here for today’s Connections tipsas well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times mini crosswords, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

A certain legendary Yankee gets his own category Links: Sports Edition. I hope you know some nicknames for this player! I knew maybe half of them, but it seemed pretty clear they were nicknames, so I did fine. And thanks to my daughter’s participation in roller derby years ago, I was able to answer a category related to this topic as well.

For now, the game is in beta, meaning the Times is testing it to see if it’s popular before adding it to the site’s Games app. You can play it every day for free for now — and then we’ll have to see if it sticks.

Read more: The NYT has a link game for sports fans. I tried it

Tips for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four tips for grouping in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the difficult (and sometimes weird) purple group.

Yellow Group Tip: Mistakes on the court.

Green Group Tip: He was number 2

Blue Group Tip: We roll happily.

Purple Group Tip: Vole is another possible answer.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Basketball fouls

Green group: Nicknames for Derek Jeter

Blue Group: Roller derby terminology

Purple group: ____ ball

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here are the most popular letters used in English words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s links

The topic is basketball fouls. The four answers are back area, double dribble, goalkeeper and travel.

The green words in today’s relationships

The topic is derek jeter nicknames. The four answers are Captain, DJ, Jeets and Mr. November.

The blue words in today’s relationships

The topic is Roller derby terminology. The four answers are blocker, bridge, silencer and axis.

Purple words in today’s relationships

The subject is ____ ball. The four answers are air, foul, golf and Lonzo.