Today's NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Dec. 19, #87

2 days ago 4

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Connections: Sports Edition leans heavily on categories that use general words, but when it gets into personal names, the difficulty goes up. If you don't know the top performers in, say, American football, or Olympic swimming, you might be reduced to guessing. I did some of that today. Read on for hints and answers for today's Connections: Sports Edition puzzle.

For now, the game is in beta, which means the Times is testing it out to see if it's popular before adding it to the site's Games app. You can play it daily for now for free — and then we'll have to see if it sticks around.

Hints for today's Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today's Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Throw it.

Green group hint: Gridiron plans.

Blue group hint: Swimmer winners.

Purple group hint: Who made your bat?