NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle #522, dated Friday, February 27, 2026, groups its words around substitution, surfing, Cy Young Award winners and the starts of MLB team names. Read the hints first, then open the answer key when you’re ready for spoilers.
Hints for Connections: Sports Edition #522
Try these broad clues before looking at the categories:
- Swap
- Board stuff
- Pitchers
- Baseball clubs
The clues are reported for the February 27 puzzle by Parade and Yahoo.
Category labels
- Yellow: SUBSTITUTE
- Green: SURFING TERMS
- Blue: AL CY YOUNG AWARD WINNERS
- Purple: STARTS OF MLB TEAM NAMES
Spoilers: the four answer groups
Stop here if you still want to solve the puzzle yourself. The groups below reveal all 16 words.
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- Variety puzzles/game books assorted
Yellow — SUBSTITUTE
PULL, REPLACE, TAKE OUT, YANK
Green — SURFING TERMS
BARREL, CREST, SWELL, WAVE
Blue — AL CY YOUNG AWARD WINNERS
BIEBER, CONE, FINGERS, PRICE
Purple — STARTS OF MLB TEAM NAMES
BLUE, BREW, CARD, ROCK
How to approach the trickier groups
Separate meanings from word fragments
The yellow answers are verbs or phrases meaning to substitute something. The purple group works differently: each word is the beginning of an MLB team name, rather than a complete team name. That makes BLUE, BREW, CARD and ROCK easy to overlook if you first search for full club names.
Use the sports clues to narrow the field
“Board stuff” points toward surfing vocabulary, while “Pitchers” points toward the Cy Young Award group. The hints help identify the subject area; the category labels and answer key above give the reported groupings.
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Puzzle identity and source check
Parade and Yahoo both identify this as Connections: Sports Edition #522 for Friday, February 27, 2026, and report the same categories and answers. The answer key is cross-checked against those publisher reports; an official New York Times archive entry for this specific puzzle was not established.
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