The dress rehearsals are over. 

 From this point on, each of the Jets and Giants 17 regular season games will be extremely consequential. Both begin Week 1 playing nationally televised primetime games against division rivals expected to contend for the Super Bowl.

 The Giants face the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday at 8:20 p.m. and the Jets play the Buffalo Bills on Monday at 8:15 p.m. Both games will be held at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. 

The early part of the schedule for the Jets and Giants will be critical determinants of their postseason goals. In addition to the Bills, the Jets will play the Cowboys (Week 2), New England Patriots (Week 3), defending Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs (Week 4) and reigning NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles, who lost to the Chiefs 38-35 in last season’s Super Bowl, Week 6. 

Five of the Giants first six opponents are teams that made the playoffs last season. Based on the combined winning percentages of NFL teams last season, the Giants are tied with the Patriots and Cowboys for the third toughest schedule in the league this season. So by mid-October both the Jets and the Giants will already have gone through what now appears to be a perilous gauntlet. 

“I think the biggest thing in the early parts of the year for games is making sure that you are really focused on the things that you can control,” said Giants head coach Brian Daboll to the media on Tuesday via Giants.com, “which is your execution of the plays, whether it’s an offensive play or the defensive looks that we get out here and really focusing on your fundamentals, your techniques, your communication, [and] all the things that help you play well. 

 “That puts even more of a premium on it in the early part of the season because, again, you usually have a log of a few games here in the beginning part of the year after, call it, October. We are going to have to do a good job of executing our stuff against a really good team.”

 Daboll is acutely aware that attention to detail and limiting costly mental mistakes will be crucial to his team avoiding an under .500 start after completing the early six-week stretch. 

 Jets general manager Joe Douglas, entering his fifth season as the team’s GM, who was part of Super Bowl-winning teams with the Philadelphia Eagles (vice president of player personnel) and Baltimore Ravens (scout), said the Jets are embracing being projected as a lofty contender. 

“We’re not running or hiding from any expectations that are out there,” Douglas said last week via Jets.com. “I think when the dust settles, you want to be in the conversation as one of those teams that can compete for a Super Bowl. You get a ticket into the dance and anything can happen. 

 “… But we’re really not looking any further than the Buffalo Bills. Three-time defending AFC East champions are coming into MetLife and we know what kind of task that is to compete against them.”

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Mookie Betts had a homecoming of sorts, returning to Boston’s Fenway Park for the first time since the huge trade that landed him with the Los Angeles Dodgers after the 2019 season.

The two teams meet at a time when their franchises are moving in opposite directions. The Red Sox are sliding down the American League East standings and staring at a long offseason, while Betts is once again in serious consideration for NL MVP after a dominant August in which he won National League Player of the month while becoming the third person since 1900 to hit .450, have 50 hits, and have 10 Bro bombs.  

Given the current status of the two parties in question, the Boston fanbase had no choice but to wonder if their team could be in the middle of a dynasty if Betts remained in Boston.

Something that Mookie didn’t have a problem doing if Boston had “played ball.”

“Even though I wasn’t really ready for (the trade to the Dodgers)—I know people don’t believe me but I wanted to stay in Boston my whole career,” Betts told former teammate Brock Holt during his appearance via MassLive. “That was my life. I knew everybody there. It was a short flight to Nashville. It was perfect.”

Big Papi lost some love for Boston when they traded Mookie 
David “Big Papi” Ortiz was never a guy who kept his opinion quiet about baseball discussions, and his thoughts about Betts resonated during the series last week.

When Ortiz played with Betts, closing out the last two and a half seasons of his career, he knew back then that our MLBbro was not just an ordinary star for the era. He was a keeper—a franchise cornerstone that you simply didn’t trade away. 

During his appearance on Audacy’s podcast, “Baseball Isn’t Boring,” last weekend, Ortiz shared his thoughts about Boston letting Betts go and gave the former Red Sox star one of the greatest compliments a Hall of Famer can give to a fellow player. 

“I think that the minute he went to the Dodgers, my emotions shifted a little bit because that guy, he was the perfect franchise boy for an organization like this one,” Ortiz said. “Mookie has the personality—I’m not going to even talk about the player because that’s off the charts – and he’s young, very mature. He’s the full package. He’s the full package.”

Our MLBbro put together a résumé to back up Ortiz’s statements. In six years in Boston, Betts hit over .300 while Bro Bombing 139 times and driving in 470 runs in 794 games. He collected the AL MVP during the Red Sox World Series championship run in 2018. 

Not long after, Betts was traded for reportedly “financial reasons,” which Ortiz understood. “We know it was a mistake. We know. We know because numbers don’t lie. Numbers don’t lie,” Ortiz said. “But that happens. This type of mistake happens sometimes and there’s not much you can do about it.”

Despite the Betts trade to the West Coast, Ortiz says he’s still close with the MLBbro. 

“Mookie Betts is like my baby brother,” Ortiz said. “We always stay in touch. We always communicate. He’s too smart, because he’s always on the search and smart baseball players, that’s what they do because this game every day has something to show you. There’s something to learn every day.”

To begin the month of September, Betts was in the top 10 in batting average (.316), on-base percentage (.410), OPS (1.021), hits (156), home runs (36), doubles (36), RBI (94), and runs scored (114). He’s also played second base and shortstop, displaying his unrivaled versatility. 

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Even with their playoff spot secure and their seed at or near the top locked in, the New York Liberty are sustaining their focus as regular season WNBA play heads to the finish. Last Friday, the Liberty celebrated its first West Indian Night, developed in recognition of Jonquel Jones’s Bahamian roots. The team marked the night with an 89–58 thrashing of the Connecticut Sun before another sellout crowd at Barclays Center.

The Liberty then headed out to the Windy City, taking on the Chicago Sky. New York increased its best-ever winning record with an 86–69 victory. The two victories were achieved despite the absence of Sabrina Ionescu, who was out with a calf injury, and some rough moments. The game marked the 33rd time this season that the Liberty finished with 20-plus assists: a new WNBA single-season record. 

New York was 30-7 and had the second-best record in the league behind the Las Vegas Aces as of Tuesday when they met up with the Dallas Wings on the road. 

Four Liberty players scored in double figures, among them guard/forward Jocelyn Willoughby, a New Jersey native, who came off the bench for 10 points and four rebounds. “Jocelyn had great minutes for us today; I think that was a big turning point for us,” said Courtney Vandersloot, who had 20 points, 10 assists, and five rebounds in the win over the Sky.

Head coach Sandy Brondello noted that Willoughby, who hasn’t seen a lot of minutes this season, stayed ready for the opportunity to prove herself. “Came on and executed perfectly,” said Brondello. “Took the shots when she was open, played really great defense, and that’s what we expect of her. I see what we need out there. We have total trust [that] if we do put her out there, she’ll play really hard.

“This team is tough,” she added. “It’s way more fun when we [get] back to it. It wasn’t as much fun early, but it’s a good game for us to have some adversity like that heading into the playoffs. Being able to claw our way out and get a really good win.”

The Liberty host the Los Angeles Sparks, who are fighting for a playoff spot, tonight at the Barclays Center. They will end the regular season by playing the Washington Mystics on Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn in their annual Fan Appreciation game. The final playoff spots for the rest of the league probably won’t be decided until after all regular season games are played.

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American tennis players have made an indelible mark at this US Open. Players such as Madison Keys, Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz all made it to the singles quarterfinals. 

The American contingent has been led by 19-year-old Coco Gauff, who reached the semifinals of the tournament by defeating Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia on Tuesday 6-0, 6-2. The No. 20 seed Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, knocked off No. 1 seed Iga Swiatek on Sunday to face Gauff in the quarterfinals.

“(I’m) so happy,” said Gauff after her victory.  “Last year, I lost at the quarterfinal stage and I wanted to do better this year. I still have a long way to go, but I’m happy and I’m ready to go back to work for the next one. “

Guaff is the first American teenager to reach back-to-back US Open quarterfinals since Serena Williams (1999 and 2000) and is now the first American teenager to reach the semifinals since Serena.

“I mean, being in any sentence with her is great,” Guaff said. “She is the greatest of all time. I’m nothing close to that yet, but I’m just honored to be in the same sentence.”

Gauff will meet No. 10 seed Karolina Muchova tonight.

She and her doubles partner, American Jessica Pegula, went up against Hsieh Su-wei and Wang Xinyu in the quarterfinals yesterday. Pegula, who was the No. 3 seed in the singles competition, was eliminated by fellow American Madison Keys, seeded 20th, in the fourth round. Keys and No. 9 Marketa Vondrousova battled last night at Arthur Ashe Stadium for a spot in the semifinals.   

The American men have also experienced considerable success at this year’s Open, including two who contested each other in the quarterfinals on Tuesday night. Unseeded 20-year-old Ben Shelton advanced to the semifinals by upsetting No. 10 seed Frances Tiafoe 6-2, 3-6, 7-6. It was a historic pairing as it was the first time two Black men met in a US Open quarterfinal.

“I’m feeling like I left it all out here tonight,” said Shelton, a native of Atlanta who played collegiately for the University of Florida.  “An emotional battle,” he continued. “Thanks to all you guys for staying so late.  Hell of an atmosphere.  And thanks for pushing me over the line.” 

Shelton reached this year’s Australian Open as well and will take on No. 2 seed Novak Djokovic, arguably the greatest men’s player of all time, in the semifinals. Djokovic bested American Taylor Fritz, the No. 9 seed, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday. 

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On an almost unbearably humid Tuesday night in front of a packed and energized crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows, unseeded Ben Shelton upset No. 10 seed Frances Tiafoe 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2 to advance to the 2023 US Open semifinals.

With the win, the 20-year-old Shelton became the youngest man from the United States to reach a US Open semifinals since Michael Chang accomplished the feat at the age of 20 in 1992.

The match between Shelton and Tiafoe was also historic for another reason. Facing off against each other in a stadium named for Arthur Ashe, the only Black man ever to win the singles titles at Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open, the meeting was the first US Open quarterfinal between Black men in the Open era.

Leading up to the match, Tiafoe reflectively expressed to the media, “Two people of color playing in the quarterfinals …It’s a pretty monumental moment.”

The No. 10 seed Tiafoe was the presumed favorite, having dropped just one set at the tournament before Tuesday night. However, Shelton, whose powerful serve and impressive forehand helped propel him from outside the Top 100 last year to the No. 47 ranked player in the world, displayed the skills to take down Tiafoe in his runup to Tuesday’s quarterfinals match.

Speaking with reporters early in the week, Tiafoe, from Hyattsville, Maryland, assessed his friend and opponent.

“It’s a big match. He’s Bugs Bunny. He’s got crazy energy, endless energy,” said Tiafoe. “He’s going to come after me, and I’m going to come after him. It’s going to be a great battle, we’re going to compete really hard.”

And they went at it. Shelton, a native of Atlanta, put his abilities on full display as the lefthander and Tiafoe battled back and forth, both with huge serves and blistering returns. Ultimately, however, a powerful return by Shelton to save a set point in a pivotal third-set tiebreaker, followed by two missed shots by Tiafoe, allowed Shelton to win the set and prevent Tiafoe from taking a two-sets-to-one lead. Shelton broke Tiafoe to begin the fourth set and marched on to victory.

In his post-match on-court interview, Shelton said, “I’m feeling like I left it all out here tonight… An emotional battle. Thanks to all you guys for staying so late. Hell of an atmosphere. And thanks for pushing me over the line.”

Shelton’s victory moved him into the top 20 in the men’s world singles ranking. He will face No. 2 seed Novak Djokovic this Friday in the US Open semifinals. Djokovic will be appearing in his record 47th Grand Slam semifinals match and has won 23 Grand Slam titles, the most all-time by a men’s player.

Earlier during Tuesday’s session, No. 6 seed Coco Gauff dominated No. 20 seed Jelena Ostapenko,  the 2017 French Open champion, 6-0, 6-2, to reach her first US Open semifinal at just age 19. Next up for Gauff is No. 10 seed Karolína Muchová tonight.  

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