Even though he'll be watching from afar rather than playing, Philadelphia Phillies mega-signing Bryce Harper says there is no jealousy that his former team, the Washington Nationals, is about to make its first World Series appearance.

"I think it's about being able to be the person that I am and not saying to myself, 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm not a National.' Or, 'Oh my gosh, those guys are doing what they're doing. I can't believe it. I'm so jealous,'" Harper told The Athletic for a story published Friday. "No. I'm so happy for them. You know how hard it is to get into the postseason and win games. For them to be able to put it together this year the way they have, it's an amazing thing."

Harper left the Nationals in the offseason after playing his first seven major league seasons in Washington. He signed a 13-year, $330 million contract with the Phillies.

"I made my decision, and that was my decision," Harper said. "And it was the final decision that I made. You know, jealousy isn't good. For me, it's about having the gratitude to go out and do what I do each day and not having an attitude toward anybody else."

Rather than signing Harper, the Nationals added Patrick Corbin and Anibal Sanchez to their rotation then stocked their bullpen at the trade deadline to prepare for a postseason run.

Harper said those moves, along with a much more affordable outfield of Juan Soto, Víctor Robles and Adam Eaton, put the Nationals in place to succeed.

"It was kind of the perfect storm for them," Harper said. "... Not signing me, they were able to go out and get the starting pitching that they needed and the pitching that they needed for their bullpen."

Harper's former teammate Jayson Werth warned not to go so far as to say that the Nationals are better because Harper's not there. Werth called that idea "the stupidest conversation ever."

For his part, Harper didn't want to respond to that kind of question.

"I'll let Jayson answer that for me," he said. "I won't comment on that one."

Harper and the Nationals are both sitting at home, but Washington will soon pick up the bats and gloves to face either the Houston Astros or New York Yankees in the World Series, which begins Tuesday.

And Harper said he is looking forward to those games.

"I like watching sports," Harper told The Athletic. "I enjoy watching games. So if the Astros beat the Yankees or vice versa, I [can't wait] to see that lineup for the Yankees hit against [the Nationals], or seeing that starting staff for the Astros against that starting staff of the Nats. That's pretty cool baseball right there."

It was a deep fly ball off the top of the wall that set up one of the loudest storylines of this postseason: Ronald Acuna Jr. "hoisted a mighty blast that wasn't quite as mighty as he believed" in Game 1 of the National League Division Series, began an early home run trot that cost him a double, then got chastised by his Atlanta Braves teammates and his "beyond miffed" manager. Acuna's presumption was, presumably, also noted by his opponents. "I was always aware when a runner made a mistake like that," TBS broadcaster Ron Darling said during the game.

All that laid the groundwork for the ninth inning, when Acuna hit one much farther, made an even more demonstrative show of celebrating it as it soared (truly, this time) into the bleachers, made the St. Louis Cardinals very mad, got himself both buzzed and drilled by fastballs later in the series, and had words with both Carlos Martinez and Jack Flaherty.

Of course, now we know something that Acuna didn't know when he hoisted that mighty blast: The postseason ball appears to have deadened since the regular season. This October ball has (for some unidentified reason) more drag, according to Rob Arthur at Baseball Prospectus, causing what had been regular-season homers to die on the warning track. Even Mike Shildt, the manager of the Cardinals, says so: His analytics team, Shildt said, estimates that balls are losing about 4.5 feet of carry.

Add 4.5 feet to Acuna's fly ball and he's trotting peacefully around the bases as the hero, a beloved young superstar instead of clubhouse tsk-tsk magnet. Acuna, presumably, knows what a home run feels like, and that felt like one. He just didn't know that the sport he'd played all season had suddenly changed. He wasn't shirking. He was giving us our first clue.

There are lots of clues, if we've been paying attention. It's like everybody on the field just walked out of a time machine, reacting to October 2019 technology with the wide-eyed disbelief of people calibrated to September 2019 physics. We rewatched every fly ball over 330 feet this postseason, and the reactions tell the story.

1. Hitters' reactions

Four days after Acuna's long single, Paul Goldschmidt hit a high fly ball to left field. This is where it landed:

It's the blur right in front of the front-row usher, who was fooled -- he was looking for it to land in the bullpen -- and who got a jolt when it bounced high off the edge of the padded wall. That wall isn't quite flush with the left-field wall -- there is about 3 feet of space, as you can see at the 40-second mark in this video -- but it's safe to say, from the steep angle at which the ball was descending, that Goldschmidt's home run was very nearly Nick Markakis' to carry back to the dugout.

Now check out Goldschmidt's trot on the play: He swings, he pauses a brief moment to admire his mighty blast, then he puts his head down and starts a casual jog to first base. Here's how casual: It took Acuna 6.2 seconds to jog to first on his controversial not-quite-a-homer trot; it took Goldschmidt 6.43 seconds. He had the trot of a hitter who hit one 15 rows deep, of a hitter who was extremely confident in his trot. And he was right, but ... eek! Three feet! Wouldn't that have been awkward if it had come up 3 feet shorter and stayed in the yard: Goldschmidt would have had to get a talking-to from his manager. Goldschmidt would have had to be publicly scolded by his teammates!

Goldschmidt got it right. But there are a bunch of hitters whose fly balls stayed in, probably to their surprise. I'm pretty sure Carlos Correa thought he had this one. I'm pretty sure Justin Turner thought he had this one. I'm pretty sure Marwin Gonzalez thought he had this one. For a second, Gleyber Torres definitely thought he had this one.

2. Fielders' reactions

How, you might wonder, does a center fielder even get in that position, diving in on a ball that was hit just short of the warning track? Simple: He sees a ball smashed at a home run velocity (or close to it), turns to run deep where he thinks he might have to leap for the ball, without realizing that all the baseballs this postseason have been soaked in milk. Then he corrects awkwardly to try to make the catch.

This one instance could be explained as just one fielder taking just one bad route. But there have been a bunch of these this postseason, in which a fielder ends up coming in on a ball that lands 396 feet from home plate. They're not all awkward like this one, but check out Michael Taylor running to the wall, appearing prepared to make a leap at the wall, and then realizing he needs to circle in and catch the ball at the edge of the track. Or Tommy Edman going almost to the wall and then taking eight steps in. Or Adam Eaton, diving horizontally along the warning track while reaching in to catch a ball that he overestimated. That one actually is awkward like the first one, but presume it's not Eaton's fault. Outfielders, too, know what 2019 home runs look like off the bat.

3. Teammates' reactions

That's the Dodgers' dugout emptying in expectation that Will Smith's fly ball to right field would come down on a fan and give the Dodgers a walk-off victory in Game 5 of the NLDS. Of course, you can check the schedule; you know that the Dodgers did not win Game 5 of the NLDS. The ball was caught on the warning track.

Unlike Acuna and Goldschmidt, teammates do not get to feel how the ball comes off the bat. They have to rely on the sound of the contact, the sight of the trajectory, their experience watching fly balls that their teammates hit -- and, in this case, Smith's own communication. It's a little hard to judge Smith's reaction in its entirety -- the live shot of him cut away before he had discarded the bat, and the replay starts only as he's releasing the bat, without perfect continuity -- but we know he flipped his bat:

And we think, based on the center-field shot of him winding up to flip the bat, that his first instinct was to launch his bat onto a space expedition to find Jose Bautista's bat, last seen heading toward the Andromeda galaxy. Will Smith hit 15 home runs this year. He's generally an authority on what those feel like, and he was very excited by the fly out he hit.

4. Pitchers' reactions

Some pitchers don't turn around on deep fly outs. It's a power move. Some pitchers don't turn around on home runs. It's a frustration and shame move. It's hard to know, then, whether Twins right-hander Tyler Duffey knew this ball was going to end up at the warning track, not over the wall -- especially because Duffey usually turns and looks at both home runs and deep fly balls, though he continues watching only the latter.

But there's a moment when I think it is strongly suggestive that Duffey thinks this one is gone. Giancarlo Stanton hits the ball. Stanton doesn't move; he stares at it, bat upright, assessing. Duffey stares straight ahead, assessing in his own way. He might be watching Stanton, or the crowd, or just listening, for clues. And the moment comes at 0:05 in this clip, when one kid in the front row raises his right hand and points, another goes "ooooooohhhhh" and shoots out of his seat, and a third one gets a big wide grin.

At that moment, Duffey's shoulders slump slightly, his head turns about 10 degrees to his left, and his posture seems to go groooooan. I could be wrong here -- Duffey might just have been mad to have allowed a sacrifice fly -- but this postseason has been full of pitchers with panic in their eyes, whipping around in distress to track fly balls that ended up on the warning track. Here's Julio Urias jumping up and down three times. Here's Daniel Hudson, scrunching up his legs agitatedly. Here's Sean Doolittle, unwilling to look at first, before realizing that air resistance is his friend and that deep fly outs are actually the best highlights in a home run era.

5. Fans' reactions

Fans always overreact to fly balls, obviously. We go to baseball games to watch gods, and when Zeus flings a lightning bolt we expect he's going to hit his target, not mumble an apology after missing short. So sure, when Acuna hit this fly ball to the warning track the fans in St. Louis had concerns.

But something different is happening in the crowd shot I'm about to show you. If you think there's a monster under your bed, you have a furrowed, stressed-out, timid look. But when you look under the bed and you actually see a monster with snakes for hair, you get a very different look. These people saw Acuna fly out to the warning track and, because they thought this was 2019 and not 2015, they turned to stone:

These fans knew that the ball was hit like a home run, and they were right. They didn't know that we live in a simulated universe that is undergoing constant maintenance.

6. Camera operators' reactions

As a cameraman, the upper-deck fly ball has to be the moment you wait for: the one chance to rise beyond the little green township at ground level and stretch the lens toward that expansive heaven beyond the outfield walls. So when Eddie Rosario hit this fly ball, the camera first tracks the outfielder moving back in pursuit, then makes that bold decision to just go for it: It zooms in on the ball, leaves the field down below, and floats its gaze up to Row 37 or wherever Rosario's game-tying home run is going to land.

Except, but, oh no, ack, this ball is made out of rolled-up electrical tape! The camera must sheepishly retreat to show the ball hitting off the wall for a very-much-not-game-tying double. A subtle reminder that we must never, ever hope.

7. My reactions

I went aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh at this ball, which was hit by Adeiny Hechavarria. That's how lively the ball we're used to is: I had no doubt that Hechavarria, with his career .352 slugging percentage, had homered just because he pulled a fly ball. That's 2019 baseball: Only five players qualified for the batting title (502 plate appearances) without reaching double-digit home run totals. Five years ago, there were 44. Every hitter in baseball is now a home run hitter. So Adeiny Hechavarria? He's part of the "every hitter in baseball" cohort.

The broadcaster thought it was gone. There was no doubt in either my voice or the broadcaster's voice that this ball was gone, and I'm not sure levitating Andrew Miller felt very good about it either. It came up about a foot short of the warning track. The postseason balls might be made out of recycled bowling balls and sand.

Of course, that's an exaggeration. The ball isn't dead; it just isn't flying like it did in the regular season, when half the teams in the league set franchise home run records. And, incrementally, we seem to be getting used to it. When Didi Gregorius flied deep to right field in the third game of the ALCS, he didn't flip his bat in anticipation of a go-ahead homer, nor fling it down in frustration of a deep fly out. Rather, he had the posture -- as did Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole -- of a deeply uncertain and impotent observer, waiting to find out whether The Big Wheel was going to settle on 100 or 5. Still, there remain some miscalibrations, some clues that the players are not dealing with familiar physics yet. When Yankees pitcher Tommy Kahnle allowed a deep fly ball to Martin Maldonado a half-inning later, Kahnle screamed some things he should apologize to himself for; it turned out, he had actually gotten the inning-ending out.

The good news, if you like this grounded style of baseball, is that it might stay this way for a while. The good news, if you like unrestrained dingers, is that it might not. MLB doesn't seem to know why the ball is suddenly behaving differently than it did all season, other than, as the league put it in a statement to baseball writer Ben Lindbergh, that "the drag of the baseball can vary over different time periods." So watch closely; this might all change any second, and the players might unwittingly be the first to tell us.

British number one Johanna Konta has pulled out of next week's WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai and will not play again this season.

The 28-year-old's last match was a quarter-final defeat by Elina Svitolina at the US Open in September.

Konta has had pain in her knee, and has decided to focus on rehabilitation for the rest of the year.

She is currently ranked 11th in the world, having begun the year 38th and fallen to 47th in April.

A semi-final at the French Open and a Wimbledon quarter-final, before her run to the last eight at Flushing Meadows, saw her move back up the rankings.

When Dylan Larkin made his NHL debut for the Detroit Red Wings in 2015, at age 19, it was a hockey dream. Larkin grew up in Waterford, Michigan, halfway between Flint and Detroit. He played his state championship hockey game at Joe Louis Arena and hoped one day to return as an NHL player. Not only did he come back, but he did it with the iconic spoked wheel on his jersey. He joined a team with players he grew up idolizing: Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall, Johan Franzen.

"Honestly, it was surreal," Larkin said. "My first year, when we made the playoffs, it was part of the 25-year-streak, and I played with some of my role models growing up. Just being around that energy of a playoff game at Joe Louis Arena, the feeling in the city, and being on the ice with those guys, it was a really cool thing to experience."

Larkin put up 23 goals as a rookie, but Detroit lost its first-round series to Tampa Bay. That summer, Datsyuk announced he was going back to his native Russia. And it became clear that Franzen, who missed nearly all of 2015-16 with concussion symptoms, would not play again.

Once the 25-year-playoff streak ended, the storied franchise closed the book on era. And the beginning of the next one looked bleak. For the past three seasons, Detroit has been in salary-cap hell. It finished with losing records for the first time since 1991 -- five years before Larkin was born. Detroit never had to rebuild in the span since, only reload, and now it was all catching up. The roster lacked enough top-end talent, and enough depth. The Joe shut its doors, and so began a prolonged, sad demolition. The Red Wings christened Little Caesars Arena, one of the glitziest new buildings in the league, but could barely drum up excitement for fans.

"The last few years have been tough to swallow," Larkin said.

"We were the team that was out in February, when you're sitting and have two months of the season left, and two months of games where they don't mean anything," said longtime winger Justin Abdelkader. "We weren't used to it, and that's not where we want to be."

This summer included a glimmer of hope. The Red Wings welcomed Steve Yzerman as general manager. Not only is Yzerman a Hall of Fame player for the Wings, but he comes off an eight-year stint with the Lightning in which -- through bold moves, shrewd drafting and strong development -- he built Tampa Bay into a powerhouse.

"He's a legend here, an icon," said Kronwall, who retired in the offseason, then joined the front office staff. "Then, he comes back. His track record speaks for itself, of what he did down in Tampa. So just getting him back into the organization is great. Let alone being the general manager and guiding this franchise back to where it's supposed to be, and where it should be."

Across the Red Wings organization, there was a common sentiment. Everyone was sad to see Ken Holland go (the longtime GM initially agreed to stay on as an advisor, but then took the GM job in Edmonton). After all, over two-plus decades, Holland led the team to three Stanley Cups and was in the organization for four. Yzerman's arrival also brought cautious optimism that the rebuild will now accelerate.

"It was pretty surprising, I didn't expect it to happen that fast," said goaltender Jimmy Howard. "But also excitement. Even though it was tough to see Kenny go, Yzerman being here has us all pretty excited. Sometimes you need change to move forward."

Yzerman has promised to restore a winning culture but has been overly cautious in assigning a timeline. "I don't know if it will take one, two or five years," Yzerman said. In fact, he evades sharing as many details as possible.

He won't give any clues on what he'd like his team's identity to be -- "To answer your question, yeah, I do know what I'm looking for. Do I want to elaborate on it? Not particularly. Can I? Not particularly," he said -- nor any particulars on how he would categorize the 2019-20 season as a success, besides "everyone in the organization, at all levels, getting better."

Yzerman was quiet in his first summer, signing a depth forward (Valtteri Filppula) and a depth defenseman (Patrik Nemeth) and trading for a depth winger (Adam Erne) from his former team, the Tampa Bay Lighting. It's almost as if he's using this season to suss out what he has, before putting his signature stamp on things. The worst of the cap issues have passed, and next summer, Detroit could have upward of $38 million to spend.

"It's going to take time," Kronwall warned. "In Tampa, he had a number of years where they had high draft picks, and he was able to develop them. What also made them successful was they were able to find these guys to come up every year, and it was like, 'Hey wait, where did he come from?'

"Yanni Gourde is a great example to me. Where did this guy come from? A year or two before that, he had double hip surgery. Now he's doing great, playing in the NHL, and doing it really well. So you don't always need the high-end draft picks to pan out, you need the other guys to blossom, as well."

As a talent evaluator, Yzerman is known for trusting his eye and identifying gems. So it should be no surprise that his first draft selection was a surprise: 18-year-old German defender Moritz Seider, at No. 6 overall. When Seider's name was called, cameras found him in the crowd, eyes agape and hands covering his mouth; it instantly became a gif:

Love the reaction, Moritz Seider! #NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/UKAglDPdWw

— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) June 22, 2019

Through camp, there were two things everyone said about Seider. "He's a big kid" -- he clocks in at 6-foot-4, 207 pounds -- who can skate well and has "great hockey sense."

Kronwall said at the team's rookie tournament in Traverse City that Seider stood out. "There were scouts from other teams coming up to us and telling us they were pretty impressed," Kronwall said.

The Red Wings play in the top-heavy Atlantic Division. Besides the Lightning, they have to wade through the defending Eastern Conference champion Bruins, plus the star-studded Maple Leafs. The Panthers made big upgrades this season, including hiring coach Joel Quenneville, and even the Sabres look better than expected.

"Ultimately, all the teams in the league are pretty good," Yzerman said. "I don't think there is a huge difference between the best [and worst] team in the league on any given night. It's the team that plays better. We can win a lot of games by being disciplined and by outworking other teams."

Especially as they build it back up, the Red Wings are looking to develop a strong work ethic. "I don't think we have the skill level to out-skill other teams," Kronwall said. "It's going to come down to hard work. That's something the coaches have been trying to establish at training camp. We need everyone to buy in."

The Red Wings' training camp was bristling with intensity. Drills often involved bodies flying across the ice, and blocking shots (albeit often with sponge pucks).

"This camp, and [Mike Babcock's] first one, in 2005-06, were the most intense camps I've been part of," Howard said.

Yzerman said coach Jeff Blashill -- who had recently signed a two-year extension under Holland that Yzerman honored -- sets the agenda for camp. "Though I'm sure with a new general manager, guys want to make a good first impression," Yzerman said.

Returning players lament that the Red Wings weren't as bad as their record suggested over the past three seasons. "A lot of times, we've beaten ourselves, whether not playing smart with the lead or losing a late one and losing in overtime," Abdelkader said. "We've found more ways to lose games than win them."

Detroit had 23 one-goal losses last season, fourth-most in the NHL. That includes 13 one-goal losses in regulation, second-most in the league (the Canucks had 14).

"If we're healthy, we're always in games, were always right there," Larkin said. "If we could only just get that extra edge."

Larkin, 23, is likely the captain-in-waiting -- Yzerman said he needs time to evaluate before deciding on captaincy -- and the organization feels good about the chemistry he has developed with Anthony Matha, 25, and Tyler Bertuzzi, 24. Yzerman also singles out defenseman Filip Hronek, 22, and center Andreas Athanasiou, 25, as part of the young core he'd like to build around. "Erne is in that same age group, and we'll see if he can take another step," Yzerman said.

"Everything takes time, but there's no doubt that we have really good pieces in play," Kronwall said. "Just the emergence of Dylan Larkin alone. He's a special player. The drive he has -- he does it every night."

Defenseman Mike Green also notes how Larkin sets the tone for the group. "He's got this drive, like when the dog is chasing the bone and playing fetch, he just wants it so bad," Green said.

What Kronwall notices most is how Larkin has evolved. "His first year, he came in and everything went great, and then that second year had a little down year and he was frustrated. He then came into becoming a more two-way center and taking responsibility at both ends of the ice -- it's very impressive.

"Larks, he was able to get a few years with Henrik Zetterberg; I think he learned a ton just being near him, and I think there's a need for that. Now Larks got to watch it up close, now the next generation will get to see him and how he's doing it on a nightly basis. And that's how the tradition will be passed on."

On Saturday afternoon, for only the second time in their hockey-playing lives, brothers Quinn and Jack Hughes will line up on opposite sides of the ice. And this time they will do it wearing NHL uniforms, just as they had dreamed of while playing on outdoor rinks growing up, honing their preternatural skill and creativity.

Plenty of siblings have played against each other in the NHL over the years, from the Staals to the Espositos to the Niedermayers. But few have met on the ice at such a young age -- Quinn turned 20 on Monday, and Jack is only 18 -- and as such highly-touted rookies.

Jack, a center who went first overall in the 2019 NHL draft to the New Jersey Devils, was ESPN's No. 1-ranked NHL-affiliated prospect heading into the season. Quinn, a defenseman drafted seventh overall in 2018 by the Vancouver Canucks, was slotted at No. 4. Both are viewed as legitimate threats to win the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year.

It all makes Saturday's 1 p.m. ET matchup involving the Devils and Canucks an extra special one, featuring two of the brightest, budding American stars in the game. It will also be unfamiliar territory for a pair of brothers who have spent hours on the ice together growing up, but very little time in competitive games, whether on the same team or not.

The only other time the brothers went head-to-head was just over one year ago, when Jack led the U.S. national under-18 team with three points in a 6-3 win over Quinn's University of Michigan squad. The game began on a more playful note, with Quinn leaving his spot on defense to take the game's opening draw against the brother 19 months his junior.

Brother vs. brother...literally.

Tonight's @USAHockeyNTDP vs. @umichhockey game started with a face-off between Quinn and Jack Hughes. pic.twitter.com/1VVoTDcN3z

— Michael Caples (@michaelcaples) October 12, 2018

But don't expect that to be be repeated when they square off Saturday. Things have become rather serious quickly, especially for Jack, who was held without a point until the Devils' seventh game of the season, when he registered an assist against the New York Rangers.

Quinn is off to a stronger start. After appearing in five NHL games at the end of last season in which he registered three assists, he has one goal and two assists through six games this season. His goal came in the Canucks' home opener, and a mob of reporters surrounding Quinn after the game quickly called attention to Jack's lack of points and jokingly inquired whether he had family bragging rights.

"I think that would be kind of childish," he replied.

It was a window into the mind and demeanor of a protective older brother. And the reaction wasn't a surprise to the brothers' father, Jim Hughes.

"You know, Quinn's got a big heart, and he's very thoughtful. No one is a bigger fan of Jack than Quinn," he says. "Quinn understands Jack's capabilities and the interior expectations Jack has."

Jim and Ellen Hughes have tried to give their sons space as they begin this transition to the NHL in what will be a life-changing year for all of them.

"We've stayed out of their way, as we should. We've been really paying attention from afar," Jim says.

For both Quinn and Jack, this season is the first time they're not living within a reasonable driving distance from their family home, which has been in Canton, Michigan for the past three years. The boys were born in Florida, but the family moved around a bit, with stops in Boston and the Toronto suburbs before landing in Michigan.

Quinn had a little more experience away, moving to join the U.S. National Team Development Program (NTDP) before the family relocated to Michigan from the Toronto area. He also lived on campus, while just down the road, at the University of Michigan and now is on his own in Vancouver. But Jack was under the same roof with his parents until leaving for New Jersey -- where he now resides with Devils goaltender Cory Schneider and his family.

Having boys on opposite sides of the continent, it has been especially difficult to try to make it to games. Jim still hasn't seen Quinn play a live game this season and had been only to two of Jack's NHL games.

"Quite frankly, it's been more productive because we just stay at home and have one big computer, a smaller computer and then the big TV and we've got all the games right there," Jim says.

That will change Saturday when Jim, Ellen and 70 close friends and family members will be in attendance for the first Hughes-vs.-Hughes NHL matchup in Newark.

One family member who won't be in attendance, however, is the youngest of the three hockey-playing Hughes brothers, Luke. He will be with the U.S. national under-17 team in their USHL game against the Chicago Steel that same day. The 16-year-old has continued the recent tradition of playing at USA Hockey's NTDP while wearing the No. 43 both Quinn and Jack wore in their U17 seasons.

"We offer the same support to Luke that we gave the other two, which is why we're still here in Michigan," Jim says. "He's got his own goals and aspirations on his mind."

By all accounts, Luke has gotten off to a spectacular start to the season, having posted nine points in nine games. A smooth-skating blueliner like Quinn, Luke is unlike his brothers in one interesting way: He's the first of the boys to crack the 6-foot mark, which might shield him from some of the additional size-related scrutiny the other two faced (both are 5-10) and overcame while coming up. Luke will be draft-eligible in 2021.

Despite not being able to attend in person as much as they'd hope, Jim and Ellen haven't missed a game yet this season, sometimes needing three screens to track each of their sons wherever they might be in the hockey world. It makes for some long nights.

"When we have the doubleheader, we've got Jack playing at 7, Quinn at 10 and then Luke's up for school at 6:05 in the morning, so you wake up and you feel like a zombie," Jim says, noting the youngest Hughes boy often isn't staying up for the nightcap games. "That's how we've been juggling it so far."

Jim and Ellen know the hockey landscape pretty well themselves. Ellen was a star player at the University of New Hampshire and skated for the U.S. women's national team in the second women's World Championship. Jim, meanwhile, played at Providence College and had a long coaching career that included a stint as an assistant with the Boston Bruins in the early 2000s and the director of player development with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2009 to 2015. The experience of watching their sons learn the ropes of playing the game at its highest level has been a rewarding experience.

"It's a whole new lens that I'm seeing it from now," says Jim, who now works in player development with CAA Sports. "When I was with the Leafs or now at CAA, you're always trying to give the proper advice or thoughts, and steer these kids in the right direction so they can navigate their careers. I'm dealing with two teenagers here, and that's interesting what it brings.

"It's a very difficult league. As I've always said in the past years, it's a humbling sport, so you've got to roll with the good and the bad, and you've got to keep pushing up the mountain and you have no other choice. You've got to keep working at your trade every single day."

The Hughes' family patriarch is offering advice only when asked, though, and has largely been pleased with the way his son are performing.

Jack has never had much trouble producing. He shattered records at the NTDP and torched the most recent men's World Under-18 Championship as the U.S. won a bronze medal. He's also the first player to go directly from the NTDP, where the team plays a mixed schedule among college, USHL and international opponents, to the NHL. It's a pretty big jump, and few know that better than Jim, who has watched players navigate those transitions to the NHL for years.

"It's a journey," he says. "It's not a track race. It's learning to play the game the right way. This is a bigger picture. It's not just one night, or two nights or three nights. We're really happy where the boys are at right now and we'll support them any way we can."

On Saturday in the Prudential Center, the cheers will be loudest for No. 43 in white and No. 86 in red in what could be the first of many meetings between the two brothers who used to fill their basement walls with puck-shaped scars, building toward their dream together.

Phil Mickelson loves to hit bombs and one of his big drives nearly resulted in an ace in Round 2 of the CJ Cup.

Playing the 353-yard, par-4 14th, Mickelson hit driver and the ball caromed off the flagstick, nearly dropping for an albatross.

Mickelson made the eagle putt, but then bogeyed his next two holes en route to an even-par 72. He's at 2 under par, 11 off the lead.

Gulam Bodi, the former South Africa and Lions batsman, has been sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to eight charges of corruption in a landmark case in South Africa. Bodi, who has two ODI and one T20 international cap, is the first person to be imprisoned under the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act of 2004, came into effect in the aftermath of the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal in 2000.

The Act contains a clause that relates directly to corruption in sporting events (see sidebar) which makes match-fixing and spot-fixing in South Africa a crime. It carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. The State asked for Bodi to receive five, which has been granted.

Bodi was charged under the Act after being banned by Cricket South Arica for 20 years for his role in contriving to fix or otherwise influence aspects of the 2015 RamSlam T20 domestic tournament. At the time, CSA said none of the fixtures were affected by fixing after the conspirators' plans were foiled and held their own disciplinary process before handing evidence over to the police.

Bodi handed himself over to police in July last year and pleaded guilty on November 4, 2018. He was due to be sentenced in January. Multiple postponements led to the sentencing being delayed to October 18. Bodi will apply for leave to appeal and an extension of his bail. He was released on R3000 bail last (US$202) last year.

Six other players, Ethy Mbhalati, Alviro Petersen, Thami Tsolekile, Jean Symes, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Pumi Matshikwe received bans of between two and 12 years. None of the other players were pursued by police. One of them, Petersen, has since served his ban and returned to working in cricket, as a commentator. Petersen was at the Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria for Bodi's sentencing.

Good day for cricket!!!

Gulam Bodi just been sentenced to 5 years in prison.

He will apply for leave to Appeal and to extend bail his bail, pending the outcome of the appeal.

— Alviro Petersen (@AlviroPetersen) October 18, 2019

Sydney Sixers 6 for 192 (Perry 81) beat Sydney Thunder 9 for 143 (Blackwell 56, Aley 3-28) by 49 runs

Ellyse Perry has been a little in the background in Australia colours at the start of the season because of the dominant form of her team-mates, but back with Sydney Sixers she picked up from last season with an agenda-setting all-round performance with 81 off 48 balls and two wickets as the Sixers began the first standalone WBBL with a handsome 49-run victory.

Last season Perry scored a WBBL record 777 runs including two centuries. She did not spend much time at the crease against West Indies and Sri Lanka over the last six weeks but made full use of being back at the top of the order with a classy innings with 58 off her 81 runs combing in boundaries.

Initially, she took a backseat to Alyssa Healy who carried on from her world record T20I score of 148 not out against Sri Lanka on this ground a couple of weeks ago with 42 off 32 balls, ended when she skied to mid-on as Pakistan allrounder Nida Dar claimed the first wicket of the tournament.

The Thunder's fielding was poor with a number of balls not gathered cleanly while Ash Gardner was dropped on 20 by Alex Blackwell. Dar, the first Pakistan player in the WBBL, was heading for respectable figures until her final went for 21.

In the final over of the innings there was what appeared to be a nasty injury when debutant Maddy Darke stumbled attempting her first run and remained down in the middle of the pitch. The Thunder had a chance to run her out but declined yet the run was eventually credited to the Sixers which left captain Rachael Haynes a little perplexed.

In the end, however, one run was far from making the difference as the Thunder did not threaten the target with the top order dispatched inside the powerplay.

Perry made immediate inroads when she trapped Naomi Stalenberg lbw then had Rachel Priest caught at backward point in the space of three deliveries. Any chances of the Thunder making an impression on the chase disappeared when Haynes skied Marizanne Kapp.

However, there was the opportunity for a glimpse at the future as 16-year-old Phoebe Litchfield played a debut innings that showcased the immense promise that has been talked about. Her first boundary was lofted over midwicket, that was followed by a scoop over short fine leg and two more boundaries followed before she was lbw trying to paddle another 16-year-old, Hayley Silver-Holmes.

Alongside Blackwell, a player at the other end of her career, they added 68 in eight overs, with Blackwell progressing to a 30-ball fifty, to give the Thunder some encouragement ahead of their match against the defending champions Brisbane Heat on Sunday.

The opening match of the tournament was watched by a crowd of 1891 in the ground and there will be a hope that figure grows over the festival weekend.

Mis Ainak Knights 155 for 6 (Noor Ali 42, Gurbaz 36, Nabi 30, Mujeeb 2-29) beat Band-e-Amir Dragons 154 for 7 (Janat 32, Naveen 3-41, Ashraf 2-31) by four wickets

Mohammad Nabi's Mis Ainak Knights chased down 155 with a ball to spare to defeat Rashid Khan's Band-e-Amir Dragons in the Shpageeza T20 League final in Kabul. Knights ensured Rashid went wicketless in his four overs, and although Mujeeb Ur Rahman plucked two wickets, they went after the other bowlers to lift the title after taking the chase down to the penultimate ball.

Knights needed 21 off the last three overs and their captain Nabi struck back-to-back fours off seamer Batin Shah to tilt the scales. But Batin hit back as Nabi holed out off the next ball for 30 off 21, but Sharafuddin Ashraf, the new man in, found the boundary off his first ball. Then, with Knights needing a mere five runs off 12 balls, Mujeeb got rid of Ihsanullah, and Shafiqullah Ghafari was run out for a duck, leaving them needing four off the final over. Tariq Stanikzai, too, was run out for a duck, but Ashraf and Fazal Niazai ushered Knights home in a fairly tense finish.

It was 17-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman Rahmanullah Gurbaz who had set the tone for the chase with 36 off 25 balls in a 71-run opening partnership with Noor Ali Zadran (42). No. 3 Ihsanullah and Nabi took charge of the innings after the openers fell, but a late-middle-order wobble tightened the chase. From 142 for 2, Knights slid to 152 for 6, but their lower order eventually bailed them out.

Having been sent in earlier in the day, Dragons lost their openers Rashid and Javed Ahmadi in the Powerplay, but middle-order contributions from Imran Janat, Afsar Zazai and Shawkat Zaman gave their innings direction; Janat top-scored with 32 off 26 balls, including three fours and a six. Dragons were 109 for 4 in 15 overs, but they took 45 off the last five of their innings to end with 154 for 7. It would not be enough against Nabi's men.

Nabi had played his part with the ball as well, claiming 1 for 34 in his four overs, while seamer Naveen-ul-Haq was the pick of the Knights bowlers with 3 for 41.

Knights' Noor Ali Zadran was the top-scorer in the league with 354 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of nearly 135, while Dragons' Nijat Masood ended as the top wicket-taker with 11 scalps, despite playing only six games.