championship

It was the last Sunday in September, the UCI men’s elite world championship.

“It doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Judge’s championship hopes, “and he and I wholeheartedly believe that it will.”

Unlike a major championship, the competition requires an intricate analysis of how each players fits with another.

Just a few years ago, before the College Football Playoff expanded to a dozen teams, losing a game like Saturday’s would have put a team’s championship hopes on life support.

Cole Hocker entered the last lap of the world championship 5,000-meter race last month in 12th place, well off the front of the pack.