“Well, here you are, in the ninth, two men out and three men on. Nowhere to look, but inside, where we all respond to PRESSURE.”

Now, I would have preferred to use lyrics from the better and more meaningful song — “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie — but the sports metaphor in Billy Joel’s 1980s hit “Pressure” was a better fit to get us into the following exercise for today’s newsletter.

Wednesday was that rare day on the yearly sports calendar with no games scheduled in MLB, the NBA, the NFL and the NHL. (Yes, there was a full slate in both MLS and the WNBA, so no angry emails, please!)

But we decided to use the inactivity to break down those local sports figures facing the most pressure for the remainder of 2025, beginning with the second half of the baseball season for the Yankees and the Mets: