Baseball Name Chain

Name Chain is a word chain played with baseball players' names. The rule fits on one line: the first letter of a player's last name must be the first letter of the next player's first name, so Pete Alonso can lead to Aaron Judge. The MLB game draws on a roster of more than 20,000 active and former major leaguers, so obscure and old-time names are often the way through.

The Daily Path is the puzzle of the day. On 21 October 2026 it started from Gail Henley, required Dave Telgheder somewhere in the chain and ended at Jack Lynch, with eight moves left on the counter at the start. Your chain builds up on the right as Your Path, and reaching the end goal without the required player does not count. The puzzle is picked from the date in New York, so everyone gets the same one, and a solved day keeps your streak going; when you come back the game tells you how you did the day before.

Perfect 9 is a second daily: a chain of exactly nine players, with its own leaderboard where you enter initials. Outside the dailies there is Classic, a free-form chain as long as you can make it; Challenge a Friend, a 30-second head-to-head; Letter Flash, where you name as many players as you can; and a Community Chain that every visitor adds to, with private chain rooms for up to 50 people. A badge at the top switches the same site to NFL and NBA rosters.

It suits baseball fans who know the deep cuts of the roster, and anyone who likes a word chain with a goal to reach rather than an open list.