The answers to today's Strands, game #496, are… I managed to scrape through today’s search without any knowledge of baseball apart from Field of Dreams and League of Their Own – not that either movie had a JUMBOTRON – and needed two hints to complete the search.

Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? No shame in that, and you've come to the right place. Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #495, as well as the answers, should it come to that.

Strands has grown in popularity, especially among fans of cerebral challenges. It combines the categorical satisfaction of Connections with the spatial logic of a crossword, wrapped in a daily themed format that keeps players engaged.