What If...?

[MFer 0]

Jon Kincaid was filling in on the Herd today and he came up with an interesting topic for the listeners. Basically he asked if you could change one thing about one of your favorite teams, how would it change that teams history? It could be a trade, draft pick, crucial play in a game, or anything else. Here it doesn't have to be limited to one team or a favorite team, just come up with some scenarios that would change the state of any franchise today. "What if" discussions come up all the time but hopefully we can come up with some that aren't so obvious in addition to the ones that are always talked about.

 

Example: What if there was never a MLB strike in '94? I don't really remember much about that year, but I know that there were a few interesting storylines (Tony Gwynn flirting with .400, the Expos having the best record in baseball etc...).

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Without a strike in 1994? Let me come up with five educated guesses.

 

1. Tony Gwynn does not hit .400. He was in a stretch where he hit .372 over a three-year period, which is insane. It's not .400 though, and Gwynn would have needed to hit BETTER than he was doing in his career year average wise to reach that mark. Note that George Brett hit .390 in the year where he missed 45 games (1980). There are many out-of-context percentage statistics that year, and that is a direct result of not having a full season to level the field.

 

2. The Montreal Expos do not win the World Series. It's still an eight-team tournament, and there would have been six other good teams. The Expos had a fat record thanks in part to a 12-0 mark against the blatantly non-competitive Padres. On a similar note, the New York Yankees would have slaughtered the Cleveland Indians had their records stood and the teams met in the first round. The Indians had no left-handed pitching at all. I think we get a White Sox/Braves World Series.

 

3. Matt Williams does not hit 62. One of the forgotten stories from that year is that Williams hit 43 home runs over 112 games. Over 162 games, that's a pace for 62 home runs, which would have then been the first to top Roger Maris's single season home run record. Again given that Williams never hit 50 in a season, I doubt he does it. For what it's worth, in the first 50 team games of 1995, Williams hit 13 home runs before falling to injury.

 

4. Mike Mussina wins 20, twice. This needs to be stressed, particularly when Mussina becomes eligible for the Hall. Mussina was 16-5 in 1994, 19-9 in 1995. Given ten more starts in '94 he likely reaches 20. Given three more in '95 he also reaches 20. When his name comes up in Hall balloting the point will arise that he never won 20 in a season. He should have.

 

5. Harold Baines, Hall of Famer? Baines did not make the Hall of Fame, not close. Give him 68 games back though, and that's another 70-80 hits. That puts him at 2,950, and who knows what happens from there?

[treble 0]

The Expos might not have won the World Series, but they definitely would have made the playoffs and would probably still be around today.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

As for the Phillies, three suggestions in chronological order.

 

1. Don't trade Grover Alexander. The Phils went to shit after that trade and only once had a winning season the next thirty years.

 

2. Be more aggressive in breaking the color barrier. A great young core in 1950 was negated when Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, etc. entered the league en mass.

 

3. Don't trade Ryne Sandberg. Hall of Famer lost for an aging Ivan Dejesus.

 

Possible 4. Don't trade Scott Rolen. The parade of third basemen since has been comical.

[Red Baron 0]

1.) Don't hire Mario Trembley and Rejan Houle. Somehow manage to cripple the Montreal Canadiens franchise worse than Serge Savard. Roy would have been on the team possibly the 97-98 campaign and would have gotten a better value of a trade. Though this would totally ruined the Avs/Red Wings rivalary.

 

2.) Draft Dennis Savard or Paul Coffey instead of Doug Wickenheiser. Just think how good Montreal would have been in the Eastern conference.

[sfaJack 0]

For the Cubs:

 

Alex Gonzalez doesn't bobble the ball hit by Cabrera after Bartman did his thing in Game 6. Instead, the Cubs turn that double play and go to the World Series.

 

 

[Brett Favre 0]

Michael Jordan was low balled by the Bulls after the '96 season. The result would've been him going to NY. Since the Bulls offered him a 1 year 30 million dollar deal, he stayed.

[Cartman 0]

Celtics actually GET Tim Duncan!

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Michael Jordan was low balled by the Bulls after the '96 season. The result would've been him going to NY. Since the Bulls offered him a 1 year 30 million dollar deal, he stayed.

 

Yeah right.

[Brett Favre 0]

Well that's the story. NY was waiting down stairs, and he was upstairs talking to Chicago.

 

What you think he was going to the Hornets or something?

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

I don't know but I doubt he was seriously considering leaving Chicago. He probably used the NY folks as a negotiation tactic. Like "Hey if you aren't going to give me a fair deal, I got someone downstairs who will" sort of thing.

[Brett Favre 0]

He was already about to retire soon, and he was born here, and you know how Jordan is. Dude gets a low offer and he'll feel insulted and all angry and stuff.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

I'm not going to debate the issue. What happened happened. Nice what if scenario though.

 

Here's one:

 

Barry Sanders doesn't retire, and picks up the rushing record and puts the record far out of Emmitt Smith's reach.

[tominator89 0]

I'm not going to debate the issue. What happened happened. Nice what if scenario though.

 

Here's one:

 

Barry Sanders doesn't retire, and picks up the rushing record and puts the record far out of Emmitt Smith's reach.

 

That's the first thing that came to mind when I read this topic. The all-time rushing record was Barry's for the taking.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

Rather than WIDE RIGHT, how about down the middle?

[tominator89 0]

I'll throw out one that seems to be a popular in the media right now, what if Ken Griffey Jr. wasn't injured the past few seasons?

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

He'd have certainly hit 3000. I don't think he'd quite touch Aaron's home run record, but he certainly would pass Mays, and probably catch Ruth.

[MFer 0]

What about Grant Hill and his injuries? I've heard a couple people say he would've been a top-20 player of all-time. I don't know if I'd go that far but he'd be a Hall-of-Famer no doubt.

[Red Baron 0]

If Bobby Clarke hadn't injured that one Russian player in the Summit Series, Canada would have loss the rest of the series and hockey would have changed forever.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

I disagree. Valeri Kharmalov, by the way, was the player. Canada won the Series, and hockey did change forever.

[Brett Favre 0]

I forgot exactly how it went, but I think the Blazers or Bulls offered the 2nd or 3rd pick respectively to the Rockets for Ralph Sampson and the Rockets declined. So what if Jordan and Hakeem were on the same team (I think it was Portland who made the offer).

[Guest]

If I could change one thing about each of my teams...

 

Lakers

 

Other than Magic not getting AIDS, I would have loved to see us draft Tayshaun Prince. That one move screwed us. Without him, the Pistons don't win their title, the Lakers collect their 4th of the decade, and everything doesn't go into a tailspin. We could have drafted him too, hometown kid and everything. Idiots in the front office didn't get it.

 

Kings

 

Would have fixed Deadmarsh's head so that he wouldn't have retired from a collection of past concussions. His retirement set this team back, a lot.

 

Dodgers

 

Darren Dreifort. Enough said.

 

Jags

 

Fix Tony Boselli's knee.

 

Liverpool

 

Never sell Robbie Fowler.

 

USC Football

 

Put Reggie in on that 4th down.

[vivalaultra 0]

What if...

 

Preston Wilson hadn't slid into Biggio and tore up his ACL in August 2001, causing Bidge to miss the rest of the season and some of the next, probably allowing Biggio to get his 3000 hit sometime in late 2005/early 2006?

 

The Astros had used their 1st rd. draft pick in 1992 to draft Derek Jeter instead of Phil Nevin?

 

The Astros had never bothered with Clemens or Pettite?

 

The Astros had let Biggio go to the Rockies in 1995?

 

Jeff Bagwell was never traded for Larry Andersen?

 

Carlos Beltran signed with the Astros after the 2004 season?

 

The Astros had started the 8th inning of Game 5 of the 1980 NLCS with Joe Sambito instead of waiting for Nolan Ryan to give up 3 hits and a walk to force in a run and load the bases with no outs with the Astros up by 3?

 

[treble 0]

I wish the Leafs had signed Gretzky when he was a free agent when he went to the Rangers. It probably wouldn't have done anything for the franchise, but it would have been nice. I also wonder how different things would be now if they had gotten Lindros during all that bullshit.

 

And the Jays should never have traded Michael Young for Esteban Loaiza.

[alfdogg 0]

I forgot exactly how it went, but I think the Blazers or Bulls offered the 2nd or 3rd pick respectively to the Rockets for Ralph Sampson and the Rockets declined. So what if Jordan and Hakeem were on the same team (I think it was Portland who made the offer).

I read a couple months ago that the Sixers offered the Bulls Julius Erving for the #3.

[OldSchoolWrestling 0]

Without a strike in 1994? Let me come up with five educated guesses.

 

1. Tony Gwynn does not hit .400. He was in a stretch where he hit .372 over a three-year period, which is insane. It's not .400 though, and Gwynn would have needed to hit BETTER than he was doing in his career year average wise to reach that mark. Note that George Brett hit .390 in the year where he missed 45 games (1980). There are many out-of-context percentage statistics that year, and that is a direct result of not having a full season to level the field.

 

Gwynn only hit .394 that year. Still too high based on the short season, but not the sacred .400.

 

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

The Astros had started the 8th inning of Game 5 of the 1980 NLCS with Joe Sambito instead of waiting for Nolan Ryan to give up 3 hits and a walk to force in a run and load the bases with no outs with the Astros up by 3?

 

I'll bite. It is worth pointing out that the Phillies were not hitting Nolan Ryan particularly hard. Boone and Greg Gross's singles were infield hits. Rose worked the walk on a full count. When you look at the innings before that, Nolan Ryan had faced the minimum 15 batters in the last five innings, giving up three hits, all singles. Those runners were erased via two double plays and a caught stealing. There was no reason on earth to pull Ryan out before the inning started, except for clairvoyant visions into the future. And the Phillies hit the succeeding relievers harder.

 

That game more than anything is baseball's equivalent of "shit happens," nothing more.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

I wish the Leafs had signed Gretzky when he was a free agent when he went to the Rangers. It probably wouldn't have done anything for the franchise, but it would have been nice. I also wonder how different things would be now if they had gotten Lindros during all that bullshit.

 

And the Jays should never have traded Michael Young for Esteban Loaiza.

For how generally lacklustre his time with the Leafs was, and how much of a flop his career is considered, imagine if he had played for the Leafs mid 90's? He never was as good as he should have been (a combination of too much hype and injuries, to be fair), but he still was a legitimate top 10 player for most of the decade.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Without a strike in 1994? Let me come up with five educated guesses.

 

1. Tony Gwynn does not hit .400. He was in a stretch where he hit .372 over a three-year period, which is insane. It's not .400 though, and Gwynn would have needed to hit BETTER than he was doing in his career year average wise to reach that mark. Note that George Brett hit .390 in the year where he missed 45 games (1980). There are many out-of-context percentage statistics that year, and that is a direct result of not having a full season to level the field.

 

Gwynn only hit .394 that year. Still too high based on the short season, but not the sacred .400.

I'm answering the question of "would he have done it?" There's a bit of an idea that Gwynn lost the opportunity to chase .400 because of the strike.

 

Gwynn would have hit .400, by the way, if he collected just four more hits.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

The Hockey News put out a magazine during the lockout (which, by the way, still has that mustard stain on it, Baron) called The Great Debates. It features a great 'what if' section, featuring probably the most debated 'what if' issue in recent hockey history: What if Gretzky had been called in Game 7?