The Magic Wand - Go Back in Time and Change your team's fortunes

[9RoyHobbsRF]

You have a magic wand and can go back in time and change anything you want to make your baseball fan enjoyment better (and alter history), what would you change?

here are some examples from a SF Giants fan

1. Willie McCovey's line drive is 2 more feet to the right or left of Richardson and the Giants win the 1962 series
2. The Giants don't trade Orlando Cepeda for Ray Sadecki
3. The Giants don't trade Gaylord Perry for Sam McDowell
4. The Giants don't trade George Foster for Frank Duffy

[redban]

Hmm..

Met fan:

1. Game 5 of the 2000 World Series. I'd have Mike Piazza hit the ball 10-15 feet farther

I don't care if the Mets lose the World Series, but I want Piazza to hit a HR off Rivera in that spot. He's my favorite player, and he was the face of the Mets; yet he never got a big hit off Rivera.

2. 1999 NLCS. Mets become the first team to come back from a 3-0 deficit by beating Atlanta in 7 games.

3. September 2001 Armando Benitez (Mets closer) does not blow those key ballgames in late September, and the Mets make the post-season. It would have made this iconic homerun even more meaningful had NYM made the post-season.

4. Piazza in September 2000 Piazza had the MVP award locked up until he batted .222 in the final month of the season. If I had it my way, he doesn't slump and finishes the year batting .340, winning the MVP award (which he never did; arguably the greatest player never to do so.)

[dgarza]

Reds don't trade Frank Robinson and win the 1970 WS. They might have gone farther in 72, 73, & 74 as well.
The Robinson trade also included Milt Pappas, who the Reds eventually traded for Clay Carroll. Even though Carroll was important to the Reds, could they have won back to back in 75-76 without him?

[ian2813]

For the Cubs:

2003 NLCS, Game 6

The Cubs are pitching in the top of the 8th with one out and runners on first and second. Miguel Cabrera hits a ground ball to shortstop Alex Gonzalez.

(magic wand)

Gonzalez fields the ball cleanly and turns a double play. The Cubs escape a tense inning still up 3-1, then seal the deal in the ninth, giving them their first pennant since 1945! While they're at it, they go on to defeat the Yankees in the World Series, ending 95 years of frustration.

For the White Sox:

I'm not too greedy, since I got to see them win it once in 2005. If I can change something though, I wish they'd at least put up a better fight in the 2000 ALDS. Getting swept was just pathetic.

For general baseball there's one not involving my team that stands above all others:

2011 World Series

Game 6, two outs, ninth inning, David Freese hit a long drive to right field...

(magic wand)

Nelson Cruz plays it perfectly for the final out and the Rangers are World Series champions! Man, I'm still heartbroken over that one.

[StanTheMan]

1985 - Don Dekinger stubs his toe on a curb outside his Kansas City hotel one night in October and is unable to work first base during the World Series later than night. He can move to another base or miss the game entirely, I don't care. This prevents the Cardinals Game 6 and Game 7 meltdowns. My teen years are much better for it.

Sometime in 1951... An unknown New Yorker invents time travel, comes todays date, whisks me back to Manhattan and straight to the Polo Grounds. He has seats in the first row of the upper deck immediately next to the foul pole. Bliss....

Cardinals late 2000's... Cardinals owners keep Scott Rolen instead of Tony Larussa. Mark McGwire never becomes hitting coach.

I am standing next to the ENORMOUS sign posted in every clubhouse - which clearly explains the penalties for gambling in baseball as Pete Rose walks by it for the last time at his last game. I merely snicker as he goes by.

Wrigley Field - I get a job hawking drinks down the left field line near the corner. I take all my tip money and buy drink after drink after drink for a certain fan all night. He accepts graciously. Finally, in the late innings, Bartman has to pee. So he goes. What the fans and that city did to that man was/is atrocious. Alou misses the ball on his own.

[Gee Walker]

The Tigers don't trade Billy Pierce for Aaron Robinson, and are in a position to win some pennants in the late 40's and early 50's.

The Tigers hire Billy Martin as manager to start the 1967 season, instead of Mayo Smith. Martin's managing wins them the 1967 pennant - which they lost by one game. He knocks some sense into Denny McLain - probably literally - and has the smarts to figure that John Hiller is his relief ace five years before he actually does figure it out when he finally does get to manage the Tigers. He also puts Mickey Stanley in at shortstop full time, adding about 300 OPS points to whatever Ray Oyler was putting up.

Tom Monaghan sells the team for a big profit after the 1987 season. The new owner doesn't think that free agency is a Communist plot and that Ernie Harwell can't relate to the younger crowd. No Bo Schembechler - we get a real general manager that actually drafts baseball players, not guys who can bench press 350 pounds and run the forty in 4.2 seconds - you know, the guys that we'll turn into great players...

[Second Base Coach]

How about the umpire calling Reggie Jackson and the batter-runner OUT for interference the year he stuck his hip out in the World Series against my Dodgers...

That still irks me.

[ol' aches and pains]

For the White Sox:

I'm not too greedy, since I got to see them win it once in 2005. If I can change something though, I wish they'd at least put up a better fight in the 2000 ALDS. Getting swept was just pathetic.

I remember The Mariners bunting up the first base line to make Frank Thomas prove he was a competent Major League first baseman (he wasn't).

For me, people are probably sick of me saying it, but if the Milwaukee Braves had won one additional game in 1956, and one in 1959, they would have won four pennants in a row, and been a National League mini-dynasty. I was drooling at the prospect of a Braves-White Sox World Series in 1959, to have it snatched away broke my nine year-old heart.

[Jackaroo Dave]

For me, people are probably sick of me saying it, but if the Milwaukee Braves had won one additional game in 1956, and one in 1959, they would have won four pennants in a row, and been a National League minidynasty.

As a Brooklyn Dodger fan at the time, I was very aware of that. After winning in '59, it seems ungrateful to ask for more, but if the Dodgers could have hung on to Clemente . . . .

[GiambiJuice]

2001 - WS, Game 7. Joe Torre doesn't play the infield in and Luis Gonzalez's bloop is easily caught.
2004 - ALCS, Game 6. Joe Torre tells his players to bunt a few times to test Curt Schilling's "bloody" ankle.
2007 - In Cleveland, Joe Torre removes his team from the field until the midges disappear.

[John Shoemaker]

Babe Ruth plays his whole career as a position player - his home run total would probably have been about 900 and there would be no argument about who has the career home run record.

[ian2813]

I remember The Mariners bunting up the first base line to make Frank Thomas prove he was a competent Major League first baseman (he wasn't).

Yep, I remember that. Neither Thomas nor Paul Konerko was hitting in the first two games, so they put Thomas at first for Game 3 hoping it would help get his mind in the game, or something. Then in the ninth inning, Carlos Guillen took advantage.

[m8644]

2006 NLCS game 7.....9th inning

Jose Reyes laser line drive is 3 feet to the left or right of Jim Edmonds and goes to the wall for a game tying triple (instead of right into Edmonds glove for the rally killing 2nd out)....Mets go on to win the game later and advance to the world series.


1988 NLCS Game 4....9th inning......Gooden doesnt grove a first pitch "get me over" fastball to Mike Scioscia.....he gets him out....Mets go onto win the game and take a commanding 3-1 series lead and clinch it within the next 2 games, thereby avoiding Hershiser in game 7 and advancing to the world series.

[banny]

Pirate Fan, that's easy. Barry Bonds, the best left fielder at the time, throws a dart to home plate to throw out Sid Bream, one of the slowest runners in the league at that time and the Bucs win the N.L. pennant and go on to win the World Series. Bonds stays with Pittsburgh, never does steriods (allegedly) and Pittsburgh wins one more series and two more pennants in the '90's.

[ol' aches and pains]

Pirate Fan, that's easy. Barry Bonds, the best left fielder at the time, throws a dart to home plate to throw out Sid Bream, one of the slowest runners in the league at that time and the Bucs win the N.L. pennant and go on to win the World Series. Bonds stays with Pittsburgh, never does steriods (allegedly) and Pittsburgh wins one more series and two more pennants in the '90's.

Alledgedly? What would it take to convince you? Would you have to see him injected with your own eyes?