The 5: Sports Alternate Histories
This Week on the 5: ‘What Ifs’ That Could Have Changed Sports
We all know the history of our favorite sports; the champions, the stories, the greatest players and the worst, but what if things went a little bit differently? What if a ball bounces a different way, saving an injury? Or the cup misses Artest? In sports anything can happen, and any one thing could’ve set off a chain reaction, changing history as we know it. Here are 5 “What Ifs” and the “Could Have Beens” that go with them.
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1. What if Ken Griffey Jr. could stay healthy?
In an era where steroid allegations have been thrown around at every great power hitter there seems to be one man who has stood above it and managed to avoid suspicion. Ken Griffey Jr. retired from baseball in 2010, after 22 seasons in Major League Baseball in which he amassed 630 home runs, good for fifth in MLB history.
What makes this all the more impressive is the fact that Griffey did it in the equivalent of 16 seasons thanks to an extensive injury history that kept him out of 6 seasons worth of games and hampered him for a large amount of others. He never was the same player after the 2000 season, playing less than 100 games per year from 2002-2004.
The real question is; if “The Kid” had stayed healthy, could he have gone down as one of, if not the best player of all time? And while allegations of steroids have never been leveled upon Junior, if he had stayed healthy and become the home run king, would they have been? And would he have held up under the scrutiny?
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2. What if “The Trade” didn’t happen?
“The Trade” was a landmark move in the history of the NHL. In August of 1988, Edmonton Oilers owner Peter Pocklington shocked hockey fans around the world when he traded the best player in the league, Wayne Gretzky, along with Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski to the Los Angeles Kings for Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, $15 million in cash and three future first-round draft picks (89, 91, 93). In addition to the scorn that Gretzky received from Canadian fans who thought that he engineered the swap and even tried to convince the Government to block the move, the trade had long lasting effects on the NHL itself.
The NHL was in a downslide, they didn’t get the publicity that the big three got and had just signed a deal with SportChannel America, a contract that paid the league more than ESPN previously had but reached only one third of the viewers. In addition, with the best players on Canadian teams, the largest American markets had minimal interest in the sport. Sending the leagues top player to a huge market like Los Angeles reinvigorated the sport in the eyes of the American fan. “The Great One” literally brought Hockey to Southern California and the Southern USA as the move sparked the leagues expansion, quickly adding teams in Anaheim, San Jose, Dallas and Phoenix.
In addition it changed the way that players negotiated contracts, with players realizing that everybody was expendable knowing that if Gretzky could be traded anyone could. It’s hard to say exactly what happens if “The Trade” doesn’t go down but it’s very possible that Hockey never gains traction in the West or South, these expansion teams don’t pop up, and hockey drops even further below basketball as the number four sport in America.
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3. What if Jordan succeeded in baseball?
On October 6, 1993, coming off of three consecutive championships with the Bulls and still in the prime of his playing career at age 30, Michael Jordan announced his retirement from basketball. At the time Jordan claimed that he had just lost his desire to play the game but those close to him believed it was a choice spurred by his father’s death just 3 months earlier, a rumor that Jordan himself would verify later in his life.
Jordan’s father always envisioned his son in Major League Baseball and Michael decided that to honor his dad he wanted to take a shot at following that dream, leading him to sign a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox, a team also owned by Jerry Reinsdorf. Jordan, known for his incredible work ethic, worked harder than anyone on the team and showed immense improvement from day one of Spring Training to the beginning of the Southern League season but he just couldn’t get good enough quick enough.
Jordan never made it to the major leagues, retiring with a .202 average, 3 home runs, 51 RBIs and 30 stolen bases in his minor league career. Michael returned to the NBA in 1995 after a two-word press release – “I’m back” – and led his team to another three-peat from 1996-1998, but what if Jordan had succeeded in the minor leagues, made the White Sox major league roster, and succeeded in the MLB? Does he still go back to basketball? Do the Bulls ever recover? Is he still considered the best of all time? How does it affect the legacy of Phil Jackson and the players who won those championships with him? And how is he viewed by todays fans?
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4. What if there had been no color barrier in Baseball?
This is an issue that no one person in sports could have prevented but it is something that would have changed the history of Major League Baseball and who we perceive as the legends and the greatest of all time. Jackie Robinson entered the MLB in 1947, becoming the first African American to play at the professional level.
The years before integration gave us some of the best and most well known baseball players of all time while in the background the Negro Leagues showcased stars of their own — many of which would never see a professional field until they were past their prime, if at all.
Would Babe Ruth have hit 714 home runs if he had to face Smokey Joe Williams, Bullet Rogan, and Satchel Paige? Is Ruth still the premier star of the era? How does this affect teams like the Yankees in today’s game? Would Josh Gibson, who hit a reported 800 career home runs in the Negro Leagues be considered the greatest of all time? We’ll never know, but just looking at how integration changed the game of basketball when Wilt came in and dominated you have to assume it would have been the same in the MLB.
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5. What if Artest hadn’t gone into the stands?
Everyone knew the Pacers/Pistons game on November 19, 2004 was going to be a hard fought game, a rematch of the previous seasons Eastern Conference Finals between two teams who just didn’t like each other, but nobody could have predicted what would become one of the most memorable events in professional basketball history. With 45 seconds left and Indiana leading by 15, Ron Artest, who allegedly warned Wallace beforehand that he was going to get hit, fouled the Pistons Ben Wallace hard from behind.
A frustrated Wallace shoved back and both benches cleared. Artest laid down on the scorers’ table in an attempt to avoid conflict, which is when the situation got out of hand. A fan in the stands threw a cup of Diet Coke, which hit Artest in the chest. Artest responded by charging into the stands, violently grabbing the wrong man. Mark Boyle, a broadcaster who tried to hold Artest back suffered a gash on his head and five fractured vertebrae. Defending his teammate, Stephen Jackson followed Artest into the stands while throwing punches at fans.
Meanwhile Artest and Jermaine O’Neal were brawling with a different group of spectators. O’Neal later said, “As bad as it looked on TV, it was at least 20 times worse in person.” The end result was 146 games worth of suspensions handed out (86 to Artest alone, the rest of the season), $11 million in total salary lost, and numerous felony charges for five of the players involved. “The Malice at the Palace” immediately became a huge black eye on the NBA and destroyed the public perception of a league that many already thought was populated by thugs.
David Stern and the NBA went into full PR mode trying to convince America that he didn’t run a league of criminals. A strict dress code was implemented the next season and the season after that high school players were blocked from joining the NBA. The league never announced the new draft rules were a direct result of the brawl but it is widely believed that Stern thought it would avoid bringing more immature players into the league.
The fact that the suspensions handed down held up in court and through the appeals process gave David Stern the most power of any Commisioner, and Artest and Jackson were never seen the same way again. It also robbed fans of one of the 2005 NBA favorites in the Indiana Pacers without 3 of their best players. If the Coke is never thrown or Artest brushes it off who knows what direction the NBA takes and how the public’s perception of the league continues to trend.
