Sports Source Code: What would you change?

quote:

---

Anyway, the whole idea of being able to go back and change the past made me wonder: What would be my Top 10 Sports Code moments in sports? That is to say: What would I go back and change.

There are only two conditions that I just invented for Sports Code.



(1) You can't change a sporting RESULT. That is to say, you can't go back and have Scott Norwood MAKE the field goal or have Michael Jordan MISS the shot or have that Butler kid make the half course shot. You cannot make Bill Buckner field the ground ball cleanly (though you could try to convince Red Sox manager John McNamara to put Dave Stapleton a defensive replacement). Those are results, and they happened, and they cannot be changed (in my completely made-up scenario). No, you can only change something tangible, something that might make a difference (and remember you only have eight minutes). I only bend this rule once, in my very first Sports Code, but it's for a noble cause.

(2) You can't go back and create a whole new ending. That's a slightly tricky concept, but here's what I mean: For it to be a true Sports Code moment, you need to leave the ending open-ended. So, as much as you might want to do this, you can't have JIm Joyce make the right call so that Armando Galarraga gets his perfect game. Because, in that case, he GETS THE PERFECT GAME, and the story is over. That's a closed ending. The point here is to change something and then let a new ending unfold naturally.

---

LINK

Goofy idea over at Poz's blog that I thought would be a fun discussion. Remember, the general rule is that you can go back in time for 8 minutes and try and change something, but you have no supernatural powers: you can't make Scott Norwood's kick go in. You can only do what a normal guy could do.

So here's mine:


1. Convince the SEC to use a different officiating crew for 2006 LSU-Auburn. Yes, I'm still bitter. that is the only game I think we were ever "robbed" by officiating.

2. I'd murder Bob Irsay in about 1980. No Colts decline, he doesn't move the team to Indianapolis. Hell, Elway probably agrees to play for the Colts without Irsay as the owner. Browns also stay in Cleveland. And, I have the comfort of killing one of history's great monsters. There are no losers here.

3. Convince someone, ANYONE to outbid Peter Angelos for the Orioles.

4. Convince LSU to NOT hire Mike Archer. Maybe we hire Spurrier, maybe we don't, but we probably don't go into the death spiral resulting in Hallman. and Archer, having to wait to become a head man, probably gets a job later on and does quite well. He was just too young. Everyone benefits. Especially us, if we hire Spurrier.

5. Prevent Len Bias from trying cocaine. I don't think that's the first time he used, but if he never uses coke, Bias goes to the NBA and he'd be pushed by Michael Jordan. bias was a better college player which is no guarrantee of pro success (just look at Ralph Sampson), and it could have been fascinating to see Bias v. Jordan for years.