Franchise Reviving Games/Moments

[Serious Darius Bagfelt]

Red getting Parish and McHale along with larry.

Spurs tanking the year Robinson was hurt and then getting Duncan.

Penguins getting Sid in the lottery.

Penguins getting Mario Lemieux in 1984. The Pens had one foot in Hamilton before that.

[Thomas Bugg]

Had the Miracle At The Meadowlands not happened, four things would've happened...

 

1) The Eagles would've finished 6-8 at best, and Dick Vermeil gets fired

 

2) Herman Edwards, while a productive player, would've faded into obscurity

 

3) The Giants wouldn't have cleaned house and made the foundation for two Super Bowl teams

 

4) Merrill Reese wouldn't have had one of his defining calls of his career

Edited September 16, 2020 by Thomas Bugg

[Tabe]

Red getting Parish and McHale along with larry.

Spurs tanking the year Robinson was hurt and then getting Duncan.

Penguins getting Sid in the lottery.

Penguins getting Mario Lemieux in 1984. The Pens had one foot in Hamilton before that.

And then Mario buying the team to save them a second time.

[elizium]

St. Louis Cardinals

 

Winter Meetings (and the preceding month) 1980.  In August 1980, Whitey Herzog moves from manager to GM.  In the offseason he names himself manager, holding both jobs, and moves a total of 26 players in or out over the course of two months.

 

This would end a decade of Cardinals futility and begin the era of the Cardinals that defined my childhood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shouldn't have traded Hernandez, though.

 

 

Blame Whitey?

[Serious Darius Bagfelt]

 

 

Red getting Parish and McHale along with larry.

Spurs tanking the year Robinson was hurt and then getting Duncan.

Penguins getting Sid in the lottery.

Penguins getting Mario Lemieux in 1984. The Pens had one foot in Hamilton before that.

And then Mario buying the team to save them a second time.

 

Probably was in reality the fourth or fifth time the Pens were saved

[mco543]

At the very least it's probably up to 3 for Mario; getting drafted and playing there, buying the club, and then finally getting their arena deal.

[Serious Darius Bagfelt]

1968 WIld Bill Hunter tried to move the Penguins to Edmonton.  When he was told to piss off by Clarence Campbell him and a few other disgruntled wannabe owners started the WHA and really caused the NHL some trouble

[Craig H]

Stop living in the past

 

Says the guy bringing up the past.

[Craig H]

I'm also surprised no one brought up the death of Dollar Bill Wirtz opening the gates to the Blackhawks being something more than a cheap joke.

 

I wonder if Raiders fans felt the same when Uncle Al died.

[EdA]

I wonder if Raiders fans felt the same when Uncle Al died.

 

Not yet, no.  It was there at first...then Mark Davis took over.  It still hurts.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

Stop living in the past

Says the guy bringing up the past.

I love that Novocain got the joke but I got you haha. Wooooo

[Ace]

1996 NBA Off-season.

With the 13th pick of the draft, the Charlotte Hornets draft Kobe Bryant. Bryant refuses to play for the Hornets and demands a trade. The Lakers trade Vlade Divac for Bryant.

With the 24th pick of the draft, the Lakers draft Derek Fisher.

The Lakers sign free agent Shaquille O'Neal.

[The Man Known as Dan]

... There's things to get about your posts? I thought it was just a desperate cry for attention, so I play along once in a while.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

... There's things to get about your posts? I thought it was just a desperate cry for attention, so I play along once in a while.

Fickle, like your fandom of sport teams

[Thomas Bugg]

Jimmy Johnson. The Trade.

 

As much as I hate to admit, one of the ballsiest moves ever, and it took Dallas from the doldrums to the last time that they were relevant in the championship picture.

[Greggulator]

Two ones close to my heart:

1) Phillies vs. Mets, Aug. 30, 2007: This game is one of the handful of favorite baseball games ever played. This was the fourth game in an awesome series against the Mets, who looked like world-beaters.The Phillies went up 5-0 and 8-5 before trailing 10-8 in just a crazy game,. Down one headed into the bottom of the 9th, the Phils mount a last-inning comeback -- something that became their trademark over their great run. Even better, the win came off of former Phils closer Billy Wagner, who said some disparaging remarks about the city when he left for New York. The Phils made a slip a few games after this to go down 7 with 17 to go. But we all know what happened next.  I don't think, though, any Phillies fans really wrote the season off despite being down that much, especially not when they got some momentum going.

 

I don't have time to look for the article but I read something about the importance of this game for the franchise. It was a sold-out Monday day game -- something that wasn't too common until the run began, when they sold out an insane amount of games in a row. Their TV ratings in 2007 were still very "eh" but the replay of this game that night set a record for most watched regular season Phillies game or something along those lines. They steadily increased after that until the Phils were getting insane market shares for every single game.

It also mirrored the development of Philly in so many ways. I first came to school here in 1995. The place was really crummy in retrospect -- downtown was a dustbowl, save for a few areas, and there wasn't a lot going on. I eventually settled here for good in '04, and things were just starting to percolate.. Center City was getting a buzz for good new restaurants; Northern Liberties and Fishtown and Bella Vista and South Philly were starting to become gentrified. By the end of the run, when the mighty Ryan Howard ruptured his tendon in the final out against the Cardinals, the city was completely transformed. Philly always had a lot of local pride but now the rest of the country saw what we did. Those years were exciting and vital -- there were new restaurants popping up weekly, new concert spaces (all locally owned and booked) coming up, an emerging comedy scene, new housing, etc.

This, in my heart, started it all.

2) La Salle vs. Butler, 2013: My beloved alma mater started to come alive in 2011-12, doing well enough to make the NIT. Things were buzzing the season when they pulled out a few last-second wins against Northeastern and Villanova. But the NCAA resume was still a bit lacking. Then came in the Butler Bulldogs, ranked in the Top 10 in the country and coming off an epic last-second win against Gonzaga just a few days earlier. This was just a great college basketball game. La Salle went down one with just a few seconds to go after Butler's big man -- who tore us up all night -- made a shot. But then Ramon Galloway, the team's senior guard, got the ball and took matters into his own hand. Butler's Roosevelt Jones (who made the insane last-second shot during the Gonzaga game) made a half-court heave the was just off. The student section stormed the court. I was behind the Butler bench for this and cried after they won -- I was far from alone. This was one of the best live sports experiences of my life. The Explorers knocked off VCU the next game and ended up as one of the "First Four" games. They won three, the last culminating in the "Southwest Philly Floater" buzzer beater against Ole Miss, and made the Sweet 16.

[The Nature Boy]

How about the entire union of Tom Brady and the Pats. 

 

1. The Patriots decide to draft Brady with the 199th pick. Apparently, the decision came down to between him and Tim Rattay. Brady enters the 2000 season as the 4th stringer, ends up working his way to 2nd string by season's end. 

 

2. Bledsoe shits the bed in the first two games of the 2001 season, Belichek decides to start Brady in game 3 and the rest is history. 

 

The Patriots had been a contender before but nothing like what they would become in the 2000s. 

[muhammedboehm]

How about the entire union of Tom Brady and the Pats.

1. The Patriots decide to draft Brady with the 199th pick. Apparently, the decision came down to between him and Tim Rattay. Brady enters the 2000 season as the 4th stringer, ends up working his way to 2nd string by season's end.

2. Bledsoe shits the bed in the first two games of the 2001 season, Belichek decides to start Brady in game 3 and the rest is history.

The Patriots had been a contender before but nothing like what they would become in the 2000s.

Belicheks desion to start Tommy made easier by the fact that Mo Lewis blow him up.

[The Nature Boy]

 

How about the entire union of Tom Brady and the Pats.

1. The Patriots decide to draft Brady with the 199th pick. Apparently, the decision came down to between him and Tim Rattay. Brady enters the 2000 season as the 4th stringer, ends up working his way to 2nd string by season's end.

2. Bledsoe shits the bed in the first two games of the 2001 season, Belichek decides to start Brady in game 3 and the rest is history.

The Patriots had been a contender before but nothing like what they would become in the 2000s.

Belicheks desion to start Tommy made easier by the fact that Mo Lewis blow him up.

 

 

The Brady situation was really the confluence of a lot of really weird factors. You could argue that Lewis's hit on Bledsoe was the franchise reviving moment. If Brady had never gotten the chance to start in 2001, who knows where the Pats or Brady would've ended up.

[BobbyWhioux]

Over just a couple weeks in 1992 the San Francisco Giants went from being all but out the door and off to St. Petersburg, Florida (the new stadium was even built and ready for them there!) to not only being saved by a new ownership group, but that ownership group's first move was to sign Barry Bonds as a free agent.

 

Which later enabled reviving/turnaround moment #2:  replacing one of the worst ballparks in MLB with one of the nicest in 2000.  Now the idea that they were once almost gone seems unfathomable.  And after spending most of their post-west-coast-move sliding into irrelevance, they've actually become a world series contender.  They've even WON a couple.