More Sports What if's

Here are some more Sports "What if's":

Baseball:
1. What if the Cardinals would have moved to Houston in 1952?
2. What if the Padres would have not been bought by Ray Kroc and moved to Washington in 1974?
3. What if the Phillies didn't blow a big lead at the end of the 64 season?

Football:
1. What if Joe Roth, the great QB who played at Cal in the Mid-70's, doesn't die of cancer in 1977?
2. What if Minneapolis would have stayed in the AFL, and there would have been no Oakland Raiders?
3. What if Donald Trump didn't ruin the USFL?
4. What if the Steelers would have drafted Dan Marino in 1983 and kept him home?

Hockey:
1. What if Gretzky would have been traded to Detroit(his childhood team) or the Rangers in 1988 instead of the Kings?
2. What if Badger Bob Johnson, coach of the Penguins, didn't die after they won the 1991 Stanley Cup?
3. What if Cleveland and Buffalo would have been granted expansion teams in the 50's, and they were successful?

Basketball:
1. What if the Bucks didn't trade Kareem to the Lakers for garbage, and they let him play out his option at the end of the 75 season?
2. What if Bill Walton didn't get hurt at the end of the 78 season with the Blazers 50-10 and cruising to a repeat?
3. What if the Blazers would have been able to get Olajuwon, or have taken Jordan in 84 over Sam Bowie?
4. What if the Mavericks, a playoff team in 1984, drafted John Stockton in the 84 draft and Karl Malone in the 85 Draft? They could have had both.
 
I'll bite

HOCKEY

1. Gretsky not going to LA is going to have HUGE consequences for the NHL. In the short run, the addition of Gretsky to Detroit or the NY Rangers will most definitely result in whatever squad he joins becoming the one to beat. If he heads to the Rangers, I'd wager that they stand a good chance of winning a Stanley cup in the late 1980's.

Longer term however, things get more interesting. Without the explosion of interest Gretsky brought with him to LA, the idea to market Hockey to the warmer portions of the USA. Gary Bettman probably doesn't become Commissioner of the NHL. As a result I'd wager that Los Angeles folds after years of mediocrity, and teams like the San Jose Sharks, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks etc. are moved to more northern climes. Overall I'd say that TTL's NHL is going to be smaller and restricted to Canada and the Northern US, overall Hockey is probably more popular and a better sport without the southern teams.
 
I'll bite

HOCKEY

1. Gretsky not going to LA is going to have HUGE consequences for the NHL. In the short run, the addition of Gretsky to Detroit or the NY Rangers will most definitely result in whatever squad he joins becoming the one to beat. If he heads to the Rangers, I'd wager that they stand a good chance of winning a Stanley cup in the late 1980's.

Longer term however, things get more interesting. Without the explosion of interest Gretsky brought with him to LA, the idea to market Hockey to the warmer portions of the USA. Gary Bettman probably doesn't become Commissioner of the NHL. As a result I'd wager that Los Angeles folds after years of mediocrity, and teams like the San Jose Sharks, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks etc. are moved to more northern climes. Overall I'd say that TTL's NHL is going to be smaller and restricted to Canada and the Northern US, overall Hockey is probably more popular and a better sport without the southern teams.

I think that Gretzky would have had a bigger impact on Detroit winning in the late-80's than the Rangers. They lost to Edmonton in the Conference Finals in 87 and 88, and Gretzky may have put them over the hump in 89 or 90. As far as Bettman not becoming commissioner of the NHL in an alternate reality, that sounds good to me. The expansion that the league has had since that trade has been a joke(Anaheim, Tampa, Miami, Atlanta, Columbus, Nashville). I think that some of those cities are in danger of losing their team someday.
 
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