The Tuesday Discussion: Change One Season?

November 18, 2025

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This week we asked our writers to respond to the following:

If you could go back and change part of any baseball season, which would it be, and why?  

Here are their responses...

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Ed Botti - There are many, but these two specific baseball related events pop into my mind (besides Thurman’s death, of course which was more life related).

1994 Strike – the Yanks were 70-43 (they actually were 70-40 at one point, but were on a 3 game losing streak – 2 straight to the O’s and 1 in Toronto). That strike ripped the hearts out of the fans. The Yanks and Expos were on a collision course for what could have been a classic. Yanks were on the verge of the playoffs for the first time since the 1981 WS loss. The stadium was rocking every night, and then suddenly the lights went out for good. That was Mattingly’s real chance at the World Series.

2001 World Series - Game 7. I said then, and I’ll say it now. No way I play the infield in for that Gonzalez at bat with 1 out against Mariano. That ball is caught if Jeter is at normal depth, IMO. In fact it might have been an inning ending DP as Soriano was close enough to the bag to double off Midre Cummings at 2nd, or at least make it very close.

Those two still sting.

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Cary Greene - Obviously I'd like to have mystical powers that would enable me to prevent Roberto Clemente's tragic death on December 31st, 1972, when his overloaded plane crashed into the ocean off the coast of Puerto Rico. Clemente was on a humanitarian mission to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua at the time of the crash. Likewise, I'd love to be able to prevent Thurman Munson's tragic death in August of 1979, when the plane he was piloting crashed during a practice landing. I'd love to have the ability to be able to prevent Lou Gehrig from getting ALS. 

Besides wishing the entire Pandemic shortened season of 2020 could have been prevented by making Covid never happen, making the 1994 player's strike never happen would be another one to wipe from our reality. 

All this said, when we start rewriting history, we get into concepts like alternate timelines and from there, quantum entanglement comes into play, then other dimensions becomes a factor. It all gets so confusing but to quote Winnie the Pooh, "People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day." 

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Paul Semendinger - The obvious and first answer I think of in my lifetime was Thurman's plane crash, of course.

Some lesser known seasons I would like to have changed... The 1995 playoff loss to the Mariners and the 1981 loss to the Dodgers.

I really wish the Yankees had won the World Series in 2001, not just for them, but for New York City as a whole.

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Lincoln Mitchell - First, my thanks to Paul Semendinger for asking another great and thought provoking question. As I started to think about this question, I first turned to things like injuries or mid-season deaths. The terrible 1979 death of Thurman Munson came to mind. I had been a huge Munson fan and was bereft when I leaned of his death. However, from a baseball perspective, I was not sure this was the answer. Munson, by 1979, was aging and was probably not going to be a catcher and therefore a true impact player for much longer.

I then thought of terrible trades I would like to not have seen the Yankees or Giants made. I settled on the 1976 season when the Yankees both made a terrible mid-season trade with the Orioles and had the purchase of Vida Blue canceled by the commissioner. Had the Yankees had Blue and not made that trade, they would have been even better going into the 1980s, but four pennants and two World Series championships might be better than what is behind door number two.

Then the answer came to me. My answer is 1884. You may be thinking, 1884 was a long time ago, what might have happened then that was so important. The answer is that in 1984 Moses Fleetwood Walker, a recent graduate of Oberlin College, caught 42 games for the Toledo Blue Stockings, then considered a major league team. That is significant because Walker was African American and his appearances so offended white racists of the era that the color line that existed until Jackie Robinson played for the Dodgers in 1947 was put in place. I would like to go back in time an overturn that decision. The moral dimension of this is obvious, but it also would have meant that the likes of Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell  and other Negro League stars would have been playing in the same league as Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller, Walter Johnson and so many others.

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Tim Kabel - If I could change any part of any Yankees season, I would have the Yankees win the 2001 World Series. If that had happened, then Alfonso Soriano would have been named the World Series MVP. The importance of that is that if that had happened, I don’t think he would’ve been traded for Alex Rodriguez. I always liked Soriano and I never particularly cared for Alex Rodriguez and all the baggage he brought with him.

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Andy Singer - I have two very clear things I would change, both of which stem from my childhood/adolescence. The first is the 2001 World Series. That was a fantastic back-and-forth series, and given the context of what was happening in the US and New York more specifically, it would have felt good for the Yankees to win it all in 2001. So, I would change the way that Joe Torre played the infield with Gonzalez at the plate (playing them in was an awful idea with an extreme power hitter at the plate). It would have been great for New York City, but it also would have prevented me from sharing a hospital room along the East River with a Diamondbacks fan who wore nothing but World Series Champion t-shirts for a week.

The second event I would change is the 1994 strike. Never mind that it almost tanked Major League Baseball's popularity (though you could still argue that it did anyway); I think the Yankees and Expos were destined to meet in the World Series that year. Mattingly was a shell of his former self, but he was still fantastically valuable, walking almost 3 times more than he struck out (!!!) while getting on-base at a nearly .400 clip. I think he would have thrived on the big playoff stage, and he would have gotten his truest shot at a World Series championship. If any Yankee deserved it, it was Donnie Baseball.