# Athlete whose life changed the most following one performance

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlete-whose-life-changed-the-most-following-one-performance/1019705>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Tags:** golf\
**Created:** [June 16, 2025, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlete-whose-life-changed-the-most-following-one-performance/1019705 "2025-06-16T15:26:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2025, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlete-whose-life-changed-the-most-following-one-performance/1019705/81 "2025-08-23T18:12:25Z")

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Yeah, Maradona was a big deal already by then before the 1986 World Cup. I don’t know if he was Messi-level famous, but he was definitely a big star.

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**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2025, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlete-whose-life-changed-the-most-following-one-performance/1019705/82 "2025-08-23T18:28:00Z")

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> [@HeyHomie](#):
>
> I’ll nominate Kerry Wood. A legendary 20-strikeout game early in his career earned him the nickname “Kid K,” and I imagine he didn’t pay for a drink in Chicago for at least a year afterwards. The remainder of his career was pretty lackluster.

Wood was a very highly-touted prospect when he finally came up to the Cubs in '98, so it’s not like he came out of nowhere, and that 20-strikeout game was only his fifth major-league start. But, he did have to deal with a lot of injuries, and eventually wound up as a reliever. He did have stretches in which he played well – in 2003, he led the NL in strikeouts, won 14 games, was an All-Star, and had a bWAR score of 6.1 – but his career peak did happen on that one day in '98.

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**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2025, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlete-whose-life-changed-the-most-following-one-performance/1019705/83 "2025-08-23T19:08:53Z")

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> [@Velocity](#):
>
> Yeah, Maradona was a big deal already by then before the 1986 World Cup. I don’t know if he was Messi-level famous, but he was definitely a big star.

Yes, he was Mess-level famous already before the 1986 WC and unlike Messi rather unrivaled as the best footballer in the world at that time.

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**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2025, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlete-whose-life-changed-the-most-following-one-performance/1019705/84 "2025-08-24T08:02:40Z")

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The first World Cup I was old enough to follow was the 1982 one in Spain.

Maradona was already very famous then, so much so that his being sent off in the second round was a big deal.

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