I’m thinking of players who usually played a particular position in the field, but, for some reason, had to switch positions for the playoffs and came through admirably.
Two come to mind:
Mickey Stanley. He was a center fielder for the 1968 Detroit Tigers. The team had four good bats in the outfield: Stanley, Willie Horton, Jim Northrup, and fan favorite and future hall of famer Al Kaline. They also had one of the worst hitting shortstops in history: Ray Oyler (who hit .135 that year). Once the Tigers clinched, they made Stanley their regular shortstop, even though he had never played the position. Stanley hit only .214, but was certainly more a threat than Oyler, and didn’t make an error.
More obscurely, Randy Rasmussen was the 1968 NY Jets Left Guard. The team’s right tackle, Sam Walton, was a rookie who had been a disappointment all season. But the Jets had three good guards that year: Rasmussen, Dave Herman, and Bob Talamini. Rasmussen was switched to right tackle and went up against all-star Bubba Smith. Despite having to learn the new position in the Super Bowl itself, Rasmussen kept Smith from being much of a factor (he had one sack). More importantly, since he was still new to the difference in blocking assignments, the Jets ran the ball to the opposite side, toward Ordell Braase – who, unknown to anyone, was suffering from a bad back and lacked his usual mobility. Matt Snell was able to set a record for yardage gained, and the strong ground game set up the Jets victory.
What other players made this sort of switch in a crucial game an acquitted themselves well?
William “Refrigerator” Perry, normally a defensive lineman, scored a touchdown as a running back for the Bears in their Super Bowl XX win over New England. He was put on offense more as a stunt than out of necessity, though. The game was already out of reach for New England.
Perry had done some goal like rushing during the regular season, though.
The use of Perry as a “you can’t stop him fullback” is a complicated story; Perry was the subject of a huge test of wills between Mike Ditka, who personally made Perry a #1 pick, and Buddy Ryan, who hated Perry and thought him a useless player. When Ryan (the defensive coordinator) kept excluding Perry from defensive plans, Ditka came up with the idea of using Perry as a two-yard blasting force on goal line situations - he wasn’t the first guy to come up with the idea, but Perry seemed an ideal candidate to either smash the ball though or destroy anyone who tried to get to Walter Payton.
It was an undeniably effective strategy so they kept doing in in the Super Bowl; it wasn’t a stunt, it was legitimately a part of the Bears offensive strategy. They probably would have kept doing it past Super Bowl XX but Perry’s weight went from “big man” to “ridiculous,” eventually causing Ditka to become fearful of Perry’s cardiovascular health (which Ditka knows a thing or two about.) Perry was a booze hound and struggled with alcoholism and the weight gain it brought. He’s 50 now and in atrocious health, barely able to walk and with a laundry list of health problems.
Magic’s rookie year. It was the deciding game (6) and he scored 42 points playing Abdul-Jabbar’s center position. It helped that the Lakers still had Norm Nixon who was their point guard before Magic arrived.
In the span of 4 seasons Magic won a high school class A championship, an NCAA championship and an NBA championship. He was the MVP in all three of them. I don’t know if any other player has done that.
Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel had 12 career receptions, *all *for touchdowns of 1 or 2 yards.
In the current World Series, Xander Bogaerts has been the Red Sox third baseman, despite being a shortstop who has almost never played there before. Jose Iglesias did the same thing earlier this year while Will Middlebrooks was in AAA.
Offensive Tackle vs Offensive Guard. How much real difference is there? Its not like he is moving from Linebacker to Wide Receiver.
Tackles and Guards are big guys who block for Running backs and pass block for the Quarterback. I realize that there are some non trivial differences but the skills are transferable and they know the blocking schemes.
The blocking scheme is reversed when switching from left to right. You’re trained to go one way, and have to block differently. It’s an easier adjustment on passing plays, but running plays can be complicated. The Jets ran nearly all their running plays to the left side, with good success; they avoided running plays to the right because Rasmussen wasn’t used to the position.
In 1965 the injuries the Baltimore Colts had to play RB Tom Matte at QB in a playoff game against the Packers. The Packers won 13-10 on a disputed last second FG. Matte had been an running QB in college at Ohio State. The Colt put the plays on a wristband so he could remember them better. Such wristbands are common now but were not in 1965. Link
That’s the story, but not really. He took the opening tip, so he “started at center.” But, sort of like Lebron nowadays, he was really just playing the position of Magic Johnson the rest of the game. It’s not like he was defending Darryl Dawkins in the post, or like the Lakers took the ball out of his hands while he was battling for position in the paint.
Patriots Wide Receiver Troy Brown was used as a defense back during the 2004 season including the playoffs. He finished tied for the team lead with 3 interceptions and the Patriots won the Superbowl.
Well, if we’re counting shortstop -> third base during the regular season and on into the playoffs, one of the best (if currently an agreed-upon object of group hate) shortstops of all time was playing 3rd base the last few seasons in New York. I’m pretty sure they were in the playoffs some of that time.
Wasn’t Roger Staubach’s backup (Danny White?) also the punter, and take over QB at some point? I don’t know if he did it in the playoffs; you’d have to consider him a punter who happened to QB rather than vice versa to count him, though.
In the other direction, Tom Tupa, a quarterback at Ohio State and, early on, with the Cardinals, was a part-time punter, who eventually became a punter exclusively (with several teams, including the Patriots) who sometimes ran fake plays.
That is one of the greatest shames in sports history. Lots of great players never get to a Super Bowl, but when a true giant of the game gets to play in one, you really owe it to him to let him try to score a TD.
Forget about “succeeded” for a second, since the scenario I’m going to describe pretty much precludes success.
In regular season games, it’s not at all uncommon for a team that’s trailing by a huge amount to have a non-pitcher take the mound for an inning or two. That is, if the Yankees were trailing the Red Sox 13-2 at the end of 8 innings, Joe Girardi would probably ask if any of the guys on the bench had ever done any pitching. And if a utility infielder said, “Yeah, I was a pitcher in high school,” Girardi might put that guy in to pitch the 9th inning, rather than waste Mariano Rivera in a lost cause. And if that happened, the Red Sox would probably be content to go up there, take a few token swings, and go home with a win.
So, semi-regularly, a guy who’s not even a pitcher will throw a scoreless, hitless inning.
I have to assume that’s happened in the post-season, too. Can anyone remember games where an outfielder or a backup catcher pitched a scoreless inning or so in the World Series?