In various alternate realities, their sports are just a little bit different than ours…
Mile-Long Football: The playing field is a mile long. Naturally punting and field goal
kicking probably would be pointless, and a breakaway run or pass would prove to
be a marathon not a sprint (in comparative terms). The coaching staff probably
would be have access to golf carts to keep up with the action. I actually had a
dream about this version once…
Baseball with no outfield fences: Baseball version of above. Sure you lose the
bleacher revenue, but every long hit will be a race between the outfielders and the
baserunners, which is actually kind of how it was around the turn of the 20th
century (most of Ty Cobb’s “home runs” were of the inside the park variety).
Baseball with 5 bases: Laid out along a regular equilateral pentagon, so that fair
ground is 108 degrees wide not 90. Probably need an extra outfielder (like softball)
to cover all that extra ground (I’d keep the infielders at 4, one for each base).
Stolen bases probably would gain prominence, as would speed overall.
Golf with just two long holes (instead of 18). Sure putting becomes unimportant,
but a well designed 2 hole layout would have plenty of opportunities for gambles
and strategic choices. Each hole probably would be around 4000 yards long…
A couple actually seriously proposed in Sports Illustrated in the 60s:
12-inning football. Same rules except that each team gets the ball 12 times a game and keeps the ball until it scores or turns over the ball. No issues with clock management: if your team needs a touchdown in the bottom of the 12th, you have the ball until you score. Also, a blowout ends early (if you have a three-touchdown lead and the opponent only two innings left, you win).
3-set baseball. Three games of three innings each. Winner is the team that wins two of the three. Thus, if the home team scores a dozen runs in the first inning, the visitors can win by winning the second and third sets 1-0. There would be many six-inning games, and I doubt a team down by 2-0 with three innnings to go would think it was over.
Match play baseball. Team compete each inning; the team that scores the most runs wins. Total number of innings won determines the game winner. If a team scores 8 runs in the first, it’s far from over. This would probably work better than 3-sets. Once the home team scores more runs in an inning, it’s over, speeding up the game.
Well there is one where netball is played by men, hockey is played on ice instead of grass, cricket is played with a club and without wickets, and rugby is palyed wearing armor.
Basketball with goals 15 feet high. Players 7 feet tall can no longer treat it like a kiddy goal. They have to really shoot. The scores would come down which I consider good in this case. There would be many fewer layups and no dunks of course but it would open up the court because being right under the basket wouln’t be that helpful so players will shoot three-point style most of the time.
I’ve read a tongue-in-cheek proposal for Mensaball, the thinking person’s version of baseball. Simplest rule modification is that the batter may choose to run the bases either clockwise or counterclockwise. He can’t change directions once committed to a selection. Two base runners going in opposite directions may share a base. Fully loaded bases would mean six runners on. The best defensive play would be a septuple play, getting seven runners out (six previously on base, plus the batter) at once.
From the Matador series; Poisonball. After a predetermined time, the ball will spray whatever side of the court it’s on with a nonlethal but agonizing toxin, the idea is to make sure it bursts on the other guy’s side, and that he lacks the time to slam it back to your side. Vollyball gone bad.
From Roger Zelazny, The Game of Dust and Blood : Two godlike entities float over the Earth, changing history. The goal of Dust is to produce a dead apocalyptic world; the goal of Blood a living world. Every so often they switch names and roles; “This time, I’ll be Dust, and you’ll be Blood.” Sort of SimCity or Populous in the real world.
From Mechanical Advantage, ballistic golf; a version of golf played by robots, the holes are seven miles apart.