Orange baseballs were used in a couple of spring training games with the Oakland A’s in 1973. The pitchers complained that they were too slippery, and the batters complained that they couldn’t read the spin on the pitches due to the poor contrast between the red seams and orange leather.
https://tht.fangraphs.com/tht-live/40th-anniversary-the-orange-baseball-experiment/
Actually, that has been the way it was “supposed to” work since 1972 - each judge counted the number of punches each boxer threw in a round; whoever threw the most got 20 points, and the other got 20 minus (the difference divided by 3, rounded down). Almost needless to say, nobody actually did that. The 1992 system counted only punches where 3 of the 5 judges pressed their “punch thrown” button within one second of each other; the problem was, usually in an exchange, only the second punch was counted.
Here are a couple I can think of:
ESPN briefly tried a flashing three-point line for college basketball when a three-point shot was attempted.
The NCAA ice hockey rules committee tried to change the rules in (I want to say) 2010 so that a player serving a minor penalty had to serve the entire two (or four, for a double minor) penalty, no matter how many goals the opponents scored during the power play. You may have never heard about it because it lasted about a month before the Playing Rules Oversight Panel, whose job it is to catch things like this, had the committee remove the change, and it was never actually implemented.
Not quite “dropped immediately”, but the (director, writer?) of “Rollerball” said that he was approached with an offer to license the movie as a real sport. He was shocked that people making the offer didn’t understand that the movie was an argument AGAINST things like that.
Those were the standard NHL rules until the 1956-57 season, when the League decided to neutralize the the Montreal Canadiens strong power plays - e.g. Jean Beliveau scoring three goals during one power play. The rule has stayed that way ever since (for two-minute penalties). http://ourhistory.canadiens.com/greatest-moment/Beliveaus-Hat-Trick
A guy on comedy radio was talking about how much he liked the Summer Olympics. Especially the biathalon. “Not too many other sports where you have the means to control the competition. Say you’re in fourth place…”
Closest thing to a human version of Mario Kart and the Blue Shell that there will be.
Did somebody remind him that biathlon is a winter olympic sport? There’s “sort of” a “summer” biathlon; it’s a triathlon without one of the three components (usually the swimming), although the “preferred” name is “duathlon” so it’s not confused with the winter version.
lol funny since in the story it basically roller derby with a ball and motorcycles …
at different points in pro wrestling various leagues federations ect decided to ban the moves off the top rope which have never lasted long as it just ends up looking stupid amd was found to be more dangerous … if i remember the AWA and WCW were the biggest ones to try this …
In 1998, the marketing department of the Seattle Mariners got the idea to “turn ahead the clock” for one game that season; the Royals and umpires played along for that game. 20 more teams joined in the promotion the following season. Virtually everyone except the Mariners thought this was bad idea.
Some examples of these “uniforms from 2021” can be found on Topps cards.
White balls were used at Wimbledon until 1986. Optic Yellow was introduced in 1972, but until the 1980s in Pakistan our club only issued white balls, calling yellow balls a fad. White balls were more and more difficult to find, as Wilson and Penn stopped making them. The arch-traditionalists running the club (still trying to preserve the Raj in brownface) acquired a crate of totally crap Chinese-made obviously counterfeit Slazenger balls in 1983 or 1984. The members finally revolted and people were first allowed to bring their own and then the club themselves switched to supplying yellow balls at the same time as “oversize” and graphite & aluminum rackets were allowed.
I’ve also seen the ref declare a winner after a draw, like it’s a boxing match. Titles don’t change on those decisions
The idea behind that is, you need to make these kind of rules so the bad guys can break them and make the crowd react negatively.
That was the rule in the NHL at least until the mid-50s. Score as many goals as you can even on a minor penalty.
they used to do that on the squash match tv shows( sometimes they still do on the national show) usually in the main event that had the big names fighting … which is why you’d hear " the main event with a 15 minute TV time limit hogan vs flair with the match invariably running out of time with no one winning because it was really to either promote a match for the ppv or a arena show
It’s amusing that he’d be annoyed by that, since Rollerball is one of the few fictional sports that actually makes sense as a sport.
It was so good, the stuntmen and crew used to play it for fun when not filming.
The game of Rollerball was so realistic that the cast, extras, and stunt personnel played it between takes on the set.
It depended on the promotion. In the late 1970s, the Los Angeles NWA promotion had the referee declare a winner (or just call it a draw) if a TV match reached the 15-minute time limit, which had added impact if the match had a special guest referee (usually a heel, who awarded the match to the heel even though the face clearly outwrestled him), while the San Francisco one always called it a draw.
The one I specifically remember was Harley Race (heel champion) vs Stan Hansen (face) in the summer of 83 for World Championship Wrestling. They went the full hour and Hansen got declared the winner but didn’t get the strap. Damn good match, probably the best I’ve seen live.
Good news, everyone! 43-Man Squamish survives
Last one to the Flutney has to carry the team’s frullips!.