History BatmanGambit / Sports

* At the end of the 1933 season, [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball Ohio State]] athletic director Lynn St. John faced a conundrum. Head football coach Sam Willaman had come off a stellar season, with just one loss, and had compiled an impressive 26-10-4 in 5 years as the coach of the Buckeyes. But there was grumbling among fans, feeling that Willaman's teams underachieved, never winning a conference championship during Willaman's tenure, and OSU had lost two years in a row (both shutouts) to hated archrival Michigan. St. John wanted to find a new coach, but didn't want to fire Willaman, who still had a great record, was a former star player for the Buckeyes, and was well-liked by his players. So St. John cooked up a little scheme: he had a prominent OSU booster who lived in UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}} contact the athletic director at Western Reserve College,[[note]]Which merged with neighboring Case Tech decades later and is now Case Western Reserve University, an NCAA Division III school[[/note]] to tell him that he thought Western Reserve's football team was underachieving under their current coach, who, so the booster claimed, was widely rumored around Cleveland to be an [[TheAlcoholic alcoholic]]. Then the booster just happened to mention that he'd heard talk that Sam Willaman at Ohio State was looking for a less-stressful job, and Western Reserve just might be the kind of job he'd be interested in. It worked like a charm: Western Reserve fired their coach, then Willaman "resigned" from Ohio State to take the Western Reserve job.[[labelnote:postscript]]Willaman won a conference chapionship at Western Reserve in 1934, but died during an operation the next year.[[/labelnote]]

*** In another play seen mostly in high school ball, a team is lined up to take a placekick (either for a field goal or a point-after) when the holder suddenly gets up, grabs the tee and runs towards the sideline saying it's the wrong one. After a second or two of this, as the defense is beginning to relax and get our of their stances, the ball is suddenly snapped to the kicker, who quickly passes it to the holder while his blockers take advantage of catching the defense off guard.[[note]]Some referees call an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on this play out of principle, usually on the grounds that it makes the ref complicit by not calling an equipment penalty on the holder when he takes his mouthpiece out temporarily.[[/note]]

* The Florida Marlins (now Miami Marlins) won their first World Series thanks to one of these from Edgar Rentería. With the bases loaded and two out in the 11th inning of Game 7, Rentería went up to bat against the Cleveland Indians' workhorse pitcher, Charles Nagy. Knowing Nagy relied heavily on his breaking ball, Rentería flinched at the first one he saw, hoping to goad Nagy into throwing another breaking ball right down the middle. When Nagy took the bait, Rentería smacked it over Nagy's head and into center field, sending the winning run home for a walk-off win.

* The 2004 NBA Finals had Detroit Pistons pull off [[https://detroitsportsnation.com/new-report-reveals-lakers-knew-pistons-domination-was-imminent-in-04/rake2204/nba/detroit-pistons-news/05/26/2015/36862/ a very impressive gambit]] against the favored Los Angeles Lakers. Unlike most NBA teams at the time (who consistently put two defenders on Shaquille o'Neal) they decided to play Shaq one-on-one hoping his teammates keep feeding him the ball. The plan was that Kobe Bryant (whose personal feud with Shaq was reaching boiling point) will not want to be outshined on the biggest stage in the NBA and start to hog the ball to hunt for his own shots against Detroits tough defenders. Result? Shaq leads Lakers in points (26.6 per game) and shoots 63% from the field. Kobe averages 22.6 on horrificaly inefficient 38% shooting. No one else on the Lakers gets to attempt more than 11 shots through all 5 games. Detroit shocks the world and dismantles the Shaq-Kobe dynasty (as Shaq left for Miami in the offseason).

*** The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty_play Statue of Liberty play]] also has the same setup, but instead of passing the ball, a wide receiver[[labelnote:*]]usually... although the most famous example of said play in recent decades, UsefulNotes/{{Boise State|University}}'s game-winner against Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, featured a running back as the ball carrier[[/labelnote]] comes around behind the quarterback at top speed and takes the ball from his cocked arm[[note]]Hence the name of the play, as the quarterback will look like he's holding the ball aloft like Liberty holding the torch[[/note]]. The runner will usually be almost back to the line of scrimmage before the linebackers and defensive backs can react, if they haven't seen it coming either.