Sport in Alternate History. Part 2 - Disasters.

[David Flin]

Part 2 of this article series, on Tragedies in Sport, by @Pete U , can be found Here.

 

[Coiler]

On this side of the pond you have Roberto Clemente for sports tragedies. He was getting old and nearing the end of his career but still had a few seasons left in him and had played well in what was his OTL last season.

 

[Geordie]

I don't know why I'd never considered Superga's effect on the Italian national side before, but yes, that's huge. As is the potential impact on the European club football.

 

[Pete U]

On this side of the pond you have Roberto Clemente for sports tragedies. He was getting old and nearing the end of his career but still had a few seasons left in him and had played well in what was his OTL last season.

I deliverately didn't go into individual deaths, but there could be another article in there...

 

[David Flin]

I deliverately didn't go into individual deaths, but there could be another article in there...

Phil Hughes, Ayrton Senner, Patrick Day, and nearly Bert Oldfield.

 

[JesterBL]

Has sports built up the same conspiracism/mythological thinking around people dying in plane crashes as music?

 

[Coiler]

If we're talking about athletes and planes, there's the bizarre death of baseball player Len Koenecke who was drunk and crazy, attacked the pilot and another passenger before the pilot beat him to death in self-defense and then made an emergency landing.

 

[Lemon flavoured]

Has sports built up the same conspiracism/mythological thinking around people dying in plane crashes as music?

Not quite I don't think, but it does happen a fair bit (Cory Lidle being another baseball one which wasn't mentioned yet). Car accidents (and, in one recent baseball case, a boat accident) too.

 

[RyanF]

If it's good enough for the US figure skating team then it's good enough for the President and Vice President of the United States.

 

[Lemon flavoured]

The British Royal Family also make a point of not travelling all together.

 

[JesterBL]

Not quite I don't think, but it does happen a fair bit (Cory Lidle being another baseball one which wasn't mentioned yet). Car accidents (and, in one recent baseball case, a boat accident) too.

It happens for athletes for the same reason it happens/happened to musicians- they just travel more than other parts of the populace and if they die, it is news.

Within music, there is a certain romanticism to it, as well as an idea that they were cursed or intentionally killed by rivals/managers stabbing at posterity.

 

[marktaha]

What if there'd been no Munich air crash? Would the Babes have stayed together with the outflow of British players to Italian clubs in the late 50s?

 

[David Flin]

What if there'd been no Munich air crash? Would the Babes have stayed together with the outflow of British players to Italian clubs in the late 50s?

That's an aspect that will be - I believe - covered in Book 4 of Drake's Drum.