Put Me In, Coach

"''"Oh, put me in, coach - I'm ready to play today Put me in, coach - I'm ready to play today Look at me, I can be centerfield''"

- John Fogerty, Centerfield

"When you get so many injuries Like your Lyon and your Tingay and others like these, Like your Schwartz, your Hopgood, your David Neitz, Is it any wonder the Dees are on their knees? But then Yze, Woewoedin, and White hung in, And now look out! Here comes Melbourne again!''"

- Greg Champion, The Demons Have Been Down Too Long

The underdog competitor wins a competition, sparks a Miracle Rally for the team, or puts in the final score to help win a competition.

This is Underdogs Never Lose, narrowed down to one person.

Not to be confused with a request for the cheapest possible airline seats.

A subset is Dark Horse Victory.


 * The Ur Example (barring any Real Life examples) is the 1925 silent movie The Freshman, starring Harold Lloyd.
 * Steve Urkel, Family Matters, basketball game
 * Hey Arnold!:
 * Arnold, in "Eating Contest", wins after the only remaining competitor falls face first into bowl of ice cream
 * Arnold again, in "Benchwarmer", with a basketball game. This time, he comes off the bench after being benched for several games for not following his coach's ridiculous strategy and scores game winning points from a set play.
 * Eugene Horowitz, in "Coach Wittenberg", bowling. He throws the ball, falls flat on his face, but makes a wide split
 * Pip, South Park, dodgeball, after the opposing team taunts him into an Unstoppable Rage.
 * Phil Deville, All Grown Up!, "The Big Score" (everyone loves his sister Lil since they've started winning games [to the point of Phil being totally ignored and Lil quitting the team in spite over that], but in a key game, she makes a charge for goal, and actually passes to Phil, and he actually scores the winner)
 * In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer is sent in by Mr. Burns to pinch hit for All-Star ringer Darryl Strawberry (the only one out of the 9 ringers he's hired to actually make it to the game) in the final inning of the tied championship game with bases loaded - regardless of the fact that Strawberry has hit nine homeruns, because Homer is a right-handed batter and the pitcher left-handed. According to Mr. Burns, "it's called playing the percentages, it's what smart managers do to win ballgames"; the joke, however, is that Mr. Burns is using a real baseball strategy despite the fact that Strawberry is so obviously superior to everyone else. Mr. Burns then proceeds to confuse Homer with a series of bizarre coaching signals; while Homer stares in blank confusion, he's hit by a pitch and walks (or rather, is carried) in the winning run.
 * Homer isn't the only person to walk in the win on an HBP: an episode of the obscure sitcom The Crew (about stewardesses) did just that as well.
 * Peter from Foxtrot did this also, after spending the previous 3 strips trying to convince the coach to put him in, then figuring out the best way to stand in the batter's box. He actually receives a concussion afterwards.
 * Literary, non-sports example: In Harry Potter and the Philospher's/Sorcerer's Stone, Gryffindor wins the House Cup because Neville scored the last ten points they needed to break the tie with Slytherin.
 * Real Life example: New York Giants wide receiver David Tyree, buried fifth on the depth chart almost the entire season, starred in Super Bowl XLII and made the key play on his team's last-minute touchdown drive - a leaping catch secured by pulling the ball against his helmet.
 * Tyree's dramatics are still arguably no match for the original Super Bowl hero-off-the-bench - Green Bay's Max McGee, who was so sure he wouldn't be playing in Super Bowl I that he spent the previous night out on the town and didn't even bring his helmet to the game, came on as an injury replacement, made a highlight-reel 37-yard catch for the first touchdown of the game and finished with seven catches for 138 yards.
 * Also in Real Life: Australia's Jacqui Cooper had injured herself before the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, and so it was left to Alisa Camplin (who herself was competing against doctors' advice) to compete in freestyle ski jumping. She won the gold.
 * One more in Real Life: The last two Stanley Cup Final series to go to a deciding 7th game (2004 and 2009) were both won 2-1 with a relative scrub scoring both his team's goals. Both players had only scored twice in a game once during the entire season.
 * Rudy is an interesting example. The titular underdog begs to play in the big game so he can prove to his family that he's on the team. His never-give up attitude having been such an inspiration to the team, they go out of their way to get a large enough lead so that he can make the final play without any risk.
 * And then Rudy gets a sack anyway.
 * Eyeshield 21. Panther (and the entire NASA Aliens) kneels in front of Coach Apollo, asking to play for the first time. Panther is let in, and ultimately finishes off the Devil Bats. Apollo's own NFL days are a subversion - his coach never gave him the chance.
 * Jason Mc Elwain was the autistic student-manager of the Greece Athena HS (Rochester, NY) basketball team. For the team's last home game of the season on Feb. 15, 2006, Mc Elwain was put on the roster so he could be given a jersey and allowed to sit on the bench. With four minutes left in the game, and Greece Athena leading by double digits, coach Jim Johnson put Mc Elwain in the game, who dropped six three-pointers. Mc Elwain's treys weren't relevant to the final outcome, but otherwise it was one of greatest Put Me in Coach moments in Real Life high school sports.
 * Yet another Real Life example: With 12 seconds left in the first half of Super Bowl XVIII, the (at the time) Los Angeles Raiders were leading the defending champion Washington Redskins 14-3 and had pinned Washington deep in their own-territory. During an earlier meeting that previous October, the Redskins managed to pull off a screen pass from quarterback Joe Theismann to running back Joe Washington that gained 67 yards. So assistant coach Charlie Sumner replaced starting linebacker Matt Millen (yes, THAT Matt Millen) with little-used backup Jack Squirek, who was assigned to cover Washington man-to-man. The result was Squirek making a leaping interception and landing in the end-zone for a touchdown that basically broke the Redskins' backs.
 * This is Kurt Warner's entire career. In 1999, the hapless St. Louis Rams had a shot at their first winning season in a decade after signing free agent quarterback Trent Green, only to see him go down to a season ending injury in the second preseason game. One tearful speech from Dick Vermeil later, Warner was the starting quarterback. He would win the MVP on his way to leading the Rams to their first Super Bowl victory.
 * In 2008, the hapless Arizona Cardinals had a shot at their first winning season in a decade after drafting quarterback Matt Leinart a few years earlier, only to see him perform terribly. See if you can guess where this is going. In the end, the Cardinals reached the Super Bowl for the first time, but their Miracle Rally fell short and they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
 * Played with in Unseen Academicals, where during the Big Game between the Academicals and Ankh-Morpork United, Trev Likely doesn't want to be put in because he promised his old mum he wouldn't play football, despite the fact that the game is almost literally not his father's football (the brutal street sport that got his dad killed). He eventually caves in when the crowd (and his girlfriend) starts shouting for "Likely!", but proves terrible because he's used to kicking around an old tin can, and not an actual football. Fortunately, some quick thinking lets the Academicals exploit an old rule ("the ball shall be called the ball, if it has been played by at least three consecutive players") and win the game.
 * Played with in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, in the episode Take Me Out To The Holosuite. They substitute Rom in at the last minute after he got booted from the team for being unable to hit, catch, or throw the ball during practice, and he completely accidentally makes a bunt that lets Nog get the Niners' only run of the game, they still lose ten to one but the team still treats it as a triumph and celebrates afterward.
 * Fridge Brilliance: As the Niners celebrated their first run, Solok tries to get the attention of Odo (who is umpiring the game), and is ejected much in the manner that Sisko was (touching the umpire). As the Vulcan team only brought nine players to the game (including Solok as a player-manager), the Vulcans would have had to forfeit the game. Sisko's roster had 11 active players (Sisko, Kasidy, Jake, Kira, Bashir, Worf, Quark, Rom, Leeta, Dax, and Nog), and thus were able to continue playing after Sisko's ejection.
 * May 25-26, 2011: After 18 innings and nearly six hours of baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Cincinnati Reds remain tied at 4. The Phillies have just pinch-hit for their last relief pitcher. Everyone was expecting the Phillies to send out an off-rotation starting pitcher, despite the fact that tiring them out is a risky thing to do, simply because they had no one left but starting pitchers on their bench. Instead, Manager Charlie Manual makes the unorthodox move of putting the utility infielder, Wilson Valdez on the mound, keeping the pinch hitter in the game as catcher and moving around other infielders to accommodate. Valdez proceeds to win the game for the Phillies, pitching one inning and giving up no hits as the Phillies proceeded to score the game-winning run in the bottom half of the 19th inning against an exhausted Reds pitcher, whom the Reds did not substitute for, due to a similar manpower shortage. Even though Valdez played the entire game, this still qualifies because it is very rare for a position player to pitch in the majors, let alone win the game.
 * It's been argued that not following this trope is what could have changed the outcome of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. In previous games in clutch situations, Bill Buckner had been pulled from first base and replaced with Dave Stapleton, but they decided to let Buckner stay in so that he could be on the field when the Red Sox got their World Series win. Which never came.
 * Australian Rules Football: In the 1970 VFL Grand Final, with Carlton 44 points down at half time, coach Ron Barassi brought Ted Hopkins on, who proceeded to rip Collingwood to shreds. Afterwards, Hopkins realised he could never do anything to top his achievements in that game, and retired.
 * Game 7 of the 2011 World Series: St. Louis Cardinals' outfielder Matt Holliday had an arm injury that hadn't fully healed, so he sat out and Allen Craig started. Before this, Allen Craig was known as a pretty good if injury-prone young player who had a pet turtle. He played an excellent game and caught the final out of the Series.
 * In 2012, the Columbus Blue Jackets were so short on goalies that they were forced to call on Shawn Hunwick. He not only wasn't on the team officially, he wasn't even a professional athlete. He had to skip classes at the University of Michigan, where he was still a senior, to come down and sub-in for the game. Which he ultimately won. Bonus? Columbus is the home of UM's extremely-bitter archrival Ohio State, and Humwick was forced to take the ice in his Michigan pads. Double bonus? He beat the pride of Michigan, the Detroit Red Wings.
 * Game 1 of the Clippers/Grizzlies playoffs of 2012. The Clippers were down as by much as 27 points. Coach Vinnie Del Negro almost decided to bench Chris Paul and the other starters and give up the game but Paul convinces Del Negro they can still win the game. Caron Butler is injured, so Del Negro is forced to play Nick Young, who hits three 3 pointers in a row to help tie the game.

Counterexamples

 * Tino Tonitini, The Weekenders, horseshoe throwing (3rd place to much fancied competition)
 * Subverted in The Simpsons; in the final seconds of a peewee football game, the police come by to arrest the star quarterback, because he happens to be resident delinquent bully Nelson. Bart volunteers to be put in...to the back of a police car as Nelson scores a game winning touchdown.
 * Carlton Banks, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, basketball game (airballs the final shot of the game after, in a desperate need to be lauded as Will is on the court, he wrestles the ball away from his team's star player).
 * In Eyeshield 21, the Devil Bats play against the Yuuhi Guts during the Fall Tournament, only to find the coach has replaced the regular line-up with ringers from the other sports teams at Yuuhi High School. After the Devil Bats manage to gain a strong lead anyway, the coach reluctantly sends in the regular lineup, who fail to make a comeback, but still put up a good fight (this is even more pronounced in the manga, when it's the regulars who score Yuuhi's only touchdown against Deimon instead of the ringers).
 * There are some straight examples, though, like when Leonard Apollo put Panther in for the NASA Aliens in the fourth quarter of the game with Deimon. if it wasn't for Panther, Deimon probably would've won.
 * When Yukimitsu Manabu is finally sent in, he's revealed as an ace in the hole. He scored the Devil Bats' first touchdown against the Shinryuuji Naga, even overtaking Agon to do so.
 * Fry, Futurama, basketball game, "Time Keeps On Slipping". After one of the atomic supermen basketball players is killed, Fry volunteers to fill in for him. His team is 35 points ahead of the Harlem Globetrotters with two minutes left, but somehow ends up losing, 244-86. (The keyword being "somehow", since, the overarching plot is that time keeps jerking ahead, leaving events in place but everyone with no memory of what happened.)
 * Charlie Brown is an avid baseball player, but he can't seem to do anything right, not even hold a 50 run lead with one out left when Peppermint Patty puts him in after he's sold some peanuts. (Once again, the keyword is "somehow": We cut from Patty getting hit by Charlie's 2nd pitch, to her waking up in bed and finding out from Marcie that their losing streak is still intact.)
 * In Foxtrot Peter begs the coach to put him in, but he's a genuinely terrible player who spends more time practicing theatrics then actually practicing.
 * Ojamajo Doremi double dips: Perennially athletic Aiko asks the perennially brainy Hazuki to race her leg in a swim relay for her against the other room, since it turns out that swimming is something Aiko isn't good at (even after she's spent the last week or two practicing for the race). Hazuki takes the lead on the way out... and then the other room takes it back on the way in
 * The John Grisham novel Playing for Pizza opens with the protagonist coming off the bench for the Cleveland Browns, who are holding a 17 point lead with only a few minutes left to play in the AFC Championship game. He proceeds to throw three interceptions for TDs and be KOed by the Denver defense. The humiliation is so huge that he has to flee the entire US and play football in a beer league in Italy.
 * A Freaks and Geeks episode has Bill urging Coach Fredricks to put him and his fellow geeks on the gym-class baseball team. They get their wish...and find their side getting shelled before the first inning is over.
 * A Real Life subversion occurred at the 2007 Grey Cup, The Winnipeg Blue Bombers' first-string quarterback was injured in the previous game, and had to be replaced by cold rookie Ryan Dinwiddie who, while promising (called the best football player Boise Idaho had ever produced), hadn't played an actual game all season. He performed well--but Winnipeg still lost. (Ironically, when he had his first start the next season, it would become the Bombers' first win that year.)
 * Is that Dinwiddie with an O?
 * Somewhat inverted in the end of The Mighty Ducks, where one of the best players is knocked unconscious scoring the team's first point in the Big Game and doesn't play for the remainder of the match.
 * James Thurber's short story You Could Look It Up features a baseball team in a slump putting a midget in as a pinch hitter to walk in the tying run. After verifying that yes, his contract is valid and no, there Aint No Rule that says he can't play, he's allowed to bat... and promptly hits the ball and is thrown out at first, losing the game. In a Double Subversion, however, the incident is so ridiculous that it snaps the team out of their slump and they go on to win the pennant.
 * Some years later, the St. Louis Browns actually tried it. Their owner denied having been inspired by the Thurber story.
 * Inverted in the famous 1980 "Miracle On Ice," when the Soviet coach horribly overreacts to a sloppy goal and benches his goalie, Vladislav Tretiak (one of the best goaltenders in hockey history) for the backup. The US takes the lead and ultimately wins.
 * Subverted hard on South Park. When Stanley's preschool hockey team had their opponent cancel, the Colorado Avalanche insist that the kids play for them against the Detroit Red Wings. The Red Wings score thirty goals, beat all the kids into bloody pulps, and the Littlest Cancer Patient that was relying on the game for moral support dies.