In 1957, the Dodgers lpayed their last game in Brooklyin. A timeline recently written about the Dodgers staying there in rec.sport.baseball and in soc.history.what-if (just search for Brooklyn Dodgers" in google frot he last 3-4 months) speculates that if the Dodgers stay, Welcome Back, Kotter stays on a little longer, and Washington is a baseball fan, always bouncing balls off the chalkboard, etc. Tommy Lasorda, Dodger manager, is among Dodgers who appear throughout, esp. after Gabe Kaplan leaves, and lasorda actually teaches the class a couple times, to draw audiences.

The finale, it's speculated, woudl feature Epstein almsot getting Washington a tryout witht he hated Giants, an error which threatens to tear the Sweathogs apart on the eve of grduation before at the end, a Dodger scout comes to sign Freddie to a minor league contract - he'll be going to Vero Beach of a class A league as a 19-year-old prospect to try to live out his dream.

My question - do you think this is feasible? Would it have helped ratings? Or was Washington too much of a basebtball character to switch?

BTW, sometime I will write that episode, and put it on fanfiction.net, I promise - sometime int he next year though, considering how busy I am.

Back to lurking now, but thought it woudl make for interesting discussion.

Actually, Washington's game was always basketball. If he were to get signed to turn pro when he graduated, I'd think he sign with Knicks or the Nets, who knows.