One Season Athlete

Bob finds out he has the athletic talent to play for a sports team and becomes an overnight sensation, possibly helping his new team win the title. However, as per Status Quo Is God, his career only lasts one season and he immediately goes back to his original career after retiring.

Oftentimes, the One-Season Athlete serves as The Hopeless Replacement on a really bad team, and their ability is enough to elevate the team around them.

A Subtrope of Sports Stories. May occur because of a Career-Ending Injury. Single-game occurrences normally involve an Unlikely Hero or Accidental Athlete in a Save Our Team circumstance, participating in a Big Game that goes Down to the Last Play; often a Desperate Object Catch or Calling Your Shots clinches victory. See Artistic License – Sports if the situation becomes improbable enough, such as involvement of a non-human player via an Animal Athlete Loophole.

This is a spoiler trope; all examples will be unmarked.

No Real Life Examples Please. Though there are many IRL examples known in sports nomenclature as a "Cup of Coffee", putting them all here would require a deep dive into every sports encyclopedia.

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Examples

Fan Works

• Bolt becomes an Unlikely Hero in "The Baseball Game" (a short story from The Bolt Chronicles by Bolt_DMC) when he is pressed into playing duty by the Single-A Prairie City Schooners while serving as honorary team Mascot. He scores the winning run as a pinch runner for an injured player, and later clinches victory when he pulls off a triple play manning second base despite lacking a glove and the ability to throw a baseball properly.
• In Harry Is a Dragon, and That's OK, Harry Potter only joins the Gryffindor Quidditch team in his second year, and doesn't stay on the team beyond that.

Film

• In Like Mike, Calvin Cambridge is given shoes worn by a former basketball legend, spends most of the movie playing for the Los Angeles Knights NBA team. He retires after the team makes the playoffs because the shoes break, robbing him of his athletic talent.
• Necessary Roughness: Paul Blake was a standout high school quarterback until he had to give up his dreams to run the family farm after his father's death. He gets recruited for the Texas State Armadillos in his mid-30s because the team was stripped of almost every player due to scandal and Blake still has college eligibility left.
• Rookie of the Year: After getting hurt and having corrective surgery on his throwing shoulder, a young boy ends up being signed by the Chicago Cubs after he displays incredible arm strength. After losing his ability when he trips on a baseball, he decides to retire (though he at least allowed the Cubs to win the World Series).
• In Space Jam, Bill Murray comes on in relief of Wayne Knight's character in the Tune Squad-Monstars game. After helping the team win, Murray announces his retirement.
• The Natural: Although Roy Hobbs did play semi-pro ball and was on his way to a tryout with the Chicago Cubs, his time with the New York Knights can be considered as an example of the trope.
• The Replacements runs on this trope, as it's about a group of football players who are recruited to replace an entire professional football team during a player strike. Most of them either haven't played in years or had issues that prevented them from being taken seriously as an athlete (such as one of the players being deaf). They play for a few games, then at the end of the movie they're all released as the strike is settled.
• Little Big League: Billy Heywood, an ordinary boy, inherits the Minnesota Twins from his dead grandfather, and ultimately becomes the team's new manager. He retires at the end of the film, but still technically owns the team.
• Field of Dreams: Archibald "Moonlight" Graham, a real-life baseball player who only played one MLB game in his baseball career. In the film, Graham doesn't seem too upset at his baseball career being cut short, because he went on to have a long and rewarding career as a doctor.
  Ray Kinsella: Fifty years ago, for five minutes you came within... y-you came this close. It would KILL some men to get so close to their dream and not touch it. God, they'd consider it a tragedy.
  Moonlight Graham: Son, if I'd only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes... now that would have been a tragedy.
• In A League of Their Own, Dottie Hinson is the best ballplayer in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. But she only plays in the first season of the league and retires by season's end.

Live-Action TV

• In Cheers, bar owner Sam Malone is approached to come out of retirement as his old team really needs his services as a reserve player. Sam consents to this, then when he is on tour with the team realises he is an old man in his thirties among players ten years or more younger, whose priorities aren't his. He understands that he has grown up and moved on and this isn't his life any more. Sam returns to Cheers and accepts this is where he belongs now.
• In Necessary Roughness, Damon Razor is brought into the New York Hawks as a back-up for Terrance "TK" King. He only lasts one season before his troubled personal life causes him to retire.
• Smallville: During the season covering Clark's senior year in high school he becomes a star football quarterback after not having played before (because he was hiding his powers). After that season he never plays football again.
• Glee: Lauren Zizes joins the New Directions in season 2, then quits at the beginning of the next season after they fail to boost her popularity.

Theatre

• Damn Yankees revolves around Joe Boyd making a Deal with the Devil to help his favorite team, the Washington Senators win the pennant over the New York Yankees. The deal involves him becoming young slugger Joe Hardy, who immediately boosts the Senators' pennant hopes.

Western Animation

• American Dad!:
  • The episode "Kiss Kiss, Cam Cam" has Stan (with the CIA's help) become an MLB player after being recruited out of Cuba. Initially signed by the Yankees, Stan takes steroids and signs with the Nationals. In his Nationals debut, he takes his position, then takes off his uniform to be with Francine in the stands. This all came about because Stan was banned from the stadium after fighting a camera operator after bungling his appearance on the Kiss Cam.
  • Steve becomes a popular MLB umpire in the episode "Fantasy Baseball", thanks in part to his theatrics from playing Dungeons and Dragons. After fundamentally changing baseball to the point where it's almost unrecognizable, he abruptly retires when he realizes all he wanted to do was just bond with Stan, who encouraged him to get into baseball in the first place.
• In the final season of Kim Possible, while Ron initially cheated his way into a football team with a battle suit, his talent for running away from a fight allows him to stay due to his natural speed.
• Futurama: Leela becomes a publicity stunt beanball pitcher for the New New York Mets Blernsball team. Initially embracing her status as the first female blernsball player, Leela comes to realize that she is regarded as a joke and after getting some pro advice from Hank Aaron, is able to pitch like a regular pitcher. However after giving up a home run to another female blernsball player, she decides to retire, cementing her status as the worst blernsball player in history.
• The Legend of Korra: In season one, Korra joins the pro-bending team, Fire Ferrets, as a Hopeless Replacement after one of the team's regulars left them. She then becomes a regular team member and keeps on playing alongside Mako and Bolin all the way into the finals. Later at the beginning of season two, pro-bending falls off the spotlight as Korra has taken up her duties as a full-time Avatar and Mako has a job as a police officer.
• Fairly OddParents: One episode has Timmy wishing that he could play basketball so he could pay for a new V-Cube. He spends the episode playing for the Dimmsdale Ballhogs and after earning the money and teaching the team to put their egos aside, everything reverts to normal.
• Family Guy: In the episode "Patriot Games", Peter is signed by the New England Patriots to play center, but his antics force the team to trade him to a team in London. After challenging Tom Brady and the Patriots to a game and losing, he retires.