Put Me In, Coach

"Oh, put me in, coach - I'm ready to play^[1] 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 cheap airline seats.

A subset is Dark Horse Victory.

Examples of Put Me In, Coach include:

Played Straight

Anime and Manga

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.

Film

The Ur Example (barring any Real Life examples) is the 1925 silent movie The Freshman, starring Harold Lloyd.
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.

Literature

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.
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.

Live-Action TV

Steve Urkel, Family Matters, basketball game
An episode of the obscure sitcom The Crew (about stewardesses) had a walk in the win on an HBP.
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.

Newspaper Comics

Peter from FoxTrot won on an HBP, 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.

Western Animation

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.

Real Life

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.
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.
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.^[2]
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.
Jason McElwain 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. McElwain'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.

Counterexamples