Sports history’s biggest flubs and blunders

Babe Ruth is shown lofting another home run into the right field upper deck at Yankee Stadium, in this 1927 photo. Right after Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees, he crushed a staggering 59 home runs for the Yankees in 1920, then played on seven New York World Series teams, winning four, including the infamous 1927 “Murderers’ Row” squad. (AP)

Americans are energized by great sports moments like the Chicago Cubs’ 2016 World Series victory, Michael Jordan’s first NBA title in 1991, the miracle USA hockey triumph at the 1980 Olympics and Muhammad Ali’s stunning defeat of boxing champion Sonny Liston in 1964.

Sports can also bring despair from on-field miscues and disappointing losses, often from self-inflicted failure. Such flubs can be the product of one blockbuster miscue, or come from a continuum of bad policy. Whether caused by bad decisions or greed, sports blunders are often provocative and widely debated. The one-time blunder that stands above all others was reported by the Boston Globe on Jan. 6, 1920, and it changed baseball history.