Christmastime should be about family, generosity and good cheer, but sometimes there are a few baddies lurking about to spoil everyone’s fun. We’re talking about nasty Christmas villains here. Thankfully most of them are merely figments of some storyteller’s imagination. But not all of them. There are always a few real life Yuletide rogues out there just waiting to make a mess of the winter holidays.
We’ll admit it: there’s a ton of pressure on professional athletes. These men and women are asked to perform flawlessly in front of millions of people, so when one of them makes an error in the field or throws the ball away or drops an easy touchdown, we tend to forgive and forget and move on. But sometimes, a player has a brain fart so incredibly embarrassing and memorable that it defines the rest of his career.
Here are a few examples of mind-boggling mental lapses:
On July 18 the New York Yankees held a comfortable lead in the A.L. East and seemed destined for a deep playoff run. Since then, the Bombers have somehow managed to blow a 10-game advantage over the Orioles, leading to a scramble for first place and an extremely rattled New York fan base. Still, this is hardly the first time that a team with a comfortable lead has suffered a late-season collapse.
Let's take a look at some of the worst September meltdowns in baseball history:
