Hello! So 2015 is now in the record books.  New Years is just around the corner, and that's typically a time to think positively, right? We all throw in some clichés, start some "new beginnings," and then conjure up a New Year's Resolution to guide you on the way to greatness in the ensuing year. Well, pardon me. I'm afraid I'm not a big believer in the holiday, don't really celebrate it either. The good thing about the upcoming calendar flip is that we're getting a whole new season of baseball come April 3rd! Slate's wiped entirely clean, and everyone starts in the exact same position, tied for first! But yes, I guess the good tidings some people associate with New Years doesn't really translate to me, so let's talk about negative happenings instead. Sorry! I recently looked at Filip Bondy's Who's On Worst. It's chock full of scapegoats and fall guys from baseball lore. And to me, there's no greater stage to botch on than the World Series. So! Without further ado, let's ring in the New Year properly here with 5 of the biggest errors in World Series history. 

1. Daniel Murphy - 2015 World Series, Game 4 - Why yes, this is still painful, why do you ask? We may never get over some of the particular gaffes the Mets committed in last year's Fall Classic. It's very hard to pinpoint just one particular moment of fail, you have your pick of the litter. You had the botched-fly-ball-turned-inside-the-park-job. The Alex Gordon home run to tie up Game 1 with 2 outs to go. David Wright's 14th inning error. Tyler Clippard's walks. Yoenis Cespedes' gut-wrenching baserunning blunder. Terry Collins letting Matt Harvey stay in after walking Lorenzo Cain. Lucas Duda's offline throw.  Addison Reed's meltdown. Yikes that really is a lot, wow. For all of the beauty the Mets provided us with over the days and weeks preceding the Series, the coach really turned into a pumpkin once the World Series bell rang, and an ugly pumpkin at that. And Daniel Murphy's error in the 8th is as symbolic of that World Series as any other play that went down. Needing 6 outs to tie the Series up, Clippard entered Game 4 to try and hold a one run lead, retired his first man before walking the next two. On came Jeurys Familia to try and douse the flames. He was able to generate a slow ground ball off the bat of Eric Hosmer, only it was completely butchered by Murphy, leading to the tying run coming home. Back to back RBI singles by Mike Moustakas and eventual World Series-MVP Salvador Perez followed that play, and Murphy's bungle will forever be engraved in the minds and hearts of Met fans everywhere. Yes Clippard's control problems and Familia's inability to stop the bleeding didn't help matters, but that error......*sigh*.

2. Mariano Rivera - 2001 World Series, Game 7 - This is a play that often gets forgotten, and understandably so. First let me start off by saying, this was an amazing World Series overall. Maybe the best in my particular lifetime (#IWasntAlivein75), The backdrop of the 9/11 attacks fueled the drama, and there was a plenty of it. No team won a road game  during this Series, The Yankees won Games 3-5 over the Arizona Diamondbacks at old Yankee Stadium all by one run, with the final two games ending via walk-off hits courtesy of Derek Jeter and Alfonso Soriano respectively. Byung-Hyun Kim was a home run-surrendering disaster and couldn't buy a save in the Bronx, and with the city still hurting, all signs pointed to the Yankees helping along the healing process and winning their fourth consecutive title. Right? Wrong, After Arizona walloped the Yankees 15-2 in Game 6, that set the stage for a winner-take-all Game 7 the following night. And the two clubs did not disappoint. Tied 1-1 going into the top of the 8th, Game 5 hero Soriano took a then-in-relief Curt Schilling deep to give the Bombers a 2-1 lead. Fast forward to the 9th, Mo Rivera working his second inning of relief attempted to seal the deal. After allowing a leadoff single to Mark Grace, Damian Miller bunted a ball back to the mound. Rivera had the pinch runner David Dellucci dead to rights, however his throw was poor and ended up in centerfield. The rest was history. Rivera would be able to get a fielder's choice for out #1, but that'd be the final out he would record. Tony Womack laced an RBI double to tie the game, and two batters later Luis Gonzalez recorded one of the most illustrious hits in Series history, hitting the 0-1 offering over the drawn-in infield, crowning the Diamondbacks 2001's World Champions. However one may wonder what would have been had Rivera made the play cleanly on Miller's bunt.

3. Tony Fernandez - 1997 World Series, Game 7 - Here's another "Murphyesque" type play, however this one was worse, occurring during a much more pivotal point in both the ballgame, and the Series itself.  So let's set the scene. On one half of this Fall Classic, you had the Cleveland Indians, who were in their second World Series in three years after not participating in postseason play since 1954. On the other side, you had the Florida Marlins, who were in just their fifth year of existence, and had parlayed a Wild Card berth into a National League pennant. This World Series was a seesaw affair in a literal sense of the term, with both clubs trading off wins. Clinging to a one-run lead going into the bottom of the 9th, it looked as if the Indians were going to be the first team to win consecutive games in this Series. However, things did break their way as the Fish were able to manufacture a run off Tribe closer Jose Mesa, with a Craig Counsell sacrifice fly knotting up the score. Two innings later in the bottom of the 11th, Charles Nagy allowed a leadoff single to Bobby Bonilla, and then two batters later, Counsell came to the plate again. Counsell hit what should have been at the very least a ground out to second baseman Tony Fernandez. However Bonilla, on his way to second, may have attempted to shield Fernandez from seeing the ball until the last possible moment. We'll never know if Bonilla's attempt at a distraction was the primary reason or not, but Fernandez booted the ground ball, and three batters later Edgar Renteria stepped to the plate and chopped one up the middle to give the state of Florida their first World Series title. Fun little note, the Marlins manager Jim Leyland was on the other side of one of these plays in the 1992 NLCS, when he was skipper of the Pittsburgh Pirates. His second baseman Jose Lind made a devastating error in the 9th inning of Game 7, opening the door to a dramatic Atlanta Braves victory with the National League pennant on the line.  

4. Bill Buckner - 1986 World Series, Game 6 - Pop quiz hot shot. You're John McNamara, manager of the 1986 Boston Red Sox. You are up three games to two in the World Series and are one win away from ending a "curse" that's presided over the city of Boston's baseball team since 1918. You have a 2-run lead going into the bottom of the 10th inning of a World Series-clinching game. You have Dave Stapleton on your bench. So what do you do? First, who is Dave Stapleton? Stapleton's primary role on the 1986 Red Sox was that of a defensive replacement. He was on the team's roster all season long, but of the 39 games he appeared in, just 8 of them were starts. He appeared in 29 of those games at first base, where he went error-free. During the Sox postseason run, they'd wind up winning 7 games. 4 in the ALCS to clinch the pennant, and the 3 World Series games Boston won, and all of them had Stapleton enter as a midgame defensive replacement for Bill Buckner. So why wasn't he at first base in the bottom of the 10th inning in Game 6? The way the story goes is that McNamara felt that Buckner deserved to be on the field when the Red Sox finally broke the curse. He would never get the opportunity to celebrate. You all know the story by now. After making the first two outs of the inning, the Mets pulled off a stunning rally that included three consecutive singles (the final one being of the run-scoring variety), a game-tying wild pitch, and the most famous "little roller up along first" ever produced, which you can view in all its glory up above. Amazin'!

5. Fred Snodgrass - 1912 World Series, Game 8 - Wicked name right? Anyway, our fifth and final error brings us way back when, so here we go, it's lesson time. 103 years ago, we had the 1912 World Series featuring the New York Giants and the Boston Red Sox. First thing you're probably wondering is "Why was there a Game 8?" That's because Game 2 was called on account of darkness with the two teams locked in a 6-6 tie through 11 innings. There was no Baseball Commissioner back then, so the World Series (and the entire league itself) was run by what was called the National Commission. It was a two-man show comprised of the Presidents of both the American and National Leagues. They decided that the game would end tied, and the player's wouldn't receive a share of the proceeds from the gates as a result, which was not met favorably. There was so much self-interest between baseball's governing minds way back then, but that's a story for another day. By the time Game 8 rolled around, the Series was tied up 3 all. A nailbiting Series up to this point, the final game was no different. It was tied 1-1 going into the top of the 10th when New York pushed across a run on a Fred Merkle (another of baseball's biggest goats of yesteryear) RBI single. Last licks for the Red Sox in the bottom half, pinch hitter Clyde Engle hit a fly ball to the centerfielder Snodgrass, who outright dropped it allowing Engle to reach second base. Accounts say Snodgrass looked as if he was gearing up for the throw back to the infield too soon, and thus lost his concentration on the catch itself. Next batter Harry Hooper sent another smash to center, though Snodgrass actually made a fine running grab on to record the out (with Engle tagging and heading to third). However, the error would be too much for the Giants to overcome. Ed Yerkes drew a walk, and 1912 MVP Tris Speaker tied the score with an RBI single. Two batters later, Larry Gardner drove Yerkes home on a walk-off sacrifice fly, delivering Boston the World Series championship on the strength of two unearned runs in the extra frame. Snodgrass is forever remembered a century later for his fateful miscue.

So hey! You know who has the most errors in a single World Series? It's former Washington Senators shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh, who committed 8 (!!) in the 7-game Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1925. Thankfully for Roger, his team did prevail that year. For more information on some of baseball's all-time biggest goofups and snafus, check out Filip Bondy's Who's On Worst.