Scapegoats

<p> Everyone wants to be able to perform well at important moments especially in the world of sports where both team and individual efforts are necessary for success. A person who does well for the team is praised for his or her contributions. But when the team suffers a loss especially at a key point in the season one person is often blamed for it even though the team is just as responsible.</p><p> This work considers baseball players whose careers have been defined and misrepresented by one moment in which they botched a play costing their teams an important victory (often a pennant or World Series win) and ever since have taken most of the blame for the team's breakdown.</p><p> It covers Fred Merkle whose controversial failure to tag second base after a game-winning single lost the pennant for the Giants in 1908; Fred Snodgrass whose dropped fly ball contributed to the Red Sox's second championship in the 1912 series; Mickey Owen whose passed ball resulted in the Dodgers losing Game 4 of the 1941 World Series to the Yankees; Ralph Branca who delivered one of the most talked about home runs in history to Bobby Thomson in the 1951 NLCS; Mike Torrez whose home run pitch to Bucky Dent was the final improbable event in the Sox' great collapse of '78; Tom Niedenfuer whose blown save in the 1985 NLCS cost the Dodgers the pennant; Donnie Moore the California Angels pitcher remembered for giving up a home run in Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS; Bill Buckner whose E-3 caused him to be blamed for the Red Sox's World Series loss in 1986; and Mitch Williams blamed for his three-run home run pitch to Joe Carter in Game 6 of the 1993 World Series that lost the world championship for the Phillies.</p>