In Super Bowl XXVII, the Dallas Cowboys were handily beating the Buffalo Bills 52-17 in the fourth quarter. Then, after recovering a fumble, Leon Lett rumbled his way towards the endzone. However, Lett started celebrating prematurely and allowed the speedy Don Beebe to catch up with him and strip the ball. The idiotic fumble didn't cost the Cowboys the win that year, but it did keep them out of the record books. A 59-17 win would have been the most decisive victory in Super Bowl history, and the 59 points would have been the most scored by a single team.

Not all championship miscues are so innocuous, though. The same year of Lett's gallivanting, Michigan forward Chris Webber cost his team the NCAA title. Webber, who had the ball with 11 seconds left, called a timeout his team didn't have. The ensuing technical foul and possession for North Carolina gave the Tar Heels its first championship in 11 years.

But the most gut-wrenching mistake made in a championship game in recent memory (especially to baseball fans from around the area) occurred on Saturday, October 25th, 1986.

On this now-infamous date, the Boston Red Sox were one out away from beating the New York Mets to win their first World Series title in 68 years. In fact, Mets pitcher Keith Hernandez had already started drinking in the clubhouse, and the score board at Shea Stadium flashed a congratulatory message for the Red Sox. However, the message was premature as Mookie Wilson stepped to the plate in the bottom of the tenth.

Wilson hit an innocent dribbler to first baseman Bill Buckner, who had an easy play to first for the championship and Red Sox redemption. Tragically, Buckner let the ball roll between his legs, and the Mets went on to win the game and eventually take the series in seven.

Buckner, although he had been a solid player for the Sox (he had 2,715 hits in 22 seasons and a batting title in 1980), moved from Boston in the post-season to avoid the harassment of angered and anguished fans.

It seems that, in a sense, sports resembles theatre. The plot twists on a large stage before a national audience usually end up as either slapstick or Shakespeare. Either way, the unpredictable element of every move engenders a certain mystique that makes important games what they are.

And although my own "off-off-Broadway" production of a crucial, big game mistake won't rank with the devastation of the Webbers or Buckners of the world, I can attest to the bitter and acrid taste of that oft-bandied expression "agony of defeat."