A lot of sports bloopers can happen in a year.
And when those bloopers are spectacular or really ridiculous, they can offer chuckles
and entertainment for a long time.
Here are some of 2018's greatest sports bloopers.
Behold: a perfectly flawed baseball play that makes the Bad News Bears look like the Good
News Grizzlies.
In the eighth inning of a clash between the Colorado Rockies and Cincinnati Reds, Rockie
Carlos Gonzalez batted a fly ball to right-center field.
Reds outfielder Billy Hamilton seemed all-but destined to catch it, but instead the ball
slipped past his outstretched glove.
"But it'll be right - oh boy..."
Meanwhile, Gonzalez rounded second base, but got tripped up on his way to third, although
it didn't turn out so bad for him.
"Hamilton dropped the ball and Gonzales will go around second, he falls down, and he's
still able to get back to second base."
Colorado went on to score a 6 to 3 victory, but for a brief, harmonious moment the Reds
and the Rockies failed beautifully together.
The 2018 NFL playoffs will mostly be remembered for the Philadelphia Eagles' stunning upset
victory over the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.
But the lead-up to the big game also defied belief when a New Orleans Saint performed
a miracle … for the opposing team.
The Saints were squaring off against the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Divisional round.
For most of the game Saints rookie safety Mike Williams played well, snagging an interception
and racking up five tackles and two pass deflections.
With seconds left in the game and the Saints up by just 1 point, Williams had a chance
to put a big fat cherry atop his NFL sundae by tackling Vikings receiver Stefon Diggs.
Instead he missed by a mile and also took out one of his own teammates, allowing Diggs
to score a game-winning 61-yard touchdown.
"He has a shot, I'm not sure really what he's thinking Joe.
He comes in, he's got him dialed in, and, he just, all he's gotta do is make a play."
In this February game against the Arizona Coyotes, L.A. King Tanner Pearson didn't mean
to be funny when he collided with his teammate Drew Doughty in the first period.
He also didn't mean to flip heels-over-head onto his backside, lose a skate blade, and
shuffle awkwardly on one knee before being towed to the bench.
But all those things happened in quick succession.
"A full barrel roll.
Here we go!
And on the backside when he hit the ice, the blade is no longer at the bottom of the skate."
It was all glorious because nobody got hurt, except for Pearson's left skate.
The incident also didn't hurt the Kings' chances of winning, as they beat the Coyotes 6-0.
Pretty much nobody expected the Cleveland Cavaliers to win the 2018 NBA Finals.
But thanks to a heroic 51-point performance from LeBron James, the Cavs actually had a
chance to steal Game 1 from the Golden State Warriors.
But what at first smelled like an upset ultimately reeked of a brain fart by J.R. Smith.
At the end of the fourth quarter, George Hill had a chance to give Cleveland the lead at
the free throw line but missed his second attempt.
Smith snatched the rebound, but he was apparently oblivious to the tie score, so he dribbled
the ball away from the basket.
"It's grabbed by J.R. Smith! Smith's, gonna run it out.
I think JR didn't know how much time was left.
(incomprehensible).
And we're going to overtime."
The Warriors ultimately won in overtime, and James mourned his wasted efforts by punching
a whiteboard and injuring his hand after the game.
In a disastrous showing for Wake Forest University football, freshman kicker Nick Sciba not only
missed his first field goal attempt of the game, he almost didn't attend it.
It happened during Wake Forest's 56-27 blowout loss to Notre Dame in September.
With the score tied at zero and seven minutes left in the first quarter, the Demon Deacons
set up for a 37-yard field goal.
Correction: They mostly set up.
As Sciba continued practicing on the sideline, the clock kept ticking down.
"I think the thought here is, hey we just put a pretty good drive together, they-"
"The kicker's not on the field.
Surprised they're trying this!"
"They do need a kicker."
In a reverse Charlie Brown moment, Wake Forest's holder looked back and discovered nobody was
there to kick the football.
After what felt like an eternity Sciba scrambled onto the field, quickly booted the ball into
the air, and watched it bounce off the upright in the wrong direction.
Athletes habitually break the laws of physics, but sometimes those laws conspire against
them.
Take, for example, this July contest between the Houston Astros and Oakland A's.
In the bottom of the 11th, Oakland had a one-run lead and needed two more outs to put the game
away.
Houston tied it up, and then with runners on first and second, Astros infielder Alex
Bregman unleashed a mighty swing to create what he later described as "the softest ball
anyone's ever hit."
Bregman barely made contact, and the ball landed just a few feet from home plate.
Oakland catcher Jonathan Lucroy tried to tag him out but missed completely thanks to Bregman's
stealthy dodge.
And then disaster struck.
"Everybody's in play.
They both advance.
The throw's away!"
"No way!"
"The Astros are gonna win it!
The Astros are gonna win!
Unbelievable!"
A hockey player losing his balance on ice feels about as unnatural as a bird that hates
flying.
But just as real penguins can't fly, the NHL has a Pittsburgh Penguin who got tripped up
by the ice.
Pittsburgh goaltender Tristan Jarry achieved the most wins by a rookie goalie in the 2017-18
season, but one March matchup got off to a horrendous start.
In the early stages of a game against the New York Islanders, Jarry committed a goaltending
blooper for the ages.
As Islander Brandon Davidson entered the attacking zone, Jarry did his best impression of a man
trying to run across cartoon banana peels.
(fast hockeyman talking)
"He scores!
Tristan Jarry fell over, as Davidson was going to the backhand."
Luckily for Jarry, his fellow Penguins didn't roast him like a turkey.
Much to his relief, he "saw 90 percent of the guys laughing."
And he had the last laugh as he went on to make 25 saves and the Penguins seized victory
in overtime.
The WWE's 10-year contract with Saudi Arabia appears to be the gift that keeps on giving
reasons to regret it.
On April 27, the Greatest Royal Rumble was held in King Abdullah International Stadium
in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The event drew scorn for a Saudi-imposed ban on female wrestlers and for airing propaganda
that depicted the oppressive nation as a beacon of positive change.
The six-hour show featured a ridiculously bloated main event in the form of a 50-man
battle royale.
However, there was one diamond in the vast expanse of rough: Titus O'Neil.
O'Neil was the 39th entrant in the battle royale.
As he ran into the ring, announcers bragged about him rubbing elbows with important Saudi
figures.
Then out of nowhere, he started rubbing elbows with the floor.
The internet lovingly dubbed the moment "Titus World Slide," a reference to the wrestler's
"Worldwide" gimmick.
The tale of the tortoise and the hare teaches us that slow and steady wins the race, and
it also teaches you not to stop before you've finished.
The hare learned that lesson the hard way, as did Israeli runner Lonah Chemtai Salpeter.
Salpeter's backstory could double as a real-life fable.
A native of Kenya, she became romantically involved with a track coach while working
as a nanny in Israel.
The pair married in Kenya and eventually moved to Israel.
Salpeter repeatedly applied for citizenship but got rejected for about five years.
The government finally naturalized her when she qualified to compete in the 2016 Rio Games.
Things went awry in Rio, but in 2018 she made history as the first Israeli woman to win
gold at the European Championships.
She almost won a second medal there but unwittingly removed herself from the running.
While competing in the 5,000-meter race Salpeter underestimated how much race she had left
and stopped early.
While celebrating the silver medal she thought she had won, she discovered she still had
one lap to go.
"And what was Lonah Salpeter thinking?
She thought she'd finished, she moved over to the right hand side of the track, big grin
on her face."
Salpeter would finish fourth but got disqualified for crossing the running lanes too early.
She vowed to treat her blooper as a lesson for future races.