VIDEO: Remembering Bucky Dent's Dramatic Home Run That Doomed the 1978 Red Sox and Helped the Yankees Win a WS

Before the Boston Red Sox won four World Series titles in this century, they were a struggling baseball team that, like the Chicago Cubs, couldn't win the big one. Red Sox fans used to be subject to heartbreak on a yearly basis, but there was no greater pain than how their 1978 season ended. That year, the AL East division crown literally came down to the wire, with the Red Sox blowing a 14-game lead to the New York Yankees, forcing the squad to play a tiebreaker game to see who would earn a postseason berth. Boston held a 2-0 lead in the seventh inning, until No. 9 hitter Bucky Dent stepped up to the plate and proceeded to hit a three-run home run over the Big Green Monster.

Absolute. Killer.

The Bronx Bombers took the division, swept the Kansas City Royals in the AL Championship Series, and beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games to win the World Series.

As for the Red Sox, their playoff drought extended up until 1986. That playoff run also ended in misfortune, due to Bill Buckner's gaffe in Game 6 of the World Series. This homer haunted the Red Sox fanbase for decades to come, during which you'd hear the words "Bucky 'Bleeping' Dent" uttered throughout Beantown.