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We often judge the greatness of athletes on how successful they were in the postseason. How many titles did they win? How often did they lead their team to the postseason?
But the reality is that only one team wins the championship every year and hundreds of baseball players don't win.
The Hall of Fame is loaded with great players who never brought a title home to their team, but in this piece, I narrow down the list to the top 10 players of all time who failed to win a World Series title in their careers.
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Honorable Mentions
Frank Thomas, Harmon Killebrew, Willie McCovey, Phil Niekro, Ralph Kiner, Gaylord Perry
It's tough to know where to draw the line, even with the honorable mention crowd as there are simply so many great players who qualify for this list. As we go down the list, you will notice that it comprises all hitters, no pitchers -- which was not by design.
The list also includes players from all eras of baseball. I'm sure I'm leaving off some greats here, so let me know about it in the comments if you think that's the case!
Note: All-time rankings for this article do not include the Negro League data that is in the process of being integrated with the rest of MLB's historical record.
10. Carl Yastrzemski
The Boston Red Sox legend had an incredibly lengthy and productive career but only played in two postseasons. The Sox lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games in 1967, despite Yaz hitting .400 with three home runs in the series. And then Boston lost again in 1975 (in seven games) to the Cincinnati Reds.
Carl Yastrzemski (MLB 1961-1983)
18x All-Star
7x Gold Glove winner
3x AL Batting champ
1967 Triple Crown winner
1967 AL MVP pic.twitter.com/UdqoJN3sRh— OldTimeHardball (@OleTimeHardball) July 21, 2024
Yaz played all 23 seasons with Boston and over 100 games in every season but one. He finished with 452 home runs and a career batting average of .285. He had five seasons with 100+ RBI and while he led the league in home runs just once, he led all of baseball in doubles three times.
An all-time Boston great, Yaz has his statue outside Fenway Park and will forever be remembered as one of the most consistent hitters of all time.
9. Rod Carew
Before there was Tony Gwynn, there was Rod Carew. One of the all-time greats, Carew played 19 seasons split between the Minnesota Twins and California Angels. He had three 200+ hit seasons while collecting seven batting titles and finishing his esteemed career with a .328 career batting average.
Tony Gwynn. Rod Carew. 15 Batting titles pic.twitter.com/13rR03dDNE
— BaseballHistoryNut (@nut_history) June 16, 2024
Carew made four trips to the postseason -- two with Minnesota and two with California. But each time his team fell short of advancing to the World Series. He was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1967 and made the All-Star team in 18 straight seasons with his final season in 1985 being the only one in which he didn't.
8. Jim Thome
I grew up idolizing the big first baseman and even wore No. 25 when I played high school baseball because every big guy who played first base wanted to be like Thome.
Thome spent the first half of his career in Cleveland as a member of some really good Indians teams. He hit 52 home runs in his final season in Cleveland in 2002 before spending the next three seasons in Philadelphia and then bouncing around from Chicago to L.A. and Minnesota near the end of his career.
Jim Thome hitting a 511 foot home run out of Jacobs Field 😳💣 pic.twitter.com/dXHpZ4pHzu
— Baseball’s Greatest Moments (@BBGreatMoments) July 2, 2024
Thome's 612 home runs are the eighth most in MLB history and ahead of both Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. He was a five-time All-Star who finished his career with an impressive .402 OBP as he was a master of drawing walks -- leading the league in free passes three times.
Thome had 232 postseason at-bats but made only two appearances in the World Series -- both with Cleveland in 1994 and 1997. Unfortunately, the Indians (now Guardians) dropped both those series with the 1997 series against the Marlins being the ultimate heartbreaker with the Tribe losing in extra innings of Game 7.
7. Ernie Banks
One of the most storied careers of any Chicago Cub, Ernie Banks was the first power-hitting shortstop in modern baseball. He played all 19 seasons in Chicago, leading the league in home runs twice, RBI twice, and games played six times. He also won the MVP twice and was a 14-time All-Star.
5/12/70 Ernie Banks hits a rocket into the left field bleachers for number 500. #Cubs pic.twitter.com/AjSHjKjdYO
— Historical Baseball Stats (@HistoricalBaseb) June 25, 2024
Banks was one of the most reliable players in the game, playing in 130 or more games every season other than his final two at ages 39 and 40. He never even smelled the World Series, as the Cubs failed to qualify for the postseason in every year of Banks' career.
He owns the unfortunate record of having played 2,528 games without ever reaching the postseason. Ernie Banks was a special player and it's a shame that part of his legacy is that he played on bad teams for most of his career.
6. Robin Yount
I'm not sure that the average baseball fan knows just how good of a hitter Robin Yount was for nearly two decades.
Yount debuted at only 18 years of age with Milwaukee back in 1974 and played all 20 seasons with the Brewers. He was only an All-Star three times but won two MVP Awards and was a member of the 3000-hit club (currently 21st overall with 3,142).
#OTD in 1992, Robin Yount joined the 3000 hit club 🙌 pic.twitter.com/R3hkCKqBN8
— The Barrel Banter (@thebarrelmke) September 9, 2023
The Brewers made just two playoff appearances during Yount's tenure with the team but were bounced by the Yankees in 1981 and the Cardinals in the 1982 World Series. That series went seven games, with Yount hitting .414 for Milwaukee, who led the series 3-2 before dropping the final two games.
5. Tony Gwynn
Gwynn finished with one less hit than Yount did in his career but also had 2,000 fewer at-bats. The man was a hitting machine, walking nearly twice as often as he struck out and finishing with a .338 career average.
Gwynn spent his entire 20-year career with the Padres and collected eight batting titles while being named an All-Star 15 times. He also won seven Silver Slugger Awards and another five Gold Gloves. He was simply a great all-around player.
Fun fact:
Tony Gwynn struck out 188 times in the 90's.
Ohtani struckout 87 times in 88 games so far this year. pic.twitter.com/cYjHwqrWc2
— BaseballHistoryNut (@nut_history) July 10, 2024
Gwynn's Padres made the postseason three times and went to the World Series twice. They lost in five games in 1984 to the Detroit Tigers and were swept in 1998 by the juggernaut New York Yankees. The lack of a title certainly doesn't diminish the late Gwynn's career and his reputation as one of the best hitters and human beings to ever play Major League Baseball will live on for generations.
4. Ken Griffey Jr.
I think that Ken Griffey Jr. had the sweetest swing we've ever seen. It was so smooth and he made hitting bombs look easy.
As a 19-year-old phenom, he debuted with the Seattle Mariners and had a chance to play alongside his father for a year and a half in 1990 and 1991. He was an All-Star every season from 1990 to 2000 and the cornerstone of some really good Seattle teams during that era.
When Ken Griffey Jr. hit a walk off inside-the-park home run for the Reds. pic.twitter.com/41da6cH6ZP
— Baseball’s Greatest Moments (@BBGreatMoments) July 8, 2024
Griffey's career was never the same after he turned 30 as he battled injuries while in Cincinnati, but he still finished with 630 home runs -- good for seventh all-time. He led the league in long balls four different times and won the MVP in 1997 when he hit 56 home runs and drove in 147 runs.
Unfortunately, Griffey's Seattle teams were blocked by some good Yankees and Indians teams during that era and they never made it to the World Series.
3. Barry Bonds
Bonds is the all-time leader in home runs (762) and walks (2,558) as he played 22 seasons in his career. He won two MVP Awards in Pittsburgh and another five MVPs in San Francisco and is regarded by many as the best hitter (or at least power hitter) of all time.
You could strip Barry Bonds of his stats for all seven of his MVP seasons and he still has 440 homers with 359 stolen bases. pic.twitter.com/bcPNe7DFKO
— Baseball’s Greatest Moments (@BBGreatMoments) July 19, 2024
Bonds made seven postseason appearances during his career. With the Pirates from 1990-1992, he came up just short of the World Series three straight seasons, but he did make it to the Fall Classic once with the Giants in 2002, only to lose in seven games to the Anaheim Angels.
Bonds hit .417 in that World Series with four home runs and 13 walks, which was good for a 1.994 OPS. While a title eluded him, Bonds always showed up on the biggest stage.
2. Ted Williams
The only player to ever hit .400 in the modern era of baseball (.406 in 1941 at the age of 22) was Ted Williams. He is the all-time leader in OBP with a career mark of .482. Williams got on base more than anyone in baseball history. He led the league in runs scored five times, home runs four times, walks eight times, and batting average six times.
A single-season OBP of .482+ has been registered 41 times
Ted Williams career OBP was .482 pic.twitter.com/yXLZ1BXRKf
— OldTimeHardball (@OleTimeHardball) July 22, 2024
Williams won the Triple Crown twice and was a 19-time All-Star. He even missed three years of his prime (age 24-26 seasons) when he served in WWII as a pilot.
Ted's only trip to the postseason was the 1946 World Series, which his Boston Red Sox dropped to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.
1. Ty Cobb
While Ty Cobb played in a different era than the rest of these hitters, you can't deny that he is among all the all-time greats. His major league career spanned 24 seasons as he played from age 18 until he was 41 and he collected 4,189 hits, which served as the most ever in baseball until Pete Rose broke his record.
Cobb's lifetime batting average of .366 was the high-water mark for nearly 100 years but will be surpassed once Josh Gibson's .372 average is added to the record.
Ty Cobb once won a Triple Crown without hitting a single ball over the fence. He had 9 home runs, all inside the park. pic.twitter.com/47rJHITnRF
— Baseball’s Greatest Moments (@BBGreatMoments) July 11, 2024
As far as the postseason goes, Cobb had three consecutive cracks at a title early in his career with the Tigers as Detroit made it to the World Series in 1907, 1908, and 1909. His Tigers fell to the Cubs in the first two matchups and in seven games to the Pirates in 1909. He played another 19 seasons after that without returning to the postseason.
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