This is the opposite of the other thread about players who left just when their team wins the championship.
However, this is not about people like Lebron James, who left the Cavs and went down to Miami and is now a champ. He and the other guys are huge contributors and are the reason Miami has been successful.
I’m talking about players who just kind of got lucky ending up on championship teams. Sure they will have contributed somewhat or they wouldn’t be in the leage, but some guys just have luck with getting on teams.
I’m going to openly confess right now that I do not have an example for this. Karl Malone made an attempt to do this, joining the Lakers. He contributed, but was past his prime and really could have retired.
And then the Pistons beat him in the finals anyway. Heh.
I’ll guess this happens more with large teams, like football or baseball.
In the multiple-times’ category,I don’t remember the exact numbers, but there was a period in the NBA where two players were (separately) on something like 11 of 13 championship teams (over four or five different franchises). They contributed, but nobody is claiming that Robert Horry or Steve Kerr were the dominant players or even key missing links on any of those teams.
Tony kucok and luc longley were pretty mediocre players who won a lot of rings thanks to stars around them.
The 86-88 mets were a bandwagon team. During one of the all star games, the catcher, pitcher SS, 2nd baseman, first baseman, right fielder, and center fielder were all mets. I bet nobody remembers who the 2nd baseman and SS were.
Thew less than an inning’s worth of pitches, and caused the Sox to lose the game on a walk-off walk…yet he got a ring for the Sox’s World Series win last year.
Utilityman Luis Sojo is my favorite example of this.
He played 19 regular season games for the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays, and although he did not play in the postseason he received a Championship ring.
He played only 18 regular season games for the NY Yankees in 1996. He had only 12 plate appearances in the post season, but received a Championship ring.
In 1998 he played in 54 regular season games and only 1 ALCS game (with no plate appearances) and received a Championship ring.
In 1999 he played in only 49 regular season games and 3 postseason games (with one plate appearance) and received a Championship ring.
In 2000 he left for the Pirates, but came back to the Yankees later in the season. He played only 34 regular season games for the Yankees, but played in 15 post season games and was the hero in Game 5 of the Series.
So Sojo received 5 rings for teams on which he played a total of little more than one full season (an average of less than 35 games per season). That has to be some kind of a record.
Don Baylorplayed in three consecutive World Series for three different teams (Red Sox 1986, Twins 1987, A’s 1988), although only the Twins won a Championship.
Cody Ross was placed on waivers by the Florida Marlins in August 2010. He was picked up by the Giants, mainly just to make sure he didn’t get claimed by the Padres. Two months later, he was named NLCS MVP on his way to a World Series title.
Lonnie Smith won with the 1980 Phillies as a rookie then won one with the 1982 Cardinals then was traded to the Royals and won one with them in 1985 and came close to winning another one in 1991 with the Braves.
Yeah that was an easy one. Teufel and Backman currently still work in the Mets organization (3rd base coach and AAA manager).
Tim Raines spent 13 years with the Expos and then a few years with the White Sox before being traded to the Yankees and getting two rings.
He came close in 1992, too. Had the Braves won either of those Series, Smith would be the only man to play on World Series winners with four different franchises.
I don’t think anyone much remembers Larry Hillman, but he won six Stanley Cup rings on three different teams.
Charlie Silvera is the ultimate case of this. He never played more than 58 games in a season and hit only one career home run. But since he played on the Yankees in the fifties, he was part of six championship teams–while getting only one World Series at bat.
Two examples from the 1996 Packers, of guys who were kind of on the scrap heap, and wound up being important contributors:
Desmond Howard had won the Heisman at Michigan in '91, and was the #4 overall pick of the Redskins. He washed out in Washington after 3 seasons, and then had a poor season in '95 with the Jaguars (who were an expansion team that year). The Packers picked him up in '96, had him focus on kick and punt returns (and he had a season for the ages as a punt returner), and he wound up being the Super Bowl MVP.
Don Beebe had gone to 4 Super Bowls with the Bills (and lost all 4). After a lost season in '95 with the expansion Panthers, he joined the Packers in '96. He was a backup, but was pressed into starting duty due to a bunch of injuries to the Pack’s starting receivers, and was a beast in one game (11 catches for 220 yards in their overtime win over the Niners on MNF).
How many guys have earned multiple Super Bowl rings for doing little/nothing?
Dale Hellestrae got 3 Super Bowl rings as the Dallas Cowboys’ long snapper.
Who did that job for the Steelers of the Seventies of the 49ers of the Eighties? I know Garrett Gilbert went to 5 SuperBowls as a backup quarterback and lost them all. Ws there a scrub who won a bunch of Super Bowl rings somewhere?
