Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Trivia: Lords of the Rings

The Fall Classic starts this Wednesday night with most of the Phillies going for their 2nd World Series championship ring. In the other dugout, most of the Yankees are playing for their first. But four Yankees--Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera--are looking to win their fifth. As of this writing, no current MLB player has won the World Series five times.

Can you name the last MLB player to retire with at least five World Series championship rings?

4 comments:

Greg McConnell said...

If you guessed Paul O'Neill, that was a good guess. O'Neill retired in 2001 with five World Series championship rings ('90 Reds, '96 NYY, '98 NYY, '99 NYY, and '00 NYY). However, while O'Neill would have been a good guess, it's still wrong. There is actually a player who retired more recently than 2001 with 5 World Series championship rings...

Pauly said...

Here was my train of thought: The first guy I came up with was Reggie Jackson, and I was correct, he had 5, but you say he retired more recently than 2001. After that, the first name I came up with was Bernie Williams, but when I looked it up, he only had 4. Then I came up with Curt Schilling, but he only had 3. Last guess was wrong too -- Scott Brosius.

So then I looked it up, and it took a while, but I think I found it. I wont spoil it for anyone else, but as I initially suspected, the Yankees would be involved.

Greg McConnell said...

Good train of thought, Pauly. Sounds like you have the right answer.

Speaking of recent players and World Series history, how about Reggie Sanders? During the four-year span from 2001 to 2004, he played in three World Series for three different teams. I wonder how many guys can say that?

And for what it's worth, in 1999 Sanders played for the Padres, then spent 2000 with the Braves. That means he missed playing in the World Series with both of those teams by one season (Padres lost to the Yanks in '98 and Braves lost to the Yanks in '99). Sanders was a journeyman in the sense that he played for a lot of different teams, but he had a really good career. (We'll ignore his stints with the Pirates and Royals... ha!)

Greg McConnell said...

And for the curiuos, yes, the answer is David Cone. He won one with the Blue Jays and four with the Yankees. He retired in 2003.