Major Leagues: Some figures who did not win the World Series (V)

Harold Capote Fernandez

This Friday we refer to the cases of four players who had successful careers in the Major Leagues, however, with the desire to take the ring they stayed, and even could not savor a World Series game.

Edgardo Alfonso: At the height of his career he was one of the finest hitters in all of Major League Baseball, as well as a clutch man for the New York Mets. Mike Pìazza was the one who monopolized the spotlight, but Fonzie was the core of that attack, his swing was so elegant and effective that he was taken as an example at least in the branches of the Queens cast.

During his stay, for a couple of seasons the Metropolitans were successful, reaching the postseason in 1999 and fighting in the Championship Series with the Atlanta Braves, giving up 4 games for 2.

In 2000, the Mets reached the World Series, losing in five close games with their neighboring Yankees.

The native of Santa Teresa del Tuy departed for the San Francisco Giants for the 2003 season, reaching the playoffs with them but they were beaten in the Division Series by the overwhelming Florida Marlins, the eventual champions that year.

That would be his last postseason.

Jim Thomas: A great friend of Omar Vizquel, they experienced the same troubles with the defeats of the Cleveland Indians in 1995 and 1997.

For 2003 he was hired by the Philadelphia Phillies to be the face of the franchise, in an arduous effort to put together a champion cast that did not work. For 2006 he was traded to the defending champion Chicago White Sox with the intention of repeating but the effort was also unsuccessful.

With the Dodgers, Twins and Orioles he reached the playoffs but without advancing to the final stage.

If asked, the Lumberjack may want to trade several of his 612-plus homers or watch out for his Cooperstown plaque for a World Series ring.

Andrew Jones: In an era of extraordinary defensive center fielders like Ken Griffey Jr., Jim Edmonds, Bernie Williams, Kenny Lofton, Torii Hunter and Carlos Beltrán, the Curaçao native repeatedly managed to outshine his colleagues with ecstatic catches that delighted the baseball universe.

He gave the impression that even by giving up his sense of sight he could be a spectacular central ranger.

He made pure history in 1996, by becoming the youngest slugger to homer in the World Series. At his beardless 19 years he silenced the wild jungle that the old Yankee Stadium represented for the visiting teams.

Until the second game of that classic, Jones led the Braves’ bi-championship attempt; but the foundations of these, like a house of cards, were knocked down by the Bronx Bombers who won four in a row (three in Atlanta, one in New York) they kept the crown and scored another four wins in a row in the 1999 series ; he returned to the postseason in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2011-2012 but never made it back to the Fall Classic.

Todd Helton: From 1998 to 2013 was there a better left-handed hitter than him in the National League? It is something that should be analyzed with a magnifying glass.

Like Tony Gwynn in San Diego, Todd Helton’s love for the Colorado Rockies and the city of Denver far outweighed his ambition to win the World Series, which he only got to once due almost certainly to his disinterest in playing for another cast.

In 2007 (when they arrived at the Clásico) the rocky ones surprised locals and strangers, with a second half of the season so extraordinary that it is not common for it to happen. They comfortably left behind the Philadelphia Phillies and Arizona Diamond Backs, but against the Boston Red Sox they looked like helpless children.

Helton and the Rockies returned to the postseason in 2009 but this time failed to get past the Phillies in the first round.