7 great St. Louis Cardinals who never won a World Series with the team

OF Ray Lankford

Ray Lankford is one of the most beloved Cardinals players of the 1990s, another decade in which the Cardinals failed to win a World Series. The speedy center fielder supplanted Willie McGee in 1990, and he had big shoes to fill.

The Cardinals drafted Lankford in the third round of the 1987 draft, and he made his debut just three years later on August 21, 1990. He would play a total of 13 years with the Cardinals, including a return to St. Louis in 2004.

As a Cardinal, Lankford slashed .273/.365/.481. He didn't win any awards in St. Louis, but he did attend the 1997 All-Star Game. Lankford's best year came in 1997 when he finished the year with a .996 OPS in 133 games. He hit 31 home runs that year and drove in 98 runners. He was a key part of the middling Cardinals' efforts throughout the 1990s.

Lankford got his first taste of postseason baseball in 1996. The Cardinals lost in the NLCS to the Atlanta Braves, and Lankford didn't contribute much. He didn't get a hit in the series that year, and he walked only one time in 15 plate appearances. His next shot at a World Series came in 2000 when the Cardinals played the New York Mets. Lankford fared much better this year, but his .333/.385/.417 slash line wasn't enough to propel the Cardinals to the World Series.

The Cardinals traded Ray Lankford during the 2001 season for pitcher Woody Williams, but he returned to St. Louis in 2004. Lankford was placed on the back burner after the Cardinals acquired outfielder Larry Walker, and the former wasn't placed on the postseason roster in 2004, a year in which the Cardinals would lose the World Series in sweeping fashion to the Boston Red Sox.

Ray Lankford is a favorite of many fans who grew up during the 1990s due to his continued output during an otherwise troublesome decade. He was elected to the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2018 in the fan vote. Lankford is the only player to have hit 200 home runs and stolen 200 bases as a Cardinal.