Only a select few ever get to play professional sports; even fewer ever get to experience the ultimate reward: playing on a professional sports championship team. Many great players have come up short in their attempt to reach that goal, but there's something especially heartbreaking about cases where the team wins a championship immediately after a longtime player leaves or is traded. One can only wonder what might have been.

With our most recent Super Bowl champion having lost its star player to retirement last offseason, I thought I'd compile a list of the top ten pro athletes who just missed getting to be part of the celebration. The focus of this list will be players who spent a considerable amount of time with the team before they left, not players who were only there for a few seasons preceding the championship. I'm also excluding players who ended up getting a ring with another team and ones who are still active. Now that we've established those criteria, let's get to the list.

10. John Vanbiesbrouck

Detroit-born John Vanbiesbrouck played his first full season as a goaltender for the New York Rangers in 1984-85. He wasn't the biggest goalie in the league, standing only 5'9", but he made up for it with his quick reflexes and aggressiveness. He had the best year of his career in 1985-86, when he won the Vezina Trophy, was named to the All-Star First Team and helped the Rangers reach the Conference Finals despite their losing record during the regular season. The popular goalie (known as "Beezer" to the fans in Madison Square Garden) required surgery for a lacerated wrist during the 1988 offseason. It was thought that he would miss several months of the 1988-89 campaign while recovering, but he ended up playing in the season opener. In the early 90's he teamed with Mike Richter to give the Rangers one of the league's best goalie duos.

Believing Richter could handle the goaltending duties on his own, the Rangers traded Vanbiesbrouck to the Canucks after the 1992-93 season. Just four days later he was taken by the Florida Panthers in the expansion draft. While Vanbiesbrouck helped the new team in Florida to a respectable inaugural season (and was named to the All-Star Second Team in the process) the Rangers went on to win their first Stanley Cup in 54 years. Vanbiesbrouck's popularity continued in the Sunshine State, and he played in three All-Star Games while a member of the Panthers. He helped the fledgling franchise reach the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996, but they were swept by the Colorado Avalanche. He made it back to the Finals in 2001 as a backup for the Devils, but once again his team fell to Colorado.

Vanbiesbrouck retired in 2002 holding the NHL record for most victories by an American-born goaltender with 374. He also tied Frank Brimsek with 40 shutouts, most among American NHL netminders. In 2007 he was inducted into the American Hockey Hall of Fame.

9. Billy Cox

You've heard of the famous Brooklyn Dodgers infield, right? Hodges-Robinson-Reese-Cox? All were great players, but one of them never got to be part of a World Series winner, and that was Billy Cox. A shortstop with the Pirates, the Dodgers acquired him after the 1947 season and moved him to third base. He was a dazzling fielder at the hot corner who once inspired Casey Stengel to say: "He ain't a third baseman. He's a [bleep]ing acrobat." The World War II veteran wasn't much of a hitter (lifetime .262 batting average, 66 home runs, .698 OPS), but he had a reputation for coming through in key situations. Cox played in three World Series with the Dodgers, but each time they lost at the hands of the New York Yankees.

The Dodgers traded Cox and Preacher Roe to the Orioles after the 1954 season (coincidentally, the same trade that had originally brought Cox to the Dodgers was the same one that had brought Roe). In June of 1955 the Orioles traded him to the Indians, but he chose to retire rather than report to his new team. Four months later the Dodgers finally beat the Yankees to win the franchise's first World Series title.





8. Paul Reinhart

In 1979 the Atlanta Flames used the 12th overall pick in the NHL Draft on a young defenseman named Paul Reinhart. Though defense was his primary job, Reinhart was also a strong puck handler who was versatile enough to play any position on the ice, and he developed into one of the best all-around defensemen in the game. With the Flames (who moved to Calgary after his rookie year) he had two Playoff hat tricks, made an All-Star appearance and helped them to the 1986 Stanley Cup Finals. For all his success, he might have accomplished even more had he not struggled with injuries throughout his career.

The Flames traded Reinhart to the Canucks before the 1988-89 season. At the time of the trade he was the last remaining player from the franchise's days in Atlanta, and he held most team records for defensemen. Despite playing in pain, he made his second All-Star appearance that year and helped the Canucks to a first-round Playoff matchup against his former team. The underdog Canucks stunned the Calgary crowd by winning Game 1 in overtime, with Reinhart scoring the deciding goal. The two teams battled their way to seven games, but the Flames ultimately weren't going to be denied their first Stanley Cup that year. Reinhart played one more season in Vancouver before his back problems forced him to call it quits at age 30. He finished his career with 133 goals and 427 assists in 648 games.

7. Wilbur Cooper

Wilbur Cooper was a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates during the Dead Ball and early Live Ball Eras. He once played for a minor league team owned by future U.S. President Warren G. Harding, and legend has it that Harding himself recommended Cooper to the Pirates. The left-hander had great control, a good pickoff move to third and was a solid hitter as well. The Pirates weren't a very good team early in Cooper's career, but as Cooper developed and the team around him improved his numbers got better. For eight straight seasons he won at least 17 games. The Pirates were annually in the first division, but the NL pennant always eluded them.

After the 1924 season Cooper was traded to the Cubs. The move was unpopular in Pittsburgh, and Cooper himself was disappointed to be leaving the Pirates. After winning 20 games the year before, he was nothing more than an average pitcher for the last-place Cubs, which translated into a losing record. Meanwhile, his old teammates took up residence on the opposite side of the standings, eventually winning the pennant by an 8