We tend to measure athletic success in terms of championships, but quite often, talented individuals never really have a chance to compete for them. This is certainly true of the following five baseball players, who played the more games than anyone else without ever appearing the World Series.

At the top of the list is Rafael Palmeiro, with 2,831 games played in 20 major league seasons, primarily split between the Baltimore Orioles and the Texas Rangers. Palmeiro’s 569 career home runs are 12th best all-time.

Second comes Ken Griffey, Jr., who participated in 2,671 games in his 22 seasons through 2010. Like Palmeiro, Griffey has spent most of his career with two teams: The Cincinnati Reds and Seattle Mariners. Griffey’s 630 career dingers rank him fifth on the all-time list.

Andre Dawson played the third-most games without a World Series appearance, at 2,627 over 21 years. "Hawk" spent 11 seasons with the Montreal Expos before moving the Chicago Cubs, where he had a spectacular 1987 season (49 homers and 137 RBIs) that earned him National League MVP honors. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010.

Another Hall of Famer, Ernie Banks, comes in at number four on our list, playing in 2,528 games in 19 seasons, all of them with the Cubs. A two-time NL MVP in 1958 and 1959, "Mr. Cub" led the league in home runs twice and RBIs twice. He finished his career with 512 homers, 21st all time.

Likely the least-known player in our top five is Julio Franco, who was in the lineup for 2,527 games in his 23-year career without ever playing in a World Series game. Franco played for eight different major league teams, with the longest stints in Atlanta, Cleveland and Texas. Although his stats are not as impressive as the other players listed here, he was nevertheless a solid contributor, with a career .298 batting average. Franco won the American League batting crown with Texas in 1991, hitting .341, and was still a valuable bench player through the end of his career at the age of 48 in 2007.