The Odds of Playing In A World Series

As baseball fans around the world prepare to enjoy watching another World Series, I wanted to share some thoughts with you about the odds to reach the major leagues and to play in a World Series. Neither is the easiest thing to do!

When I was a youngster during the late '50's/early '60's, my family lived in Rootstown, Ohio, just outside of Akron. On June 26, 1960, my dad drove my older brothers and I to Cleveland, Ohio to watch the Cleveland Indians play the New York Yankees in a double header. The thrill of walking into the first MLB park that I ever saw took my breath away! The Tribe played their games at Cleveland Municipal Stadium which had a seating capacity of over 78,000. On that day I was one of 57,000 fans that watched our Indians split the doubleheader. The Yankees, with Mantle, Maris, Berra, Howard, etc. went on to play in the World Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Yanks lost the Series 4 games to 3 on the famous 9th inning walk off homerun by Bill Mazeroski.

I remember that I was on duty as an elementary school boy patrol when kids were screaming in the streets---"the Pirates beat the Yankees!" When I attended that doubleheader in 1960 as an 11 yr. old, it was not a remote dream of mine that in 1978, 17 years later, I would walk into Municipal Stadium in 1978 as an infielder for the Chicago White Sox to play against "my" Indians!

Also, I never imagined that I would ever play in a World Series which also happened to me when I was a member of the 1985 Kansas City Royals World Series team. The "odds" were heavily stacked against me to get to MLB and, even more so, to get to play in a World Series!

Many young boys chase dreams of becoming something that they admire. Some dream about batting in the bottom of the ninth inning in a MLB baseball game. Whatever those dreams might be, odds against a boy becoming a big-league baseball player are staggering.

Approximately 1 in every 200 high school baseball players, or about .05% of all players, will be drafted by a major league team into the minor leagues. About 5.6% of high school players advance to play at some level of college baseball.

The numbers above show that reaching pro baseball at the minor league level is no easy task. These statistics also show that only a select few will get an opportunity to play in MLB and then the odds become even less to play in a World Series.

All 32 MLB teams have 40- man rosters or 1,280 players total. Every season, only 2 teams of 25 players each, or just 5% of the 1,280 players on a MLB 40-man roster, reach the World Series.