Beating the Odds: By Lindsay Barnes
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Beating the Odds by Lindsay Barnes
Written by Lindsay Barnes, MSA Headmaster 1999-2008
Of all the roads to follow in reaching the pinnacle of team sports, the path in baseball from high school to college, then through as many as five divisions of the minor leagues, and then to the major leagues is one of the most formidable.
It has been estimated that only about 6% of 130,000 high school baseball seniors ever suit up for college ball. Of those 5,700 who are still playing in their final year of college, only 10.5% will be drafted by a Major League Baseball affiliate. And of those who are drafted, only those taken in the earlier rounds of the draft have a reasonable chance of ever playing for an American League or a National League team. For others, the odds of making “The Show”, as the big leagues are affectionately known, range from slim to slimmer to none.
But odds are like athletic records. They’re made to be beaten. Just ask two recent Miller School grads, Connor Gillispie ’16 and Will Wagner ’17. Over the course of slightly more than a week in the summer of 2024, Connor, a round 9 MLB draftee, and Will, drafted in round 17, handily beat the odds. Connor toed the rubber for the Cleveland Guardians and threw his first major league pitch on August 4. Only eight days later, Will stepped onto the field for his first game ever as the Toronto Blue Jay’s second baseman.
Connor and Will didn’t merely appear in their inaugural MLB games, however. They excelled. Against AL East powerhouse Baltimore, Connor flummoxed some of baseball’s best hitters with an assortment of different pitches, throwing three innings of one-run ball in relief and, in the process, striking out three Orioles. Playing on the west coast in his first game, Will came out swinging. He registered three hits in four plate appearances and drove in a run as the Blue Jays defeated Los Angeles Angels.
Was there ever a doubt? Not insofar as work ethic and dedication to task are concerned, according to MSA’s Tom Pallante, who who helped each as an assistant coach during their years on the Hill. “Connor is as fierce a competitor on the field as I have seen. He is totally dedicated to his craft. And yet, the fire with which he commits himself as a pitcher is balanced with a calm, unflappable demeanor, a disposition that he regularly shared off the field with our entire MSA community. What I always appreciated most about Connor as a student-athlete were his maturity and his personable nature. He genuinely cared about the people around him. I’m sure he still does.”
As for Will, son of MSA head baseball coach Billy Wagner, Pallante is equally effusive. “For several years, Will was the smallest kid at Farina Field. He was undersized, but he was never outworked. One drill that I regularly supervised during our practices was the hitting — in rapid succession — of ground balls to our infielders. After about 15 or 20 of these hard grounders, players were usually ready to move on to something else. But not Will! He was the exception. Will always, always wanted another ground ball for extra measure. As both a player and a student, Will worked harder than anyone I have been privileged to be around.”
To be sure, professional baseball has its up’s and down’s. Any big league player knows the vicissitudes of the sport and recognizes how cruel and unforgiving baseball can sometimes be. Connor won’t always be dominant on the mound, and Will will not always be slamming hits around the diamond. But each now has something that no one can ever take away. No matter what transpires in the months and years to come for Connor and Will, each has beaten the odds as no Maverick ever has. Each has made it to The Show.
by Lindsay Barnes, MSA Headmaster 1999-2008
