The Chicago Cubs are world champions — and one of their most important players was World Series MVP Ben Zobrist, one of the most underrated players in baseball.
And yet Zobrist's growth into one of baseball's most valuable players might not have happened if it weren't for $50 he received as a birthday present toward the end of his senior year of high school.
In an interview with Vahe Gregorian of The Kansas City Star before the 2015 World Series, Zobrist's parents recalled the end of his baseball season as a senior at Eureka High School in Illinois.
Zobrist was a better basketball player in high school and had no scholarship offers to play college baseball.
According to Gregorian, on the night of Zobrist's final high school baseball game, he drove around "lamenting" the end of his athletic career. Zobrist's mom, Cindi, added that baseball "was in the past" at that point.
However, a short while later, Zobrist's hope was renewed. Somebody suggested he attend a nearby tryout camp.
There was just one catch: The camp cost $50, and Zobrist's dad refused to pay for it.
"Fifty dollars was a lot of money," Cindi told Gregorian. "It still is."
The family eventually reached a compromise: Zobrist could use $50 of the birthday money he had received from his grandparents.
Zobrist attended the camp and eventually received interest from some schools, including Olivet Nazarene, a small NAIA school close to the family's home.
He eventually transferred to Dallas Baptist before being drafted by the Houston Astros and later traded to the Tampa Bay Rays, where he became a super-utility player with a ton of value.
Zobrist doesn't do anything at a Hall of Fame level, but he does everything very well, playing almost any position on the field — he has started games at every position except pitcher and catcher in his career.
Zobrist may not be a highlight machine, but he is extremely valuable.
Here are the Major League leaders in wins above replacement since the start of the 2008 season. That's some pretty good company — but it almost never happened.
