In the process of presenting this analysis, I have expressed every statistic in a hypothetical grouping of a million seasons. This is as much for my benefit as yours. I find it difficult to relate to very small fractions and decimals, but can rapidly understand the same concept expressed in whole numbers per million. The results would be exactly the same if I told you that DiMaggio had a .000133 chance of accomplishing the streak, or that he had a .0133% chance, or that the odds against him were 7518-1, or that he had one chance in 7519, or that it would be likely to occur in 133 seasons out of a million. To me, the last two are the easiest to grasp immediately. Of the two, I chose the last as my benchmark because it combines decimal elegance with whole numbers. I will also present the penultimate on occasion, when I think it is interesting or edifying to do so.

I should also point out that I took the liberty of writing the prose with imprecise numbers. If the odds of something occurring were were 3614.12357 to 1, I probably said something like "about 3600 to 1", or even "about 3000 to 1", just to make an already too technical report seem less technical. If you want the precise numbers, I have made the spreadsheet available as part of this presentation.

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