Absorbing Markov Chains and the Number of Games in a World Series

A process whose stages are governed by the initial state the process was found in is known as a Markov process. The study of such processes leads to many applications, among them the analysis of the length of the World Series. In this paper we will examine some of the theory and procedures used in the analysis of Markov chains and then use them to develop a model for World Series competition. In particular, we will examine the following question: