Everyone loves a good underdog story, and there may be no better example than Chuck Connors.

As a former baseball player turned actor, it’s hard to imagine Chuck Connors ever being considered the underdog. But he had the odds stacked against him before landing the role of Lucas McCain in The Rifleman.

According to an interview with The Tennessean, Connors revealed that one of the most pivotal moments in his life began in a situation where the odds of victory seemed very slim. Connors said didn’t actually believe he had a shot at the role.

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"I was told I didn’t have a chance. They’d seen about 40 actors," Connors said.

Strangely enough, it wasn’t Connors’ acting abilities that helped him land the part. It was his baseball skills.

Seeing as the show is called The Rifleman, the audition for the role of Lucas McCain had one very interesting test for the actors trying out, and it didn’t have anything to do with reading lines or rehearsing scenes. The auditioners tossed a rifle at the actors at random.

"They had a pretty unique audition," Connors said. "As soon as you opened the door they threw a rifle at you with no warning. A lot of guys dropped the gun."

While Connors didn’t necessarily know his way around a rifle, he definitely had a lot of experience with something similar: a bat. He passed the audition test with flying colors.

"I just grabbed it like it was a baseball bat," Connors said. 

It seemed that despite the large number of fellow actors auditioning, it was Connors’ quick thinking and reflexes that eventually won him the role. Like in his baseball career, he knocked it out of the park.