Wow. I just heard this story today, and had to look for an article about it, and what do ya know, the random drunk Mets fan at Shea Stadium wasn't lying. This is one of the most incredible stories I have heard in a long time. Fernando Tatis, probably this year's comeback player of the year hitting .318, 9 HR, 33 RBI, had been out of baseball for 2 years. He then returned to the minor leagues for 2 years, and was not very impressive. He signed a minor league deal with the Mets before last season, then impressed Mets brass in spring training this year, before making the MLB roster due to injury. What's incredible is the reason that he came back in the first place. According to the New York Times, Fernando and his family wanted to build a church in their hometown of San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic. There is apparently no other church in the town. He realized that the only way for him to make the money to buy the land was to go back to baseball and be successful. Wow. The town's need for a church was his sole reason for taking a second shot at the big leagues...

“In my town,” he said, “we needed to buy land to build a church. And I said to my family, the only way that we can buy the land is if I come back to baseball and make the money to buy the land to build the church for our town. That was the first step.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/sp...rssnyt&emc=rss