From Baseball to Priesthood

Here’s a choice: Millions of dollars in potential contracts and a fast track to nationwide stardom or a life of chastity and good works? For Oakland A's prospect Grant Desme, 23, the latter option was too enticing to pass up. Desme, an up-and-coming outfielder in the A's minor-league system, decided to drop out of baseball and not attend his first big-league camp in order to join the Catholic priesthood instead. "He was right on the verge of fame and fortune and glamour, and he's denying all that," the director of the A's farm league, Keith Lieppman, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "He's going in a totally different direction. Grant said it was a very powerful call, and that's much more important."