All Star Catcher Left Baseball to Take Care of Ailing Wife

Dioner Navarro was an All Star back in 2008. He's a career .250 hitter with 77 home runs and 367 RBI. A pretty respectable 12 years in the Majors. But why did he leave the Big Leagues early when there was still a demand for him? His wife.

Before you start passing any blame on the wife, think twice. This is one of those heart breaking, heart warming stories. Navarro married his wife Sherley back when they were teenagers. It was almost like a fairy tale.

Unfortunately that fairy tale took a nasty turn when Navarro's wife suffered a cerebral aneurysm and was given just a 5% chance of surviving the necessary surgery to repair it. Well, she defied the odds and survived.

This was about two years ago this happened. A negative diagnosis happened again about a year ago when doctors told Navarro his wife likely wouldn't wake up from a coma and he should take her off life support. Navarro said that there was zero chance he was going to take her off life support, and he was right to not take her off, as she woke up with him right by her side when she opened her eyes.

Navarro is still taking care of his wife but has said he'd be open returning to baseball. But, of course, we know where his priorities are. The right place, with his wife.