May I Be Excused? I Need To Save My Family...

Well that's not what I expected.

When Colorado Rockies catcher Yorvit Torrealba missed some games due to "personal reasons", I assumed it was for drug addiction, a death in the family, or maybe some kind of pother concerning his wife getting busted for shoplifting or something.

I did NOT expect it was because Torrealba's 11 year old son was kidnapped in their home country of Venuzuela.

Apparently kidnappers took Yorvit Eduardo and two of the boy's uncles in an attempt to extort money from Torrealba. The ransom was $1 million. I'd say that's a pretty good personal reason to leave the team for a few days.

Everything worked out in the end. The police worked to find the kidnappers and the men ended up abandoning all three prisoners as authorities closed in.

Yet, this isn't the first time this has happened in Venezuela. Remember Ugueth Urbina's quest to get his kidnapped mother back a few years ago?

Suddenly living in Cleveland or Detroit doesn't look so bad.