WICHITA, Kansas, September 25, 2008 – It doesn’t get any better than baseball at Wrigley Field. The Ivy walls, rooftop bleachers and who could forget Harry Carey? It’s an atmosphere former Shocker Koyie Hill is experiencing again after spending all year in AAA.

“It's such a special place I am not going to say I belong here, but I definitely know I am capable of being here,” said Chicago Cubs catcher Koyie Hill.

But Koyie’s road to Wrigley was not easy. In 2204, a collision at the plate ended his season and in 2006, he underwent Tommy John surgery on his arm. But those injuries never kept him from baseball or from his hobby, remodeling a home in Wichita.

“Who doesn't want to be like there dad?” he said. “He was a master carpenter.”

The challenge of remodeling that home led to the biggest challenge of his baseball career. Last October, Koyie was hard at work on his house when things went terribly wrong. His hand was caught in a table saw – his fingers were no match.

“It basically ripped them all off,” he said. “My pinkie came off, all but 10 percent of it was hanging there, and my ring finger was the same way, not quite as much as my pinkie, but I'd say about 80 percent of it came off.  It took a big notch out of my middle finger. It was just gross; you know it looked like it had been through a meat grinder.”

Koyie went to Wichita hand specialist Dr. Mark Melhorn, whose task of returning Koyie to baseball seemed impossible.

“The first thing we had to do was put the bone back together with metal wires, and after we repaired the bone, then we did the tendons nerves and arteries, then re-attached the skin in those areas,” said Dr. Melhorn.

“I don't know how Dr. Melhorn managed to find anything -- it looked like a big mess,” Koyie said.

Koyie’s road back to Wrigley Field began immediately and he wouldn’t be satisfied with just playing; only playing in the big leagues. But he knew it would take determination, perseverance and a lot of therapy.

“We were probably working every day for about an hour and a half to two hours, and we would come in on the weekends to do the same,” said Occupational Therapist Polly Senseman.

“I called it the “house of pain,” you go in there and you just get crushed,” Koyie said.

Two months into therapy Koyie began to show signs of hope. And spirits were high until a December trip to see the Cubs physician in Chicago.

“He basically told me, he didn't think I would play again, for sure not at the big league level,” Koyie said.

“When Koyie came back in that following day for treatment, he was pretty low and in my mind I was convinced he would be back playing,” Senseman said. “And I said to him, ‘it's not a matter of whether you will be back playing it is a matter of when you will be back.’”

In February, it happened Koyie was back in big league spring training. But that didn’t make it easy. One month into AAA season, Koyie sat down with his wife Meghan.

“I said, ‘if it keeps going like this I don't see that its going to work out, I'm trying everything I can and it’s just not getting any better,’” he said.

But Koyie was determined not to let his career die on the vine. He hit .432 in July with nine home-runs, seven doubles and 25 RBI’s and was called back up to the big leagues earlier this month.

Wrigley Field, the Cubs; everything was there, including a double in his first at bat.

“I was just standing there thinking I was proud of being out there and I don't compliment myself all that much, but I was proud of the people that helped me get here,” he said.

Like the game of baseball, Koyie’s road back to Wrigley was the perfect execution of team work to overcome adversity and to win. To most Cub fans, it may not be a classic hall of fame moment, but to those in Wichita who know Koyie Hill and his story, it’s the kind of comeback champions are made of.

“It will be nice when it all calms down, now everybody asks me, ‘how's your hand, tell me the story, can I see the pictures or whatever,’ I'm just ready for it to be over and just be a ballplayer again.”