Dan Henderson traded in his Porsche and Rolex for a pair of spikes and a glove. It was a deal he couldn't refuse.

Henderson, 24, put a successful business career on hold for one last shot at baseball. He's started three companies, but these days he's more concerned about whether he starts in left or right field for Dallas Baptist. He took a considerable cut in income to play at DBU as a walk-on this season after being away from baseball for three years. Even if he weren't one of the Patriots' top sluggers, Henderson says going from entrepreneur to outfielder would have been worth it.

"I didn't want to have any regrets," he said. Henderson got the idea when his wife's grandmother showed him a magazine article about Jim Morris, the high school coach who tried out for the pros at age 35 and wound up pitching in the majors. Morris' story is the basis for the current hit movie The Rookie.

Henderson's story isn't quite as Hollywood worthy. He's not much older than his teammates, although they have nicknamed him "Family Man Dan."

But the three-year layoff did take its toll and made Henderson feel much older.

"I came out here and for the first three weeks I was just terrible," he said. "These young guys were running circles around me. They literally had to drag me through the conditioning.  "Every day I was wondering, 'Why in the world am I doing this?'"

Taking a hit

Good question, considering that at the time Henderson took up baseball he was running two companies and had eight employees. He still has the companies, one in Web site development and another that produces a stamp for temporary license plates, but he has downsized considerably.

The employees were let go in favor of contract labor. Instead of driving a Porsche and a Lexus, Henderson and his wife are now a two-pickup couple. Henderson sold his Rolex to keep up payments on the couple's Las Colinas home.

Henderson did it for love of the game. Giving up a Lexus so your husband can play baseball, now that's true love. "I told him to go for it because you only live once," Jessica Henderson said. "I think it was tougher for him knowing that he had to make me do that, but I'm not very much into possessions."

Henderson said he's making about a third of the income he had a year ago. His business career started in 1997 after he responded to one of those late-night infomercials. Forty bucks later, Henderson realized he'd been ripped off, but it did get his name on a mailing list for a more legitimate company that sold and built Web sites.

After a while, Henderson went into business for himself. He sold his first company to a larger firm, and now his primary interest is a company called Net Growth.

Even sitting in a dugout in a baseball uniform, Henderson is a natural salesman. He does his best to make eye contact and speaks in a clear, confident tone. Whenever he wants to make a point, he touches the person he's talking to on the arm or shoulder.

Henderson needed all his selling skill to get Dallas Baptist coach Sam Riggleman to give him a chance. Henderson called Riggleman last August three days before classes started.

Henderson had a promising career as a pitcher when he came out of Corpus Christi Calallen High School. After a year of junior college, he played two seasons at UT-Arlington but left after a disagreement with the coaching staff.

Because NCAA rules allow for only a five-year window of eligibility, Henderson couldn't go back to UTA. But he could go to an NAIA school such as Dallas Baptist.

DBU, however, isn't just any NAIA program. The Patriots, who will move to NCAA Division II next season, have been to the NAIA World Series 10 times since 1984, including the last three seasons. Making the team would be tough for anyone, much less someone who had been away from the game for so long.

"I really didn't give him a whole lot of hope, to be honest with you," Riggleman said. "We have already done our recruiting and he had been out of baseball for a long time."

New position

Henderson soon found out his arm, which once allowed him to throw more than 90 mph, was shot. He would have to make the team as a position player.

At one point, Henderson was on Riggleman's list of players to be cut, but he talked the coach into giving him one more week. The next day, Henderson began knocking the ball out of the park.

"I said, 'OK, I'm going to hang in there with you, but you've got to do something. I'm not going to keep you on if you're going to be an average guy who's not productive.'" Riggleman recalled. "He seems to flourish under that pressure."

Henderson made the team as an outfielder but still had a hard time cracking the lineup. Finally, two weeks into the season, Riggleman put Henderson in at DH just to see what he could do.

In that game against Abilene Christian, Henderson smacked two homers and a double.

Heading into Tuesday's play, Henderson had played in 23 of 41 games and was fourth on the team with seven homers. He also had five doubles and 26 RBIs.

Riggleman said everything Henderson has accomplished comes from the work he's put in.

"He's taught me a lot, just in the semester-and-a-half he's been here," freshman pitcher Michael Bischofhausen said. "How to be successful, work ethic, how schoolwork isn't to judge how smart a person is but to judge their preparation."

Henderson said he got an extra burst of motivation after seeing The Rookie and said, half-seriously, he's thinking of selling all his business interests to devote all his time to baseball.

Because of the demands of baseball and business, Henderson takes his courses online and is about 20 hours from his bachelor's degree.

Henderson did take a course on campus last year called Principles of Marketing. Having already lived what the professor was lecturing about, Henderson made an A without ever studying for a test.

That experience has Henderson thinking about changing his major from criminal justice to - what else? - business.

Kieth Whitmire