Stephen Vogt may be Major League Baseball’s most unlikely two-time All-Star.

Now the Milwaukee Brewers’ backup catcher, Vogt didn’t catch on full time with a major league team until he was almost 30. After the Tampa Bay Rays drafted him out of a small Christian college in 2007, he spent all or parts of eight seasons in the minors before joining the Oakland A’s full time in mid-2014.

During that time, Vogt lost a season to a shoulder injury and began his major league career by going 0-for-32 at the plate —including all 25 of his at-bats in three short stints with the Rays in 2012.

Vogt pondered whether he should continue playing baseball for a living: “You wonder if this is what God wants you to do with your life. … You wonder if it’s God’s will and pray that if it’s not [His] will, [He’ll] slam the door.”

The door stayed open, and with encouragement from his wife Alyssa—they have three children—Vogt persisted. Oakland acquired Vogt in 2013, and he joined the A’s in late July, helping them win the American League’s West Division title. He drove in the winning run in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the AL Division Series.

Vogt was back in the minors to start the 2014 season but rejoined the A’s in June of that year, helped Oakland clinch a wild-card playoff berth, and has been in the majors ever since.

Vogt got off to a sizzling start in 2015 en route to his first All-Star selection: He hit .308 with 13 home runs and 53 RBIs through his first 70 games that year. The rest of the way, though, he batted just .214 with five homers and 18 RBIs.

A native of Visalia, Calif., Vogt during his days at tiny Azusa Pacific University never envisioned becoming an All-Star: “Coming from a small Christian college, a lot of people doubted me … but I ground my self-identity in the love of God, and He’s shone through.”

His numbers in early 2016 were not spectacular, but the A’s were a last-place team and Vogt was their one representative at the All-Star game. This year, the floundering A’s focused on developing a rookie catcher and dropped Vogt. The Milwaukee Brewers, leading the National League’s Central Division, picked him up to be a backup—and Vogt is thrilled to be on a contending team.

—Ray Hacke is a World Journalism Institute mid-career graduate

More than the millions

The list of multimillionaire athletes who go to cities and teams that are poor fits for them, just because general managers offered the most money, is a long testament to the foolishness of coveting.

Kevin Durant of the Golden State Warriors, who does not hide his Christian beliefs, did not make that mistake: He signed earlier this summer a new, two-year contract worth about $10 million less than he could have earned under the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement.

Durant will still be rich: He’ll earn more than $25 million per year, plus whatever he makes on endorsements. Still, by agreeing to play for less money, Durant enabled the Warriors to keep less-heralded but still valuable players like Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston and thus give his team a better chance to repeat as champion. —R.H.