betrayal of trust. sexual assaults on the rise at the nation's prestigious military academies. >> i remember him turning out the lights and me asking, what are you doing? >> women who feel betrayed by the military they committed to serve and the pentagon's battle to do something about it. "freeing the chimps." >> so this is the dungeon. >> these research chimps are getting their first taste of freedom. but what about the unlucky ones still behind bars? "the last season." at 39, he's banking his career on a risky experiment. >> do you ever lay in bed and think, am i delusional? >> one man's willingness to do anything for one last chance to play a sport he can't live without. revealing investigations. fascinating characters. stories with impact. this is "cnn presents" with

tonight's host, randi kaye and drew griffin. just this week, secretary of defense leon panetta announced new policy to combat sexual assaults in the military. zero tolerance is the mention. >> but ground zero for battling the growing problem may start at the nation's most prestigious military academies. >> reports of sexual assaults at the academies rose by nearly 60% in the past year. and, out of the 65 cases record reported, only one resulted in court-martial. >> that's why two young women say they're coming forward. in a lawsuit filed this week, they say they were raped in their first year at the academies. tonight they speak to keira phillips for the first time. >> reporter: west point. the naval academy. the air force academy. prestigious military institutions tasked with training future officers

ethically, spiritually, and morally. but for these high school honor students, their experience would be far different. >> i remember him turning off the lights and me asking, what are you doing? >> in the middle of the night, i did come to and he was on top of me. >> reporter: carly marquette and annie kenz yore say they were raped. raped by fellow classmates they trusted and ignored, they say, by a chain of command that promised their parents they'd be protected. >> and nobody, not a single person, not one, was looking out for her best interest. >> reporter: carly marquette was not your typical teenage girl. that's her, cage fighting at 18.

>> that's it, carly. >> reporter: an all-star rugby player, champion swimmer and honor student. she could have gone to college anywhere. what was it about west point that drew you to the academy? >> just knowing you kind of have your future set having the structure and discipline but at the same time having people look at you, like, wow, you're doing something great for our country. >> reporter: her sister was a midshipman at the naval academy, her father a marine. to karley, they were heroes, everything she wanted to be. do you think west point let you down? >> yeah. i wanted to be there. it was my dream. >> reporter: a dream that was shattered her first year when an upperclassman showed up at her door to talk girl troubles. >> i kind of felt a little cool

that an upperclassman wanted to be friends with me and was seeking my advice. >> reporter: after sharing a drink, karley says he convinced her to come to his room. since he was an upperclassman, she trusted him. >> i remember just getting more and more intoxicated and my judgment really started to become impaired. i remember him turning off the lights and me asking, what are you doing? and then he proceeded to rape me. >> reporter: karley says she woke up disoriented, in physical pain and afraid to come forward. >> i was scared it was going to ruin my career. i was scared if i said anything that there would constantly be a target on my back. i reached out to people, and they weren't there. i just didn't want to leave my room. i mean, he was right across the hall. >> and you still had to work under him, take out his trash.

>> yes. >> why? >> well, it was part of our duties. >> chain of command. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: chain of command. military ranks where senior weeks later, she came forward, filed a report and requested an investigation. >> the reason i ended up telling someone is because i didn't want that to happen to anyone else. >> annie kenzyore describes herself as a girly girl who never imagined joining the military. an honor student and one of the best high school soccer players in memory, she was heavily recruited by top rife vi league schools, but the naval academy was the most convincing. >> all the graduates who

graduated from the soccer team became pilots and officers. those women are so power frl and well respected, i wanted to be that woman. >> reporter: annie's goal was to fight f-18s. but it wasn't long after arriving she realized that wasn't going to happen. >> i could tell there was definitely a bias towards the women. i mean, you're a female entering into a fraternity, a giant frat. >> reporter: annie says there were no derogatory names for the men, but women were called dubs. >> dub? dumb ugly bitch. >> were you called a dub? >> every girl was. >> reporter: it was a different culture and annie felt out of place. so when she was invited to an off-campus party she was in. >> i was, like, cool, college finally. i can live the college life for one night. >> reporter: but annie says she

had way too much to drink. so when a fellow midshipmean offered her a place to crash, she accepted. >> i was, like, okay, i trust you. it will be fine. you're an autopsier clals. they teach you to trust your upper class. >> tell me what happened once he took you back to the room. >> i just laid down and went to sleep. in the middle of the night, i did come to, aend he was on top of me. and i remember saying no. but then i just passed back out again. >> reporter: annie was afraid to come forward. why were you scared? >> i didn't want to be the girl that got the athlete kicked out. because we had been told stories about how that had happened in the past. and i didn't want to be that next story. >> reporter: for two years, annie battled depression and thoughts of suicide. she had a secret she couldn't keep anymore and finally called

her father. >> she said, i was raped. and i couldn't breathe. >> reporter: still ahead -- the battle to change the system. how do you get it through these men's heads, if they rape, they will pay the price? [ male announcer ] when he was only 4 years old, jonathan horton climbed all the way to the ceiling... in the middle of a department store. some parents might have scolded him. ♪ jonathan's parents gave him... gymnastics lessons. ♪ it's amazing how far you can go with a little help along the way. ♪ td ameritrade. proud sponsor of the 2012 u.s. olympic team.

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in a lawsuit just filed, allegations of rape at west point and the naval academy. two young women say they risked their careers to come forward and request an investigation. they wanted the men they say raped them to be prosecuted. one year later they're still waiting. kyra phillips continues our investigation. >> reporter: when karley marquet came forward to say she was raped at west point, she thought her case would be investigated. >> i remember the investigators meeting with my parents and they promised my parents that, if he wasn't going to jail, they could

at least get him kicked out of west point with the evidence they had. >> but he's still there. >> he's still there. >> reporter: annie kend assistk believed their rapist would be investigated. >> i thought they would get them. >> reporter: but both say their pep traitors were never finished. so they filed a lawsuit naming former secretary of states, robert gates, the former super nentds of west gate and the naval academy, secretary of the navy ray maybe us and secretary of the army, john mccue. the lawsuit claims there was limited support from commanders and failure to ensure sexual predators were prosecuted and incarcerate for their crimes. karley and annie are not alone. reports of sexual assault at the academies are up nearly 60%.

and of the 65 reports investigated last year, only one rultded in a cart martial. >> i ache for those former cadet and midshipman who have had their lives torn up. it shouldn't be that way. >> reporter: congresswoman jackie speier has gone to the house floor 19 times. >> we need to overhaul this system. >> demanding that congress and the military change the way sex u you'll assaults are prosecuted. >> you report everything through your chain of command. so i'm raped. i go to my commander, say, i've been raped. my commander can say to me, well, i'm not going to pursue this. or, take an aspirin and go to bed. as long as it's going to be in the chain of command, there's always going to be a conflict. >> reporter: her bill, the stop act, would take investigations away from the chain of command and turn them over to an

impartial council of civilian and military experts. >> if you're not going to have your assailant prosecuted, why would you want to come forward? because you're basically setting yourself up to lose your career in the military. >> reporter: speiers seize for years her calls have gone unanswered, until secretary of defense leon panetta took office. >> we've got to train commanders to understand that when these complaints are brought they've got to do their damneddest to make sure these people are brought to justice. that's the only way we're going to try to prevents this in the future, to show people can't get away with it. >> how do you get it through these men's heads, if they rape, they will pay the price? >> this place operates by command authority, and it has to begin at the top. and the message has to go down to the bottom. >> reporter: still, panetta will not take investigations away from the chain of command, but he is changing the rules.

announcing new initiatives just one week after our interview. >> what i will do is change the way these cases are handled in the military. >> reporter: here's what panetta is doing differently. he created a special victims unit to investigate sexual assaults. now, instead of slowly making their way up the chain of command, all cases will begin at the level of colonel. >> everybody has to do due diligen diligence. commanders like i said have bosses. if that commander is not doing their job, you relieve their butts of command. >> reporter: major general mary kay herring to heads the sexual response and prevention office. >> you have to look at this every single day and take what every victim says seriously. i want our victims to come forward. >> reporter: but the changes in policy come too late for karley marquet and annie kendzior. their military careers are over. >> it hurts me to hear that because we betrayed their trust

and we didn't take care of them. and we need to do a much better job. >> reporter: according to the lawsuit, as a result of the rape, karley became depressed and suicidal. unable to handle the stress of seeing her perpetrator every day. she resigned from west point. >> it's like i felt like a blemish. >> because they knew you reported the rape. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: annie says she, too, became suicidal. she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and, according to her lawsuit, was then forced to leave the academy. >> it hurts the message that we're trying to get out there. >> reporter: because of privacy issues, panetta couldn't comment specifically on karley and annie's cases, but he does make clear that blaming the victim needs to stop. personality disorder? academic separation? >> >> i think that's part of the syndrome that we're dealing

with, which is once a decision is made that somehow this prosecution is not going to move toward, then you basically turn on the victim who brought that complaint and try to do everything possible to make sure that victim doesn't hang around. or, really, diminish them by somehow accusing them of having psychological problems. that syndrome is what we have to break out of. >> and for karley and annie, if coming forward helps with that mission, they want to be a part of the battle. >> i know, with at least one person coming forward, there will be others that want to come forward and say something. >> because then they might get their perpetrators put behind bars, which is where they should be. >> west point and the naval academy say they couldn't comment on karley and annie's allegations because of privacy issues. both women have request copies of their case files to learn more about why the men they say raped them are still in the military.

coming up -- from the laboratory to freedom. the journey of a group of chimps that get a new lease on life. p, standard keyless access, and standard leather-trimmed seats, then your choice is obvious. the lexus es. it's complete luxury in a class full of compromises. see your lexus dealer.

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karley. the disney film "chimpanzee" just out this week shows the cute creatures enjoying life in the wild acting a lot like us. but thousands of chimps being used for research here in the united states are cooped up in

cages. there's a fierce debate over whether the primates should be forced to endure that kind of captivity. a bill before congress would ban invasive research on chimpanzees. john zarrella follows a groups of chimps whose research days are finally over and looks at what's ahead for those who aren't so lucky. >> reporter: winter snow came early. melting now under a warming december sun. a new season begins and, for some, the beginning of a cross-country journey. to freedom. you hear them long before you see them. when you see them, their features are unmistakable. ten chimpanzees are here with names like bart and sarah. >> sarah! you want to play? no. bart wants to have all the attention. >> reporter: they've lived most of their lives behind these walls, some for decades.

they were research chimps, used to test everything from the toxicity of pesticides in hair sprays to cures for aids and hepatitis. now these are the last of 266 to leave this one-time biomedical lab the colston foundation new mexico. for jen firestein, director of the save the chimps foundation, is it a promise fulfilled. >> failure was never an option for us, and the only thing that's ever slowed us down is that it takes a long time for the chimps to get used to living in family groups because they didn't have that opportunity growing up. >> reporter: because this is where they lived. >> exactly. >> reporter: firestein is continue pg a dream started by her boss to get these animals, knocked out with darts, injected with disease, blood drawn, a life in a place where they can be, quite simply, chimps.

a decade ago, frederick coalston lost federal funding after violations of the animal welfare act. in one case, three chimps literally cooked to death when their enclosure heated to wunl 400 degrees. colston, now deceased, denied abuse accusations during a 1995 interview with cnn. >> we don't abuse animals. we try to treat them according to the regulations of the law and even beyond that. >> reporter: facing bankruptcy, he finally sold the facility and animals to save the chimps. it was the beginning of a great migrati migration. for ten years, a dozen or so at a time have left the cold walls and steel bars for a new home, an island sanctuary. >> this is the last crew. >> this is it, the crazy, young, wonderful, vivacious crew. >> reporter: veterinarian

jocelyn bez ner checks her charges. >> now i want to check over each one, make sure they're healthy. >> reporter: bart was born here, he turned 20 in june. his records are sketchy at best. >> we don't know what the study was foreign. we just know that he was in a study. >> reporter: experts say every chimp has its own personality. bart's spitting vin agarr. he interrupts my conversation with bezner. >> that's the testosterone. >> he was getting a kick out of his antics. the concrete and steel enclosures have been modified with pass-throughs. the chimps can visit each other, play, roughhouse. it wasn't that way before save the chimps took over. so this is it the infamous -- >> this is the dungeon. this is it the dungeon. and this a small cage that they lived in. >> wow. >> reporter: like a prison, one cell after another, chimps lived

this way sitting day after day, year after year, until needed for a research project. what do you feel like when you walk in here? >> it's almost like it's haunted. it's a really dismal place. there's really not a lot of good memories here for any of us. >> reporter: here at least it's just memories. the story is much different a few miles down the road at holoman air force base. before humans flew in space, a chim am named ham did. not that he had a choice. the old footage shows chimps being trained, examined, playing, and dying. a chimp strapped into a form-fitting shell is secured inside a cylinder on a rocket sled. he's propelled down the track to test survivability after a

sudden stop. the answer is evident in the lifeless body. once no longer needed, most of the air force chimps eventually ended up in the hands of, you guessed it, frederick colston. by the mid-'90s, colston ran two fa stilts. in 1997, light was shed on the research they were subjected to under colston. >> that animal has been knock lated with hiv. >> reporter: the chimps are now owned by the national institutes of health, nih. there is a moratorium on using or, for that matter, retiring some or all of the 170 chimps housed at hol loman until an expert panel weighs in next year. >> they're inactive. they're not involved in research and they, like others that are inactive, are waiting for recommendations from this working group on how many would be needed in the long term. >> what's troubling to me is, why do you need somebody to tell you how many you need when you

folks have been funding it and been responsible for it. why do you need somebody elsz to tell you your business, how many you need? >> the nih seeks input from the public in many different ways. >> reporter: so, until a decision is made on whether they're needed for future research, the chimps sit caged, in limbo. it is estimated these and other federally owned chimps cost taxpayers $30 million a year. while their fate remains uncertain, down the road it's now moving day for bart, sarah, and the others. >> bart, come on! >> reporter: coming up -- the journey to freedom continues. i'm one of six children that my mother raised by herself and so, college was a dream, when i was a kid. i didn't know how i was going to do it, but i knew i was going to get that opportunity one day. and that's what happened with the university of phoenix. nothing can stop me now. i feel like the sky is the limit

with what i can do and what i can accomplish. my name is naphtali bryant and i am a phoenix. and now i build them. i am a bigger is better kind of guy. i absolutely love building locomotives. i knew i wanted to design locomotives from when i was very young. [ jahmil ] from the outside it looks like such a simple device. when you actually get down into the bare bones of it, there's so much technology that's submerged. [ rob ] my welds are a signature, i could tell my welds apart from anybody's. you lay down that nice bead and you look at it, i love it. they don't go together by themselves. there are a lot of little parts, and everyone has their job. [ scott ] i'd love to see it out there on the open tracks. and when i see it, i'm gonna know that i helped build that thing. [ train whistle blows ] here she comes! [ bell clanging ] [ train whistle blows ]

wow! [ charlie ] well, it's one thing seeing them built, but then to see them out here, pulling freight across america, it makes us proud. ♪

colston. >> announcer: we now return to "cnn presents" with your hosts tonight, randi kaye and drew griffin. >> for chimps, bart, sarah and friends, a new life is about to begin. >> but there's a growing debate over the future of nearly 1,000 chimpanzees still in research facilities, costing taxpayers millions of dollars. john zarrella continues our investigation. >> all right! >> reporter: the atmosphere is exciting. the staff coaxes the chimps from their enclosures into travel cages. sarah is the first in.

bart is not buying it. >> bart, come on. >> reporter: veterinarian jos linl bezner has to sedate him. she hides the needle in a glove. >> oh, you're so suspicious. >> reporter: minutes later, bart is out. as the work to coax the others continues, bart is gently moved into the travel cage. it has taken all day. by nightfall, the ten chimps are loaded in the trailer. there are tears, hugs, as the staff and volunteers say good-bye. >> it's time for them to go and start their new life. it's been a long time coming, and we're finally here. >> reporter: the trip from new mexico will take two days, stops only to feed and check on the chimps. the chimpmobile passes east, passing lafayette, alabama, home to the research center which houses 360 chimpanzees. new iberia was the focus of a

2008 undercover humane society investigation. it shows primates being darted, falling over unconscious, self-mutilating, disturbing video but not torture, says director thomas rowell. >> it never rose to animal violation or animals being tortured. it was people maybe rushed to do a job, not being as careful as they could have been. >> reporter: we are allowed in, says rowell, because the future use of chimps in research is in serious doubt. would you have invited cnn cameras in years ago here? >> again, that was not part of our mission, okay? because it wasn't part of our mission, the answer is no. our mission is public health, not public entertainment. >> reporter: the great ape protection and cost savings act sits in congress.

if passed, it will stop invasive research using chimpanzees and just last year an institute of medicine study commissioned by the national institutes of health found the use of chimps for current research is, in most cases, quote, unnecessary. soon after, the nih suspended all new chimp research grants. so what happens if the approximately 1,000 research chimps are retired? >> chimpanzees, if we don't have them today, we would find other ways of doing the research and i would argue better ways of doing it. >> i think some treatments for cancer, for certain auto immune diseases will be delayed. i think there will be suffering. i think there will be an increase in deaths among people. >> reporter: some researchers believe chimps will be instrumental in developing vaccines for emerging diseases we've not yet heard of and for hepatitis c. even if hep c, the nih insists it's doing everything it can to eliminate the need for chimps.

>> just in the last year, investigators have developed a mouse model that can be infected with hepatitis c by introducing a human gene into the house. so we're busy trying to create alternative models to avoid the use of chimpanzees. >> reporter: but the nih is not ready to pull the plug entirely. >> we welcome the day when there's no need for the use of chimpanzees in research. >> but you still think that day isn't here yet. >> i don't think it is. >> reporter: the nih's anderson tells us they're waiting for guidance from that so-called expert panel that is evaluating for them all things chimp. >> we've asked them to consider all of those options and give us priorities. >> reporter: with not enough sanctuaries, it's clear many chimps might stay right where they are, languishing for the remainder of their lives in

places like alamagordo or living in these prama dsz domes. >> we think they're nice enclosures. >> reporter: about a third of the chimps at new iberia live in them, the rest in cages. if new law changes, new iberia hopes to be considered a sanctuary site. the future for research chimps is at best unclear. for bart and sarah and friendses, the future is crystal clear. the chimpmobile has arrived in ft. pierce, florida. their first taste of freedom is finally here. their days in a cage over. one by one, they are released into their new housing enclosures, ten years after this great migration began, the last ten of the 266 one-time research chimps are home. they're greeted by friends who arrived in a group just before them. >> aww! >> that was sweet.

>> reporter: the next morning the culmination of a decade's work. >> all right, guys. are you ready? >> reporter: the doors separating the chimps from their island, from grass and sunshine and fresh air, are opened. >> hi! you did so good. you did so good! you're outside, buddy! >> reporter: you wonder, what are they thinking? is the past forgotten? do they know they are the lucky ones? up next -- how far would you go to play the game you love? one man who's staking his career on a risky medical procedure.

for any professional athlete, the decision to finally quit and move on with your life is agonizing. tonight, the story of a professional baseball risk who took an enormous medical risk, spent thousands of dollars of his own money, just to have a chance to once again be in the major leagues, in what professionals call "the show." >> reporter: at tlinl years old, christopher john nerkowski really has no business trying to pitch in the major leagues. in baseball terms, he is a has-been. just don't tell him that. >> you go as long as you can. i had a good friend tell me one time, make them tear the uniform off you. you can do whatever you are going to the rest of your life.

you can't play baseball forever. >> reporter: his major league jersey collection is evidence, though, that he has tried. >> they're almost all there. >> cincinnati, detroit -- >> they're in order. houston, i went back to detroit. >> braves. >> from the mets i went back to the astros, texas tex picked me up. in four weeks you was back in the big leagues again. it's been a roller coaster. >> reporter: so many hired and fired nickkowski, the path is almost dizzying. he was a fresh-faced rookie in 1995, with the cincinnati reds. then, after ten big league seasons, came the final cut in the majors. the washington nationals in 2005. that only sent him looking for other jerseys to wear. >> these are my japanese jerseys home and away. three different teams in korea. >> reporter: finally last year, the career-ending injury. he was hurt, he says, right here, pitching to high

schoolers, trying to increase his velocity. he felt a twinge in his pitching shoulder. at 39, married with three kids, it was the moment he should have stopped playing games, moving on like so many others into coaching or perhaps a real job. instead, he took the biggest gamble of his professional career. >> little bit of pain again. doing all right so far? >> yeah, i'm fine. >> i don't want you to faint on us. >> no. >> i'll take our magic potion. >> reporter: he decided on an experiment, the same experiment that produced last year's miracle comeback. yankee pitcher bar toll la colon was all but washed-up until he was injected with his own stem cells and platelet enriched plas plasma, prp. colon returned to the mound

stunning the baseball world with a better than average comeback season. >> you think your procedure is what did it. >> i think it helped him had. i think it gave him the ability to maybe go back and play. i think it's a combination of a lot of factors but certainly i think what we did helped. >> reporter: last fall, anykowski decided he would pay several thousand dollars for the same procedure, first harvesting and reinject gt his own stem cells into his damaged shoulder, then his oeng platelet-enriched mrauz ma. the doctor says there's no scientific proof this works, but his parents like this man trying to avoid knee surgy, swear by it. purita's critics, however, stop just short of calling him a fraud. >> we might as well be talking about crystals and healing. the fact is, stem cells hold great promise because there's

real scientific and medical rationale for using them. but we are ignorant about their use. we've certainly had very little experience with putting them into patients. so what we're worried about are the risks and the risks are many. >> reporter: dr. george daley is past president of the international society for stem cell research and a physician at children's hospital in boston. at our request, he examined a long informational packet purita posted on his web site. >> if it were subjected to a critical analysis by experts in the field, it would be dismissed as unfortunately superficial and inaccurate. >> the paper you gave us we gave to george daley. >> of course i've heard of him. i can't really dispult him because of the fact as i said earlier in an interview, we don't really have a good uniform idea yet as to what constitutes good plate pleat enriched pla a

plasma. ten different doctors give you ten different anlss. we need to get together and form an idea as to what it is. >> reporter: nikowski wasn't interested in a scientific debate, just his shoulder and another chance at a jersey. when we met him last fall, a few days after the injections, he was working out, banging tennis balls from a machine to loosen up. then agility drills with his personal trainer. finally tossing a football before getting to throw a baseball. >> so how long from right this moment until you pitch a baseball? >> i kind of play it by ear, but the goal is somewhere around three weeks. >> reporter: but to do that means putting off major life decisions. working out instead of looking for that real job. working out day after day after day. >> trying to put him in as neutral position as possible so when he strengthens the rotator

cuffs in the shoulders we maximize the strength. >> you've been working out crazy. do you ever lay in bed and think, am i delusional? >> there's times when you question yourself. anything you want to do, if you have a passion about it, you're going to do whatever it takes to do 0 it. that's where i'm at. there aels times doubt definitely creeps in. i say, what am i dog? >> reporter: what he is trying to do is make a miracle comeback, as a pitching specialist, a side-armor, brought in to give one or two left-handers out in the late innings. a new athlete, revived with the help of stem cells. >> your job would be to come in, get that lefty out in the big situation, get out of the game as quickly as possible before a righty comes up. yeah. >> reporter: by december, he was at an indoor facility in new jersey throwing a baseball again and with some zip. >> there's some life there. still got some work to do, but i'm thrilled where i am right now. >> reporter: thrilled or not --

pitching off a mound was one thing. pitching against a hitter was another. >> what is next it trying find a place to pitch. >> reporter: coming up -- a baips ball nomad winds up yet in another field of dreams. or is this a pipe dream? >> i don't want to say it's been a debacle, but a lot of back-and-forth and uncertainty from the beginning. stry. so the eighty-thousand employees at delta... must anticipate the unexpected. and never let the rules overrule common sense. this is how we tame the unwieldiness of air travel, until it's not just lines you see... it's the world.

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. with his stem cell injections behind him, his pitching arm rehabilitated, c.j. knitkowski is about to head to a place he's never been, but will it lead him back to the major leagues? it's the second day of the new year, and c.j. nitkowski is chasing his dream. again. this time in santa domingo, capital of the dominican republic. >> it took patience, phone calls. try been trying to get here since october. >> reporter: he paid his own way, just to get a chance at a tryout with one of the four baseball teams still playing dominican winter ball. >> i told my agent, i said, listen, if you can get a team

even slightly trd, let them know i'll come down, throw for them, let them see me in person. "understand teams will be hesitant because i didn't play this year. >> reporter: that's why nitkowski finds himself here, outside the biggest baseball stadium in santa domingo, checking his blackberry, not sure what's going to happen next. >> i don't want to say it's a debacle, but it'sba back-and-foh and unsirnty in the beginning. i was told two weeks ago i probably had a job, then told i definitely had a job. then that fell through. >> reporter: on this day, his perseverance pays off. >> i'm a pretty paisht man. >> reporter: he walks into the stadium, not to audition for the home team but for the visitors, the giants. and their pitching coach miguel oponte. du never lose the passion? >> the passion never goes away because thechb you stop.

if you lose the passion, start moving, getting released, if you lose the passion, you're done. so i never lost hope. >> reporter: as the sun sets and the team gets ready for a night game, it's time to show what the months of workouts, his stem cell therapy, and his rehab have delivered. but there's a problem. a good one. >> i feel fine right now. >> i'm ready to go. it's a matter of -- >> i don't need to have you throw any bull pen, no hitters. if you tell me that your arm is good enough to pitch in the game, that's good with me because i know you. >> okay. >> reporter: turns out, his coach had not really known c.j. but remembered him from a spring training 15 years earlier. >> i know you because i was with houston when you were there. >> '97/'98. >> to fun, excitement, competitiveness to goes on playing at a high level in any sport, it's hard to find that anywhere else.

>> you still want in. >> absolutely. i mean, it's fun. you have a shelf life on your career, and it chases you. and for me i know it's close, and maybe it's over. who knows? >> reporter: in the visitors' bull pen, nitkowski throws his pitches anyway with his new side arm delivery. he whips a curveball to a young catcher and throws a few more to a teenage batter. everyone here seems younger. >> i'm almost 39 years old, you know. p i'm, like, what am i doing with the stem cells? why am i trying to change my arm angle? tess it's a pretty easy answer. i'm still passionate about what i do. >> reporter: the next afternoon, nitkowski is in a car for the long drive to his new hometown, san francisco demarcaris and his new team. >> they say they'll sign me for the rest of the playoffs. i shouldn't say "the rest." for today. it's probably day by day. there's not a lot of margin for

error. >> reporter: this is hardly the big leagues. baseball refugees from all over are here. the clubhouse is littered with equipment bags from dozens of different teams. an hour after arriving, an assistant general manager shows up with a contract, payday. well, not huge. >> $2,500 for the rest of the playoff. >> that's fine, no problem. thank you very much. appreciate it. >> reporter: he gets his new baseball cap and his first job in professional baseball in almost two years. >> it feels good. i mean, this is what i've worked for, for all this, just to have an opportunity. >> reporter: the fact is, c.j. nitkowski is back but not to what he once was. >> oh, man. >> reporter: he throws side arm now, hoping for just one more chance to climb that mound, back in the bigs.

he's not as fast and, by baseball standards, he is old. in five winter league games in the dominican republic, he pitched well enough, but after all the money, all the treatments, all the trials, there has been no stem cell miracle. you spent a long time getting to this very moment, right now. >> yeah. >> that phone ain't ringing. >> no, not yet. but you don't stop. and there's times where i get a little down, you know, kind of like you said, what am i doing? should i really be doing this? should i be moving on to something a little more responsible? we'll see. it would be sad to me if i didn't get that chance. i would hate to go into retirement forced into retirement. >> is this it, though? >> oh, yeah. >> this is the year, this is it? >> oh, absolutely. >> reporter: so far that phone is not ringing.

>> that is such a great story. the question is, though, did the phone ever ring for c.j.? >> once. the new york mets called him down to florida, had him try out, and they never called back. but he got a different call. this is a different -- a role call, as it were. he's going to be in a movie pitching to a guy portraying jackie robinson in a movie about the guy who signed jackie robinson to be a major league baseball player, a guy named branch rickey. >> who's going to play branch rickey? >> harrison ford. >> oh, wow. >> big movie, big name, maybe a different start for c.j. nitkowski. >> thanks it for our show tonight. i'm randi kaye. >> and i'm drew griffin. >> and i'm drew griffin. thanks for joining us. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com tonight, america's eternal teenager dead at t