Martin Boryczewski, 29, gave himself four years to make it into major league baseball. He played for Class A and AA teams of the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Detroit Tigers before giving it up and switching to financial trading.

At Cantor Fitzgerald, he dealt energetically with the pace and stress -- and at the day's end, he left it completely behind. "If you'd so much as mentioned work," said Brian Hartigan, a friend, "you'd get this look, like, 'We're not talking about the job.'"

But he would talk about nearly anything else. "Fly-fishing to Nietzsche," said Mr. Hartigan. "Baseball to religion. He'd start with something simple and wind up saying something very deep."

Weekends were sacrosanct. First, he went to Parsippany, N.J., to see his mother and then to rural Pennsylvania to his father's place. There, he took the boat out and went fly-fishing -- his passion. He felt fully at home in the woods and on the lake. His dream was to retire early and become a fishing guide in Montana. Fishing, the woods, wildlife: When he was back in the city, he could happily discuss them every evening.

   9/11: The Reckoning