"A butterfly bandage worn by Chone Figgins on his left forearm during the baseball season is meant to keep his Florida-based family close to his heart.

But that's just the surface of a deeper bond between the new Mariners infielder and the parents who long ago taught him to strive to be something more. His father, Charles, was a former semipro ballplayer from Georgia, who later barnstormed through Florida on weekends with a competitive slowpitch softball team when he wasn't working odd jobs to support his young family.

To make ends meet, his mother, Eva Callins, worked for the county as a coordinator of services for seniors.

Money was tight in the Figgins household, but the dreams were ample; enough to prompt a Little League-age Figgins to promise his mother he'd one day build her a mansion when he finally struck gold on a baseball field.

"He's always said that, since when he was small," his mother said Tuesday after seeing her son introduced to the media in an at-times emotional Safeco Field news conference. "First he was going to become a professional baseball player and then he was going to do that. He was going to build us this huge house.

"And he did."

Figgins made good four years ago, using his first seven-figure contract from the Los Angeles Angels to build his mother a sprawling, two-level home on a large tract of land in Plant City, Fla. And on Tuesday, his biggest payday already secured courtesy of a four-year, $36 million contract with the Mariners, the 31-year-old had both parents with him in Seattle to share in his success.

"They've been there through everything," Figgins said. "Obviously, you go through a lot of things in life, but they've always had my back and always had my best interests.

"They've been in the South for so many years and they've gone through the hardest of times that you could possibly go through. For them to be here and see their son take the next step in his life, I think they deserve to be here."

His mother still lives in the house Figgins built. But life still isn't always easy on the family, even with money flowing more freely.

His father suffered two strokes, the latest one midway through the 2008 season. Figgins went on bereavement leave to be with him.

Though his parents divorced years back, they remain amicable. At Tuesday's gathering, his mother helped answer a handful of media questions for his father, who has difficulty speaking because of the strokes."