Michael Augustine Torrez (born August 28, 1946 in Topeka, Kansas) is a former pitcher in Major League Baseball.
Torrez had an 18-year career from 1967 to 1984. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals, Montreal Expos and New York Mets, all of the National League, and Baltimore Orioles, Oakland A's, New York Yankees, and Boston Red Sox, all of the American League.
He made his debut at the age of 20 with the Cardinals. He seldom pitched in his first two seasons. He had a breakthrough season in 1969, going 10-4. He was traded to the Expos mid-season in 1970. In 1972 Torrez went 16-12 with a 3.33 ERA in 240 innings. However he had control problems as he walked 103 batters. He struggled in 1973 going 9-12. Torrez rebounded in '74 with a 15-8 win-loss record in 186 innings.
In 1975 he had perhaps his best season of his career with the Orioles, going 20-9 with a 3.06 ERA in 270.2 innings pitched. However he also led the league in walks with 133.
Pitching with the Oakland Athletics, Torrez had another fine season in 1976 as he went 16-12 with a career low 2.50 ERA. He was traded to Yankees early the next season.
Russell Earl "Bucky" Dent (born Russell Earl O'Dey; November 25, 1951), is a former American Major League Baseball player and manager. He earned two World Series rings as the starting shortstop for the New York Yankees in 1977 and 1978, and was voted the World Series MVP in 1978. Dent is most famous for his home run in a tie-breaker game against the Boston Red Sox at the end of the 1978 season.
Dent was born 25 November 1951, in Savannah, Georgia, to Dennis O'Dey and Russell "Shorty" Stanford. He went home from the hospital with his mother's brother and his wife, James Earl and Sarah Dent. He and his half-brother were raised by the Dents, and they changed his last name to theirs, but his mother would not allow them to legally adopt him. He and his half-brother thought of the Dents as their parents, and until he was ten years old, Dent believed his biological mother was his aunt. Later in life, she mentioned the name of his father, whom Dent tracked down and developed a relationship with.
Lawrence Robert Bowa (born December 6, 1945 in Sacramento, California) is a former middle infielder, playing mainly as a shortstop, and manager in Major League Baseball.
Bowa was born in Sacramento, California, the son of Paul Bowa, a former minor-league infielder and manager in the St. Louis Cardinals farm system. While at C. K. McClatchy High School, Bowa tried out but never made the school's baseball team. After graduation, Bowa went to Sacramento City College where he started, and was expected to go in the MLB Draft, but didn't. The Philadelphia Phillies were the only Major League team interested in Bowa. They sent a local scout, Eddie Bockman to watch Bowa play in a doubleheader, only for Bowa to be thrown out of the game for arguing. Bockman had a winter league team in the area and offered Bowa a chance to play. Bowa played well and signed with the Phillies for a $2,000 bonus.
Characterized by his "soft" hands, strong arm, and fiery personality, he won two Gold Glove Awards and led the National League in fielding percentage six times, then a league record. He retired with the NL record for career games at shortstop (2222) and the Major League records for fielding average in a career (.980) and a single season (.991, in 1979), and was also among the career leaders in assists (sixth, 6857) and double plays (fourth, 1265); his records have since been broken, though he retains the NL mark for career fielding average.
Roland Glen Fingers (born August 25, 1946) is a retired American Major League Baseball relief pitcher. During his 18-year baseball career, he pitched for the Oakland Athletics (1968–76), San Diego Padres (1977–80) and Milwaukee Brewers (1981–85). He became only the second reliever to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992. Fingers is also one of only a few MLB players to have his number retired by more than one club (Oakland Athletics and Milwaukee Brewers).
Fingers was born in Steubenville, Ohio to George Michael Fingers and Edna Pearl (née Stafford) Fingers.
His father (who had also played minor league baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals and roomed with Stan Musial), worked in a Steubenville steel mill. George Fingers came home from work fed-up one day, said "That's it, we're moving to California," and sold the house for $1,500 and bought a car and took the family to Cucamonga. They could not afford hotels so they slept in sleeping bags beside the highway. After getting to California George Fingers had to eventually go back to work in another steel mill.
[Master P]
Ha Ha Ha
Most niggas might think I'm crazy when I tell em this
(Yeah G)
But you know what most nigga look up to like Presidents
Niggas thats in sports
All this type of shit as heroes
They might look at motherfuckin Muhammed Ali
Yah know Sugar Ray Leanord, Mike Tyson, but me.
[Master P]
Air Jordan aint no motherfuckin hero G
My heroes is niggas in the ghetto that slang D
That right on chrome and triple gold and pimp hoes
And take any nigga in the click to the Super Bowl
And party like it aint nothin
But most of my homies they done died over drug money
Like Bizzy Bob and Sam Skutty but I still love em
Air full of motherfucker and I still wanna hug em
Big Dave, my nigga gone to the battle field
Dandon and Levi, damn guard ya grill
Cuz where ya goin you gotta watch your back
Judge, god damn another nigga didnt make it back (Mr.C)
My lil brother Kevin Miller rest in peace
Elbraud, Nextditch, and Big Leaf
Lil Girl, and Boo, and Anguard
Big Pepper, God damn what yall thinkin about
They gone, I mean they soldiers
But thets the type of cal i live up and hold to
Like Joe Jackson, Lil Emmo
Randy, Sir Pat, God damn
They got bigger, the list go longer
I could start from New Orleans and go back to California
To lil Tony, to dime P
Seritz, Burnell, can't believe
That he's gone, the Scarface
Dank, Loot, and Meathead
And what about Kenny Sep
And all my niggas that dead and gone that got caught in the rep
And my other heroes still livin
But they locked up behind bars, caught up in some pigeons
Like my lil cousin Jimmy, lil Horgel
Randall, Marlow, Pee Wee damn
Another mission complete
Took off the streets locked up by the police
Meatball, and Nap, La Crowe
Pac, jinte, the gats go pow
But my homies got caught up
Even though they had no way out the ghetto but the come up
Off the streets in the hood money
Thats why my heroes live for drug money
[Chorus x4]
My Ghetto Heroes
I watched em live fast, I watched em die slow
[Skull Duggery]
What you mean I need a hero
A hero is a zero to me
The only hero that I know is them niggas in my hood G
They gave me the game so I enhanced the gat
Than I took the game, and ripped it out the frame
I tried and told ya
A hero can't be ya lucky rabbit's foot or ya 4-leaf clover
It all be a myth in ya mind
A hero aint about shit if they aint about dying
You know who was a hero to me
that nigga MoXs on the Howard J G
[Master P]
And yall other niggas thats still livin
That wanna be a hero but can't be givin
Yo life up for these streets
But this goin out to my homies out there slangin D
That still hustlin in the game tryin to make it
But yall niggas better realize you cant fake it
You either in or out aint no halfway in
Cuz when you die in the end you go to the pen
And its realer than you real niggas feel me