PROSPER, Texas -- It seems fitting that Torii Hunter chose this burgeoning North Dallas suburb to build his dream home, a 19,900-square-foot, Mediterranean-style estate that sits on 20 acres, 3 1/2 of them covered by a lake.
Growing up five hours east of here in gritty Pine Bluff, Ark., a small city notorious for its big-city problems -- gangs, drugs, poverty, violent crime -- the Angels' new center fielder did anything but prosper, at least, economically.
Hunter's father, a Vietnam veteran, was addicted to crack cocaine and blew too many paychecks on drugs and booze, his habits eventually costing him his job as an electrician for the local railroad.
Theotis Hunter would disappear for weeks at a time, his family never knowing if he was dead or alive, and during one of those benders, Torii found his dad passed out on a crack-house floor.
Shirley Hunter struggled to pay the utilities and keep her four boys clothed and fed on an elementary school teacher's salary and a prayer.
There were days Torii and his brothers knocked on neighbors' doors, asking for food, or hid in the back of the house when bill collectors came.
Rock bottom, Hunter said, came in 1997, when he opened the season with the Minnesota Twins' double-A affiliate in New Britain, Conn.
His first-round, $450,000 signing bonus from 1993 spent -- $60,000 built an indoor practice facility for the Pine Bluff High baseball team, the rest went to support himself, his family and a child -- Hunter was broke when Twins minor leaguers broke camp.
"I didn't have money for the first month's rent, so me and my roommate slept in front of the stadium in a car -- a Geo Prizm -- for two weeks," said Hunter, who left the Twins to sign a five-year, $90-million deal with the Angels in November.
"I had no help. We couldn't afford $19 a day for a hotel room. We'd wake up in the morning, hang out in the mall all day, come to the stadium and take a shower."
Now look at him. Hunter, who will join the Angels for their first full-squad spring-training workout in Arizona on Wednesday, can bathe in any of 11 bathrooms, and he and his wife, Katrina, sleep in a large master suite that has a sunken den, fireplace and a view of the pool and Jacuzzi.
The entrance to the two-year-old, six-bedroom home, which is around the corner from former NFL star Deion Sanders' palatial estate, features a grand foyer with marble floors, Roman columns and a 40-foot-high rotunda.
