Change Of Fortune

Hunter also took measures to protect himself. Though he squirms a bit when asked, he admits he carried a weapon as a kid.

"I'm a very honest guy, the past is the past, but everyone I knew had a gun, and so did I," Hunter said.

Did he ever shoot it?

"Now on that," he said, "I'll plead the Fifth."

Hunter wonders sometimes how he survived.

"I hung out with gang members, I've seen bullets ring out, bullets whiz right past me -- I've seen my brother's car get shot up, but he never got hit," Hunter said. "All you can do is go by faith."

Shirley Hunter tried to keep her kids busy, sending them straight from football to basketball, from basketball to baseball and track, and over the summer, she'd help organize neighborhood games.

She did much of this while commuting from a teaching job in Little Rock from 1982 to 1987, Torii's Little League years. Shirley finally got a job teaching second grade in Pine Bluff in 1987 and remains there today.

"She'd rush home, fix us food, get us to practice or games, and she did it with four boys, pretty much on her own," Hunter said. "She was a perfect lady."

Torii was not perfect. Though he and Katrina began dating in high school and were married at age 21, Torii fathered two children, boys who are now 13 and 12, by other women.

"I was young, I didn't have that fatherly advice," Hunter said. "Now, that's what I give my kid."

Hunter gives so much more. After signing a four-year, $32-million contract with the Twins before 2003, he bought townhomes and cars for all three of his brothers, who now live in Frisco, the town next to Prosper.

He bought new homes for his mother -- a 7,500-square-foot home in a gated community on the outskirts of Pine Bluff -- and his mother-in-law. Shabazz and his family live rent-free in Hunter's previous residence, a 3,500-square-foot home in The Colony, Texas.

Hunter and his wife created the Torii & Katrina Pine Bluff Community Fund, and Hunter donates hundreds of tickets each year for disadvantaged kids to attend games.

"If I didn't make it to the major leagues, my dad would still be on drugs, my mom would be living in an apartment, and my brothers would still be in Pine Bluff," Hunter said. "I'm so thankful. Helping your family out . . . it brings tears to your eyes."

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com