Showing posts with label Graig Nettles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Graig Nettles. Show all posts

Monday, December 15, 2014

Former Yankee Rusty Torres sentenced to three years in prison

Rosendo "Rusty" Torres, a former major league outfielder who broke into the major leagues with the New York Yankees in 1971, was sentenced on December 11, 2014, to three years in prison for sexually abusing an eight-year-old girl while working as a baseball coach for the town of Oyster Bay. The charges stem from a 2012 incident where he allegedly fondled and flashed the girl while working at a local school playground.

Rusty Torres / N. Diunte
Torres moved to Brooklyn from Puerto Rico at the age of seven, and was an unlikely success, emerging from the depths of the 54th round of the 1966 Major League Draft. In nine major league seasons, he posted a .212 career average with 35 home runs and was part of the 1972 trade that brought Graig Nettles to the Yankees from the Cleveland Indians.

In his post-baseball career, Torres struggled with alcohol dependency and cocaine abuse, selling his 1980 American League Championship ring, and working as a porter and cab driver to make ends meet. After hitting rock bottom, Torres founded the Winning Beyond Winning Foundation in 1998, with the hopes of educating children about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. He made countless appearances along with a great many other retired baseball players whom he recruited to help the foundation's efforts. The foundation dissolved after Torres’ 2012 arrest.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Former Yankee All-Stars Come Together To Help The Jason Krause Kick Cancer Scholarship Fund

Graig Nettles (far left), Darryl Strawberry (c.) and Mickey Rivers (r.) with the volunteer staff.

New York baseball legends Dwight Gooden, Graig Nettles, Mickey Rivers, and Darryl Strawberry were all on hand this Saturday to help benefit the Jason Krause Kick Cancer Scholarship Fund at Kennelly’s Grille House in Congers, N.Y. The benefit, which is now in its third year, had a record turnout this weekend, due in part to the generosity of the aforementioned superstars.

The fund was launched in memory of Krause, who was a star soccer player at Clarkstown North High School who succumbed to brain cancer at the age of 33 in 2008. The grassroots support was overwhelming, with close to 300 people turning out in the small town of 8,500. A tremendous array of prizes was raffled off for supporters including a trip to the, "Big Game in New Orleans in February" and a complete run of playoff tickets for the New York Yankees. All proceeds went to fund a soccer scholarship for a Clarkstown North soccer player in Krause’s honor, as well as the “Jason K: A Matter of Hope Fund” at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

The baseball legends spiced up the event, fortuitously signing autographs and taking photos with a seemingly never ending line of requests. Strawberry, a cancer survivor himself, was more than proud to oblige.

“Any event where I can give back, and raise awareness, I’m glad to do it,” Strawberry said. 

Gooden, a hero for both the Mets and Yankees, relished the memory of another brain cancer victim, his former battery mate, Gary Carter. 

“My best memory of Gary Carter was in the 1984 All-Star Game,” Gooden said. “I struck out three batters in a row, and on our way back to the dugout he said, ‘Wouldn’t this be nice to do every fifth day?’ Little did I know that he would be with us next year.” 

For more information on the Jason Krause Kick Cancer Scholarship Fund, visit - http://www.facebook.com/JasonKrauseKickCancerScholarship