Joel Torres' dreams of becoming a professional baseball player were dashed last month when he was cut from the Cleveland Indians' farm team. But a dream of a different sort came true when he won $1 million on a scratch-off lottery ticket.
New York Lottery
Yolanda Vega presents Joel Torres with his prize money at the New York Lottery's Garden City customer service center Friday. Torres collected a lump-sum payment of $660,300.
Torres, 21, purchased the "Sweet Millions" scratch-off ticket at a food store in Elmont, N.Y., when he was staying with his mother at her home in Queens.
"The first thing I plan to do with the money is buy my mom a new house," Torres
told Fox Sports.
He collected his lump-sum payment of $660,300 at the state lottery office on Friday along with five other lottery winners.
An outfielder, Torres says the money will also help him continue to pursue his professional baseball career.
"My dream, since I was a kid, is baseball. That's what I'm going to continue doing. I'm going to keep swinging, swinging for the fences," Torres said.