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Roy Jackson, a Pennsylvania man who married into the Rockefeller family and later owned Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, paid $6,000 for start-up rights to Tucson's Pacific Coast League franchise.

A name-the-team contest was held, and from 100 entries "Toros'' was submitted by Clarence Dupnik, then an obscure 33-year-old policeman who for the last 38 years has been sheriff of Pima County.

To help draw people to the ballpark, Hall of Famer Bob Feller was paid $300 to pitch to 10 randomly chosen fans. Prominent TV and movie actor Richard Boone arrived at the stadium wearing a Civil War uniform after a day of filming at Old Tucson.

He sat in the dugout, kicked off his boots and asked for a cold beer.

Those were the good old days.

Across the years, the team played 40 seasons at Hi Corbett Field and Tucson Electric Park as the value of Tucson's PCL operation rose to $15 million. Some rich guys from New York bought the franchise and are moving it to Nevada.

So that's it, right? Lights out. Game over.

But it is not quite that tidy. Toros and Sidewinders of the last 40 seasons bought homes here, raised families here and have lived and died here.

The two men who shared the catching job for the original Toros, Camilo Carreon and Jim Napier, have an enduring Tucson legacy.

Greg Napier and Mike Carreon work together as firefighters at Tucson Fire Station 22. Napier's brother, Jim, is a captain at Station 3.

What are the odds of that?

In 2002, Greg Napier was selected as Arizona's Firefighter of the Year for a notably selfless mission in which he entered a burning home in an attempt to save an infant.

So, yes, the Toros became much more than baseball.

"My dad, Jim, played and managed minor-league baseball all of his life, in Tennessee and Iowa and Indiana and all over,'' Greg Napier says now. "But we settled in Tucson, and this has been our home.''

Indeed, 70-year-old Jim Napier, the son of a farmer who grew up in rural Wasco, Calif., is spending his retirement in Tucson because "I'm a grandpoppa to nine great kids who live here.''

Napier has an almost instant recall of the original Toros of '69.

"George Kernek, our first baseman, is a peanut farmer in Oklahoma,'' he says. "Angel Bravo, our center fielder, lives in Venezuela. When I was managing winter ball down there, he would come to the ballpark and try to get me to bet on the horse races. That's what he does; he hustles for the race track people.''

While Napier and Carreon shared the catching duties, their sons practically grew up at the ballpark. Their families had backyard cookouts together. Now, four decades later, they are Tucsonans first and sons of ex-ballplayers next.

Another of Carreon's sons, Mark, was an all-state outfielder at Salpointe Catholic who subsequently played 10 seasons for the Mets, Giants, Tigers and Indians. Cam's youngest son, Manny, was a standout ballplayer at Rincon High School, Pima College and Emporia State in Kansas.

Mike Carreon played for the 1973 Cactus Little League team that reached the championship game of the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.

"Mark and I would chase foul balls at Hi Corbett Field all summer,'' Mike remembers. "It was such a close-knit community; we actually lived in the same duplex as the Napiers for a while. To wind up working at the same fire station as Greg Napier, 35 or 40 years later, is pretty amazing.''

The ties do not end there.

When the Toros played their final game at Hi Corbett Field a decade ago, Manny Carreon, employed by the Tucson Parks and Recreation Department, was assigned to prepare and maintain the field for the last homestand.

It brought back many bittersweet memories.

Camilo Carreon, original Toro, died on Sept. 2, 1987. He was only 50. Ten years to the day later, the Toros played their final game at Hi Corbett.

Tuesday, a day after the final PCL game at TEP, was the 21st anniversary of his death.

"The sadness is still fresh," Mike Carreon says. "My dad came from a very poor background. His father was a laborer in Colton, Calif. He and my dad grew up picking oranges and other types of produce. My dad's route out of that way of life was baseball. He came to Tucson to play in spring training for the Cleveland Indians and, later, the Toros brought him out of retirement to play for the first PCL team here.

"A lot of people think the ballplayers just come and go, and that's it. But it doesn't work that way. This was my dad's home, and now it is my home."

The games end, but life goes on.