Former Riverdogs manager Torre Tyson

Former Riverdogs manager Torre Tyson lives quite the life now that he’s stepped off the local baseball diamond. He’s settled down in beautiful Mt. Pleasant and, more importantly, has gotten a pretty sweet off-season gig.

“We knew when I was manager here, we were going to make this our permanent home in the future,” Tyson told ABC News 4.

But, what he didn’t know was that he’d be leaving Charleston each year to spend four months out in St. Louis. And, he certainly couldn’t anticipate that he’d be out there training one of baseball’s greatest.

He spends most of his time traveling as a Yankees roving instructor, but from December to February, Tyson leaves Mt. Pleasant and heads to St. Louis to work out, one on one, with Albert Pujols.

“We meet in the morning, we workout for a few hours. He probably overworks at the gym going two to three hours a day. I’m there pushing him. We then go to the cages and I throw him about two hundred batting practice pitches or until my arm falls off.”

As you wipe the drool from your chin, you’ll be even more surprised to hear how it all came about.

“I was literally at a YMCA in St. Louis with my wife going to work out. I looked over and he was there putting up dumbbells. I was reluctant to go up and bother him but I had to. I introduced myself, started talking, and the next day I’m throwing batting practice to the greatest hitter ever in baseball.”

2 MVPs and a World Series later, Tyson accepts his job for what it is…strike him out.

“After five years, still an everyday mental battle to look up and see him, know you’ve got to throw strikes.”

This week, Pujols signed a $254 million contract with the Angels, which means it could be the end for the Pujols/Tyson workouts.

“We haven’t talked about what that means for me” says Tyson. “If it’s the end of our baseball relationship, I wish him all the best and know we’ve got a friendship to look forward to.”