What was the nickname of the 1978 National League MVP and a two-time batting champion, who started off in a minor league baseball team, based in Monroe, North Carolina?
The Cobra
Dave Parker
David Gene Parker (born June 9, 1951), nicknamed "The Cobra", is an American former player in Major League Baseball.
 He was the 1978 National League MVP and a two-time batting champion.
 Parker was the first professional athlete to earn an average of one million dollars per year, having signed a five-year, $5 million contract in January 1979.
 Parker's career achievements include 2712 hits, 339 home runs, 1493 runs batted in and a lifetime batting average of .290.
 Parker was also known as a solid defensive outfielder during the first half of his career, with a powerful arm, winning three consecutive Gold Gloves during his prime.
 From 1975 to 1979, he threw out 72 runners, including 26 in 1977.
Monroe Pirates
The Monroe Pirates were a minor league baseball team, based in Monroe, North Carolina, in 1971.
 The team was the city's second team in the Western Carolinas League, after the Monroe Indians left for Sumter, South Carolina in 1970.
 The club was a class-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates and went on to produce the notable major league careers, of Dave Parker, Ed Ott, Tony Armas and Mario Mendoza.
Miguel Cabrera
José Miguel Cabrera Torres (born April 18, 1983), commonly known as Miguel Cabrera and nicknamed "Miggy", is a Venezuelan professional baseball player.
 He is currently the first baseman for the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB).
 Since his debut in 2003 he is a two-time American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) award winner, a four-time AL batting champion, and an eleven-time MLB All-Star.
 He has played at first and third base for most of his major league career, but primarily played left and right field before 2006.
 He claimed the 17th Major League Baseball Triple Crown in 2012, the first to do so in 45 seasons. Pat Crawford (baseball)
Clifford Rankin "Pat" Crawford, a.k.a. "Captain Pat", (January 28, 1902 – January 25, 1994) was a major league baseball player.
 Crawford went to Davidson College.
 He played baseball for several semi-pro and minor league teams throughout the 1920s including a stint as the left fielder for the 1922 Kinston Highwaymen in the Eastern Carolina Baseball Association, an independent or "outlaw league" team not affiliated with the National Association.
 Crawford got his big break in 1929 when he made it to the majors with the New York Giants, which were still being managed by the Hall of Famer John McGraw.
 On May 26, 1929, Crawford hit a pinch hit grand slam off Socks Seibold in the sixth inning.
 Les Bell then hit a seventh inning pinch hit grand slam off Carl Hubbell.
 This was the only time in history that two pinch hit grand slams were hit in the same game.
 In 1931 and 1932, he had over 237 and 236 hits respectively for minor league Columbus, Ohio.
 He went in and out of the majors through the 1934 season and was named league MVP of the American Association while playing for the Columbus Senators in 1932.
 In 1934, Crawford found himself playing on the world champion St. Louis Cardinals.
 The last two games of his major league career were World Series games.
 His teammates on the Gashouse Gang that year included HOFers Frankie Frisch, Leo Durocher, Joe Medwick, Dizzy Dean, and Burleigh Grimes.
 All told, Pat had a .280 batting average in 318 major league games.
 He was one of the initial inductees in the Kinston Professional Baseball Hall of Fame on February 11, 1983. Houston Buffaloes
The Houston Buffaloes, Houston Buffalos, or Buffs were an American minor league baseball team, and were the first minor league team to be affiliated with a Major League franchise, which was the St. Louis Cardinals.
 The club was founded in 1888, and played in the Texas League at various levels throughout the majority of its existence.
 Most recently, from 1959 through 1961, the team played in the American Association at the Triple-A level of high minor league baseball as an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs.
 The Buffaloes derived their nickname from Buffalo Bayou, the principal waterway through Houston to the Houston Ship Channel, outlet to the Gulf of Mexico.
 The team's last home was Buffalo Stadium, built in 1928.
 Before that, they played at West End Park from 1905–1928, and at Herald Park prior to that. List of Major League Baseball batting champions
In baseball, batting average (AVG) is a measure of a batter's success rate in achieving a hit during an at bat.
 In Major League Baseball (MLB), it is calculated by dividing a player's hits by his at bats (AB).
 In MLB, a player in each league wins the "batting title" each season for having the highest batting average that year.
 The American League (AL) winner is known as the "Rod Carew American League Batting Champion", while the National League (NL) leader is designated the "Tony Gwynn National League Batting Champion".
 Under current rules, a player must have 3.1 plate appearances (PA) per team game (for a total of 502 over the current 162-game season) to qualify for the batting title.
 However, if a player's lead in AVG is sufficiently large that enough hitless at bats can be added to reach this requirement and the player still would have the highest batting average, he wins the title.
 Tony Gwynn, for example, had 159 hits in 451 ABs in 1996 (.353 average) but only 498 PAs.
 Gwynn's batting average would have dropped to .349 (159 hits in 455 ABs) with four hitless ABs added to reach the 502 PA requirement, but this would still have been higher than the next-highest eligible player (.344 average), so he was awarded the 1996 NL batting title. Dave Bialas
David Bruce Bialas (born February 6, 1954) is an American former minor league baseball player and is currently the manager of the New York Yankees Class A Minor League Short Season team in Staten Island, New York and Major League Baseball coach.
 He served as a coach for the Chicago Cubs from 1995 through 1999 and in 2002.
 As a minor league outfielder and first baseman in the St. Louis Cardinals system, Bialas played 1021 games from 1973 through 1982, batting .274 in 3448 at bats, with 36 home runs, 214 RBIs and 263 runs scored.
 As a minor league manager in the Cardinals' and Cubs' systems, he managed 1373 games, winning 711 and losing 662 for a winning percentage of .518.
 On November 1, 2012, the Atlanta Braves announced Bialas as their next minor league fielding coordinator, replacing Dave Trembley. Jimmy Sanders (baseball)
James Raburn Sanders (September 3, 1902 – December 1975) was a successful minor league baseball player and manager.
 He was born in Penfield, Georgia, United States.
 In 1935, he was given the title of United States minor league baseball batting champion for the year of 1934.
 He also received a Louisville Slugger trophy because of this. Columbia Fireflies
The Columbia Fireflies are a Minor League Baseball team based in Columbia, South Carolina.
 The team plays in the Class A South Atlantic League and is an affiliate of the New York Mets of the National League in Major League Baseball.
 The home stadium is Spirit Communications Park.
 The team was formerly known as the Savannah Sand Gnats (1995–2015); they relocated from Savannah, Georgia, after the 2015 season.
 It is the only professional baseball team in Columbia, and the first since the Capital City Bombers moved to Greenville, South Carolina, after the 2004 season. Doping in baseball
Banned substances in baseball has been an ongoing issue for Major League Baseball.
 Several players have come forward in recent years to suggest that drug use is rampant in baseball.
 David Wells stated that "25 to 40 percent of all Major Leaguers are juiced".
 Jose Canseco stated on "60 Minutes" and in his tell-all book "" that as many as 80% of players used steroids, and that he credited steroid use for his entire career.
 Ken Caminiti revealed that he won the National League MVP award while on steroids.
 In February 2009, after reports emerged alleging that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in , a year in which he was American League MVP, he admitted to having used performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) between and 2003.
 Mark McGwire, dogged by allegations of PED use for years, admitted in January 2010 that he had used steroids and human growth hormone off and on for over a decade, including in when he set the single-season home run record.