He Was The Next Babe Ruth, But He Couldn't Read

tow nash was born in a trailer park in louisiana when he was 18 he had no birth certificate no driver's license and no social security number he dropped out of school in eighth grade couldn't read had been arrested five times and never played a single game of high school baseball he also had a 95 mile per hour fastball could hit 460 foot home runs from both sides of the plate and had scouts saying he could be the next babe ruth unfortunately for tow the story that was so unbelievable that mlb front offices around the league literally thought it was a hoax ended with a 10-year prison sentence this is the story of toe nash i'm told my i had everything right there in front of me you know just one one wrong turn [Music] the story of tow nash all begins in the small town of sorrento louisiana and i don't want to offend anyone from sorrento but there's only 1400 of you so the chances are low it's basically a third world country this is where tonash was born and raised and when i say born and raised i mean he literally never left with no birth certificate or social security card he didn't even have proof he existed so getting on a plane was way out of the realm of possibility and by the time he was signed by the devil rays when he was 18 he had never even left the state of louisiana as a kid toe was cursed with poor circumstances and little opportunity his mother abandoned the family so his father raised both him and his sister in a small trailer while working on a sugar cane farm toe obviously didn't have much to do so he just played baseball kind of he played a form of baseball toe would go to a local bar take bottle caps out of the trash can and have his father throw them at him while he hit them with a broomstick this is very similar to what a lot of poor latin american players do going up the only difference is when they come to the united states they usually learn to read and write in two languages toe couldn't even read his own toe had very little chance for a decent education fortunately for him this had no effect on his ability to play baseball by the time he was 12 the hours he spent hitting bottle caps had turned him into a beast he was also 5 10 140 pounds so that didn't hurt either but yeah he was a beast toad didn't know it but that year he would play a game that would change his life forever toe did what he always did absolutely dominated a bunch of kids who had no business being on the same field as him he hit two home runs and struck out 17 out of 21 batters these poor little kids had no chance this was just a normal day for toe the only difference was benny latino a part-time scout for the tampa bay rays was randomly in attendance not because he wanted to scout but because his friend asked him to come and he had nothing better to do after the game latino and toes lives went in completely different directions toes wasn't very promising he got expelled twice once for fighting and another time for threatening to stab a teacher he would completely drop out of the age of 14 and any dream he had of going pro was basically gone however his uncle was hot rod williams he's known for having a successful yet average nba career he's also basically the bill gates of sorrento he owned a sugar cane plantation where toe would work with his father and he also ran the sugar cane baseball league a league where mostly 30 and 40 year olds play and literally get paid in gator meet there was no outfield fence just a wall of sugarcane if you hit a ball into the sugarcane it was a home run yeah this is basically the field of broken dreams and if you don't believe how unprofessional this league is just try googling it it does not exist toe would work on the farm and play baseball in this league not because he was training to go pro but because he lived in sorrento and honestly there was really nothing better to do benny latino would go on to become a full-time scout for the devil raise and six years after he watched toe crush the dreams of a bunch of 12 year olds he couldn't get him out of his head he searched prospect lists and local news articles to find tow but to hadn't played in an organized baseball league since he was 14. so latino went to sorrento and just started asking random people where he could find tow and since there's only like 10 people in the entire town they all knew where they could find him just go to the sugarcane league he went to their next game and watched tow hit two 460 foot home runs from both sides of the plate latino instantly offered toe the opportunity to go to west virginia to try out in front of the devil raised head of scouting this would be tow's first time leaving louisiana and since he didn't have a driver's license or the ability to read street signs he had his friend drive him when toe arrived to the tryout he was stoned 25 pitches from both sides of the plate and hit 26 of them for home runs he then went to the mound to pitch and started throwing 90 mile per hour fastballs however it was pretty obvious that this guy had no idea what he was doing a pitching coach gave him one minor technique change and by the end of the session he was throwing 95 miles per hour so yeah the raise immediately signed him through a 30 thousand dollar deal and this might be the biggest tragedy in the whole story because if this guy just went to high school he could have failed every class i'm sure the good folks in sorrento would have let it slide and he would have made millions of dollars in the draft but toe was not complaining he was a professional baseball player and when this story got out major league baseball teams who had never heard of this guy literally didn't even believe it but when the news outlets around the country started covering the story they had to it was everywhere this attention brought good things and bad things for toe the good things were awesome he got a book deal they were writing a hollywood script about his life and even oprah reached out to have him on her show the bad things weren't as good the media did a little digging and quickly found out toe wasn't exactly a model citizen toe had been arrested five times in 10 months a few times for drug possession a felony robbery and a case of domestic violence the race said they had no knowledge of these arrests but if you know anything about how the race operated during this era they probably did know and just didn't care they would even go on to say they would have signed him anyway and as bad as these charges sound the judge would drop all five of them probably because he thought you know what this story is way too good to stop now it probably won't end well but whatever let's just see how this plays out and i'm glad he did because the story behind these charges really don't make toe sound like too bad of a guy yeah him and his friend did beat up a guy and steal his wallet but that guy later on said that he had it coming and completely forgave toe and the domestic views charge is pretty insane it went down between toe and his 41 year old girlfriend yes 41 she says she was originally attracted to toe because he was very good at babysitting her children i also will add that toe's name is toe because he wears a size 18 shoe so yeah maybe that's why she liked him but anyway when he was signed with the raise he basically told her that he was leaving town forever so she pulled a knife on him the judge ruled that she was the aggressor so toe would be free to play baseball and also freed to commit worse crimes in the future but we'll get back to that later in the meantime tow was sent to train with a double raise in tampa bay only there was one big problem he had to get on a plane obviously tow had never done this before so when he arrived in atlanta to get on his connecting flight he panicked he left all his belongings on the first plane got lost in the airport and thought he had to pick up his bags so he called his uncle crying saying he wanted to go home fortunately for tow hot rod williams coached him on how airports work and toe was able to get on the next flight to tampa when he arrived in tampa he immediately became the story when he got to the plate or mount he looked extremely unorthodox and completely out of place but he hit the ball as far as anyone and threw 95 miles per hour the teams who witnessed this were shocked and extremely impressed however it was obvious that because of toe's unique upbringing he would require special attention his teammates were constantly having to teach him about basic things for example one time he told his teammates he was hungry they told him he should order a pizza and he literally had no idea what that meant when the pizza arrived he took the pizza shut the door and never paid the reyes realized that toe would require special guidance so after spending a few weeks in tampa he was sent to california to live with his agent's brother former mlb all-star harold reynolds he acted as a temporary hitting and life coach for tow he introduced him to people like tony gwynn and eddie murray they went to the movies together and he even took him clothes shopping tow was living the dream in california but it was obvious that coming where he came from this was extremely overwhelming toe would leave california to play for the rey's rookie ball team in west virginia everything about this guy is very weird and his stats were no exception he played in 47 games and struck out 69 times in 171 at bets that means he struck out 40 percent of the time despite this he was six in the league in home runs with eight and batted 240. he was ranked as the 11th best prospect in the league just one spot behind david wright not bad for a guy who hadn't played organized baseball since little league unfortunately for tow he went back to sorrento louisiana that offseason and had sex with a 15 year old girl yep pretty despicable move by toe he was immediately released from the devil raise the original charges were extremely grim and if he was found guilty he would spend the rest of his life in prison but these charges were later lowered to a consensual sexual act with a minor he pled guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison however the judge allowed toe to walk free in a suspended sentence meaning he was basically on probation toe was given a second chance he had overcome poverty lack of education multiple criminal convictions and in 2002 he signed with a cincinnati reds tow had learned his lesson and this time the reds would give him the guidance and support he needed to succeed and in january 2002 greg toe nash was arrested after getting in a bar fight failed a drug test and spent the rest of his tenure sentenced in prison he would never play baseball again this is how the story of tonash ends and it is an extremely sad one he is a player who if born under better circumstances according to scouts could have literally been the next babe ruth and if you ask his teammates coaches and agents tonash was an extremely gentle kind and polite person but based on his criminal record before during and even after his playing career this may not seem to be the case the question has been asked many times where would tonash be if he didn't return to sorrento after his rookie season we'll never know the answer to this but like his former teammate johnny gomes said if this story happens again in the near future i bet he will have a handler but that stop sign does not get put up until there's a car accident tone ash was that car accident thanks for watching like and subscribe happy holidays i love all of you thank you i remember him saying like he was hungry and like he wanted some food and we told him to order a pizza he had pretty much no idea what that meant dude answers the door and just grabs the pizza and shuts the door had no idea how that process worked it was like a caveman educating a 21 year old on you know lights and tires and signs and things like that it was weird

Channel: Baseball Doesn't Exist

Views: 1,282,273

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Id: 6QTTDLWOouw

Length: 11min 12sec (672 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 07 2020