Wiki writeup on Toe Nash:

Nash is from Sorrento, Louisiana. His mother abandoned him when he was 12 years old.[1] He was expelled from two schools for fighting.[2] He did not attend high school, dropping out of school in the eighth grade. When he was 12, Nash played a Little League game in Hammond, Louisiana where he struck out 17 of 21 batters he faced with a 70-mile-per-hour (110 km/h) fastball, and hit two home runs.[2] Tampa Bay Devil Rays scout Benny Latino, whose hometown is Hammond, saw the game, and made a note to look for Nash when he was in high school. However, Nash did not play high school baseball, and Latino spent seven years looking for him.[1][2]

Nash went to work in his uncle's sugar cane fields. At the age of 18, Latino found Nash playing in a semi-professional league, known as the Sugar Cane League.[3][4] The Devil Rays brought Nash to their minor league camp in Princeton, West Virginia for a workout, where he threw 90 miles per hour (140 km/h) and hit towering home runs.[1] After Nash went undrafted in the 2000 Major League Baseball Draft, the Devil Rays signed him for a $30,000 signing bonus. The Devil Rays assigned Nash to their fall instructional league, where he played in the outfield alongside Josh Hamilton and Carl Crawford.[3] Nash's agent, Larry Reynolds, introduced Nash to his brother Harold Reynolds, an ESPN analyst, who invited him to a baseball camp in Los Angeles in February 2001, where he worked out with MLB players, including Tony Gwynn, Eddie Murray, and Alvin Davis.[3] He also discussed Nash on television.[1] Officials from other organizations felt that the story reminded them of the hoax of Sidd Finch.[2]

Despite legal troubles, he reported to spring training with the Devil Rays in 2001.[5] They assigned him to extended spring training,[2] and then to the Princeton Devil Rays of the Rookie-level Appalachian League in 2001, where he hit .240 with eight home runs and 29 runs batted in in 47 games played. Nash spent nearly nine months in jail in 2002 after he was charged with having sex with a 15-year-old girl. The Devil Rays released Nash in September 2002, the day after he was released from jail.[6]

The Cincinnati Reds signed Nash in the 2002-03 offseason.[7] The Reds voided his contract for unspecified legal reasons, believed to be a fight for which Nash was arrested.[8] Nash was arrested again in 2005 for a parole violation.[9]

This post was edited on 2/8/13 at 11:40 am