Spring training is still weeks away, but this was a strange week for baseball on the Internet. Check out this list, and see which name does not belong:
1) Derek Jeter
2) Alex Rodriguez
3) Sammy Sosa (tie)
3) Toe Nash (tie)
5) Mark McGwire
6) Mike Piazza
7) Pedro Martinez
8) Nomar Garciaparra
9) Ken Griffey Jr.
10) Cal Ripken Jr.
That's the list of last week's Top 10 most-searched active baseball players on Lycos. Let's see? nine of the greatest superstars in the game today, and some guy named after part of your foot.
15 years ago author George Plimpton wrote a Sports Illustrated article called "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch" about a Bhuddist intellectual with no baseball experience who is discovered from out of nowhere by the New York Mets because he can throw a 168 mile-per-hour fastball. The baseball world was abuzz with questions about this phenomenal prospect with the extraordinary background, until people realized that the issue was dated April 1, 1985. The story was total fiction.
Last week, Peter Gammons of ESPN.com wrote an article about an 18 year-old Tampa Bay Devil Rays prospect named Toe Nash with a similar story. Nash dropped out of the school in seventh grade but was playing ball in rural Louisiana when Tampa scouts found him. Apparently he's a switch-hitter with deep home run power who can also pitch in the 90s. His nickname, Toe, comes from his size 18 feet.
This hard-to-believe story sent Lycos users scrambling for whatever Toe Nash information they could find. In this day and age prospects don't just appear out of the Louisiana swamps, but the story is true. Nash really exists, and he'll start his pro career next year, probably at Princeton, West Virginia of the rookie-level Appalachian League.
Nash sounds like he has promise, but it will be a couple of years before we will know if he can make it on the big league level. But for one week, an 18-year-old kid who had never played pro ball was as popular online as slugger Sammy Sosa, and more popular than established stars like Mark McGwire and Pedro Martinez.
