Down deep in the Louisiana bayou, everything moves at its own pace. Time gets stuck, like an old Buick in a stagnant pond.

People tend to get hidden too, swallowed by the canopy of cypress trees and the thick overhang of Spanish moss. Even the brightest of stars become as invisible as a gator on the prowl.

Even stars as bright -- and as big -- as Toe Nash.

If you haven't heard of this 18-year-old budding baseball phenom, you aren't alone. Until a few months ago, almost no major league scouts knew his name.

In an age when every high school player gets a look and every American Legion team has its own report card, Nash stayed a secret to scouts, bird dogs and cross-checkers alike.

He is huge -- 6-foot-7, 230 pounds. He wears size 18 cleats, which explains his nickname (His given name is Greg but he prefers to be called Toe). He throws like Satchel Paige and hits home runs from both sides of the plate like Mickey Mantle.

And he never finished the seventh grade, which explains why one of the hottest new prospects in baseball was almost totally unknown until one determined scout followed up an old hunch.

"He was the most dominating Little League player I ever saw," Tampa Bay Devil Rays scout Benny Latino said. "And with a name like Toe Nash, I never forgot about him."

After watching him strike out 17 of 21 batters and bash two home runs as a 12-year-old, Latino figured he would hear Nash's name again. He never did.

So while scouting a game in Gonzales, La., he asked some of the locals what happened to the kid. The trail led to Sorrento, a tiny town of 1,000 that has one stoplight, one mini-mart and a couple of juke joints on the fringe of town.

"The police station and courthouse are in one building, and the courthouse has five seats," Latino said. "And as far as I could tell, there's no jail."

But there was a semipro team of 30- and 40-year-olds, owned by former NBA player John "Hot Rod" Williams. And there was a manchild named Toe Nash, hitting long bombs into the sugar cane.

Latino overturned the right stone and found a gem underneath.

Because the June amateur draft had passed, Nash was considered a free agent and the Devil Rays immediately signed him to a contract. He reported to instructional league in West Virginia -- the first time he'd ever left his home state, other than a quick trip across the Texas border. He reports to his first spring training in a few weeks.

Nash's story, and its similarity to Robert Redford's character in "The Natural," has drawn a huge response ever since longtime baseball writer Peter Gammons first wrote about Nash on the ESPN Web site. The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times ran a cover story on Nash that appeared Sunday -- and was no doubt seen by a large portion of the national media assembled in Tampa to cover the Super Bowl.

He was a secret for 18 years, but there's no keeping the lid on now.

"All the major TV networks are asking for him," said Larry Reynolds, the Riverside-based agent who represents Nash. "We're getting calls from book companies and movie studios left and right. Everyone wants to tell his story."

Reynolds, the brother of former Mariners infielder and ESPN commentator Harold Reynolds, represents a number of major league players, including Carl Everett and Ken Hill, and recent first-round selections Mike Stodolka (Corona Centennial) and Ryan Christianson (Arlington).

It was Everett's former high school coach, David Pittman, who implored Reynolds to come to Louisiana to look at a few players. Nash literally stood out.

Nash had already signed for a $30,000 bonus, but he needed help acclimating to the outside world -- simple things like changing planes and opening a bank account.

Reynolds is his teacher. It is a daunting task, but if Nash really turns out to be "The Natural," Reynolds might have found his most important client.

One of the first items of business is to make Nash as comfortable as possible.

"He tells me to take things slow," said Nash, who is soft-spoken and shy by nature. "We sit down and talk about a lot of things. It's helped, yeah."

Said Reynolds: "We're trying to break him into this new life he's going to embark upon."

Because Nash never received any formal coaching, Reynolds is bringing him to Riverside this week where he will meet with hitting stars like Tony Gwynn and Eric Davis. All three will make an appearance at Harold Reynolds' hitting clinic Saturday at the Big League Dreams Sports Complex in Mira Loma.

"I just want him to be around people like that," Reynolds said. "He needs to talk about hitting, and who could be better than Tony Gwynn?"

Even if Nash turns out to be little more than a passing curiosity from the cane fields, Reynolds already is pleased to have played a small part in the life and times of Toe.

"He gives people hope," Reynolds said. "When you hear a story like his, it really confirms that God's got his eye on everyone."