The skills of Zappa were turned towards a few images of career minor leaguers for me recently and I want again to share them with you (with his blessing and my thanks).
Bob Nash had a huge first pro season with the Red Sox Class A club in Wellsville of the NYP League in 1964, was drafted by the Phillies in an arcade "first-year draft" that was then part the Rule V, but a knee injury caused him to spend all of 1965 on a major league DL, before two tough minor league years in the Phillies and Twins systems.
Jim Jenkins spent six years in the Twins system, four of them as a utility infielder in AA and AAA, the last as an effective reliever in Class A. But 1970 would be his last hurrah.
Baseball's records show that Terry Hadlock, a left-handed hitting catcher, was an undrafted free agent who spent an abbreviated season in Class A for the Braves in 1967. But in York County, Maine, right on the New Hampshire line, Hadlock was a local legend until his death in 2014 at age 67. This was probably spring of 1968 -- a camp that would be his last.
