Jeff....I remember Wakamatsu, but didn't know him personally. My friend Romy Cucjen was a teammate of his and Barry Bonds. That's where I first found out how big of an asshat Barry Bonds was.
Godogs, that's one thing a guy could immediately see in pro ball. The outfielders were all fast, very fast, especially at AA and above. You really had to earn your hits. The best example I could ever cite was when the Giants drafted Will "the thrill" Clark in 1st round of 1985 draft. The Giants had hopes of sending him to Fresno (upper A ball) when MS State got through in the College World Series. IIRC a guy named Roger Clemens ended MS State's fun at the CWS. In the time between when they drafted Will and the CWS was over was a period of a couple of weeks I believe. The media was having fun in Fresno telling everybody to not expect great things out of Will at first as he would have to get used to using wood, and that wood was way different than aluminum. Well they were theoretically right about that, but Will put a clamp on that fun by going 4-5 with two HR's, and two doubles in his first game with us in Fresno. Absolutely amazing ability he had, but he was also the hardest worker by far. We hit it off pretty good becuase he was basically a good ol' boy from S Louisiana who loved to hunt and fish, which was right up my alley.
add, when Sosa and Pudge came out to Midland to look, at investment opportunities, Sosa was already "turning light" for lack of a better word. Pudge gave him a ration of crap for 3 days about him wanting to look like Michael Jackson. I laughed 'til my sides hurt at those two.
Will Clark was my kind of ball player
I loved the very short time he spent in STL
