This makes me down right giddy. I will say it right now, Josh Hamilton is by far my favorite player in the Major Leagues. What makes sports so special is the stories. The ability of men to overcome adversity despite all odds. Capitalizing on second chances that regular people might not get in actual life, and the overall chance of redemption. Josh Hamilton epitomizes all these values as he has not only incredibly made it to the Majors despite EVERY odd, he is now arguably the best player in all of baseball.
Everyone should not only make the attempt to go to a game this weekend, they should give him a standing ovation when he comes to the plate.
Here is a story I wrote for ‘The Transcript,’ about his incredible journey.
A year ago this month(March) Josh Hamilton arrived in Florida for spring training to a feeling he hadn’t experienced since he was 17; he was wanted. Now 26, Hamilton had seen nothing but confused and disappointed stares for nearly the last decade, and even now at the glance of his 26 tattoo’s he still gets this look from many a fan. He had learned over time to look passed the glares and that the only eyes he had to be able to look into were his own at the mirror. Hamilton knew where he had come from, where he had been, and what he had the power to do.
Everyone should not only make the attempt to go to a game this weekend, they should give him a standing ovation when he comes to the plate.
Here is a story I wrote for ‘The Transcript,’ about his incredible journey.
A year ago this month(March) Josh Hamilton arrived in Florida for spring training to a feeling he hadn’t experienced since he was 17; he was wanted. Now 26, Hamilton had seen nothing but confused and disappointed stares for nearly the last decade, and even now at the glance of his 26 tattoo’s he still gets this look from many a fan. He had learned over time to look passed the glares and that the only eyes he had to be able to look into were his own at the mirror. Hamilton knew where he had come from, where he had been, and what he had the power to do.
Five years earlier Hamilton had woken up in the back of a Box Car. He had hoped he wouldn’t. He had been tripping on drugs for the last week and thought he had gone to sleep for the last time. He pulled himself off the steel floor and looked into his reflection in a broken mirror on the other side of the car. What he saw was a once chiseled frame worn down into skin and bones. He saw one of the top baseball prospects in history turned into an anonymous drifter. He saw tattoos he couldn’t remember getting. He couldn’t look into his own eyes in the mirror, he couldn’t even see himself.
Now in Florida he had inexplicably made it back from the darkness. He hadn’t played in a real baseball game since being suspended by the sport years before for drug abuse. He was making up for missed time now. 26 is old for any prospect, much less one who hasn’t played Double or Triple A, and even older for a player who hadn’t swung a bat in five years.The comeback started after the last person in Hamilton’s world had given up on him. Long after he had gone through several failed rehab stints, long after his fortune was squandered, and long after his wife had left him; his grandmother took in her grandson that she didn’t recognize. After a couple of weeks of convincing his grandmother he was clean when he wasn’t, he saw the familiar disappointed look in her eyes. She knew he was using, she was crushed.
Hamilton decided that the only way to get better was to get back to what he loved, baseball. He didn’t do it to make a comeback professionally, but to get his life back together. He began working at a baseball camp, not as a counselor, but as a janitor. He cleaned the bathrooms and the cafeteria and after his work was done he was allowed to work out with the camps equipment. In his time at this Texas purgatory he found God, he found reason, love and baseball.
With only limited preparation and years away from the game, no one could believe that after the third week of spring training he was leading the Reds in batting with an average well over .500. People started to believe in the unbelievable, the infamous Josh Hamilton who’s only shot to play baseball again was to make the Major League club, could possibly actually do it..
He did, and one year later he is now on the Texas Rangers and battling for a starting position. His smile is back, and with it his game. His struggle personifies the never give up attitude of sports, which gives us sports fans the right to hope against odds. While spring is a universal symbol of rebirth, for Josh Hamilton, spring training represents the ultimate second chance story in baseball.
Fast forward to the end of June, Hamilton not only won his starting position but is currently leading the American League in homers and Rbi’s. He has finally fulfilled his potential despite the most unthinkable route to get there. He is currently batting .321 with 19 homers and 74 RBI’s. His play evokes thoughts of Micky Mantle, and his heart thoughts of all the other all time greats. Do your best to make it to the park, and pay adage to the greatest story in recent baseball memory.
Fast forward to the end of June, Hamilton not only won his starting position but is currently leading the American League in homers and Rbi’s. He has finally fulfilled his potential despite the most unthinkable route to get there. He is currently batting .321 with 19 homers and 74 RBI’s. His play evokes thoughts of Micky Mantle, and his heart thoughts of all the other all time greats. Do your best to make it to the park, and pay adage to the greatest story in recent baseball memory.
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