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Hamilton Rocks Yankee Stadium in Home Run Derby
Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers put on an exhibition of home run hitting at Monday night’s Home Run Derby, part of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game celebration. In 20 minutes, he took the ball to the bleachers 28 times, including a run of 13 shots in a row. He broke the old record of 24 in a single round of the competition by 4. Not too bad for a guy who had been banned from baseball due to drug abuse not long ago.
Mr. Hamilton was always a great player, twice named North Carolina’s Gatorade High School Player of the Year. After graduating from high school, he was named High School Player of the Year by Baseball America and Amateur Player of the Year by USA Baseball. Drafted in 1999 by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, he got a $3.96 million signing bonus and started playing in their minor league system. After a car accident in 2001, he started taking drugs and didn’t play ball at all from 2002 to 2006.
Then, he found Jesus, and he says he has been clean and sober since October 6, 2004. Major League Baseball requires him to take a urine test thrice weekly. It seems he has won. He wrote on ESPN.com back on July 5, 2007,
Addiction is a humbling experience. Getting it under control is even more humbling. I got better for one reason: I surrendered. Instead of asking to be bailed out, instead of making deals with God by saying, ‘If you get me out of this mess, I’ll stop doing what I’m doing,’ I asked for help. I wouldn’t do that before. I'd been the Devil Rays' No. 1 pick in the 1999 draft, supposedly a five-tool prospect. I was a big, strong man, and I was supposed to be able to handle my problems myself. That didn't work out so well.
Every day I'm reminded that my story is bigger than me. It never fails. Every time I go to the ballpark, I talk to people who are either battling addictions themselves or trying to help someone else who is. Who talks to me? Just about everybody. I walked to the plate to lead off an inning in early May, minding my own business, when the catcher jogged out to the mound to talk to his pitcher. As I was digging in, the home plate umpire (I'm intentionally not naming him) took off his mask and walked around the plate to brush it off. He looked up at me and said, ‘Josh, I’m really pulling for you. I’ve fought some battles myself, and I just want you to know I’m rooting for you.' A father will tell me about his son while I’m signing autographs. A mother will wait outside the players' parking lot to tell me about her daughter. They know where I’ve been. They look to me because I'm proof that hope is never lost.
No one will remember that Mr. Hamilton finished second in the contest, although Justin Morneau won’t forget that he won the final round 5-3. What everyone who watched will recall years from now was how Mr. Hamilton found his rhythm, and with his favorite personal pitcher, Clay Counsil (a spry 71-year-old) throwing them the way he liked them, he hit 28 home runs in the House that Ruth Built.
Mr. Hamilton gets the last words, “In St. Louis, I was standing in rightfield when a fan yelled, ‘My name is Josh Hamilton, and I’m a drug addict!’ I turned around and looked at him with my palms raised to the sky. ‘Tell me something I don’t know, dude,’ I said. The whole section started laughing and cheering, and the heckler turned to them and said, ‘Did you hear that? He’s my new favorite player.’ They cheered me from that point on.” On Monday night, he won an entirely new bunch to his side.
© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.
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