Wake Up With Josh Hamilton Going 5-5 With 4 Bombs
What an interesting player Josh Hamilton was. Former #1 pick in the 1999 draft who had all the tools to be a superstar. Threw it all away due to his addiction problems, battled back and was a stud for a few years before his body just gave out on him. That’ll happen after all the stuff he did to his body. When he was clean and playing ball, he was one of the most exciting guys on the diamond. I’ll never forget the performance he put on in Old Yankee Stadium in that home run derby even though he didn’t win it.
What a performance this was though, straight video game numbers, 5-5 with 4 dongs and a double, 18 total bases. You’ll notice Jake Arrieta gave up the first 2 homers and that double, people forget he sucked when he was here. Hamilton was just peppering the ball all over Camden Yards that night, deep center, left, it didn’t matter. He put quite a hurting on Adam Jones as well as Jones hit that wall a few times trying to corral some homers back in. Combine this performance with the 30-3 slaughter a few years back, and many of the top moments in Rangers franchise history have happened in Baltimore. This was just one of those nights where the ball looks like a beachball to the hitter, I honestly don’t even know why they pitched to him after he was 4-4.
I wish Hamilton had stayed clean and healthy and played a long career so we could tell our kids about what an animal he was, but instead he’ll always be a “what if” guy. I mean the demons this guy dealt with, people also forget he threw that foul ball to a fan and the fan fell over the wall and died. I mean he had trouble outside his door his entire MLB career it seems. But man, when he was on and healthy, he was one of the best players in the league.
He left Texas and signed that massive deal with the Angels, but never came close to living up to the deal. He had shoulder surgery in 2015 and eventually relapsed while rehabbing his shoulder and admitted the relapse to Angels owner, Arte Moreno. Moreno came out and said he did not want Hamilton on the Angels after the slugger had only been in LA for 2 years. He was eventually traded back to Texas, but just couldn’t stay healthy. Knee injuries plagued him and pretty much ended his career in 2017 when he was trying to come back as a first baseman. As I said above, he was one of the most interesting ball players who had all of the talent in the world, but lost it and his career to the addiction demon. I’m not sure what he is up to now, but I hope for his sake he is in a good place and clean.
@BarstoolRDT (Going on 3 days suspension here folks, I need some help)