If anyone in sports deserves his own thread here, it's Josh Hamilton. The number one overall MLB draft pick in 1999 was out of baseball for several years because of a bad cocaine addiction combinedwith alcoholism. But now he's revived his career and is currently the NL leader in all three categories of the Triple Crown, batting .331 with 16 HR and an amazing 65 RBIs in 59 games. He has 17 more RBIs than the player with the second most and 22 more than the the player in third. The last player to win the Triple Crown in the National League was Joe Medwick 70 years ago.
Hamilton was the cover story for Sports Illustrated last week. He was a straight arrow all through high school, but began hanging out with a bad crowd after suffering his first significant baseball-related injury and being waylaid for several months. He goes straight home (and to his hotel room) after games to avoid any temptations. He won't even go to restaurants with his teammates so that he isn't tempted to have a drink. The Rangers have hired one of his close friends to basically monitor Josh 24/7, so he must really have some strong demons to combat on a continuing basis.
This is an all-time great comeback story so far and Hamilton deserves much credit for pulling himself out ofa sad situationand realizing his tremendous baseball gifts. He created his own mess but it takes a lot of character to do what he's done.
Hamilton was the cover story for Sports Illustrated last week. He was a straight arrow all through high school, but began hanging out with a bad crowd after suffering his first significant baseball-related injury and being waylaid for several months. He goes straight home (and to his hotel room) after games to avoid any temptations. He won't even go to restaurants with his teammates so that he isn't tempted to have a drink. The Rangers have hired one of his close friends to basically monitor Josh 24/7, so he must really have some strong demons to combat on a continuing basis.
This is an all-time great comeback story so far and Hamilton deserves much credit for pulling himself out ofa sad situationand realizing his tremendous baseball gifts. He created his own mess but it takes a lot of character to do what he's done.
