New Life at the Plate (Josh Hamilton)

[Guest oldschooler]

[quote][size=5][b]New Life at the Plate[/b][/size]
[size=3][b]Hamilton Looks to Resurrect a Once-Promising Career Derailed by Drugs[/b][/size]

By Dave Sheinin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 13, 2007; Page E01

SARASOTA, Fla.

The Devil and the Son of God are waging war from opposite corners of Josh Hamilton's body.

As he guides his Chevy Tahoe out of the driveway of his rental house and onto Interstate 75, for a 45-minute drive that just so happens to weave through a minefield of ugly memories, Hamilton, the Cincinnati Reds' newest outfielder, rests his once-prized left arm on the door, and suddenly the Devil's menacing face appears, etched in dark ink into the skin in the crook of Hamilton's elbow.

As the truck speeds north on a chilly morning toward Clearwater, where Hamilton will spend another day working out in preparation for the best and possibly last opportunity of his baseball career, the tattoo devil peers out the windshield. Below the freeway sit some of the very tattoo parlors and crack houses where Hamilton years ago defiled his body and squandered his enormous potential. A few miles ahead, in St. Petersburg, the big league stadium where Hamilton was supposed to have been a star rises from the horizon to mock him.

The tattoo devil, having long ago survived a bloody, failed attempt at removal, stares intently, gently prodding Hamilton to pull over and have some wild, wicked fun. Like in the old days.

But on the back of Hamilton's right leg, the beatific face of Jesus Christ, superimposed over an enormous cross -- one of the last of the 26 tattoos Hamilton got during his dark period, that nearly four-year stretch when he was out of the game -- pushes Hamilton's foot down on the accelerator, and the Tahoe rushes on toward Clearwater, toward goodness.

"Out of sight, out of mind," Hamilton says with a deep Piedmont drawl, smiling confidently, never taking his eyes off the highway. He tugs on the left sleeve of his shirt, pulling it down below the elbow, and the Devil disappears.

On this day, God is winning the battle. Matter of fact, He's been unbeaten now for 16 months. Sixteen months and counting.

[b]The First Time[/b]

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Before the Reds plucked Hamilton from the baseball scrap heap in December with the intent of putting him in the big leagues for the first time, before he and his family left their North Carolina home and rented a house in Sarasota last month to get a jump-start on his first spring training in four years, and before the clock on his sobriety began its uninterrupted march on Oct. 6, 2005 -- before all those good things happened, Josh Hamilton was a junkie.

Here, in the sport-utility vehicle cruising toward Clearwater, Hamilton peers into his rearview mirror, waiting until his wife, Katie, sitting in back, secures the headphones over the ears of daughter Julia, 5, her child from a previous relationship, and makes sure Sierra, 17 months, is occupied with some animal crackers. Only then does he begin to tell his story.

It is early February, and Josh has already been drug-tested this morning, as he is three times a week. As he heads north out of Sarasota on I-75, the green exit signs beckon toward Bradenton. It's a good place to start the story, because this is where it all started to go bad.

"My first drink -- my first drink ever -- was at a strip club down there, with the tattoo guys," Hamilton says. "Pretty soon, I started using. First the powder. Then crack. I was 20. I wasn't playing. I was hurt. My parents left and went back home. I was by myself for the first time."

Until the spring of 2001, Hamilton was that most beautiful and precious and frightening of sports creatures -- the can't-miss prospect. But even that tag doesn't convey the immensity of his talent. He was 6 feet 4, 210 pounds, left-handed, with size 19 feet. He could throw 96 mph but was even better as a hitter. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays had made him the first overall pick of the 1999 draft -- the first high school position player to be so honored since Alex Rodriguez six years earlier -- and paid him a record signing bonus of $3.96 million.

His parents, Linda and Tony, quit their jobs, going on the road with him as he began his pro career -- with stops in Princeton, W.Va., Fishkill, N.Y., and Charleston, S.C. They would follow behind the team bus in their truck and stay at the same hotels, Linda cooking Josh's meals, and Tony breaking down his performance after every game.

But on Feb. 28, 2001, two years into his pro career, Hamilton was riding in his family's pickup truck, with Linda driving, when it was slammed into by a dump truck that had run a red light in Bradenton. Josh's back was injured and Linda had to be pried out of the driver's seat by medical personnel.

With Josh unable to play, and Linda requiring frequent medical care, she and Tony returned home to Raleigh, N.C., leaving Josh alone in the world for the first time in his life -- flush with cash, naive about the ways of the world and bored to tears.

The first tattoo he got was tame enough: "HAMMER," his nickname, on his right arm. But then came the blue flames snaking down his forearms, then the tribal symbols whose meanings Josh didn't even know, then assorted demons, and the face of the Devil himself. The tattoo parlor became a hangout, and Josh would spend eight hours in the chair at a time, watching the needle squirt the ink under his skin. Afterward, they'd all go out, get drunk and score some blow.

"They weren't bad people," Josh says now. "They just did bad things."

When he went home to Raleigh for a visit, his mother greeted him at the front door and broke into tears. "What have you done to your beautiful body?" she asked him. "Tribal signs? What tribe are you from?"

One of the last tattoos he got was the one of Jesus's face superimposed on the cross, perhaps an odd choice for someone seemingly so ungodly.

"I don't even know why I got that one," he says. "See, I didn't realize it at the time, but I think it was like spiritual warfare -- the Devil, Christ. I have tattoos of demons with no eyes. And I didn't realize it at the time, but no eyes means 'no soul.'

"That's what I was at the time: a man with no soul."

[b]Hall of Fame Projection[/b]

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North of Bradenton, Hamilton steers his SUV onto I-275 North, crossing the majestic Sunshine Skyway Bridge that spans the choppy waters of Tampa Bay. Five-point-five miles later, he reaches land again on the other side and approaches the toll booth.

"Katie," he calls out to his wife in the backseat. "You got a dollar?"

These days, Hamilton doesn't walk around with much money in his pocket. It's just better that way.

A few miles later, the freeway veers left into St. Petersburg, and directly in front of Hamilton's Tahoe stands the unmistakable tilted domed roof of Tropicana Field.

"Hey, honey," he says to Katie, suppressing a sly smile. "Who is it that plays there again?"

By now, Hamilton ought to be in his fourth or fifth big league season for the Devil Rays, sharing the Tropicana Field outfield with Carl Crawford and Rocco Baldelli. He should be a perennial all-star, an MVP candidate.

Instead, he is a Cincinnati Red, and a Hail Mary project at that. After investing eight years and millions of dollars in Hamilton, the Devil Rays decided to leave Hamilton unprotected for December's Rule 5 draft -- in which teams get to pluck away other teams' unprotected players, their leftovers -- figuring no one would take a chance on a 25-year-old outfielder who went four years without playing a game and whose last stop, last summer, was low Class A.

When the Reds snatched up Hamilton, Devil Rays executives expressed mild surprise but little remorse. But way back in June 1999 -- when the franchise had passed over Texas high school pitcher Josh Beckett and USC lefty Barry Zito, among others, to make Hamilton the first overall pick -- it was a far different story. To go back and read the press clippings now is to marvel at the juxtaposition of youth's sweet promise and life's dark reality.

"I think character may have been the final determining factor," Mark McKnight, the Devil Rays' regional scout, told local reporters at the time. "You read so many bad things about professional athletes these days, but I don't think you ever will about Josh."

Josh, just 18 at the time, himself sounded just as confident. "I'm thinking three years in the minors, then maybe 15 years in the majors," he told reporters. "Then I'll have to wait five years to get into the Hall of Fame."

Now, when those quotes are read back to Chuck LaMar, Tampa Bay's general manager at the time, he can still recall the giddiness he felt after seeing the strapping youngster who could throw a ball from the outfield wall to home plate, then pick it up and hit it 500 feet. Plus, it was obvious the kid came from good folks. He kissed his mama and his granny before every game, without fail.

"There was no question in anybody's mind that this was an outstanding person," says LaMar, now a special assistant for the Washington Nationals. "The things that happened off the field -- people will say that makes you a bad person. But . . . if you knew how to prevent a situation like Josh's, you would unlock one of the great mysteries of life."

During Hamilton's first couple of years in the minors, the Devil Rays grudgingly accepted the constant presence of his parents. But when the franchise promoted him from rookie ball to low Class A Hudson Valley in 1999, they prodded him to stay with a host family in New York as all the other players did. Still, Tony and Linda found a nearby hotel and traveled to every game.

"We disagreed with how they went about it, but it wasn't our place to say anything," says Al Stewart, who with his wife, Jane, served as Josh's host family. "We both thought one of these days he was going to break out. We didn't think it would be anything like this, but we knew there was going to be a backlash."

Tony and Linda Hamilton, whom Josh describes as "not wanting to relive" the painful past, did not return a phone message seeking comment for this story. But Josh flatly rejects any notion that his subsequent problems had anything to do with his parents' involvement.

"If something like that happens to your child, of course you'd think you did something wrong," he says. "We had that conversation many a time. They'd say, 'What did we do wrong to make you do this?' And it was nothing they did. It was a choice I made. Who can say it wouldn't have happened sooner if they weren't there?"

[b]Rehabs and Relapses[/b]

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On the other side of St. Petersburg, Hamilton exits the freeway and pulls into a Chick-fil-A, where the Hamilton clan piles out of the SUV and gets ready to tear into some breaded, fried chicken cutlets, waffle fries and sweet tea. Every head in the place turns when Josh, tall and tan, built like a Greek god, covered in tattoos, handsome as the day is long, carries the tray of food to his family's table.

This body is what saved his life, more than likely, when Hamilton snorted down enough cocaine to stop an elephant's heart, or guzzled a 750-ml bottle of Crown Royal each day. Even on those handful of occasions when his sole purpose was to overdose and end the suffering, he couldn't kill this body.

"There's no reason I shouldn't be dead or crippled," he says. "The fact I still have all my brain function [is amazing]. I did things to where I shouldn't be right today. It just lets me know there are bigger things out there for me to do."

Hamilton's long and topsy-turvy battle against drug addiction began in 2001, when the Devil Rays, concerned that Josh's frustrating back injury was beginning to affect his mental state, sent him to a sports psychologist.

"Before I left," Hamilton says, "the guy asked me, 'Is there anything else you want to talk about?' I was naive."

Hamilton told the psychologist he had been experimenting with drugs for the last couple of weeks.

"The next day," Hamilton says, "I was on a plane to Betty Ford. But they tried to make me believe the reason I did what I did was because of my family. It pissed me off. So I left after eight days."

So began a four-year pattern of rehabs and relapses, interspersed with short bursts of baseball -- until more injuries (he has had eight surgeries since 1999) led to more free time, which led to more drugs, which eventually led to a suspension from baseball that grew by another 12 months with every failed test. For a long while, after moving back home to Raleigh, he quit the fight, and stopped taking the tests altogether. From spring training of 2003 until July 2006, Hamilton did not play an inning of organized baseball and barely even lifted a bat to his shoulder.

"With what I was going through, I wasn't thinking about anything but using," he says. "Baseball, life in general, it wasn't a priority," he says. "It was basically getting high. I'd go six, seven, eight months without even swinging a bat. I honestly thought I might never play baseball again."

His days were filled with booze and cocaine, his nights with more of the same. "I'd go three or four days without sleeping, and then just pass out and hope I didn't die," he says. His nightmares and hallucinations were indistinguishable. "I was always paranoid. One time, I thought I saw a SWAT team outside my window, getting ready to storm in. I saw demon faces. I saw my dad outside my door. None of it was real."

Late one night in September 2003, for reasons he still doesn't understand, Hamilton found himself on the doorstep of Michael Dean Chadwick, a Raleigh homebuilder who frequently spoke to Christian groups about his successful battle against drug addiction. Chadwick also had a daughter, Katie, whom Hamilton had dated a few times years ago.

"I took one look at him," Chadwick says now about that night, "and I knew exactly what I was looking at."

Though it was the middle of the night, Chadwick took Hamilton out to his back porch, where they sat and talked for hours. "I told him: 'There is no middle ground. You either die or you get well,' " Chadwick says. "I would say Josh was very close to the former. Fortunately, he got surrounded by some people who didn't care at all about baseball but who loved him. And one of them was my daughter."

Hamilton started dating Katie again, and started trying to beat addiction. But it would take years before he completely won either. Eventually, he persuaded Katie to marry him, and they were wed in November 2004. At the time, he was clean. "I thought [his drug problem] was over," she says. "I thought when he said, 'It's over,' that meant it's over. But when he had his first relapse, I knew it was going to be a long road."

Upon their marriage, Josh and Katie collected what was left of the $3.96 million signing bonus -- around $200,000 -- which his parents had been holding for him, trying to keep it from winding up in the pockets of drug dealers. Josh and Katie managed to buy a house with some of the money before he squandered the rest on drugs.

"I went through about $70,000," he says, "in a month and a half."

Within six months of being married, Josh and Katie were separated. And when Katie Hamilton brought Sierra home from the hospital in September 2005, Josh was out getting high.

"That was the worst of the worst," Katie says. "Bringing your baby home is supposed to be such a joyous time -- and it wasn't that way. Just to know he was out using drugs and missing those precious moments -- it was just so hard and so sad. I was devastated."

One day, Hamilton wrote a check to a crack dealer -- "A couple grand," he says -- when he knew he didn't have the funds in the bank to cover it. He begged Katie to put some money in their account, but she refused.

When the check bounced and Josh started to feel the singular heat of a vengeful crack dealer, it was Mike Chadwick who asked Josh for the guy's name and phone number.

"I called to tell the guy I was coming," Chadwick says. "He said, 'Are you going to be packing heat?' I said, 'Do I need to?' When I got there, I told him, 'Look, I understand, business is business. Here's your money. But if you ever sell Josh crack again, I'll be back here, and it won't be pretty. I'm not scared or intimidated by you or your pals. And I'm just a little bit crazy.'

"There is no question that on multiple occasions Josh banged on the Devil's door. And why it never got opened -- well, I think God spared his life, because He had something in store for him."

[b]The Last Time[/b]

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Beyond the ranch houses and palm trees in a quiet neighborhood in Clearwater, stadium lights rise into the blue sky, and Hamilton guides his SUV into the parking lot of old Jack Russell Memorial Stadium -- former spring training home of the Philadelphia Phillies, now the site of a Christian baseball academy called Winning Inning. It's the kind of place where instructors hit fungoes in the morning and provide spiritual counseling in the afternoon, the kind of place where "J. Christ" has His own locker.

On this day, with less than two weeks until the opening of the Reds' spring training camp, Hamilton has come here to work out, and also to visit some old friends.

It was here, back in January 2006, where Hamilton -- having been clean by that time for more than three months -- had journeyed to begin reclaiming his baseball career. The morning he left Raleigh, he gathered his belongings from his grandmother's house, where he had been staying for the previous few months, and loaded up his truck, leaving behind a letter on the kitchen table.

"Thank you, Granny," he wrote. "You didn't show me tough love. You showed me true love."

His grandmother, Mary Holt, still remembers the night when Josh showed up on her doorstep, having wasted away to 180 pounds, gaunt and weak, with nowhere else to go.

"It was 2 or 3 a.m.," she says. "I saw the lights from his truck in my window. He could barely make it to the door. He said, 'Granny, can I stay here for a while?' I said, 'Come on in here and let me fix you something to eat.' But really, I felt like crying, he looked so bad."

She says family members had warned her not to take Josh in if he came calling.

"But I said: 'I can't do that. Somebody's got to help that boy,' " she says. "I gave him my credit cards, and if he used them, he'd bring me the receipt and the card back. And then, when I was sick for a week myself, do you know that he never left this house? He stayed right by my side. He cooked my meals."

But eventually, even Holt's faith in him began to run out, and it was in her house, on Oct. 6, 2005, when Josh Hamilton got drunk and got high for the last time.

"I all of a sudden realized I had nothing in my life," Hamilton says. "Baseball wasn't in my life. I had Katie and the kids, but they weren't in my life, because of the drugs. My parents weren't in my life, because of the drugs. Right then, I quit. I started going to meetings again, started working out. But this time it felt different."

Two months later, Roy Silver, one of Winning Inning's owners, read an article in one of the local papers about Josh's battles to stay clean and get back into the game.

"In the story, I remember Josh said, 'I wish I had someone to talk to,' " says Silver, who spent 16 years as a minor league coach and manager. "I took that to mean: 'Maybe that someone is me.' "

He tracked down a number for Josh and offered him a deal: Come work here cleaning bathrooms and raking the infield, and you can have free rein over the facilities at the end of each day. He showed up on Jan. 17, 2006 -- clean for 3 1/2 months at that point -- taking up residence on an air mattress in one of the Phillies' old executive offices, overlooking the playing field.

"It was hard to look out at that field," he says. "Out there was what I was born to do, but because of decisions I made, I couldn't do it."

When college teams would play exhibition games against each other at Winning Inning, few people realized that the best ballplayer on the field was the guy in the Timberlands and cargo shorts, raking the infield dirt.

One time, a college team had its pitchers throwing in the bullpen when Hamilton asked if he could throw a couple. It was clear at that moment that Josh Hamilton still had the ability to cause the jaws of baseball men to drop off their hinges.

"Everyone was just like, 'Oh my gosh,' " he says. "Man, that felt good."

[b]A Major Opportunity[/b]

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Back in the Hamiltons' rental house in Sarasota, with the small pond out back where Josh has landed an eight-pound bass, he sits at the kitchen table and describes his changing dreams.

"I used to have dreams about using drugs," he says. "But now, I'm not actually using them in my dreams anymore. People around me will be using them. But I always have the drug-test guy there with me now. No lie. He's there. So I have the choice. I always take the test."

Last June, Major League Baseball reinstated Hamilton after more than three years of suspensions. Letters on Hamilton's behalf from the Devil Rays and from Mike Chadwick, as well as one from Hamilton himself, helped convince the league that he deserved it, despite having only been clean for eight months -- or four months short of the mandatory period.

Eager to begin getting a return on their original investment, the Devil Rays got Hamilton ready quickly and shipped him back to Hudson Valley -- where he had last played as an 18-year-old seven years before. Before playing his first game in four years, Hamilton walked barefoot through the outfield grass -- "Just taking it all in," he says -- and when the national anthem was played, he choked back tears.

Katie cried, too, when Josh went to the plate for the first time, because she realized: "I'd never seen him play before that."

Now, at the kitchen table, Hamilton toggles through some text messages saved on his cellphone until he finds the one he was looking for: Dated Dec. 6, 2006, at 1:42 a.m., it reads: "Jesus never fails. Send this message to nine people except me and you will get good news tomorrow. Don't take this as a joke." As soon as he got it, he did as instructed.

The next morning, in a hotel ballroom at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, baseball held its annual Rule 5 draft. Hamilton got a call later that day from a scout he knows. "Hey," the voice said, "you got taken by the Cubs." A little while later, another call: "Check that. The Cubs just traded you to the Reds."

It turns out the Reds had made a deal with the Cubs whereby the latter would draft Hamilton with the third pick -- thus keeping away from other teams rumored to be interested -- and trade him to the Reds for cash. The whole thing cost the Reds only $100,000, but by rule, they must now keep Hamilton -- who has only 89 career at-bats above Class A -- on their 25-man active roster all year, or else lose him.

"The amazing thing to me is, the night before the draft [Reds GM] Wayne Krivsky asked me what I thought about Josh Hamilton," said Reds Manager Jerry Narron, a North Carolina native who, unbeknownst to Krivsky, has known Hamilton since the latter was a teenager. "He said, 'We're thinking about drafting him.' My jaw just dropped. I was so excited about it, knowing his history and knowing him personally. It just killed me to see the difficulties he had. But I want to give him every chance in the world to be successful and get his life back on track."

Still only 25 and no longer guided by youthful whim, Hamilton has a plan for everything now -- from the handling of social situations in which teammates might be drinking around him, to the home-schooling of Julia and Sierra so that Katie can go on the road with him, to the planned launching of a ministries foundation by the end of this year.

"I think Josh is going to do unbelievable things in baseball," Chadwick says. "I think he's going to change lives across this country for many years to come."

Just before leaving North Carolina to come to Sarasota, where the Reds train, Josh, Katie and the girls drove to Gypsy Divers, a dive shop in Raleigh. The Hamiltons' church, too new to have its own chapel, let alone a baptism pool, had paid $25 to rent a pool for the purposes of baptizing Joshua Holt Hamilton in the name of the Lord.

Some 70 church members, who knew Josh less as a onetime baseball prodigy than as a God-fearing family man about to leave town for a new job, gathered to watch Pastor Jimmy Carroll place his hand on Hamilton's head and pray.

"There wasn't a dry eye," Carroll says, "in the whole building."

And then the holy water rushed over him, and the congregation sang, and Josh Hamilton stayed in the water up to his neck for a few more moments, arms at his side, drowning the Devil himself.[/quote]


[url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/12/AR2007021201312_5.html"]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...21201312_5.html[/url]

[The Entertainer]

[quote][size=3][b]A real-life tale of redemption[/b][/size]
Reds give Hamilton another chance
By Paul Daugherty


At spring training, we toss sugary prose like peanut M&M's. Lollipops float from the keyboard: Redemption. Renewal. Fresh start. The warmth of the Florida sun turns us all into Hallmark poets.

We don't know redemption.

In a few weeks, we might.

Josh Hamilton is humanity in full view. He is Square One. Either the prettiest story in the game's recently smudgy history is about to be written, or killed for good. The ending is up to Hamilton. I admire him. I wouldn't be him for a million bucks, guaranteed.

"What is a difficult and pressure-filled situation is also going to be his salvation. If (he does) this right, he can support his family, be a great father to his kids and a great husband to his wife. The more success he has, the stronger he is, the better person he becomes.''

That's my friend Jay. He's an addiction counselor and a recovering alcoholic. He's 44 now and sober 20 years. Jay can't say exactly what Josh Hamilton, the newest Red, is going through. But he knows the road. "Alcoholism and drug addiction are a complex, devious problem,'' Jay said.

Josh Hamilton's real-life baseball card:

No. 1 overall pick in the 1999 draft. After a car crash in February 2001, became addicted to cocaine and alcohol. "I'd go three and four days without sleeping,'' he told the Washington Post, "and then just pass out and hope I didn't die.''

Four years of recoveries and relapses. Four years out of the game. Now, 16 months clean. At 25, his baseball career seemingly over, the Reds acquired him last Dec. 7 from the Cubs for cash. The Cubs had picked Hamilton in the Rule 5 Draft, meaning Cincinnati must keep Hamilton on the 25-man roster all year, or risk losing him.

Meaning, this could be a 10-hanky story. It could make Stephen King look like Walt Disney. It could justify all we presume noble about games we watch and the people we cheer. Or it could be a flyer the Reds swung at and missed. It's up to Hamilton.

Starting fresh in spring training is nothing compared with this comeback, Real Life Division.

I wanted to know what Hamilton will face in a few weeks, when the world starts watching. I wanted to know what the 40-fathoms pressure might be like. I asked Jay. Jay started drinking Screwdrivers at school dances at 14. He didn't stop for 10 years until he'd nearly lost everything.

"He's got to be extremely in touch with himself,'' Jay said. "What am I feeling right now? What am I thinking right now? If he's not paying attention to himself, he might end up on a street corner. As soon as you feel anything weird, you need to be talking to someone. He needs to stay connected with a small circle of friends who care about him as a person, not a sports phenom.''

What's left of Hamilton's physical addiction is a portrait of a devil, tattooed on his left arm. What's left of his mental addiction is permanent.

"Unless you've been through it, you don't really understand the pull the drug has,'' Jay said. "It's like a compulsion, like someone who smokes or chews his nails. It's akin to anxiety. You sweat, you shake.''

You might drive past a night club you frequented or see an old user-buddy. If you had family issues, it could be the sight of a relative that triggers a physical or psychological urge to jump off the wagon. "Over time, the urges become less intense,'' Jay explained. "The first day a person quits smoking, they're jonesing for a cigarette every minute. Then it's two minutes, then five.''

Takin' 'em one at a time never meant more.

I wonder if Josh Hamilton would be better served staying sober in a career not so brightly lit. Or rather, as Jay said, the triumph in the footlights would be that much more satisfying and instructive. Not my call.

Meantime, when I e-mailed Jay for his thoughts on Hamilton, he e-mailed me back a photo of Nora, his 9-month-old baby girl. "Best reason I can think of'" to stay sober, Jay said. Josh Hamilton has two daughters, 5 and 18 months, and a wife.

"People do heal, people do grow, people do recover,'' was Jay's final thought.

Here's another, just in time for the renewal and redemption of baseball in springtime:

Good luck, Josh Hamilton. Be well.[/quote]



[url="http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070215/COL03/702150370/1082/SPT"]Enquirer.com[/url]

[Lawman]

Even though it my be awhile befor he is ready for the bigs, I can't wait to see this guy in Spring Training just to witness his potential.

Son update: Yes, they have started. Team is 6-3.

As the Closer, he's currently (1-0) pitching in four innings. Has allowed 2 runs (in the first inning pitched), with 4 hits, 5 K's.

Contacted by SF Giants scout; previuosly contacted by Pissburgh Pirates scout.

[sm00th_kw]

Hamilton hit a two run bomb over the batters eye (supposed 30 feet high) to straight away center (400 ft) off of Allan Simpson.

[Lawman]

[quote name='sm00th_kw' post='447980' date='Mar 1 2007, 03:41 PM']Hamilton hit a two run bomb over the batters eye (supposed 30 feet high) to straight away center (400 ft) off of Allan Simpson.[/quote]

[i]Some comments on Josh Hamilton from that site I mentioned in the Reds Poll thread:[/i]

[color="#000080"]Redbird -

I question if you really saw Josh play in High School because if you did, you would no way say that Justin Upton was a more talented player. Just a few points to consider - Hamilton was clocked in the upper 90's as a LH pitcher in HS and could have been taken as the #1 pick as a pitcher but his overall talents were so far off the board as a position player, he was instead taken $1 as an outfielder.

At 6'4", no one was faster or could hit a ball farther than Josh. While he's had troubles off the field, Josh Hamilton had Micky Mantle talent coming out of HS. Upton is not even in his league!!

Just recently, the GM for the Reds witnessed Josh launching 500' bombs in Spring Training and saw him throw a ball from the center field wall (401' away) to home plate in the air -[/color]

[i]Curious to see Redbird5's response.[/i]

[color="#000080"]Hamilton was the most talented HS baseball player I have ever seen play. (Period) Hands down! At 6'4 and 210 lbs he ran a 6.6 60 - Threw 94 from the Left side from the hill - Could run it down in the outfield like a deer - And had an absolute gun from the outfield - I saw him throw a baseball from the fence at the Greensboro Bats stadium in the NC State Games on a head high line to second base. Hamilton was such a good hitter that they never considered putting this LHP that threw mid 90's on the bump at the pro level. He could flat out hit. Power for days to all fields and hit for average as well. The guy was an absolute man at 17 years old. Hamilton has some problems or has and that is an understatement. I hope he has it together for his sake and his families. But this guy was blessed with the total package and was the most gifted player I have ever seen.[/color]

[color="#000080"]Coach May -

Agree 100% with your description of Josh. The only thing I will add is that I saw him light up the gun at 97mph in a game his senior year. Only about 30 scouts in attendance at that game. He was a freak!!![/color]

[color="#000080"]Another thing that some people dont know about him. Before he left for pro ball and had his troubles everything about this kid was all american. He was the most polite and respectfull kid you would want to meet. I remember the scouts talking about how after he pitched he would sit out the rest of the game. During this time he would shag all the foul balls because the other guys on the bench always had to do it. I just wanted people to know that he was a great kid in HS that just got caught up in some bad things when we went away from home. I really hope Josh does well and wish him the best.[/color]

[i]Coach May[/i]

[color="#000080"]I saw Josh in HS and at the State Games when he was at Athens Drive HS. The reason he was the overall #1 pick is because he was 6'4 210 ran a 6.6 60 threw from the left side in the 90's and could flat out mash. He is the best HS player I have ever seen. You dont get to be the #1 overall pick in the draft for nothing. His problems started when he was envolved in an auto accident and was put on pain killers for a back injury. While out of action he and in severe pain he turned to illegal drugs. No excuse but that is the deal. I hope he makes it all the way back and has his act cleaned up. I have seen alot of talented players but he was the most physically gifted that I have ever seen in HS.[/color]

[Lawman]

[i]Redbird5's reply[/i]

[color="#000080"]You are obviously entitled to your opinion.

Upton ran a 6.2 60 and hit 94 off the mound although he never even pitched in HS with a 6'2" 190 frame. He was (and still is) a 5 tool SS in HS.[/color]

[Go Tory Go!]

Hamilton rated better than Baldelli and Crawford in CF while with the D-Rays. Maybe Hamilton is karma's way of repaying us for Kearns and Dunn's unmet potential. I'd like to think so anyway, until he doesn't make the team and is reclaimed by the Rays.

[JBandJoeyV]

Hamilton is 3/4 today with two doubles...kid looks like a stud so far in spring training

[Guest BengalBacker]

This guy could be the story of the year in baseball. Way too early to tell, but it sounds like he's going to get a ton of playing time for a while.


[quote]Hamilton all smiles as Reds give him a big chance
Manager Narron says slugger will get tons of playing time this month.

By Hal McCoy

Staff Writer

Saturday, March 03, 2007

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Josh Hamilton Plan is firmly implemented, to the delight of both Hamilton and Cincinnati Reds manager Jerry Narron.

The plan is for Hamilton to get as many spring training at-bats as possible — until his swing clicks in or blisters make it impossible for him to hold a bat.

"I don't care if Josh goes 0-for-50 to start the spring, he is going to be in there getting his at-bats," Narron said before Thursday's exhibition opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Hamilton took care of that quickly with a single in his second at-bat and a mammoth home run in his third at-bat, "And he hit the ball hard in his first at-bat and could have had three hits," Narron said.

Hamilton was the designated hitter Friday night against the Minnesota Twins, "Batting second to get him as many at-bats as possible, and he'll be in the game right to the end," Narron said.

People still were talking Friday about Hamilton's Thursday home run, which cleared a 30-foot high batter's-eye wall above the center-field fence. It was written that it was the farthest ball Hamilton ever hit, but he disputed that Friday with a smile.

"I hit one when I was at Bakersfield (2002) that was actually measured at 549 feet," he said. "There was a dirt canal behind the ballpark, and it rained a couple days before so it was still kind of wet. They found it stuck in there and marked it off. It was pretty cool."

Hamilton, out of baseball for 3½ years with injuries and a suspension from Major League Baseball for drug and alcohol abuse, was on Cloud 18 (double Cloud 9) after Thursday's game.

"I was extremely happy," he said. "You always want to hit one, but it was so much sweeter because it has been 4½ to 5 years since I hit one. I wanted to smile coming around second base so bad, then I heard (wife) Katie and the kids screaming, so I couldn't help smiling as I crossed home plate."[/quote]

[number85]

Hamilton has 2 more hits today. This dude is really starting to impress me.

[WD40]

If this is the true Josh Hamilton, and he won't slip into his drug addicted ways, I would trade Junior for whatever we could get for him in a heartbeat. Never before had I suggested trading Junior, but if we could just simply unload his contract to free the team up for a trade mid-season, it could mean the difference between being an also-ran and winning the pennant.

I haven't been this excited about the Reds since mid-'99 season. Barring major injuries or any runs of bad luck, this team should be able to take a wild card spot for sure.

[Guest A-Men-HouseofPain]

[quote name='WD40' post='450538' date='Mar 5 2007, 12:49 AM']If this is the true Josh Hamilton, and he won't slip into his drug addicted ways, I would trade Junior for whatever we could get for him in a heartbeat. Never before had I suggested trading Junior, but if we could just simply unload his contract to free the team up for a trade mid-season, it could mean the difference between being an also-ran and winning the pennant.

I haven't been this excited about the Reds since mid-'99 season. Barring major injuries or any runs of bad luck, this team should be able to take a wild card spot for sure.[/quote]
trading milton would be easier. some team will find him as a servicable back end SP and he is in the last year of his contract. we would be able to free up cash for a trade if we moved him and we should be able to this year. And with Livingston and Bailey waiting in AAA and Belisle and Saarloos fighting for # 5 i think we could take the loss at SP.

[WD40]

Milton may or may not be easier to trade, or more valuable, but my point was that Hamilton, playing like he is, makes Junior expendable, thus freeing up boatloads of cash if the right team takes him and his large contract.

[Guest A-Men-HouseofPain]

[quote name='WD40' post='450934' date='Mar 5 2007, 04:03 PM']Milton may or may not be easier to trade, or more valuable, but my point was that Hamilton, playing like he is, makes Junior expendable, thus freeing up boatloads of cash if the right team takes him and his large contract.[/quote]
we only have 2 OFs as is in Dunn and Griffey. we NEED a 3rd.

[Go Tory Go!]

[quote name='A-Men-HouseofPain' post='450937' date='Mar 5 2007, 04:07 PM']we only have 2 OFs as is in Dunn and Griffey. we NEED a 3rd.[/quote]

Are you writing off Deno?

[WD40]

[quote name='A-Men-HouseofPain' post='450937' date='Mar 5 2007, 04:07 PM']we only have 2 OFs as is in Dunn and Griffey. we NEED a 3rd.[/quote]


Without Griffey, we would have Dunn in left, Hamilton in center and Freel in right. Backed up by Crosby, Conine, Denorfia and Wise. Barring any major injuries, that is enough outfield help to get through the year.

[Guest A-Men-HouseofPain]

[quote name='Go Tory Go!' post='451019' date='Mar 5 2007, 05:11 PM']Are you writing off Deno?[/quote]
he is a # 4 OF at best.


[quote name='WD40' post='451137' date='Mar 5 2007, 07:56 PM']Without Griffey, we would have Dunn in left, Hamilton in center and Freel in right. Backed up by Crosby, Conine, Denorfia and Wise. Barring any major injuries, that is enough outfield help to get through the year.[/quote]
not to win anything, unless hamilton does a great job.

[WD40]

[quote name='A-Men-HouseofPain' post='451155' date='Mar 5 2007, 08:14 PM']he is a # 4 OF at best.
not to win anything, unless hamilton does a great job.[/quote]


We need a "we've come full circle" smiley. that was my whole point in my first post. If this is the real Josh Hamilton, Junior in expendable, freeing up cash to trade for a big time pitcher or sign one in the off-season.

[Guest A-Men-HouseofPain]

[quote name='WD40' post='451201' date='Mar 5 2007, 09:10 PM']We need a "we've come full circle" smiley. that was my whole point in my first post. If this is the real Josh Hamilton, Junior in expendable, freeing up cash to trade for a big time pitcher or sign one in the off-season.[/quote]
and my point is that if hamilton turns out great we only have 3 MLB worthy starting OFs. so by trading griffey we would be back to 2 OFs again.

[WD40]

[quote name='A-Men-HouseofPain' post='451222' date='Mar 5 2007, 09:39 PM']and my point is that if hamilton turns out great we only have 3 MLB worthy starting OFs. so by trading griffey we would be back to 2 OFs again.[/quote]


What do you consider MLB worthy? Past or certain future all stars/superstars? Freel is definitely an MLB worthy outfielder. Crosby, Conine, Denorfia nad Wise are definitely worthy and capable of filling the roles that they would be asked to fill: bench guys needed to give the three starters periodic rest throughout the year.

[Go Tory Go!]

[quote name='WD40' post='451308' date='Mar 6 2007, 12:08 AM']What do you consider MLB worthy? Past or certain future all stars/superstars? Freel is definitely an MLB worthy outfielder. Crosby, Conine, Denorfia nad Wise are definitely worthy and capable of filling the roles that they would be asked to fill: bench guys needed to give the three starters periodic rest throughout the year.[/quote]

I wouldn't mind a platoon-type situation for RF if there is no run-away winner of the job, a la 1999 with Michael Tucker, Jeffrey Hammonds, and Dmeathook Young.

I'm not prepared to count on Freel as an everyday player at any position. When he had a regular starting job last year, he slumped noticeably; perhaps he just plays too hard.

[quote]We need a "we've come full circle" smiley. that was my whole point in my first post. If this is the real Josh Hamilton, Junior in expendable, freeing up cash to trade for a big time pitcher or sign one in the off-season.[/quote]

I wouldn't be so sure of this. Based on the going rate for pitchers these days, Griffey's salary can afford a mediocre (at best) starter. Such a signing would do us no good since it would just provide another mediocre or inconsistent pitcher to compete with the likes of Milton, Lohse, Saarloos, Belisle, et alia for one of the 3 up-for-grabs rotation spots. (This fact pleases me greatly - even though we don't have 5 world-beaters, this means there are no glaring holes in our rotation, like previous years.)

However, I do see how freeing up an extra $9-12 mil or so (or whatever Griff's contract is) could pave the way for a top-shelf starter if accompanied by a little extra dough from Sir Bob Castellini.

[Guest A-Men-HouseofPain]

[quote name='WD40' post='451308' date='Mar 6 2007, 12:08 AM']What do you consider MLB worthy? Past or certain future all stars/superstars? Freel is definitely an MLB worthy outfielder. Crosby, Conine, Denorfia nad Wise are definitely worthy and capable of filling the roles that they would be asked to fill: bench guys needed to give the three starters periodic rest throughout the year.[/quote]
Freel cant play everyday and goes in slumps like a mother fucker.


Crosby is TRASH has he ever hit above like 234? he blows. Conine is good but VERY short term. Id play Conine 140 games this year if i was the manager because he can still hit, but this year is probably his last year. Denorfia backup at best. Wise never reached his potential backup at best.


I dont care for griffey but he aint goin nowhere, he sells tickets to the morons that still think he is the griffey from seattle. Milton leaving would be possible, realistic and probably attempted.

[The Entertainer]

[quote][size=3][b]Hamilton's story growing sweeter[/b][/size]
Recovering addict not taking his days for granted


SARASOTA, Fla. - He was a high school kid again. This is what Josh Hamilton thought the other night, as he and his wife stopped at a Dairy Queen just outside Fort Myers, on the way home from a Reds spring game against the Minnesota Twins. Hamilton walked in wearing his uniform, shirttail hanging out, like some oversized 12-year-old asking for extra sprinkles.

Some of us don't enjoy our days, or do much but endure them. Josh Hamilton knows better. A good thing about a terrible addiction, if you survive it, is you don't take days for granted. After the ice cream, the Hamiltons drove the two-plus hours home. Josh Hamilton took off his Reds uniform, Number 33, and just stared at it. "I was just happy to be in it, happy to have (baseball) be part of my life again,'' he said.

His story could end any day. Or it could bloom. That's how it is with recovering addicts. All anyone knows for sure is Hamilton was better Monday than the day before. He hopes to be better today than yesterday. Isn't that how it's supposed to work?

If this is his last chance at a baseball career, he isn't getting cheated. He's getting his cuts. A week in early March means nothing, usually. Unless you haven't played the game for most of four years, and you've got nine hits in your first 16 at-bats. Then it means everything.

Hamilton has looked better than anyone believed he would. He has hit line drives, he has driven balls deep to the opposite field. He has displayed what his mentor, Johnny Narron, calls "plate discipline.'' Hamilton, out four years, has not chased bad pitches or swung wildly. He hasn't been anxious. He has let the game come to him.

Hamilton has been embraced by teammates and appreciates the clubhouse cocoon, where he knows he won't have to fight his demons alone. He is playing with a calm he can't explain.

"It's weird,'' he said. "I should be more anxious. But I'm trusting my hands, I have my weight distributed evenly. I'm seeing the ball well. The baseball instincts have come back very quickly.''

Johnny Narron, brother of Reds manager Jerry, has something to do with that. His official title is video administrative coach. Unofficially, he's Hamilton's shadow. "Whatever he needs, on and off the field,'' Johnny Narron said.

Narron has known Hamilton almost 20 years, since Hamilton and Johnny's son played kids baseball together. Johnny advised Hamilton's parents on agents when Josh was the first overall pick in the Major League draft. He knows Hamilton as well as anyone outside his immediate family, and he might be the only person who won't be surprised if Hamilton's remarkable story ends in success in Cincinnati.

"If anybody can do it, he can,'' said Narron, who said when Hamilton was drafted out of high school, scouts likened his skills to Mickey Mantle's and Bo Jackson's.

It's a very good story. And a very long road. Hitting .560 in March is one thing. Hitting major league pitching night after night is something else. Hitting it while dealing with an addiction, and a media and public fascinated with his story, could be overwhelming. Wait until the bleacher geniuses in Wrigley Field see No. 33 playing the outfield.

And that's before you remember he has missed four years and has exactly 87 at-bats above Class A.

But that is far into the future. Hamilton is learning to think only about today. "I'm getting it back, a little more every day. The confidence to be able to hit in game situations. The baserunning. The timing at the plate.''

Johnny Narron's buzzword for Hamilton is "relax.'' If Hamilton feels less than loose, he recites a Bible verse: "Humble yourself before God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.''

"Do you think you're an amazing story?'' I asked.

"I think I'm a story that can help a lot of people. I am amazed that God allowed me to come back after four years and still be able to do the things I'm doing,'' he said.[/quote]



[url="http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070306/COL03/703060321"]Enquirer.com[/url]

[The Entertainer]

[quote name='A-Men-HouseofPain' post='451332' date='Mar 6 2007, 03:09 AM']Freel cant play everyday and goes in slumps like a mother fucker.
Crosby is TRASH has he ever hit above like 234? he blows. Conine is good but VERY short term. Id play Conine 140 games this year if i was the manager because he can still hit, but this year is probably his last year. Denorfia backup at best. Wise never reached his potential backup at best.
I dont care for griffey but he aint goin nowhere, he sells tickets to the morons that still think he is the griffey from seattle. Milton leaving would be possible, realistic and probably attempted.[/quote]

I have to agree with AMOH on ths one. Only Conine has proven himself as a starter and he is 40; he might be able to start, but I can't see him playing everyday at his age. Freel cannot play every day, and until Denorfia can show that he belongs in the Show, he won't be starting anytime soon. Crosby is a joke. Wise still has lots to prove. But I do like Denorfia's and Wise's bats coming off of the bench. Here's hoping that Hamilton is the starter in CF.

[sm00th_kw]

Denorfia hit .283 last year with a .356 OBP in 49 games and 106 AB's...he's quick and plays a good outfield. Now he's not great by any means, but those are pretty good numbers at the MLB level.

Does he really need to go back down and hit in the .340's AGAIN in the minors, on top of what he's already proven in the Majors?