Life is More than Dingers and Taters

Last week the American League All Stars beat the National League All Stars in an epic, fifteen inning marathon All Star game. But that wasn’t the only epic event of the All Star week; played at historic Yankee Stadium in the last year of its existence. In the Home Run Derby the previous day a remarkable thing happened. Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers slugged an astounding 28 home runs in the first round of the derby – more than all the other competitors combined!

Josh Hamilton? Who is this guy? And where did he come from. Hamilton is a former Number One ‘can’t miss’ prospect who fell into serious and nearly fatal drug addiction which cost him his career, his family, and everything he valued in life. But about three years ago, his life was arrested by the only one who could save him – Jesus Christ. Over the next two years, Josh Hamilton began a long road back to health, to his family, and eventually to the game of baseball. Against all odds, he became a 26 year old Cincinnati Reds rookie last year and rediscovered both the love of the game and the skill that had been lost to drugs. After a respectable rookie year he was traded to the Texas Rangers during the offseason. All he has done with Texas is lead the Major Leagues in RBI’s so far this season (98 in 100 games!) and play in the All Star Game.

In July 2007 ESPN.com let Josh Hamilton tell his story when he was still basking in the initial joy of baseball redemption. Considering all that has happened since that time, it is an even more remarkable story today. It’s worth it to read the entire piece, but here are some excerpts.

I have a mission now. My mission is to be the ray of hope, the guy who stands out there on that beautiful field and owns up to his mistakes and lets people know it's never completely hopeless, no matter how bad it seems at the time. I have a platform and a message, and now I go to bed at night, sober and happy, praying I can be a good messenger.

I get a lot of abuse in visiting cities, but it only bothers me when people are vulgar around kids. The rest I can handle. Some of it is even funny. In St. Louis, I was standing in right field 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.

But there is one story that sticks with me, so much so that I think of it every day. I was driving out of the players' parking lot at Great American Ball Park after a game in May, with Katie and our two girls. There's always a group of fans standing at the curb, hoping to get autographs, and I stop to sign as many as I can.

And on this particular night, a little boy of about 9 or 10, wearing a Reds cap, handed me a pen and something to sign. Nothing unusual there, but as I was writing the boy said, "Josh, you're my savior."

This stopped me. I looked at him and said, "Well, thank you. Do you know who my savior is?"

He thought for a minute. I could see the gears turning. Finally, he smiled and blurted out, "Jesus Christ.” He said it like he'd just come up with the answer to a test. "That's exactly right," I said.

You see, I may not know how I got here from there, but every day I get a better understanding of why.

The article is aptly titled “I’m Proof that Hope is Never Lost.” Aren’t we all! If you’d like to read the whole thing, go here.