On Feb. 3, 2012, reports surfaced that Texas Rangers MVP outfielder Josh Hamilton had suffered another relapse. Anytime a professional athlete is reported to have taken a major step back in his career, fans assume the player suffered an injury or his stats have taken a sudden dive. But this is not the case with Hamilton. This is no pulled quad or a home run drought, but a matter of life and death, a matter of drugs and alcohol.
There is something much deeper and much more important behind what meets the eye with Hamilton, who has won a Most Valuable Player award and is also a Home Run Derby champion. For any other player, those are lifetime milestones, but Hamilton knows that anything life gives him is a bonus.
Josh Hamilton’s up and down story began in 1999. All his life Hamilton was a baseball prodigy. When he was five, he played with eight-year-olds. When he was eight, he played with teenagers, and so forth. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays selected him as their first pick in the 1999 MLB draft, also handing the 18 year old a record $3.6 million dollar signing bonus. The Devil Rays and pretty much all of baseball assumed Hamilton was a sure thing for many years to come. Teenage Josh Hamilton was confident, strong and tough-minded.
Still just a kid, Hamilton lived with his parents at home and on the road. They quit their jobs to follow their son on his journey to the big leagues. This drew criticism from the public media, for obvious reasons. As a number one overall pick making millions of dollars, he was still maturing inside and out and preferred to stay close to his family as he did all his life back in Raleigh, North Carolina.
On the path to stardom, Hamilton was rated the top prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America. The rising star was flying through the Devil Ray’s minor league system. However, that February Hamilton and his parents were involved in an automobile accident. He suffered minor injuries but his mother returned home to Raleigh with his dad to receive proper medical treatment. At 20 years-old, Hamilton was on his own for the first time in his life.
Hamilton’s performance dipped dramatically in the following weeks. Speculation was that Hamilton could not survive in the world without constant guidance from his parents, but in reality Hamilton was dealing with nagging back pains from the accident, and he was put on the disabled list.
All his life, Hamilton played baseball. He was in love with the game, as all great players should be.
With an excess amount of cash and a lot of free time to fill, Hamilton started hanging around with a group of people that hung out at tattoo shops in Bradenton, Florida.
Hamilton pondered the idea of getting a tattoo, but knew his parents would not approve of such a decision. Teammate Carl Crawford talked him into just getting one tattoo. In a matter of weeks, the young player was covered in tattoos that featured tribal signs and images of the devil and Jesus.
Tampa Bay Devil Rays staff took notice of his new behavioral habits and suspected something was going on with their prized prospect. Management confronted Hamilton, who admitted to “trying drugs.” The Devil Rays immediately sent Hamilton to a rehabilitation clinic. The rehab staff expressed to an uneasy Hamilton that his actions may be a result from an inability to sever ties with his parents and live on his own. Angered, Hamilton stormed out of rehab and returned to baseball.
In 2004, Hamilton consulted Mike Chadwick, a businessman who fought and won a battle with a drug addiction in years before. Hamilton joined a support group with Chadwick’s daughter Katie with whom Josh coincidentally attended high school. He and Katie married that winter and Katie has since been Hamilton’s wife, best friend and biggest fan in his recovery process. Despite some setbacks, Hamilton declared himself sober and returned to baseball in 2006. Hamilton was claimed by the Cincinnati Reds and subsequently traded to the Texas Rangers for an elite pitching prospect.
The story continued in 2010 when Hamilton was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player. Hamilton has played a key part in guiding the Rangers to back to back World Series appearances.
Hamilton suffered unfortunate and public relapses in 2009 and 2012.
Senior Tommy Garber knows Hamilton has come a long way.
“Hamilton had a relapse over the offseason and admitted to his mistake,” Garber said. “In my opinion he has fully recovered and is completely focused for spring training and the season ahead.”
