Baseball Blog 05-31-15 Josh

[Just a little sidebar, the El Paso Chihuahuas were on national TV for ASN’s inaugural Minor League Showcase game right after the Rangers’ game described here.  Dad came over and watched the game with me.  While the dogs were trounced by the Iowa Cubs, the hosts have been mentioning that El Paso visit all season.  They were as impressed as I was by the stadium.]

I was actually dancing Sunday evening.  It was a little “happy” dance, a jig.  Josh Hamilton had just doubled in the winning run in the bottom of the 9^th with two outs.  I was listening to the game on the radio and would have to wait for a local sports report that night to see Prince Fielder charging all the way from first to belly-flop across home plate to win the game.  The Rangers beat the Red Sox 4-3.

From here, I have to rewind to explain the absolute improbability of my outburst.  Let’s remember how Josh played his way off the Rangers.  He virtually single-handedly knocked his team out of the playoffs in his final year with them.  Josh didn’t even care, since he knew he’d be getting a big free agent contract in the off season.  Then he goes to the Rangers’ division rival, the Angels and takes a pot shot at Rangers fans on the way out the door.  Bridges burned.

Almost predictably, Josh didn’t live up to his huge contract.  It wasn’t like anything other than a World Series championship with him being named MVP would have made it worth it, but what the Angels got was a whole lot less.  He was mostly injured, struck out a lot when healthy, and proceeded to alienate himself from the rest of the team.

What happened next was not as predictable; Josh Hamilton giving the Angels a reason to get rid of him on a silver platter.  After announcing he was going to have surgery that would coincidentally force him to miss Spring Training (no, no, don’t bother having that procedure earlier in the off season, so you could have still worked out with the rest of your team.)  Josh followed that up by “self-reporting” his own relapse using drugs.  He couldn’t have told the team more forcefully that he wanted out.

I hate the Angels (okay, mostly Albert Pujols, the team simply being the vehicle of my hatred for him), but unlike the rest of the sports media, I have more empathy for them than Josh in what happened next; the Angels essentially paying another team to take him off their hands.  You see, his massive contract is all guaranteed money.  Josh could just about do whatever he wanted and still get paid.  As much as I want to see the Angels screwed, this just doesn’t seem right.

Josh Hamilton is clearly a troubled soul and a tragic hero at best.  He does need help, constant and ongoing.  You can feel sorry for him in his personal life as he’s undergoing a divorce.  You can even feel sorry for him as the divorce will cost him half of his massive contract.  However, his addiction problem was self-inflicted.  He didn’t volunteer to be an addict, did volunteer to do the drugs.  Given the support system surrounding him, there was no excuse for a relapse.  Of course, since his money is guaranteed, why not deliberately violate league drug policy?  Why not self-report if you know its going to show up on your next league drug test?  You’re going to get paid anyway.

Arte Moreno, owner of the Angels, has been somehow portrayed as the villain in this affair.  All he did was overpay Josh, watch him fail, and then pay him to leave.  Since Moreno didn’t stand by the guy who was doing everything he could to leave (and still get paid), he was a cold, heartless bastard.  One could legitimately ask if he would have treated Albert the same way if Al were exposed for, say, massive steroid use.  I think I can assure you that Arte booted Josh from the team with likely the full consent of his teammates, if not their urging.

The interesting twist was Hamilton wanting to go back to the Rangers.  He had already pissed off everyone in Texas.  Yet even with reportedly better offers from a couple of National League West teams (I wonder who?), Josh took a bit of a pay cut to come back.  Pretty much only the owner was the same from when he was there.  If Wash was still there as the manager it’d make more sense.  Since the Rangers weren’t going anywhere at the time and the Angels were essentially paying them to take him, why not?

So Josh joins a sub 500 Ranger team, but one that had just won a couple of close games versus the Red Sox in Boston and then dropped a bomb on the Yankees, sweeping them in the Bronx.  The most remarkable thing Josh did when he joined the team in Cleveland was that, in spite of the attention, he did not disrupt the team’s chemistry, as they took the series against the Indians.  If he didn’t make much of a contribution, at least he didn’t hurt them.

Josh’s arrival in Arlington was met by cheers and supporting signs by the fans.  Whatever he deserved, Josh got more than he probably expected.  In turn, he gave Rangers fans what they wanted in his first game back with the team, a pair of home runs and a Ranger victory.  All this lead to that sweet, golden moment of Josh driving in the winning run on Sunday afternoon.  How unlikely was it that Hamilton could rejoin a team playing well and contribute, and much less have me rooting for him? 

Josh is already injured again from that hit for a month, along with Adrian Beltre from another incident during the game (talk about a costly victory).  Meanwhile, rookie phenom, Joey Gallo, has been called up and all he did in his debut was hit a home run and drive in four runs.  For all the statistics and projections, who can predict this game of baseball?     

[Update: Josh has been oft injured and sat out a bunch of games.  His stats have not been impressive.  However, the late game heroics described here were not a fluke.  Josh has had about five game-winning hits since.  Who knows how this season turns out, but if Josh can keep clutch hitting, the Rangers have a chance and even Josh Hamilton can redeem himself in Texas.]