Josh Hamilton: A Lesson in Redemption

I heard that from a man in the infield seats one time while attending a game in one cold April evening. The Cincinnati Reds were in the middle of being routed by the Milwaukee Brewers. Hamilton, who did not start the game, was the big bat on the bench, and the rudeness of the heckler almost ruined his at-bat.

Within seconds of the last taunt, Hamilton hit a towering drive into right field, sending the ball into the center field stands, just missing the riverboat shaped party deck, his third career home run.

His first two came a week before in Arizona. A rather forgettable third series of the season for the Reds had one big point on it. Chase Field is where Hamilton hit his first two MLB homers. The last time he homered in a game that mattered was a long time before... 2004 to be exact... in the Tampa Bay minor league system.

In a grand debut season, Cincinnati Reds outfielder Josh Hamilton has a lot to think about. It has not been the best road to major league stardom for the soon to be 26 year old. He has been through a lot, and that lot has helped him become not only a great ballplayer, but a great man as well.

Hamilton was born on May 21, 1981 in Raliegh, North Carolina. Eighteen years later he was the star of just about every position on the Athens Drive High School baseball team. He could hit, he could throw, he could pitch, he could field. In short, he was your average five tool player.

On June 1, 1999, he was given the honor of being the first pick overall in baseball's Amateur Draft by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. At the time, the Devil Rays were in the middle of just their 2^nd season in existence, and had earned the #1 pick by having the 2^nd worst record in baseball in 1998 behind the Florida Marlins' disastrous World Series title defense. The Devil Rays were looking to trump them, and thought so highly of Hamilton that he gave him a $3 million signing bonus, and immediately sent him to Princeton, WV, their major rookie team, then to Hudson Valley (Class-A). 2000 continued his rise, with stints with the Rays' Class-A Charleston, WV, where he won the South Atlantic League MVP award, and then a promotion to AA Orlando.

Then, the trouble began.

In 2002, he was enjoying yet another stellar minor-league season in Bakersfield, California. Fifty-six games into the season, he messed his arm up, and surgeries ended his season.

He returned to North Carolina and resumed a fledgling relationship with a single mother named Katie, and began caring for her daughter, doing everything for Mom and baby Julia. All this was happening while he was developing a very serious substance problem that began with binge drinking and then with binge cocaine.

Katie caught on to his problems and broke up with him. She didn't speak to him again until the start of his redemption-which began when his drug problem cost him an indefinite Major League suspension at the start of 2004. Josh took a job for Katie's father during the suspension. When he first asked him about the job, Katie ran into him, and soon after they began dating again. Katie had one major stipulation in the dating: he had to stay sober, no drugs, no alcohol, period. Josh agreed, and four months into their 2^nd go-around, Josh married her. He proposed to her by using the board game "Sorry!" to ask for her hand.

A while into the marriage, to the shock of many, Josh had a relapse. He was arrested in Florida for smashing a car window at his birthday party. It continued after his biological daughter, Sierra, was born, when he went on a run for her prescriptions and ended up blowing the money on a bar tab. Six weeks of hell later, Katie kicked Josh out of their house.

In October 2005, Josh made the decision that saved his life. He stopped using anything, for good. He was now devoted to getting his career back on track. After a few outings to rebuild their marriage, Josh decided to go to Florida and train at a rehab-style baseball academy.

After nearly a year of training and sober living, including the reunion with his wife and daughters, MLB reinstated him for minor league games. He then went off to Hudson Valley, even though Tampa Bay released him later on after 15 lackadaisical games for them. He was picked up by the Chicago Cubs, but then they got rid of him via a Rule 5 pick taken by the Cincinnati Reds. A Rule-5 player is bought for $50,000, and must remain on the main roster for an entire season, or he is sold back to the original team for $25,000.

Hamilton had a very strong spring training in 2007 for Cincinnati, commuting between his work in Sarasota, and his wife and kids back home in South Florida. His efforts earned him job security, and a jersey that reads Cincinnati Reds on it.

Opening Day was April 2 against the team that gave him up in the Rule 5 Draft. Hamilton was coming up against the Cubs while the Reds were in the middle of their first win. Even though he flew to center field, he received a very long ovation from the Great American Ballpark faithful.

A week later, the night after Cincinnati dropped their first road game of the year in Arizona, Reds manager Jerry Narron gave him his first start in center-field in an effort to give starter Ryan Freel the night off. With the Reds down 3-1 in the 3^rd inning, a runner on first, and Edgar Gonzalez on the hill for the Diamondbacks, Josh ripped the first pitch he saw into the right field seats... career his #1, career home run #1, career bases #1-4. Right before Brandon Phillips launched a 2^nd straight home run, the Reds dugout pretended not to notice Hamilton's historic feat. The mood changed quickly when Ken Griffey, Jr. led the rush to congratulate him.

The next night, Hamilton saved the day with the go-ahead home run off of D-Backs hurler Brandon Medders. A night after his first everything in the majors, he had another first: first experience as a hero.

Today, nothing has changed. Now an everyday starter in the Reds outfield, Josh Hamilton is the benchmark for what happens when you throw out the bad and take in the good, and keep the good. He once told the Cincinnati Enquirer that he had his family to thank for his sobriety.

A career that began with him being the envy of every single team that plays organized baseball, that was nearly wrecked by a brush with the liquid form of death, to once again being the envy of every single team that plays organized baseball, Joshua Holt Hamilton finally has his redemption. And, should it continue, it will translate into a very strong, albeit abbreviated, baseball legacy.