All of Josh Hamilton’s life, baseball has been his passion. In high school, Hamilton was named the country’s No. 1 amateur player of the year by USA Baseball. In 2010 he was the American League’s “Most Valuable Player.” He loves to smash homeruns. One of his Texas Ranger teammates has said, “Josh Hamilton is the best baseball player to ever walk the planet.”
But it almost didn’t happen.
Two years after he began his professional career, he started hanging around a tattoo parlor and was influenced to turn to booze and crack cocaine. The team suspended him — repeatedly. For three years Josh did not play baseball at all. He made several attempts at rehab but always relapsed.
Finally his grandmother confronted him and he made a commitment to stay clean. He found he was able to do this through Jesus Christ. When asked about it, Hamilton says simply: “It’s a God thing.” His team tries to support him by celebrating victories with ginger ale instead of champagne.
But he is never far from failing. In early 2009 a sports webpage posted photos of Hamilton shirtless in a bar in Tempe, Arizona, with several women. According to reports, witnesses saw Hamilton drinking, heard him asking where he could get cocaine, and heard him say he planned to go to a strip club later that evening.
Even before the incident became public knowledge, Josh told his wife, his team and the league the next day. When the photos surfaced he called a press conference and said:
“It was one those things that reinforce that I can’t have alcohol. I got away from the one thing that kept me on the straight and narrow and that was my relationship with the Lord. That should always come first. “Hopefully some good will come out of this. Since that night, I have not had another thought [about having a drink]. I know it’s something I shouldn’t do because it leads to other things.”
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Adapted from “Josh Hamilton” in Wikipedia.org, and “Josh Hamilton: Rescued by Faith,” by Ben Brown, BleacherReport, February 28, 2009, http://bleacherreport.com/articles/131756-faith-delivered-josh-hamilton-from-the-control-of-he roin-and-alcohol