There is a disarming simplicity about Josh Hamilton.
His North Carolina roots, perhaps. The earnestness in his voice.
Every fan of the Texas Rangers knows Hamilton’s story, its rise and its fall, and then its rise and fall again. Everyone knows about the home runs he hit and the catches he made crashing into walls.
Every Rangers fan knows about his first arrival in Texas. Everyone remembers the bitter day in 2012 he left.
In front of groups gathered to make peace with the Lord, Hamilton remains a compelling presence. His words, unvarnished and blunt, tell his tale of addiction and recovery.
He is easy to like, trust me. Yet, despite his simple tone, often impossible to understand.
Tonight, the Rangers will welcome Josh Hamilton home to Globe Life Park to be inducted into the team’s hall of fame. Fans filled with heart-soaring memories will stand and cheer. The rest will boo and exhort him to get off their lawn.
I get it. Hamilton, as in his personal life, was a player of towering highs and spiraling lows. His greatest triumphs were sometimes mitigated by his falls from grace.
I get it. Some of you are going to boo tonight, because he took the money and ran one December afternoon in 2012, and then two months later he said this wasn’t a “baseball town.”
He should have stuck to the script – better yet, the Bible verse. The evangelizing Josh could bring a room to its praying knees. The extemporaneous Hamilton, on the other hand, has always seemed to have a knack for straying off base.
At his introductory press conference in Anaheim, Calif., in December of 2012, he said that God had directed him to the Angels. Yet, in the same media gathering, Hamilton and his then-wife Katie both pointedly credited the five-year, $125-million offer that Angels owner Arte Moreno had given them.
“Looking back at it, I gave [the Rangers] everything I had for five years,” Josh said that day. “I’d be lying to you if I said it didn’t bother me a little bit that they didn’t put the press on.
“My wife explained it very elegantly,” Hamilton said, sliding the microphone to a smiling Katie.
She gushed, “My take on it was we were with them for five years. If you’re going to date somebody and that’s going to be your man or your woman, you make it official. Instead, they let us ‘date’ other teams. They let us give our hearts away.
“They should’ve put a ring on it.
“We feel real strongly that this is where God has moved us.”
Well, what was it, Mrs. Hamilton – God or the $125 million?
At spring training in Tempe, Ariz., two months later, Gina Miller of CBS 11 DFW sat down with Josh when, trying to explain, he uttered the words that echo still.
“It’s one of those things where Texas, especially Dallas, has always been a football town,” he told Miller. “They’re supportive, but they also got a little spoiled at the same time, pretty quickly.
“There are true baseball fans in Texas – but it’s not a true baseball town.”
There was, of course, a measure of truth in Hamilton’s assessment. Football and the Cowboys will always rule the roost in this state. But as usual, Hamilton’s unscripted feelings came across more like a flaming dumpster than a burning bush.
Rangers fans seemed to revel in Hamilton’s ensuing struggles with the Angels. In two seasons in Anaheim, he hit only 31 home runs and struck out 266 times in 240 games.
The Angels gave up on Hamilton and traded him back to the Rangers in 2015. Moreno’s team was still on the hook for $63 million on Hamilton’s contract.
Josh’s second tour with the Rangers never gained a comfortable foothold. Talk of a third knee surgery prompted the club to release him in 2017.
The sense of relief was palpable. Hamilton himself appeared worn down by his journey, particularly a contentious divorce from Katie and a custody battle over their four daughters.
His last appearance at Globe Life Park came Oct. 12, 2015 – Game 4 of the American League Division Series against Toronto.
Time, by now, should have healed whatever wounds were left by any Hamilton words or dropped fly balls. Or so one would think.
Hamilton’s tenure in a Texas uniform was all too brief to carve a niche in many of the franchise’s career statistical lists.
Except the memories list:
- The Home Run Derby performance at Yankee Stadium in 2008
- Four home runs in one game in 2012
- His dramatic, 10th-inning homer in Game Six that should have won the 2011 World Series
- And his 2010 season, as meaningful a great season as any Ranger has ever recorded.
This is the Josh Hamilton who’s being honored tonight – the Hamilton that carried the Rangers franchise to its greatest heights.
The one you cheered and likened to Mickey Mantle. The MVP and home run hero. The Sports Illustrated cover guy.
I get it, though. Some of you will boo tonight over the “baseball town” thing.
But I prefer to believe that Josh Hamilton has earned his peace with the baseball fans of Texas. His daughters – now aged 18, 13, 11 and 7 – deserve to hear the cheers for their father.
The Rangers Hall of Fame wouldn’t be complete without him.