WRAL Sports Fan

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Raleigh's Hamilton Returns To Major League Baseball

Nov 10, 2006

RALEIGH, N.C. — When it comes to life's highs and lows, Raleigh's Josh Hamilton has lived at both ends of the spectrum.

The former Athens Drive High School baseball star has known the joy of being the first-round Major League Baseball draft pick by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays; he has known the pain of injury and also the anguish of drug addiction.

Now, after missing four years of baseball because of substance abuse, Hamilton, 25, has been given another chance with Class A

Hudson Valley Renegades

in upstate New York with the MLB lifting his two-year suspension for violating a drug policy.

"I get chills. I get excited, you know," the former All-American said. "That's the goal -- to get back, to live my life and live my life as a baseball player and to introduce my family to baseball because they've never really been around it before."

In fact, Hamilton's wife, Katie, has never even seen him play baseball. But she has seen him struggle through four years of drug abuse, eight stints in rehab and multiple suicide attempts.

"The first year of our marriage, I put her through some things she should have never gone through," Hamilton said. "She's been there and stuck it out, and you can't ask for any more support than that."

Now healthy, Hamilton is eight months sober and takes three drug tests each day -- quite the change from seven years ago when he was an 18-year-old rookie phenom who had signed a nearly $4 million signing bonus.

"You know, I'm not in any rush this time. I'm just going to kind of soak it in and not worry about so much getting to the Major League," he said. "Over the last eight months, I've been just as happy without money -- with my family -- than I've ever had."

Reporter:

Jason Jennings

• Web Editor: Kelly Gardner