WRALSportsFan
Former No. 1 Pick Gets Another Chance at Bat
Mar 7, 2007
SARASOTA, Fla. — Almost eight years after he was on top of the world as the top pick in the Major League Baseball draft, Josh Hamilton is slowly crawling back uphill from the depths of a drug addiction and suspension.
Hamilton, 25, was the No. 1 selection of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1999. He was a star outfielder at Athens Drive High School in Raleigh and was awarded a record $3.9 million signing bonus.
But after hurting his arm in a 2002 minor league game, he slowly fell into a world of drugs and was kicked out of professional baseball two years later.
Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig allowed Hamilton to begin practicing again last summer after drug tests administered several times a week showed the former standout player had been clean for months.
Hamilton was picked up by the Cincinnati Reds last December in the annual Rule 5 draft, which allows teams to take experienced players from the farm systems of other teams. Any player selected must stay on the new team's 25-man Major League roster for the entire year or be sent back to the original team.
For Hamilton, the move offers him a second chance, and he is trying to capitalize by showing off what remains of his skills during spring training. In Cincinnati's first five spring games, he batted .563, with a pair of doubles and a long home run.
He laughs as he relates to a scene from the movie "The Natural," in which Robert Redford returns to baseball after a long absence.
"He says, 'I've been doing other things, but my heart has always been here,'" he said while sitting in the Reds spring training stadium in Sarasota. "That's me."
Hamilton is up front about his cocaine addiction, which started five years ago at a Tampa Bay spring training -- about five miles from Sarasota. He credits his recovery to his religion and said he wants to get into Christian ministry after his playing days are over.
"God comes first, then sobriety, family and then baseball is in there," he said.
For now, he is focused on sticking with the Reds after spring training and getting back to the game he loves.
"A couple of articles (written when I was drafted) said I was a six-tool player, the sixth tool being character," he said. "I might be back to that six-tool player."
Copyright 2012 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Most Recent Comments
I blame his parents too. They babied him to much and even moved to Florida with him. That is crazy! He has had more chances than most people get and still continued to blow them. I hope he kicked his drug habit for good, so that he does not hurt hiomself or others.
Barry Bonds takes steriods (possibly) and he get blastedevery day by people for it.
Hamilton takes drugs, gets arrensted for assult, battery and damage to property and he is a freakin hero.
Good thing he is not a minortiy or he would be in jail or working in construction or something.
What a shame. A waste of talent. Let all that money go to his head. Pardon me....it went thru his nose.
citizen-sounds to me like your the loser. jealous? people make mistakes. i think anytime an 18 year old gets 4 million dollars you wouldn't always make the right decisions. think about it....my .02
How can you not hope the best for someone who is trying to overcome hardships such as addiction. Sure, he made bad decisions, but I think the true measure of a person is not whether they make mistakes, but whether they pick themselves up and keep trying to do the right thing.
Amen, citizen---he is a loser!!
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