Damn You, Josh Hamilton

One of the things I'm looking forward to about getting older is being able to wax poetically about athletes that I had the pleasure of watching as a younger man.  Not yet 30 years old, I already find myself talking nostalgically about the good ole' days of the 1990s, when I watched Larry Johnson and Allan Houston take the Knicks to the NBA Finals and Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz led the NL Cy Young voting year after year.  When I'm a little older, I'll be able to ramble on about the guys I love watching today - Chipper Jones and Eli Manning, to name a couple - and argue with conviction that they were better anything the 2030s or 2040s has to offer.  I envy the older generations that can do that today, and I can't wait to do it myself in the future.

When I'm old and rambling on about the greatest athletes I ever had the pleasure of watching, Josh Hamilton's not going to make my list.  And to me, that's a damn shame.  As we've known for some time now, Josh Hamilton is one of the greatest baseball talents to come along in years - this week's four homer game against Baltimore simply reinforces something we've known since the Texas outfielder kicked his drug habit and stormed back to the major leagues a few seasons ago.  The 2010 AL MVP is a phenomenal all around hitter, a solid outfielder and a unique personality - a dynamic mix of attributes that should have resulted in a Hall of Fame debate post instead of the one I feel compelled to write today.

For those of you not familiar with Hamilton's sordid past, you can read all about it on Wikipedia.  Clearly, Josh Hamilton has lived a life filled with many demons, and has battled his addictions for years.  As recently as this year, Hamilton suffered an alcohol relapse, and will never be fully cured of these diseases that have plagued him for over a decade.  And while no one has been more adversely affected by Hamilton's drug and alcohol abuse than himself and his family, Hamilton's problems have also taken something away from baseball fans like us.  While it may be trivial compared to all that he has suffered, I feel like Hamilton has robbed us all of the opportunity to watch one of the greatest talents of our generation give his career a real chance.  While this week's four homeruns were impressive (see the video below), for me they served as yet another cruel reminder of what could have been.

Hamilton isn't the first athlete to damage his career by making bad life choices, and I know he won't be the last.  But since he's retuned to baseball and led the Rangers to back-to-back American League titles, I've enjoyed watching him so much that I'm angry every time I think about all the years he missed because of his addictions.  I realize it's not his fault - his addictions are part of a disease that he can't fully control - but that doesn't change the fact that he threw so much of his career away.  I'm not naive enough to expect much from professional athletes - I'm not asking them all to be role models or heroes against their will.  All I ask is that they make the most of their God-given talents, get out on the field or court and dazzle fans with their natural abilities.  Even against this extremely low bar, Josh Hamilton has come up way short.  While I'm glad he's back and better than ever, I will never remember him the way I remember Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas or Pedro Martinez.  Damn you, Josh Hamilton.