MLB Josh Hamilton: Resurrecting the Dream

josh hamilton major league ball player it sounds both completely natural and utterly unbelievable right now there's nobody in the big leagues to the folks back home in raleigh who saw me play for the first time when i was six this was pretty destined josh hamilton major league ball player there was never any question in the minds of the scouts who watched me at athens drive high school or in the minds of my minor league teammates with the princeton devil race or the charleston river dogs overtook him but ask the people who populated my other life four years out of baseball battling drug addiction josh hamilton major league ball player there must be some mistake mlb network presents josh hamilton resurrecting the dream it was late 2008 and josh hamilton was back home in north carolina how are you good to see you good to see you too give me some baby he was there to sign copies of his autobiography which josh co wrote with tim kiln beyond belief is the story of one man's improbable journey to baseball stardom little brother little brother they always do it harder i don't know why give me something give me another one yeah there was a house beyond the center field fence at the high school out in the pine woods after i had been hitting for a few minutes a young dad walked down to the field with two sons they watched for a while and when i was finished he said to me i can always tell when you're hitting it just sounds different inside my house when your bat hits the ball the ball comes off his back with a different sound and it's just an amazing show to see sounds like a shotgun you know it sounds like somebody's shooting at a deer or something i've played with some guys that had some pop and when they hit the ball i mean it sounds a little bit different but when that guy hits the ball it's i've never heard anything like it we actually saw it first in spring training we saw just monumental home runs in batting practice something you got to kind of take a double take on at times that to really believe what you were seeing i mean i love when guys come out at the big league level and watch me take bat in practice man you go first i want to let you uh josh's booming bat first became legendary on the fields of raleigh where at the age of six it became obvious that he was a baseball prodigy i was playing little league and he threw so hard that the parents were getting worried that they were gonna you know he's gonna hurt one of their kids he was six seven-year-old at time and he was throwing the ball too hard for the other kids to catch and hitting the ball too hard everybody was complaining about him maybe hurting somebody in that league and wanted to move him up of course and at the time no one had ever done that daddy got a guy from the thor hill league to come up and actually watch josh and they ended up making a decision that they were going to pull them up and play with you know nine through 12 year old first time i ever saw josh hamilton he was playing on my son's basketball team and he was just so much stronger and faster than the rest of the kids and he immediately caught my eye if the fathers the parents that had seen josh before said you know if you think he's a good basketball player what do you see him play baseball it was amazing the difference between him and other kids at that point in time everybody in raleigh knew that josh was special for this boy wonder baseball was his life and no one supported him more than his parents who never missed a game you know they come home from work and you know they go in and change clothes and then we're off to practice growing up i didn't even have a chance to play baseball a lot so i made a promise that if my kids ever wanted to play sports that's what they would do and as big brothers are want to do jason took josh under his wing just no questions if i was there playing ball he was there with me he was hard on me but he always let me tag along always let me participate and that's what made me so much better because he never told me i couldn't do something he always encouraged me and always told me i could josh would come with his older brother to our practices and i'd get in and let him hit some you know and he was about 13 14 years old and i could tell then you know seeing that swing and the bad speed his mechanic that he was going to be something special as josh got into high school it was a parent that nobody's going to catch up to josh josh kept just going higher and higher and he looked like a man of bone boys even in high school when he was 14 the boys i had on my legion team was 18 and he could compete with josh asked me one time how could you ever be a major league baseball player if scouts didn't come watch you i said well if you're good enough they'll come and watch you you ain't got to worry about being seen they'll find you just when you go play do your best you can on the field and everything else take care of itself and that's pretty much what he did josh the five tools hit run hit for power play defense and throw josh was off the scale and all the more experienced scouts told me said josh is just off the scale in all these areas [Music] by his senior year of high school josh had already become a local legend often being asked to stop and sign autographs in the halls of athens drive high and then that chapter came to an end i was so glad when he graduated we couldn't get him out and then when he pitched we couldn't hit him i'd let him graduate people were talking about once in a 50-year talent we were talking about ted williams mickey mantle it was just amazing how talented he was you know growing up as a kid my dream was to play professional baseball i get drafted by the devil race everything was good baseball was good life was good you know 18 19 years old got almost 4 million dollars to play baseball what could go wrong it was june 2 1999 just another day in raleigh north carolina except this was draft day and friends family and media all gathered at the hamilton homestead must have been 30 40 people there we had a tent set up so that we could talk to them we had some you know drinks and pizza and it was exciting day for us when he got the call i mean we knew it was coming but when it happened it was just unreal we have a your kid to be picked number one i mean you really don't i got off to an inauspicious start on the drive from florida to west virginia we stopped at a gas station to fill the tank and get some food i was starving so i ordered a huge amount of gas station fried chicken and i ate like there was a hole in me somewhere within a couple of hours i was sick as a dog that was my first lesson as a professional athlete gas station fried chicken is a bad idea josh went from the high of being the first overall draft pick in the nation to life in the rookie appalachian league but he had a plan i wanted to you know playing the miners maybe one or two years and then playing the big leagues for about 15 years and by the time i you know was out of the big leagues i wouldn't have to wait to be inducted in the hall of fame so that was my goal we had been to every ball game that he's ever played you know seeing every out that he'd ever been involved with and uh he he asked us to go with him and you know he was so we both you know quit our jobs and you know was there for more support you know just same thing we'd always do they were always there it was you know one of those things where i wanted everybody around me to know you know how much so they meant to me with this kind of support josh flourished his first two years in the minor leagues hitting well over 300 in 2000 he was usa today's minor league player of the year and was asked to play in the all-star futures game the youngest player on the usa squad his future couldn't have been brighter 14 months ago josh hamilton was still in high school in north carolina talk about special players [Applause] 18 years old man tremendous talent it's a thrill for me um you know i've worked hard you know all my life and uh you know have fun playing this game and you know just a dream come true josh was certain that he would soon take his place in the tampa bay outfield but he wasn't the only one carl crawford was drafted by tampa one round after josh in 99 and together they shared their dreams you know we were both good athletes we wanted to go up through the ranks together we wanted to play in the big leagues one day together and we'd always joke around you know whatever was hitting the outfield better go defense or it's going to be caught you know cara he's a character we were in wendy's one day i was looking at his tattoos and said man i want to get a tattoo and he said why don't you and i said my parents he said why are you worried about your parents shortly after that anyway i got my first tattoo said hammer came on with a tattoo on his arm hammer and he had a play with on his other arm and his mama of course asked him did was they real he jerked when i'm off no they ain't real of course the other one was real josh was doing so well in the minors the devil raised invited him to the spring training camp in 2001 although josh impressed the many sets of eyes that watched him he was told to report back to the miners for more seasoning and that's when he was dealt an unexpected blow he was on the way back to his house in florida i told his mama to jump over there and drive she drove out to the stop light and she pulled out the turn wait for a car to come and josh she did it that dump truck was gonna hit us he hit the house so hard to pass in the door flew open and come back and josh was leaning backwards hit him in the back something in his back that weren't quite right his back caused josh to struggle in orlando and miss time following the accident his parents returned to north carolina for the first time josh was on his own the two things that were constant in my life at that time were my parents in baseball and they were taken away kind of at the same time you know i was on my own for the first time in my life you know just went all downhill from there [Music] obviously you guys see i have tattoos do i wish i didn't have tattoos absolutely if i could do it over again i wouldn't have a single tattoo you know but at the same time that's part of my story now for me the chair was an escape i could sit there and escape from baseball and the people who wondered why i wasn't playing and the whispers that suggested i wasn't really injured and had lost my drive for the game with my eyes closed and the ink taking shape under my skin the world got smaller there were no expectations nobody telling me how great i was or how great i could be if i had been peppered with baseball questions while i sat in the chair i would have found somewhere else to hang out with his parents no longer there to lend their support and with plenty of time to kill twenty-year-old josh hamilton began to deviate from his plan i was on my own for the first time in my life you know young had plenty of money and you know she started hanging out in those wrong places it was uh you know tattoo crawler i was hanging out at looking back at it now it was a way of an emotional outlet you know because of not having baseball there not having my parents there to lean on so i sit in the chair for sometimes eight nine hours a day some days i get two or three tattoos it didn't surprise me that he got a tattoo but when he started getting more and more and more that's when i figured something was going on with him the long hours he spent getting ink on his body soon took josh deep into the night where he succumbed to the presence of alcohol and drugs you know my parents taught me when i was growing up people places and things you know if i'm around people that are doing certain things if i'm around them long enough i'm not doing them at first then i'll start doing them when the devil rays discovered that josh was experimenting with drugs they discreetly took steps to protect their million-dollar investment and sent him to the betty ford clinic to get help well it was a shock you know as a parent you always think about this stuff happening to everybody else don't happen to you but josh refused to acknowledge his problem and left the clinic on his own he showed up in spring training in 2002 anxious for a fresh start i was hoping he'd go back to normal but you know i think he probably would have if he could continue to play ball but once he started back playing he got hurt again you know had so much time on his hands josh was besieged by injuries and played just eight games in the outfield all season his experimentation had turned into an addiction and by the spring of 2003 he was a very troubled young man our plans when i was at tampa bay was to play crawford and left field baldellian center and hamilton and wright a couple weeks in the camp he started to show up a little late we had some talks and he missed a day and then he didn't show up for a few days his obsession with drugs had overtaken his passion for baseball josh just couldn't stay clean i mean i was fighting i was trying to get back i was you know trying to get my life straightened out i was you know sober and clean and then i'd have a relapse when i started hearing about the fact that josh was taking drugs i didn't believe it and i was very disappointed and amazed to find out later that it really was happening with josh after multiple failed drug tests and unsuccessful stints at rehab josh watched his future scroll by him on the television screen breaking news to espn you know josh hamilton suspended on violation of drug abuse policy or major league baseball and you know i didn't get a call or anything or you know nothing it was just kind of like huh reality kind of really set in then that moment and all i did was fuel the fire to want to use more and you know get messed up more so it's pretty bad it was february 2004 three years passed his goal of making the majors and josh no longer had baseball in his life but he did have a young woman one who suspected nothing was amiss i had no idea that he had started using drugs we dated for about four months and then i started realizing there was something else going on and then it came apparent when we broke up and we stayed broken up for about a year and a half and then got back together after he got out of rehab i was like five months clean i think and we dated for about four or five months and got married in november she got pregnant in december and i relapsed in january i relapsed for like a day and you know i was clean for five more months he told me that that part of his life was over and and i definitely believed him i thought it was as well i was hoping i was done at that time but it didn't work out that way we had our little girl sierra he was wonderful for the three days we're at the hospital and i really thought that he had you know taken a turn for the better and when we got home from the hospital he was gonna go to walgreens and get my prescriptions filled for me and he wound up at a bar instead you know it got even worse you know i got really wrapped up in addiction he went through about a hundred thousand dollars in six weeks i get a sick feeling in my stomach when i think about things i did and it's just wow like the night when josh was desperate for a fix but had no money to feed it so he took katie's wedding ring from their house and pawned it i was heartbroken i was mad angry every emotion you can think of and as soon as i saw him you know i asked him i said did you did you give away my ring and he said well somebody's holding it i said well you need to give me their name and number because i'm going to get it back and i tracked down the guy's name i called him i told him that i wanted to meet him and he told me to bring 200 and we decided to meet and i met him and got my ring back i can remember her coming home she wanted to fall apart and i told her i said katie you you've got to fight you've got to stay up and fight for your marriage and for your husband there were times when i was so frustrated with him because of she he was hurting my child a recovering drug addict himself big daddy was forced to intervene in an effort to keep josh's drug dealer away from his daughter there i was with my long black trench coat on and carrying a sawed-off shotgun in one hand and a 45 in the other and knowing that at any minute literally all hell can break loose i said i've got your money and i've got a promise for you if i ever hear from you again you won't like me don't ever call my son-in-law again everyone seemed to want to help josh but josh himself we definitely had our rough days you know you know it'd be times you know i'd be my wife at home and just you know cry like a baby because i couldn't get across my brother you know he's killing himself and killing us i very nearly overdosed and found myself in the er my mom came into the room and stood next to the bed she sat there for quite some time in a thick silence with her head shaking and her voice breaking she said god must love ball players if god didn't love ball players you'd have been dead a long time ago by 2005 the former number one pick had hit rock bottom he was no longer welcome in the game he loved and was hurting everyone who cared about him his parents even refused to let him return to the house in which he was raised you try to help him best you can and do the things that professional people tell you to do sometimes you have to call tough love you had to do that and you know i did my shared head was roughest for mama daddy now they had protected him his whole life them not being able to reach him that was that was rough on them my grandmother on my mother's side lived right next door to us this was the place bruh and i went to be spoiled with cookies and ice cream and grilled cheese sandwiches mary holt is an old-fashioned southern lady i think she had a soft spot for me because i was the youngest and i shared her name joshua holt hamilton and so holding fast to the memory of her unconditional love josh turned to his grandmother mary holt i had nowhere else to go katie and i were separated you know i was out of money you know and i showed up at her house at like three o'clock in the morning you know our whole life we grew up next door when something was going wrong we ran to grandma if anybody could get through to him it was going to be her over the next couple weeks i was staying there i used a couple times and and she told me one night she confronted me she said killing yourself you're such a better person than this all those things you know i was actually high when she was talking to me and when you are you don't you know comprehend anything or or what's going on around you and god cleared my my head god used his grandmother to turn his heart you know i threw my bible on the bed you know the first thing i read was james 4 7. humble yourself for god resist the devil and he'll flee from me and you know just let me know that you know man upstairs was standing by the whole time and you know protecting me because you know there's no reason i should be here today and the reason i should be alive or shouldn't have killed somebody else or shouldn't be in jail so obviously he's got a bigger plan and purpose for my life i went to my pastor and his wife and told them you know i'm tired of being angry at him what do i do you know i feel like he needs to be punished for what he's done to us and my pastor told me that i needed to forgive him if you forgive him you're going to be completely free of all those feelings of bitterness and anger and resentment and it just made so much sense to me reconciling his marriage and love for katie was another step along the way to complete recovery but josh was still suspended from professional baseball and that's when providence opened the door an article appeared in st pete times and in a paragraph it had i'm up here in north carolina i need somebody to talk to i want to be back on the field and all i'm doing up here is withering away well i felt like that paragraph was speaking directly to me so roy silver who along with randy holland runs the winning inning academy in clearwater florida welcomed josh to their facility but baseball would have to wait when i talked to roy silver at the winning inning he told me what his plans for josh were and they said that he was going to have to work really hard you know clean the bathrooms mow the lawn and it was going to teach him responsibility but also let him be around baseball we just wanted him to get out of his box in north carolina and get away from the same thought patterns we wanted to break the cycle that he was in i didn't let him just get on the field the first day he needed to show me that he was going to do his part before we did our part and it wasn't until three weeks later i felt he deserved to go on the field he and i went one on one you could just tell he is as happy as can be kind of picked me up and make me realize you know what i used to be like always smiling having fun and where i was and where i want to be again the first pitch i threw him i looked up and that thing cleared the eye drop back there which is 400 feet from home plate and it cleared it by a good amount and i said what is this guy doing here i mumbled that under my breath i go i can't believe this guy's here [Music] the biggest chill i've ever felt ran through my entire body katie knew immediately from the look on my face i started crying and i cried and laughed and tried to make sense of it all one more chance one more last chance i was back in the game josh continued to train and maintain a positive outlook more importantly he stayed clean he petitioned major league baseball for the chance to return and before long he got a call from tampa bay gm andrew friedman he said uh are you sitting down i said is it that bad he said is that good i could tell by the emotion on josh's face he started his you know he started getting tears in his eyes and i knew what was said on the phone without him even having to tell me they told me you know we want you to come down and work out extended spring training and they're going to give you some leeway to practice here and if you do well then they're going to reinstate you at some point this was a young man who had a lot of troubles engaged in a lot of behavior that he shouldn't have but wanted to write his own ship and i was sensitive to that josh had been given a second chance but he'd still have to be tested several times a week and each test was a challenge the drug test guy's always in my dream now he's always there so it's like i got a choice either i can go here and use or i can go take that test and right now i'm choosing taking this test because i don't want to mess this up for the first time in four years josh got to play pro ball 15 games for tampa bay's class a team then in december of 2006 his life took another turn i was actually in my bucket truck cutting trees and i was throwing limbs down to him and he got a call josh had been selected by the chicago cubs in the rule 5 draft and was immediately traded to the cincinnati reds my brother was the manager of cincinnati reds and his statement to me on the phone was guess who we just got and i said you know who and he said in the rule five draft we got josh hamilton and i said you're kidding the door was opened and josh burst through he hit 403 in spring training and on opening day of 2007 he got to hear those words he had always dreamed of number 33 outfielder josh hamilton what a special moment for this young man who's battled so much to make it all the way to the major leagues from what i went through where god brought me to where i was at that moment that's what the emotions were about it was completely surreal i just remember crying and laughing and being so excited and just looking around at everybody there was 50 000 people there you know clapping for him and welcoming him into major league baseball they're giving josh hamilton a prolonged standing ovation as he comes up to pinch hit [Music] wasn't a hit but there's a lot of love in that clubhouse i looked every moment and she was crying you know i couldn't help but get chugged up he's up there bawling he probably didn't tell you he was crying but he was crying bawling i said that would caught on switch out anything i could see this day and i didn't yeah i thought it was pretty much over with i always knew if he had the opportunity to play in the major leagues i thought he would do well but josh was about to exceed all expectations this ball is crushed beats the right field first hit in the big leagues and it is a fun another minor milestone but i'm sure it feels major to josh hamilton after four years lost from his young life josh the 25 year old rookie who once had all the promise in the world was finally in the major leagues and was seeking to fulfill that promise a strong throw by josh hamilton i was on the field with griffy and all those guys and i could still get it done and there to help josh forge his future in the game was someone from his past hiring johnny to travel with them was absolutely amazing i'm so so very thankful for johnny i was in a position to help him at that point in baseball and as a mentor to me it's a god thing it's god's plan being in the big leagues is a different life but to have somebody from you know your home area to be there to help you to guide you as your mentor you know it's a great thing it's just that extra layer of comfort and peace of mind that there's somebody in josh's corner watching out for him josh hit 19 home runs that year and drove in 47 runs in just 90 games but the reds changed managers midway through the season and josh soon learned that his lifeline would not be coming back when i found out that katie was like what you know that's okay i got peace about it guys give me peace about it and four days later you know we know why she had peace about it because the rangers called me and said you know we got you in a trade what do you think about johnny coming over with you well there it is right here so god always knows we're just along for the ride [Music] i would not have had the year i had this year if it wasn't for my teammates you're a family out there got to help each other out you can be the leaders on your team if you're not a vocal leader you can be a leader by how you play the game [Music] it always made me feel good to open up a letter from someone who drew inspiration from my recovery but after two weeks with the rangers there were two lonely letters in the slot i wasn't insulted but it didn't seem right i decided to ask the clubbing he pointed to the ceiling sitting on the high shelf above the mail slots there were large mail crates the one with the most mail flowing over the sides was mark hamilton there's the mail for the forgotten man obviously we're here to announce a trade we traded two two pitchers edison volcas and danny ray herrera to cincinnati for the large left-hander to my to my right josh hamilton that first press conference it was three of my teammates walking in the door to sit down and listen to my story you know and i'd never had to have before so you know let me know what kind of teammates i had those guys showed up at his press conference and immediately he knew that there was something special there and something so different that he had not experienced before with the team you know i think the biggest thing that we're happy with when we saw josh was kind of person he was we knew he was talented player but we saw the person he was and that was what we were really excited about he's a little lightheaded right now and it didn't hurt that josh got off to a smashing start goes to [Music] [Applause] right off the bat josh embraced texas and both the fans and his new teammates soon realized how gifted he was his talent is absolutely off the charts you know every night i'm excited to see what he's going to do hamilton picks it up he's going to fire towards third base three men on base and he flips it to right field there it goes grand slam for hamilton by the end of april josh led the major leagues with 32 rbi his brand new start in texas and in life had made josh a happy man you look like you're having a lot of fun it is fun and that's good one night i was praying before i went to bed and i said lord you know the more successful i am the more people listen to me talk about you it was on after that hamilton he has homer in four straight games josh was unbelievable with 61 rbi at the end of may and 80 through june he was leading the majors and mystifying his teammates after six years in the big leagues that i've played and you know still trying to get better he just comes in in a year and a half and it's just a talent that is he's a natural josh really was a natural and his feet seem supernatural as texas fans discovered when he stared down one of the best closures in baseball with a game on the line some pretty serious drama it's a guy leading all of baseball and saves against the guy leading all the baseball and runs batted in game on the line ninth inning you know you got k right up there man and he's dealing all year and here comes the hottest hitter in the game in the air right field heading up heading out [Applause] um that's just what he's capable of every single night it seems like he's capable of doing something great or something to amaze someone every night he amazed enough fans through june to earn a starting spot on the american league all-star team obviously it's a great honor to get awards um to let you know that you know something's going right and you know hopefully you can keep going in that direction yeah i learned a lot this year i can keep learning a lot more hamilton has 95 rbis at the all-star break the fifth highest total in major league history and he's just got to be living a dream you know when i was in my backyard i was at yankee stadium you know with babe ruth and mickey mantle and maggio and all those guys so to be here it's pretty cool [Applause] the fans in yankee stadium are chanting my name this didn't even happen in my dream rewind two weeks previous we were in new york to play the yankees the champ broke out in the outfield bleachers josh smokes crack josh smokes crack in a way their chants were a pretty good summary of how far i traveled from josh smokes crack to hammer time hamilton animal tongue ever since his days growing up in north carolina the sound that josh made when he put bat on ball was something else one man who became quite familiar with the sound was his former batting practice pitcher clay you got it 71 year old clay council after every practice i'd say josh man you really hit me hard if you ever get to the home run derby you better let me pitch it i hit your bed good boy he said i am i when i get there you gonna throw it said clay i want to book you for yankee stadium july 14th i said what banning practice pitcher 71 year old clay council my guy here throwing to me so we'll see what we can do clay you're good you're good you ain't just stadium a fan is trying to get autographs or pictures taken with you i just i said josh i can't believe this what's up jason i'm in baseball heaven before that first round said clay come on he said where are we going i said we got to go to the tunnel we got to pray we in praise and he said a prayer you know not to win but just to thank the lord you know for being there for the chance to witness and help cleveland not have a nervous breakdown hey what a great part of this story i mean if somebody told you this happened you wouldn't believe it he said you ain't gonna tighten up on me oh yeah i said i'm tighten up i probably have a heart attack they finally said uh white hamlet do you own in showtime now josh hamilton and he hit it i had the ballpark that's some kind of strength on this kid with every swing he took josh appeared to distance himself further from his past well he got to his ninth when and i kind of got loot and then he got in that home run streak that hit straight and the crowd got into it that was amazing when you get ball players on both teams jumping up when the guys hitting home runs he may not have to hit his second round i don't know he's got 16 that's twice what everyone else did i said uh bradley how much longer can he keep this up he said you might be here all night first one i hit it was 5 18. and you know you just hear it goes from hamilton [Applause] 28 it was insane i mean it was absolutely unbelievable i was just laughing deliriously i was so excited i could not believe what i was seeing one of the memories will be this kid on this field doing what he's doing right now i don't think we'll ever experience anything quite like that again but it was once in a lifetime hey now you guys know and i'm happy for him and his family that he's doing the way he's doing and uh god bless and hopefully he'll stay like that for life hamilton's 28 first-round homers was a derby record for any round and it was literally a dream come true a dream he had back when he was still suspended from baseball you know i never knew how many home runs i hit in the dream i just knew i was talking to a lady reporter after i was finished said in your journey back to baseball you dreamed about this how did it compare to the dream well obviously in a dream i didn't know how many i hit you know it's amazing over the past few years what god's done in my life and how quickly he's done it before the third round i was kind of hanging out behind the plate and talking out loud so i said lord i said i said if you if you want me to win this thing i'd be more than happy to but if you don't we've accomplished exactly what we want to lord josh and justin morneau advanced to the final round where they both started with a clean slate though justin was the winner there was no doubt who owned the night i wanted to see him win just because the show he put on and he's shown that you can go through tough times and you can get back to to live a great life every day and he's special you know that was his moment [Music] how do you like texas josh i love it thank you so much are you from there no i'm from uh north carolina fort bragg you're curtis and we're caring i appreciate it appreciate you thank you appreciate it thank you very much there's so many people out there searching so many people who struggle and want to do better so many confused sad desperate people who need the right kind of guidance people just like me i sell jerseys and every time i sell one of yours i get a feel-good story like you wouldn't believe so you're doing a lot for people thank you appreciate it the ultimate goal is to inspire people and you know let them know no matter how far they go down in life how hopeless they feel there's always a way out and for me that was through jesus christ [Music] it's about how many people can i help by sharing my story and what i went through and what god did in my life give a warm hope welcome to josh and katie hamilton what's up how you doing hamilton didn't just beat his personal demons and move on with his life he chose to both help and inspire others with his story josh and katie can often be found at church functions reaching out to individuals who might be lost [Music] it's something i did with him and i don't even know if he remembers this but every time i would try and have him committed or got the restraining order against him i always would say josh i love you you know i'm not doing this because i don't love you i'm doing it because i do love you now i see what everybody was trying to do i see everybody was trying to help me when you're in the midst of that addiction or that trouble in your life you don't see that you see everybody kind of as the enemy if i wasn't totally honest people wouldn't really think you know hey this guy who's playing major league baseball you know he didn't know anything about my story because he hadn't been there the story of josh hamilton is what has captured everybody's heart you know i tell people that you know obviously i do have an addictive personality but i made myself addicted to the drug i want him to get man this guy really does know what i'm going through you know he's been there he's so gracious i mean he never gets tired of you know of talking about his story and i'm so proud that he's taken the opportunity to give all the glory to god you know god's not worried about the accomplishments the accolades the trophies the awards all that stuff he's worried about how i glorify him and everything i do which is why josh and katie started triple play ministries a program that combines his two passions christianity and baseball how's everybody today good you all ready to have a good time yeah all right that's what i'd like to hear hope is never lost and josh was like a kid again when he hosted a camp for youngsters in north carolina there it is boy just like you're sliding into a base throw me out throw me out you may you may put a little fear in my heart just a little straight back [Music] we said a hundred kids could come and 100 came and you know i got to share my story let it let the kids hear it let the parents hear it you know 18 19 years old got almost 4 million to play baseball i started looking at some places that i shouldn't have looked in you know it's all determined about those people you're hanging around about those places you're hanging out at and thanks to his own personal resurrection these days josh hangs out with people who give him plenty of support we love him here and we want him in the locker room forever you know he's just he's a guy that brings a lot of positive energy this year was fun with the rangers the most fun for me isn't necessarily the baseball part which has been great but you know seeing how happy he is and to see his life in that path has been the most rewarding part from a teammate's standpoint sweet spot you don't know what a sweet spot is thank you very much all right so i got you right all right i was looking for you he stops and he signs every autograph the rangers haven't had a player like that since nolan ryan so could josh become an equally iconic figure with the rangers his relationship with the fans and his performance on the field gives every indication that he could he hasn't even reached his peak yet and that's scary because when he started figuring it out really figuring it out these numbers is not going to be anything close to what he's capable of doing but it won't be easy and josh knows it for every day is another test the fulfillment of another promise to keep his past at bay i chose to take that first drink i chose to take that first drug and it was the most miserable years of my life and it seemed like it went on for 100 years to know where josh has been and where he how far he's come back it's just very heartwarming for me my dream was to play professional baseball i wanted to go all the way as josh reaches these milestones there's no reason why i shouldn't be dead why i shouldn't be in jail or why shouldn't kill somebody else [Music] i went to the hospital three times for overdosing almost died and that was uh october 5th 2005. that was the last night that i used drugs and drank alcohol it's about waking up every morning taking up my cross trying to be a responsible man responsible husband responsible father is that good enough thank you

Channel: cacable7

Views: 97,121

Rating: 4.8723874 out of 5

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Id: Kb5zTu5aLj0

Length: 48min 4sec (2884 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 13 2020