What Happened to Josh Hamilton?

Josh Hamilton former American League MVP one of the most prominent hitters of his time and one of the best players in Rangers franchise history there are a couple of videos about the five-time all-star on YouTube made over the past few years but I enjoy making things that you guys want to see and Josh's story was requested more than anybody else's both in the comments of our last video as well as a recent poll we did Josh's story like Tim's from the other day is a story about a player that could have been inducted into Cooperstown a few years down the line if the dominoes had fallen the right way in his case however his career wasn't a one crest one trough kind of wave like Lincecum's was but rather a roller coaster ride that featured some historic highs and terrible lows Hamilton was drafted out of high school first overall in 1999 by the devil raised he was a rightfully hyped up prospect as he hit over 500 with 13 homers and 20 stolen bases in just 25 games in his senior year of high school the newly founded Ray's had their first superstar prospect by 2001 Josh was as impressive as advertised finding lots of success in the lower level parts of the organization unfortunately that was the first year Josh had to be admitted for rehabilitation after struggling with drug and alcohol use two years later in 2003 it became a more serious issue as Josh failed his drug test before the regular season began and decided to date the rest of the season off he failed three drug tests the following year and was suspended for the entire season it only got worse for Hamilton over the next few years and while I'm not going to go into the details I'll just inform you that he was suspended for the 2006 season as well the pick that was supposed to be the leading face of the Rays franchise and had a really rough start to his professional career off the field and it wasn't looking great for Josh Hamilton so this is where I'm going to try to tell Josh's story a little differently let's fast-forward a bit in Hamilton's career Yankee Stadium 2008 in what may possibly be the most memorable Josh Hamilton moment of all he clobbers 28 homers in the first round of the homerun Derby that record held up until about a week ago when Vlad junior hit 29 all so guess who won the Derby the year before Hamilton's Vlad senior funny how the universe ties things together anyways Hamilton put on a show unlike any seen before you may have believed that he won the Derby as he is the only name you have here when this Derby is mentioned but in fact he did not justin morneau of the Minnesota Twins did Josh's performance was so incredible that he's the one that everyone remembers from the Derby and not the actual winner from that point forward everybody knew who Josh Hamilton was and they began dreaming of the player that he could become so how did Hamilton go from rock bottom to season suspensions and the handful of failed drug tests to the top of the baseball world well he had some help from some friends his rewind time let's go back to where we left off in 2006 a man named Michael Dean Chadwick of crossover ministries led to helping hand to the Future Ranger he got Josh out of a very rough place and got him back on his feet for the next few years Michael ended up becoming Josh's father-in-law a few years down the line as his influence changed his life in more ways than one former player by the name of Roy silver also came to Josh's aid as he allowed him to use his baseball facility in Florida if josh agreed to work for him at one point josh was sleeping on an air mattress at the facility unbeknownst to the fact that he'd be playing in a World Series four years later the very next year after ending up back in the major leagues and a member of the Cincinnati Reds organization Josh Hamilton and made his major league debut he had finally made it and went from sleeping at his job to playing in a major league game in a little over a year he had a fantastic rookie season but had exceeded rookie limits and was shut out from the Rookie of the Year vote Josh was traded to the Rangers at the end of the 2007 season and was ready to begin a new chapter in his career so now we're almost back on track as we take a look at 2008 Hamilton began the season as the starting center fielder for the Rangers and became the first player in American League history to win Player of the Month the first two months of the season he was rightfully voted into the all-star game and we've already discussed what happened during the all-star break I don't think that balls landed yet we're gonna pass through an injury ridden all-star season in 2009 and get to the peak of Josh Hamilton's career in 2010 the year he would win AL MVP and go to his first World Series Hamilton had the spotlight in 2010 he won a batting title had a no PS of over 1 which led the American League and he and the Rangers were going to their first World Series not before Josh won ALCS MVP though this is where our to player profile headliners meet Tim Lincecum and the Giants took on Josh Hamilton and the Rangers in the Fall Classic that year but as those of you who watched the last video know quite well there was no stopping the Giants winning their first of three World Series titles over the next four seasons Texas would however make it back to the World Series the following year but couldn't close the door on David Freese and the Cardinals with only one strike to go only one other thing I'd like to note from 2011 and I didn't really want to bring it up since it still breaks my heart but I felt the video would be incomplete without including it during a game in 2011 Josh was having a catch with a fan in the stands and the fan tried to catch the ball that he threw over the railing and fell the fall was fatal and is still one of the most heartbreaking things that I've ever seen in my time watching baseball 2012 comes around josh began the season on fire once more securing another Player of the Month award for April in one of my personal favorite Josh Hamilton moments he crushed four home runs in one game against Baltimore and the single most impressive offensive performance in a game that I've ever watched 2012 would end up being Josh's final season with the Rangers or so people thought Josh signed with Al West rival Los Angeles in the offseason and he was never the same player after that after signing prominent free agents like Albert Pujols and CJ Wilson the year prior the angels were being aggressive yet again with the signing of one of baseball's biggest hitters the bad thing for the Angels is similarly to the others the signing just didn't work out Josh's offensive production was way down and he just didn't have the relationship with the fans like he did in Texas in 2015 Hamilton suffered a drug relapse which immediately got the Angels looking to trade him sooner rather than later the team found a good fit and it was none other than the Texas Rangers Josh made it back home in Texas and the fans welcomed him with open arms you could tell he was immediately more comfortable than playing in Los Angeles which just felt right Hamilton finished out the season with the team and made it to the postseason again but unfortunately for them ran into a Jose Bautista bat flip besides an injury the next year and a comeback attempt the year after that was it for the career of Josh Hamilton Josh was one of the great hitters of his time but had the potential to be better for so much longer some of the choices he made in his career obviously weren't the greatest and while I'm not an optimist I'd like to look at the positives of Josh's career he was a five-time all-star our ALCS and Al MVP and made it to back-to-back World Series with the Texas Rangers his career could have ended back when he was sleeping at Roy Silver's facility every night but it didn't Josh made a name for himself and established himself as one of the greats Josh Hamilton is a player that will be talked about for years to come and I think down the line more people will appreciate him more for what he did rather than what he could have done let me know what you thought about today's video in the comments as well as what you think about Josh Hamilton in his career like the video if you did enjoy and subscribe to the channel if you're new if you like to follow myself or SRS on social media head down to the description to see how you can do so I hope you all enjoyed today's video thank you so much for watching and I will talk to you guys later

Channel: Stark Raving Sports

Views: 230,801

Keywords: Stark Raving Sports, Baseball, Sports, josh hamilton, mlb, major league baseball, josh hamilton highlights, josh hamilton angels, josh hamilton rangers, home run derby, 2008 home run derby, hamilton home run derby

Id: r4l1L11zM9E

Length: 7min 42sec (462 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 20 2019