I’ve never been a big HR derby fan, nor have I been a big Josh Hamilton fan. Today’s article in the New York Times — the first I’ve read to treat Hamilton and Milton Bradley somewhat equally — changed my tune somewhat.
But watching him tonight in this meaningless contest — I was truly mesmerized. This is one of those improbable feats that makes baseball magical. The fact that it happened during a home run contest makes it all the more improbable. Everything is on cue here — Hamilton’s story, the distance of some of these bombs, the reaction of the New York fans — this is the kind of stuff I rarely fall for, and I’ve actively resisted it with Hamilton. But there I was getting chills.
Lots of great moments here. Peter Gammons emotional story about Jeff Allison and “Nancy Reagan country” at the beginning of this second clip is pretty great.
Because I can sometimes be a morbid mofo I went back and checked the New York Times archives for news stories about Hamilton pre-comeback. Outside of him being drafted No. 1 in 1999, there’s not much on him. But one of the more interesting things I found was an article from 2001 in which Hamilton is listed alongside Matt White, Bobby Seay, and Greg Nash in a story titled Devil Rays in Disarray. The story says Hamilton batted just .180 in 89 at-bats at Class AA Orlando, missed six weeks with a back injury and was then shut down for the year following a quadriceps injury during his rehabilitation. Oddly enough, the same report offers an Eastern League highlight in which Justin Morneau homered and drove in three runs to give New Britain a 4-2 victory over Norwich for a 2-games-to-0-lead in a semifinal series.
Jackson told me via IM that he’d missed it, so I guess that was part of the inspiration in staying up way to late to clip these. But even if you saw it take another look. As I usually do, I’ll watch the All-star game with mild interest…but this was a special feat. Enjoy.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Joel // Jul 15, 2008 at 10:58 pm
thank for posting this…I missed it.
2 Aguer // Jul 16, 2008 at 1:44 am
I hate the homerun contest too but I’m glad I watched last night. Watching it again though brings out some of the bad announcing. Like Joe Morgan cutting off the Hamilton’s story by saying the most amazing thing about it is that he took three years off and could still hit major league pitching. Talk about a come down!
3 jackson // Jul 16, 2008 at 2:21 am
This is chilling to watch. This guy is unreal…
4 Shinsano // Jul 16, 2008 at 7:41 am
It was a weird thing for Morgan to say. So was Chris Berman’s comment about how Hamilton’s 28 homers was the same number as Ryan Howard’s 28 at the break. I guess when you announce these things for 20 years the line between reality and fantasy begins to blur.
5 yoshi // Jul 16, 2008 at 8:38 am
One thing that was surprising was they were talking about how scared Hamilton is even today to step outside by himself. He takes his friend with him everywhere he goes to ensure he doesn’t stray. Even at team dinners he chooses to sit with his friend alone away from his teammates who are probably having a few beers. You have to give this kid credit for who he is and where he has come from. they also were talking about his tatoos and how he wished he could remove them but would be too painful to take them off. Aside from all of that he seems to be a really good dude and a baseball player with many many tools.
6 Shinsano // Jul 16, 2008 at 9:06 am
I’ve heard it described as more of a minder situation than what the media portrays it. I’ve also heard it eventually led to tensions in the Reds locker room and that’s part of the reason he was eventually traded.
At one point I saw an article where Hamilton said there was some “jealousy” of him in the Reds locker room. That could be interpreted in a million ways — point is, it’s seems to work in the Rangers locker room.
7 Simon Currie // Jul 17, 2008 at 12:51 am
It’s amazing that his batting practice pitcher was a 71 year old former highschool coach(?), and that he’s only been to Yankee Stadium once before in his life and that was 8 Oct 1956 when Don Larsen threw the only World Series perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Clearly, the baseball gods were smiling that day.
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