Last night former first round draft pick Josh Hamilton hit a record 28 home runs in the first round of the MLB All Star Game Home Run Derby breaking Bobby Abreu’s record. Hamilton had a break out season last year with the CIncinnati Reds hitting .292 and swatting 19 home runs before being traded in the off season to the Texas Rangers.
Hamilton’s well documented battle with drug and alcohol addiction lead to eight trips to rehab and a temporary ban from the major leagues. Since being drafted by Tampa Bay right out of high school he’s fought his was back and was rewarded with his first All Star appearance at age 27. Despite actually losing the contest to the Twins’ Justin Morneau he’s become and amazing story about battling addiction but there is an inaccuracy in every article stating that he’s a former heroin addict.
I too thought Hamilton was once addicted to Heroin as I texted back and forth during the contest : “Damn, a dude who was on Ron Ron is killing it” and “Hamilton has an ill her-ron flow! R U watching this?”. (Yes I text like a 14 year old girl, I watch Gossip Girl too)
Something didn’t make sense to me though. I had a tough time believing that Josh was a heroin junkie. All the former junkies I knew did three things :
1. Talk about how long they’ve been clean before going into some sexy tale of addiction with a 10 carat twinkle in their eye.
2. Make the worst music of their career, usually country or folk influenced with songs about children.
3. The most productive and noble and path least traveled, help other addicts recover. This one is tough because you’re forced to be around what almost destroyed you, help people who probably don’t want help and everyone who kicks heroin smokes like a thousand cigarettes so you’re probably going to die from second hand smoke.
I looked around for pictures of Josh Hamilton with his shirt off to see if he had that leathery Iggy Pop/Anthony Kiedis thing going down but no dice, in fact in all my searching I only found him talking about his former addictions to alcohol and crack cocaine. That’s right like Tyrone Biggums, Josh smoked rocks but didn’t boot Ronzo.
Now it all makes sense. I could see Josh and his flame tattoos roasting a rock, getting aggro and smashing shit with a bat but I couldn’t picture his goatee junked out on a couch with the lock groove of a record skipping while he stared at the ceiling. So people, get that fucking shit right! My man over came an addition to the white stuff, that cooked crack, not heroin. It’s still and amazing story, I’m still stoked for him, and the performance brought a tear to my eye.
Applaud Josh Hamilton getting his shit together for himself and his family and breaking a record held by a guy who looks like he’s always getting an allergic reaction but don’t call him a junkie.
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July 15th, 2008 at 10:43 am
I was there—just below the deck in right field. Amazing!
July 15th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Mofo was hitting like he just smoked rocks in the first round, damn. I kind of hate how “Jesus” Hamilton is, though all ballplayers from NC have to love God, it’s like a rule of the game down there.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:59 am
You have to find jesus to kick drugs in US and A, it’s a rule since all the bullshit 12 step programs are founded by godmin.
I liked it more when I thought he was a heroinner that was more unique.
July 15th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Even if your allegations are correct and he is the white Ty Biggum and -just/only- a crackhead, he definitely claimed to “have done every drug under the sun” and is a “drug addict” and cannot even walk around by himself or carry more than $20 in his wallet or eat with his teammates as they enjoy beers at their table. Im pretty sure he admitting to being a H junkie too at some point though, why else would we call him Junkie J? No idea why you said he had a goatee either haha
Also, you might also want to google: “Jeffrey Allison Marlins heroin” too, he’s Hamilton pt2 and he OD’d on the ron, now he’s coming back too and shredding…
July 15th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Crackhead or H? You decide:
BEFORE:
http://espn.go.com/media/mlb/2001/0322/photo/s_hamilton_i.jpg
DURING:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/01-08/0127hamtats.jpg
AFTER:
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u17/sdeaner/JoshHamiltonfunnypic.jpg
July 15th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
As much as I love crackheads, I still prefer this Man(ny), from today’s Globe:
“Even when I went to see Pedro [Martínez] in the Dominican, we were sitting on his ranch, next to the pool, eating chicken, relaxed, having fun. That’s life. The game is going to be the game. Why I got to get a big head about this? I don’t want to have a big head, because when I don’t have [baseball], I won’t miss it.”
July 15th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
PL you might want to google Josh Hamilton Heroin and see if he’s ever said he was a heroin junkie, that is a myth that has been perpetuated. Since Heroin addiction is a serious physical addition there is a massive medical difference between being a heroin addict and a crack head.
Secondly before policing my post you might want to also google “Josh Hamilton” and see he was a long time goateer before you started caring about him and lastly I know about J.Allison he’s a Masshole, you think we can’t read?
Boooooooooooo! Hi HATER!
July 15th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
AP can u plz post a pic of Hamilton w/goatee I just searched 10 pages of google images and got nothing.
HATEHATEHATEHATEHATE!
July 15th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
First one on a google search.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
http://fullcountpitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/josh-hamilton.jpg
July 15th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
“well how about that!”
The “after” pic I posted is the best one though. It appears that he came to his senses and ditched the shitchin.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I am partial to during. How the FUCK did no one want to help this guy out…oh yeah he was on the Devil Rays that’s why.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
that during pic is off the hook. Look how pale and sweaty he is. Fact of the matter is, how can anyone not want this kid to succeed? Only in America.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
The last time I smoked rocks (Bowery circa ‘03-ish) I definitely didn’t feel like “during”, it was more like “before”.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
What a sad story. However, I understand that it is a very common situation for stars these days. Sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom before they realize they have lost it all and have a problem. While researching on the internet I’ve found a lot of helpful resources about drug addiction and recovery on http://www.addictionca.com
July 16th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Jeff wins this comment off by like 1 million points. Wow…