Oh My God!...Hamilton...

I am sitting here with goose bumps this is fastastic. And what a great story, Hey how about the pitching coach only second time ever to Yankee Stadium. What a great moment. Can you say the Natural

that was worth staying up to the middle of the night for....

There could never be another HR derby to top this one!

WOW, that's about as natural as you'll ever get.

Good for him, it's been a long journey to get to this special place.

Very emotional watching him. It's nice to see this lovely story unfold. The boys at our house were going absolutely nuts!!!

blown away!! 28!!! Good for you Josh!!

(and Mr Counsil! What an arm!)

I saw him play in high school. Can you imagine him playing in high school? I said it then and I will say it again he was the most talented God gifted player I have ever seen play any game. I am so happy for him. How could you not love that smile on his face. To be where he has been and to be where he is now is simply amazing. Out of baseball for 3 years. Totally out of baseball. Now look at him. God can and does do amazing things.

No need for him to even bat in the semi's. Lets get to the championship. Save that pitchers arm.!!!!!

He wont have to. He is already in the finals. If the pitchers arm holds up there is no telling how many more he will hit.

OMG !!!!!!!!!!

I go to about 10 Rangers games a year. It has been awesome to watch he and Kinsler put together the seasons they are having.

HOLY COW

He may have come up short in the end, but he owned the night!

My son and I had a blast watching that show!

My son called me last night several times as he was traveling on the bus after his game. He wanted constant updates on how Josh Hamilton was doing and he told me he was his favorite player. I found myself rooting for him as well.

Curious what people think...

Why do we root for him? Perhaps an obvious answer is that people recognize his talent and are happy to see him finally succeed. I think it goes much deeper than that. I think his story is about redemption and that goes directly to who we are as Americans. In other words, it is never too late to pick oneself up by the bootstraps and change things. A different type of the Horatio Alger story perhaps - riches-rags-riches as opposed to just rags-to-riches. Obviously, Josh has had much help from his family as well. His wife deserves much of the credit for what we all witnessed last night.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2926447

You just have to root for a guy that is honest. That performance last night was as joyful a baseball experience I can imagine. Reportedly a dream come true for him. The pitcher just added to the story, what fun !!! Sometimes it's hard to recognize the "reason for everything" but this one came thru in HDTV.

What an incredible article - thank you for posting the link - I had missed it up until now...

Does anyone else here remember the night last summer in the HSBBW chat room where Josh Hamilton joined us for while? I don't remember much about what was said - I just remember considerable doubt about it really being him... looking back - a neat memory...

08

Thanks for posting link ClevelandDad. I knew the story but am thankful for article that I can share with others!

Definitely a great baseball story, but this is also a story about family and faith. It takes some luck, and a whole lot of love to go that far south and come back alive. It’s obvious to me that love and faith brought this guy back from the brink. Love from his family, especially the love of his wife, and faith in a higher power. I’m with CD on this one. Mrs. Hamilton deserves a lot of credit. Josh has the God given talent, but without the undying faith shown by his family he never would have found the stage on which to display it.

quote:

Originally posted by spizzlepop:
Josh has the God given talent, but without the undying faith shown by his family he never would have found the stage on which to display it.

Not to downplay the love of family, but it appears to me from listening to what Josh Hamilton had to say, is that he believes that the Miraculous Presence of Christ's Holy Spirit in his life is responsible for his Resurrection, his new chance at living a productive life. That is a point that I believe he tried to emphasize, and one which should not be missed or diminished.

quote:

Originally posted by floridafan:


Not to downplay the love of family, but it appears to me from listening to what Josh Hamilton had to say, is that he believes that the Miraculous Presence of Christ's Holy Spirit in his life is responsible for his Resurrection, his new chance at living a productive life. That is a point that I believe he tried to emphasize, and one which should not be missed or diminished.

I didn't see the derby Monday night, but just watched the "rerun". To hear Josh speak about what his faith and the power of God has done for him was touching to say the least. To watch any baseball player smile that big showing that the game involves as much heart and fun as anything else was heartwarming as well. Bunches of talent and heart in that young man.

For the last month or so, when talking to friends, i have been calling him, The Natural, and they know who I'm alking about.

A good friend of is the brother-in-law of David Murphy. When talking earlier this season about the Rangers, I mentioned Hamilton's name, and the first thing my buddy said was, "He's one of the nicest, most genuine guy you will ever meet".

This kid is going to be special.

When I watched that first round, I was floored. How can anybody be that good? I believed I was watching Mickey Mantle back in the day.