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Josh Hamilton
Hamilton was drafted first overall in the first round of the 1999 Amateur Draft by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He was thought to be the best prospect in all of baseball, that was not under contract with a Major League team at the time.
In his first year in the minor leagues, Josh Hamilton batted .347 with 10 homers in 56 games with Princeton, which was a rookie level team. He looked to be well on his way to becoming a future Major Leaguer.
In 2000, Hamilton played Single A ball with Charleston, where he batted .302 with 13 homers in 96 games. The following season is when it all began going down hill.
The 20-year-old Hamilton was involved in a car accident. He also began getting involved in drugs and alcohol, while recovering from the injuries. He went to rehab and looked to be doing well, but then again in 2002, when he had lingering injuries, he fell back into his drug and alcohol problems. In 2003, he was using pretty heavily. He was late to practice several times in spring training, and was sent down to Tampa’s minor league camp. He eventually had to take the season off for “personal reasons”, although it was really related to drugs. In 2004, Hamilton failed mandatory drug tests by Major League Baseball, and was suspended. He failed more tests after that, and before long, he found himself out of baseball all together.
During this time, Hamilton straightened his life out, by going to rehab.
Hamilton was out of baseball until mid 2006, when he began to workout with some other Devil Rays minor league players. When the 2006 Rule 5 Draft came around, Hamilton found himself off of the Devil Rays’ 40-man roster. This allowed any team to simply draft him and place him on their roster. The Chicago Cubs drafted him and then traded hm to the Cincinnati Reds for $100,000 in cash.
With the Reds in 2007, he ended up hitting .292 with 19 homers in only 90 games. The following season he was traded to the Texas Rangers, where he remains today.
Now 29-years-old, Josh Hamilton is one of baseball’s best all around players. In 2010 he hit .359 with 32 homers and 100 RBIs, and he has been a major force in helping the Texas Rangers make it to the 2010 World Series. He has become a genuine role model, something he had never imagined he would be 6 years ago.
