Josh Hamilton “The Rebirth”
If a word was ever created to personify a person’s life, perseverance would go hand and with Josh Hamilton. Josh has gone through many trials and tribulations in his life in which he was fighting for something way more important than baseball, his life. No one in Major League Baseball history has had a greater impact on me the way Josh Hamilton has. What other players in MLB history have gone from being High School Player of the Year by Baseball America and Amateur Player of the Year by USA Baseball, to living the life of a crack addict hoping was outside your door. The word perseverance has two meanings that apply whole heartedly with Josh’s story.
1.Steady persistence in adhering to a course of action, a belief, or a purpose; steadfastness.
2. Christianity. The Calvinistic doctrine that those who have been chosen by God will continue in a state of grace to the end and will finally be saved.
When I read Josh Hamilton’s story ‘I’m proof that hope is never lost’ in ESPN the Magazine you really see the depths of his fall and rise in baseball and more importantly in his religious walk with GOD. After a major car accident hindered himself, his mother, and father, he began experimenting with drugs. When you see drug addiction in a quick 10 to 15 seconds news report on TV about a person in the limelight of fame all I could ever think about was how ignorant they were, but after listening to Josh’s story I’ll never be quick to judge like that again.
When Josh stated “I was so out of it I had lost consciousness, but my body had kept going, down the middle of the road, cars whizzing by on either side. I had run out of gas on my way to a drug dealer’s house, and from there I left the truck and started walking. I had taken Klonopin, a prescription antianxiety drug, along with whatever else I was using at the time, and the combination had put me over the edge. It’s the perfect example of what I was: a dead man walking.” I could see just how powerful the inner demons he was fight were. Through all of that Josh had to Angels slowly leading him toward his salvation, his grandmother who stood up to him and made him realize the life he had been living and his wife Katie who kept Josh believing that he had a bigger plan in life.
After Josh dealt with all of his inner problems, baseball followed along suit ,first with the Cincinnati Reds, and now with my Texas Rangers were he has become a MVP candidate. He is the perfect remodel that symbolizes the lyrics of Gospel singer Donnie McClurklin “We fall down, but we get up”. The lasting quote of Josh that will always stick with me is “Every day I’m reminded that my story is bigger than me.”
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