Loading ...Hamilton provides living ‘I told ya’ so’
I’m not going to be one of those writers who says he doesn’t want to tell you he told you so because I told everyone so. The minute this piece ran in ESPN The Magazine and was immediately followed by this heartwarming ESPN report on “never losing hope” I quietly waited for the rest of the bamboozled world to see what I already knew.
Josh Hamilton is not a hero.
Because my opinion on Hamilton is not based solely on soapbox material but rather on the reality of having to live with someone who “suffers” from addiction, I feel qualified indicting ESPN on several counts of fraud, false praise, and reclamation of character.
Because Josh Hamilton is not a hero.
"I'll do one! I'll do one!"
For reasons that are frustratingly beyond me, the mainstream media keeps searching for guys like Hamilton. Guys who have ruined lives, have spit in the face of God given ability, have reached a level of narcissism previously relegated only to Narcissus himself.
When such a subject is found, producers scramble to put together montages of the person’s life complete with barely audible piano overtures, interviews with ashamed parents and forsaken spouses, and a cornucopia of mug shots, all of which are meant to show us not how far the addict has fallen but rather how far he’s come.
The anti-hero is then paraded in front of millions of “fans” who have gathered to support the failure as he sits, faux humbly, on Oprah’s dais (right, James Frey?), in Regis and Kelly’s directors chairs’, or on some MTV stage as he introduces the top video of the day.
Maybe the athlete has somehow maintained his skills to the point at which he’s invited to compete in an all-star game, a charity event, or some trite skills competition (like the Homerun Derby) at which dozens of kids, wholly unaware of the kind of person for whom they’re cheering, surround and hug the player in admiration.
And maybe those same kids, who are no doubt more tech savvy than their parents, wake up the next day and Google their favorite fallen angel only to find him hammered, shirtless, and on the cusp on adultery.
Is this bar really empty besides these four idiots or is it just me?
“But Josh Hamilton is my hero,” he’d mutter to his own father.
“No, son, Josh Hamilton is not a hero,” dad would say.
See, my problem is not necessarily with Hamilton because, like I said, I knew this was coming. Instead, I’m so tired of people like Hamilton, athletes or laymen, who know they thrive on screwing up, who know they can always convince just one more person of their sobriety, who refuse to do whatever it takes to avoid ending up like, well, themselves again and again and again.
Immediately after his “relapse,” Hamilton claims to have contacted his wife, Rangers’ management, and his teammates in an effort to apologize as soon as possible for such an awful indiscretion. While I can buy that as being possible, my first question to Hamilton would have been, “Were you rehearsing that speech while you were allowing yourself to be photographed during a relapse?”
What those blessed, precious few, who do not have to deal with addiction in and around their families, don’t understand is guys like Hamilton just don’t care. If addicts who aren’t part of a multimillion dollar payroll, who don’t get to be on TV, and who aren’t asked to pen their own “inspirational” memoir aren’t willing to ask themselves if what they’re about to put into their bodies is wrong, what’s a guy like Hamilton going to think? While those pictures were being snapped (my favorite is the one in which he’s pointing his index finger in the air; what exactly is #1 at that point?), Hamilton knew he’d wake up to a maelstrom of negative press but he’d still get to take BP, still get to run out to right field, and still get to deposit a check with a whole bunch of zeroes at the end of it.
As a fan of Denis Leary’s brilliant Rescue Me, I got to thinking of this idea of relapsing. I understand what it means and, in some cases, I can understand why it happens. In Leary’s fictional case, his character has to deal with the death of 343 fellow firefighters in the 9/11 tragedy, the death of his son, his own brother’s relationship with his wife, and that same brother’s death all in the first three seasons. So, if I were going to compare Tommy Gavin’s relapse, fictional though it may be, to Josh Hamilton’s it would be like comparing keg stands to body shots. Well, apples to oranges anyway.
What I think ESPN needs to do is to run an Outside the Lines featuring all those athletes they previously canonized who have since relapsed. I mean the entire year’s programming could be hammered out over coffee at a local Starbucks in Bristol. Hamilton, Mike Vick, Lenny Dykstra, Lyle Alzado, Manny, A-Rod, Bonds, McGwire, Sosa (we need a name for this crew–Mt. Roidmore?), hell, throw Hulk Hogan in there.
Not to belabor the point I made in my Jason Bay (July 8th) piece, but what are the good guys supposed to do? They wake up, go to work, do right by their families, and try to carve out even a small niche for themselves only to be overshadowed by the darkness of people like Hamilton.
Because Josh Hamilton is not a hero.
"I'm sure if I just apologize, my wife and kids will understand. I mean, I have demons I need to exorcise, right?"
And I told ya’ so.
scratch that!!! i dont think i could hear his name anymore.
I have been thinking this same thing recently and today i had to shut off the yankee-rangers game b/c the first 4 innings all the announcers talked about was josh hamilton. It was awful and i think its time for a nice josh hamilton steroid scandal
Great article. Im glad somebody said it. I know someone with this problem to the nth degree and he really can fool everybody. Some addicts need to try their luck in Hollywood cause they can act their asses off.
Denis Leary is the worst. He is not funny and his shows suck. I’m irish and I still don’t like him!
We discussed this cool. After I read last year in SI Interview with him, he said he goes from the stadium right home, and thats it. No stops, because he may not control himself. I said in NO TIME, this guy will fall off the deep end again. Lookie now! Last week on ESPN, he said “I guess I just cant have one”. I fell off the sofa laughing uncontrollably. Go get some more tattoos…. Hammer