The Josh Hamilton fairy-tale is obviously one of the most talked about stories of the first half of this MLB season. A former first pick that was out of the game for 3 years taking the American League and Major League Baseball by storm in his first full season back in the Majors has to make sports writers everywhere giddy with the possibilities. And on top of the incredible RBI pace, and the all-star selection, the 28 home runs traveling an average of over 450 feet in 1 round of the Derby is just another chapter in this amazing story. When the capacity crowd at Yankee stadium started to cheer his name I literally got chills. But is he really a positive role model?
Hamilton missed three years not because he was serving our country like the greats of WWII and the Korean War, not because he was coming back from some horrific injury or disease like paralysis or cancer, and not because of some injustice from the league or the government, but because he was a drug addict. I know when he was out of the game he had no formal training regiment, and the only batting practice he did was by feeding quarters into a cage at the local sports club, and I am not trying to diminish his accomplishment, it is amazing, but that doesn’t make him a role model for everyone. And his recovery and return to grace is a great story, and must be written and told throughout the US and the world as an example of what perseverance can do, and that no matter what your current situation, you have the ability to be great.
However, the way in which this story is told is just as important as the story itself. The important lesson is that he came back and became what he should have been all along, and if he hadn’t succumbed to addiction just imagine what he could have accomplished. Many of the stories and broadcasts from the past months are ready to coronate Hamilton as the next face of MLB. But many of them fall short of explaining the full lesson here.
It is not okay to lose 3 years of your life to drugs and alcohol.
We cannot teach our children that being a druggie and a slacker is ok as long as you eventually come out of it. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with Josh Hamilton, I think he is a great example of what a person should do if they find themselves overcome with drugs and alcohol. My problem is with the media who is so ready for a positive role model to take over from the steroids era that they will take anyone who comes along. What about the real winner last night Justin Morneau, or David Wright, or Chase Utley, or any other guy who has done it the right way?
Every person, young or old, who has or will ever suffer from addiction problems, can use Hamilton as a positive example of what can happen when you commit yourself to sobriety. It proves the resiliency of the human spirit that you can come back from the depths and achieve your greatest potential. I sincerely hope that this is not an anomaly, and that Josh Hamilton will continue to become one the great ball players of this generation, but we must be careful to put these lessons in the proper context. I never want my child to grow up like Josh Hamilton.
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If you've missed any of this morning's program or just want to watch it again, 'The Sports Reporters' replays at 11 on ESPN2. :)
Tread lightly when calling up the legends of the game. A lot of them drank like fish and beat the crap out of the their wives and kids.
I would expand the question to include:
Why should we look to these adult men who are paid millions of dollars to play a child's game to find role models at all?
I can appreciate their athleticism and the skill and talent it takes to play at the professional level, but I don't think I ever would, or ever have, looked at a pro athlete as a role model.
What about Albert Schweitzer or Clara Barton or Fredrick Douglas or Gandhi? Those are role models. I hope kids learn about those people in school.
Gandhi was a sex addict. Fact.
Also, I think Ian makes a good point about athletes being probably the worst choice for a role model, all things considered, they're children who we encourage to continue childlike behavior, and therefore have basically all of the problems in their adult lives that good parents would be wise to try and train out of their kids.
But I think in condemning Hamilton for his past addictions you risk squashing the part of his story that matters most, Flip.
Raymond Chandler said "In anything which can be called art, there is a quality of redemption;" I think that's true of any story that people have an interest in hearing.
It's impossible to say that his journey (through the horrors of drug abuse, out the other side after having some brushes with death, and whathaveyou) is the "wrong" way to do what he did.
Yes, he chose a dark and ugly path, but literally millions of people walk that path every day, and many of them never emerge from it. It starts with making bad choices, and you fall down a pretty deep well.
But in Josh Hamilton, you have an example of a person who walked that rough road, eventually saw the light, and righted the ship so strongly that he might be the MVP of Major League Baseball many times over by the time he's done.
That's a story that needs to be told. Over and over again. Because people that are walking that path need to see some hope, and kids — many of whom are in situations that ugly already — need to see that path isn't a dead end. What's more important: To condemn people who make bad choices? Or to encourage them to make the right ones, no matter how lost they might be?
If we can learn any lesson from Hamilton, it's that there's nothing so broken it's impossible to fix. And when I have kids, I'd love to have them learn that lesson from a story like Hamilton's.
Matt and Ian I agree with you 100%, and every point you make is the right one, the point I am trying to make is the media hype surrounding Hamilton, as well as many other athletes like him, makes this story seem easy and joyous. I just hope that many of the less intelligent and more impressionable viewers of this ongoing saga don't take lightly the hell Hamilton went through.
the lesson is and should be: 'Seeing a guy like Hamilton reminds me that I need to do everything in my power to avoid the ravages of Drugs and alchohol so I can accomplish everything I should in my life, but if for some reason I do fall I know now that there is light at the end of the tunnel if I work hard at it'
I'm no Aesop, but hopefully you see my point
Which one of those Gatorade bottles did your dong not fit into?
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