I was going to write a post on the amazing season that Josh Hamilton is having this past week for the Texas Rangers.
For those of you unfamiliar with Hamilton, here’s a quick recap. He was drafted out of high school first overall in the 1999 draft by the Tampa Devil Rays. He was a five-tool player who was projected to be one of the best players ever. However, he dealt with drug addiction and alcoholism and was out of the game for a few years. He hit rock bottom, but found religion and cleaned his life up. Slowly he started playing baseball again and made a nice impact with the Cincinnati Reds last year. He was then traded to the Rangers in the off-season and is leading the major in RBI’s and is having an MVP caliber season. As an exclamation point to his great start to this season, he had a record-setting performance in the Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium earlier this week.
OK, you’re caught up. It’s a great story that has inspired a lot of people, even those who don’t follow baseball. However, there are some haters out there.
Some want to see Hamilton stick it out for a while longer before we completely say that he’s cured of his addictions. That’s fair I guess, but those people need to realize that he’s going to be an addict his entire life and he will never be completely cured.
Some are saying that he plays in a hitter’s park and Ian Kinsler and Michael Young are just as valuable to the team. That can also be a fair estimation.
Some are saying that Milton Bradley is having a better season and isn’t receiving the same attention because he’s Black. J.A. Adande of ESPN.com had the nerve to make this statement on First Take.
First, here’s a fair prospective on Milton’s and Josh’s story here: http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-star14-2008jul14,0,546313.story
In the end, I realized something.
First, even though a successful Vandy alum, Skip Bayless, is on the show, I need to stop watching First Take.
But I think this is a general commentary on my sports viewing.
I’ve watched less ESPN, CSS, Fox Sports and other sports networks right now than ever in my life and I’m enjoying it a lot. That’s why I want no part of the ESPY’s tonight.
I still go to my five or six sports Web sites, which are usually cnnsi.com, espn.com, foxsports.com, deadspin.com, biglead.com, sherdog.com, mmaweekly.com and a few others. I’ll maybe catch SportsNite on CSS, SportsCenter, PTI and Jim Rome is Burning on ESPN. That’s it.
I used to watch sports channels for hours and hours, but its overkill. I value the opinions of others, but I get overwhelmed. I also got tired of hearing about the steroids in sports and all of the negative things in sports getting way too much coverage.
I understand why all of these shows exist. There’s an interest in it and everyone has an opinion. Heck, some of you are reading my blog for my opinion on sports topics.
This does relate to Hamilton.
Instead of watching the over analysis of a good story, I’m going to just enjoy it on my own and you should too.
For now, here’s Josh doing his thing at the Home Run Derby.
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