Josh Hamilton breaks out of slump, but stays quiet about mystery issues and “disobedience”

Aaron Gleeman

Aug 3, 2012, 9:44 AM EDT

51 Comments

Josh Hamilton showed some life at the plate last night, going 2-for-5 with a double and four RBIs after batting just .167 from July 1 through August 1, but once again declined to address the details surrounding his cryptic comments about something troubling the former MVP.

People are not going to understand, I’ll share more later. It’s out there that my marriage is falling apart and people are trying to figure out what’s going on. But it’s nobody’s business. When I let you know, I’ll let you know.

Hamilton started all the speculation last week by making these comments:

I’ve been shown a lot of things over the past week. There’s disobedience and there’s obedience to God. I’ve been being disobedient. It may be a small thing to you, but it’s a big thing to him. There’s consequences. It’s like a father and a kid. There are disciplines. You guys can chew on that and think about it.

And so without any further details people have followed his advice to “chew on that and think about it” by speculating what exactly he was talking about. And manager Ron Washington furthered the speculation by saying during a radio interview that “Josh would definitely have to be the one to expose” the details and “it’s certainly not physical … it has nothing to do with injuries.”

As an impending free agent and former MVP with a long history of drug and alcohol problems who’s gone from the best player in baseball early on this season to an extended slump hitting below .200 it’s no surprise that Hamilton’s comments have led to rumors and speculation.

At some point he’s going to have to address the issue rather than just saying over and over again that he’ll “share more later,” but in the meantime the Rangers will certainly be happy if he starts hitting again.

Skip to Comments (51)

Email

« Newer Baseball cards found in Ohio attic sell for $566,000

Older » Josh Hamilton breaks out of slump, but stays quiet about mystery issues and “disobedience”

More HardballTalk

Back to Homepage

51 Comments (Feed for Comments)

bravojawja - Aug 3, 2012 at 9:48 AM

Let the snide remarks and wild speculation continue in 3 … 2 … 1 … GO!

Log in to Reply
- 18thstreet - Aug 3, 2012 at 9:59 AM
  
  The set of comments on the last post about this was repulsive. I’m not looking forward to what people say here, either.
  
  Log in to Reply
  - Gobias Industries - Aug 3, 2012 at 10:37 AM
    
    I wouldn’t worry about what people say here. There’s a big difference between the comments to articles posted at 9:44 AM (this one) and the comments to articles posted at 9:23 PM (that one). The graveyard shift commenters are…different.
brewcrewfan54 - Aug 3, 2012 at 9:49 AM

People wouldn’t be wondering what’s wrong with you Josh if you didn’t tell everyone there’s something wrong with you.

Log in to Reply
- mattyflex - Aug 3, 2012 at 10:35 AM
  
  Well, tonight he is actually slated to be a guest speaker for “Faith and Family Night” at Kauffman in Kansas City after the game. Maybe he will disclose something further at that time.
  
  Log in to Reply
joughstef - Aug 3, 2012 at 9:50 AM

Hope he gets through his troubles, but this is a huge red flag in a contract year. Probably going to cost him $$ or years w/ speculation.

Log in to Reply
- townballblog - Aug 3, 2012 at 11:46 AM
  
  I don’t know, Joughstef. I mean, all teams that would have the money to sign him are fully aware of his past personal issues. If anything, it may not necessarily affect how much they offer him but rather the amount of “personal-life support” they will surround him with. If you’re gonna offer someone a contract in excess of $100 million, what is another few hundred thousand dollars a year to make sure he has the best support around him.
  
  The problem that HE SEEMS to be going through right now (which we don’t know if it’s a fact or not) is something that happens everyday – even to very good people – so to assume that it is this particular issue that would cost him money in a contract may not be the case. If anything, the fact that he’s only averaged 114 games over the last 5 years will cost him money. But even that won’t because someone will still pay him.
  
  Finally, if you ask me, I rather have Josh Hamilton on my team than someone that thinks they are above everyone else. The person who thinks he is above everyone else is cannot be helped, it is a personality trait and not a drug/alcohol addiction that can be treated with therapy and a good support cast.
  
  Log in to Reply
joshfrancis50 - Aug 3, 2012 at 9:51 AM

Do you really believe that 2 hits in one game is breaking out of a slump or was that just headline filler to get to the other stuff?

Log in to Reply
- Bryz - Aug 3, 2012 at 11:37 AM
  
  You do have a point, but the double and 4 RBI also might constitute breaking out of a slump.
  
  Log in to Reply
  - Utley's Hair - Aug 3, 2012 at 11:39 AM
    
    Damn you!!!
- Utley's Hair - Aug 3, 2012 at 11:38 AM
  
  I’m pretty sure the double and four RBI had something to do with it, too.
  
  Log in to Reply
- Jeremy Fox - Aug 3, 2012 at 11:55 AM
  
  That’s actually a good question. How well does someone have to hit, and for how long, before it counts as “breaking out of a slump”? I mean, if Hamilton hits .200 for another month, isn’t this one game really just a blip during one big long slump? Or is one big game enough to officially end a slump, so that if he hits .200 for another month that’s a whole new slump?
  
  Log in to Reply
beefytrout - Aug 3, 2012 at 9:54 AM

Jon Daniels responded to a question about it on the Rangers twitter feed yesterday (he took it over in a promoted “appearance”) and said something along the lines of “to me, this isn’t a big thing at all, but to Josh, it’s a very big thing.”

The fact that JD would bring it up at all, and then refer to it that way, makes me think it’s not Hamilton’s marriage that is the issue.

Log in to Reply
cjasfenton - Aug 3, 2012 at 10:21 AM

One game doesn’t indicate a slump is over, but going 6/17 with 3 extra base hits, 5 RBI, and 4 runs in the Angel’s series seems to indicate he’s turning things around.

Log in to Reply
raidernation831 - Aug 3, 2012 at 10:37 AM

Praying for him would be a good thing.

Log in to Reply
- lmoneyfresh - Aug 3, 2012 at 11:28 AM
  
  Not to sound like a dick, but he seems to pray all the time. It doesn’t seem to be working.
  
  Log in to Reply
  - 18thstreet - Aug 3, 2012 at 11:49 AM
    
    I’m pretty sure I’m an atheist these days, but I was raised Jewish. Probably best to describe myself as Jew-ish. But there’s an adage that can be attributed everyone’s grandmother: G-d answers all prayers. Sometimes, the answer is ‘no.’
    
    Josh Hamilton has a different belief system than I do, but belief in G-d is rarely (if ever) premised on the idea that all one’s problems will go away.
    
    You do, in fact, sound like a dick.
  - lmoneyfresh - Aug 3, 2012 at 11:59 AM
    
    That was my point though. Praying isn’t and won’t do anything for him. He needs to be accountable and take control of it himself, instead of constantly putting it, “in god’s hands.”
    
    He’s free to believe what he wants, same with you, and same with raidernation831, but the idea that he just needs a few more people to pray for him and he’ll be all good, is naive at best as it hasn’t gotten far since I’m sure plenty of the god fearing Texans have prayed for him over the years.
  - Old Gator - Aug 3, 2012 at 2:01 PM
    
    You don’t sound like a dick because you’ve belabored a truly obvious point about prayer. You sound like a dick because you’re looking at a guy who has been struggling with enormous devils most of his adult life, has managed to be a husband and father – however flawed – and mastered the incredibly difficult skills of professional basebal until he has become an MVP-caliber ballplayer, and is still struggling with his devils and still managing to hold his life together against odds that have put the vast majority of people with his issues in jail, clinging to a bare existence over steam gratings on urban streets, or in their graves well before they got to his age, and saying “it doesn’t seem to be working” as blithely as if you were gazing down from a marble pedestal of your own devising.
    
    That’s why you sound like a dick.
  - 18thstreet - Aug 3, 2012 at 3:21 PM
    
    Gator wins.
  - suhisabeast90 - Aug 3, 2012 at 3:34 PM
    
    You most definitively sound like a Dick. Or at least have a complete lack of understanding about prayer. Which in turn makes you a dick.
  - lmoneyfresh - Aug 3, 2012 at 3:42 PM
    
    I admit that my comment might have been slightly insensitive, but you’re making a pretty big leap with that speech you laid out there Gator. I’m not trying to downplay Josh’s struggles necessarily, but I maintain that it doesn’t seem that the methods Josh is currently employing with his fight against addition are working all that well lately, which include a heavy reliance on religion and/or prayer. He’s had a few relapses and a few instances of infidelity as well. Maybe prayer isn’t the answer for him in the end. That’s was my point, and it wasn’t made from my ivory tower or high horse. It was honesty, maybe put a little bit too blunt, but I was being honest.
zackd2 - Aug 3, 2012 at 10:37 AM

Just be honest and say, “I’ll talk about it after I get my 100m contract”

Log in to Reply
tjg25 - Aug 3, 2012 at 10:45 AM

@18thstreet Don’t read the comments if you’re offended. Kind of like turning the channel on TV if you don’t like it. Josh and all the fakes like him set themselves up for this kind of thing because they are FAKES.

Log in to Reply
- Old Gator - Aug 3, 2012 at 10:57 AM
  
  Ah – the out-from-under-my-rock contingent is well represented here now. Thanks, moron, for classing up the thread.
  
  Log in to Reply
  - suhisabeast90 - Aug 3, 2012 at 3:36 PM
    
    Another dick speaks
- kopy - Aug 3, 2012 at 1:08 PM
  
  There’s no such thing as a fake.
  
  “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
  
  Log in to Reply
tfbuckfutter - Aug 3, 2012 at 10:45 AM

I find it interesting that he noted the marriage rumors, but didn’t dismiss them.

Also….does it seem like he is suggesting his slump is God disciplining him for whatever infraction he has caused?

Because that’s an awesome excuse for sucking. “I’m trying hard guys, it’s just….God is mad at me for drinking a beer.”

Log in to Reply
stex52 - Aug 3, 2012 at 10:53 AM

I’ve been a pretty steady supporter of Hamilton as he battles his addictions. And I know it goes well beyoond just being character weaknesses, that it is a disease.

Having said all that, I am getting a little tired of his need to wrestle his demons in the public media. I would have to think that is detrimental rather than helpful. Maybe we have a desperate need for attention working here, too?

Log in to Reply
- tfbuckfutter - Aug 3, 2012 at 11:17 AM
  
  “Alcoholism is a disease. But it’s the only disease you can get yelled at for having. ‘Dammit Mitch, you’re an alcoholic!’ ‘Dammit Mitch, you have lupus!’….One just doesn’t sound right.”
  
  -Mitch Hedberg
  
  Log in to Reply
mybrunoblog - Aug 3, 2012 at 11:15 AM

It seems like Hamilton understands how it works. If he were hitting .350 with 35 homers any family issues he has wouldn’t be very news worthy. When a superstar slumps and hits under .200 for a month and it isn’t injury related then it is a big story.

Log in to Reply
byjiminy - Aug 3, 2012 at 11:31 AM

I’m thinking…unpaid speeding tickets?

Log in to Reply
sabatimus - Aug 3, 2012 at 11:40 AM

It sounds like Hamilton wanted to let everyone know (admittedly in a somewhat cryptic way) that he’s having some form of “weakness (as he’s put it before), but that he wasn’t ready to go into the details yet. This reminds me in spirit of when he had a few drinks in public in Dallas and texted Ian Kinsler that he was doing so–he wants people to know something is up with him because it might help to keep him honest.

Certainly, burying your feelings about a subject like this always comes back to bite you eventually, so I respect his comments even though they are on the face of it cryptic.

Log in to Reply
lewp - Aug 3, 2012 at 11:58 AM

Don’t forget, josh gave up dipping which in my opinion, contributed to his slump. Maybe he’s gone back to dipping?

Log in to Reply
- 18thstreet - Aug 3, 2012 at 3:23 PM
  
  Thanks, Doctor.
  
  Log in to Reply
muir6 - Aug 3, 2012 at 12:19 PM

I’m sure no matter what it’s gods plan because he has taken special interest in josh career. Maybe his wife found someone who doesn’t need babysitter

Log in to Reply
randygnyc - Aug 3, 2012 at 12:34 PM

The difference between Beckett and Hamilton is that Beckett is a real dick and people root for him to fail. I’m not rooting for Josh to fail, but I expect it, there’s a difference. Again, not surprised there may be a divorce. Josh said an interesting thing after her bar/sexcapade relapse, that he spends a lot of time alone and isn’t a very good husband or father. I found it strange because it was the offseason, time generally spent with the family. Also strange is that he didn’t say he wanted to be a better husband/father, but he wasn’t a good husband/father. I think Josh screws up and shuts down.

Log in to Reply
- sabatimus - Aug 3, 2012 at 12:54 PM
  
  What the heck does Beckett have to do with this article?
  
  Log in to Reply
  - 18thstreet - Aug 3, 2012 at 3:24 PM
    
    Fried chicken and beer! Fried chicken and beer!
    
    Sorry, reflex.
myedayok - Aug 3, 2012 at 1:34 PM

No matter what job you do, if it affects your production someone is going to question you about it. And when you already say theirs something else going on you’ve opened youself up a can of worms all by your statement. He should either say what’s wrong or he shouldn’t have said anything at all.

Log in to Reply
biffnasty - Aug 3, 2012 at 1:59 PM

His disobedience to God is his sexual orientation. He is a homosexual

Log in to Reply
- Old Gator - Aug 3, 2012 at 2:10 PM
  
  Really? You’ve partied with him and know this for a fact? Or are you, eh, just talking through your asshole?
  
  Log in to Reply
captaincanoe - Aug 3, 2012 at 2:39 PM

As time goes on, I feel more and more like he is just a self- absorbed pussy.

Log in to Reply
- sabatimus - Aug 3, 2012 at 3:19 PM
  
  See Gator’s comment just above.
  
  Log in to Reply
- Old Gator - Aug 3, 2012 at 3:19 PM
  
  It’s kinda tough not to be self absorbed when you have to monitor yourself every moment of every day, though. The inane and uncomprehending simplicity of your analysis – not to mention how long it seems to have taken you to arrive at your conclusion, however simplistic – indicates that you can’t even imagine what that’s like to have to struggle like that.
  
  Log in to Reply
suhisabeast90 - Aug 3, 2012 at 3:46 PM

Sounds like the man is asking any and everyone for help. I will never fault a man for asking for help. It takes a lot of guts a nerve to do it on a grand scale and still keep some privacy for himself. I hope he gets the help he needs, whatever it maybe.

Log in to Reply
biffnasty - Aug 3, 2012 at 3:55 PM

Quitting Herion cold turkey will NOT kill you! The only two drugs quitting cold turkey that will kill u is alcohol and benzos(Xanax)

Log in to Reply
Chooch51Ruiz - Aug 3, 2012 at 9:55 PM

Success only makes it more difficult to deal with his problems, I dont think alot of you understand he has to deal with all this 24/7. Addiction is not just magically cured, there are ups and downs and hopefully josh can experience more ups than down for the rest of his life.

Log in to Reply

Leave Comment

You must be logged in to leave a comment. Not a member? Register now!

« Newer Baseball cards found in Ohio attic sell for $566,000

Older » Josh Hamilton breaks out of slump, but stays quiet about mystery issues and “disobedience”

More HardballTalk

Back to Homepage

More HardballTalk

Latest Posts

Top Posts

Subscribe