Total Forgiveness

Summertime trips to visit friends in Dallas will usually find our family making a trip to see the Texas Rangers play baseball. I was disappointed to spend the 4th of July weekend in the metroplex, while my Rangers spent the holiday weekend in Baltimore!

As I sat doing homework earlier tonight, Mike came into the bedroom and said..."You need to see the homerun derby." I flipped the television station over to the coverage of Major League Baseball's All-Star celebration, just in time to see Texas Ranger outfielder Josh Hamilton hit his 23rd homerun. He was being pitched to by his High School American Legion coach. Hamilton had promised the man while playing for him in Raleigh, North Carolina that if he ever made the major leagues and was invited to hit in the homerun derby that he would ask Clay Council to pitch for him. And tonight, the 71 year old Coach took the mound in front of a packed out Yankees Stadium. Rubbing elbows with men who will one day take their place in the Hall of Fame.

"Do you know Hamilton's story?" Mike asked. He tell me just a bit about the clean cut blonde young man, and then walks out of the bedroom. Curiousity got the best of me and I started researching the heavy hitter.

The 27 year old has been down roads that parents would never wish for their children. He was released from Major League Baseball in 2005 for repeated drug addiction and failed attempts at rehab. He had hit rock bottom, losing his career, and was in jeapordy of losing his family and his life. An ESPN article that Hamilton wrote about himself has me in tears as he talks about going to sleep in strange places and praying that he would never wake up. His body is covered in 26 tattoo's that Hamlton now says he's ashamed of, but shows where he came from. What turned his life around when so many athletes are still encompassed in drugs and alcohol?