From baseball to drugs back to baseball: Josh Hamilton's story

If you have any interest in this week's Major League Baseball All-Star Game in New York, then you know about Josh Hamilton, a player for the Texas Rangers who wowed everyone Monday night in the event's home run derby.

It's an event where big home-run hitters in all of Major League baseball try to get as many home runs as they can in three rounds of competition. Hamilton hit a record-breaking 28 homers in the first round. Crack after crack of the bat, Hamilton and the crowd watched, amazed, as the balls flew into the crowd, many of them into the upper decks of the stadium -- those are some home runs! Hamilton said before the event he wanted to hit one out of the ballpark. He didn't. He didn't even end up winning the competition, but all the sports talk today is about his first round with 28 homers.

Last night's derby isn't what makes him so amazing, though. It's his story -- from No. 1 draft pick in 1999 to drug addict back to baseball again. This morning I watched an old story on ESPN about Hamilton. It made no mention of how he made his amazing comeback to baseball. A colleague of Mike's sent him this story, linked below, which alludes to the how and why. This ESPN.com article is Hamilton's story in his own words, written last year. I thought you'd like to read it. It's kind of long, but it's well worth the read.

A week in the Big Apple

New York skyline from Ellis Island











Restaurant in Little Italy















At a Yankees game. This is the last year of the old Yankees Stadium, constructed in 1923. The new stadium is under construction right across the street.












South Street Seaport















Part of the reality of New York -- piles of garbage bags along the streets. There aren't too many places to put garbage ready for pickup in crowded Manhattan, so you end up navigating around it wherever you walk.














With our friend Donn (longtime friend of Mike's dad) in Brooklyn












Central Park













At Times Square. The entire area is the very picture of consumerism. The constant stream of people is unbelievable.














Statue of Liberty












The best part of New York -- pizza shops and hot dog stands everywhere!











Central Park again















Monument Park at Yankees Stadium, a shrine to all the famous Yankees players. We arrived at the stadium two and a half hours early and stood in line for an hour to see this place. I have a growing appreciation for baseball, but I thought it was a little over the top, especially the handful of people I saw kissing plaques to players like Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio.











Trinity Church spire in the middle of Wall Street area. Ground Zero isn't far from here. We couldn't see much (it's all under construction), but being where the Twin Towers fell was meaningful. Especially touching was St. Paul's Chapel, a church across the street from Ground Zero that became an impromptu place of volunteer ministry as people combed through the wreckage of the towers for several months following 9/11.



It's been WAY too long since I've posted here. It has been a busy couple of months -- I taught a class in June, did a big writing project that I just finished today, and my husband Mike and I spent last week in New York City visiting a friend and seeing the sights. I've posted some photos from our trip.

We did a lot in five days in NYC. We walked around Wall Street and Ground Zero, the South Street Seaport, went to a Yankees game, walked through Central Park and down Fifth Avenue, did a short tour of Greenwich Village, Soho and Little Italy. We spent a day visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and saw "The Lion King" on Broadway. Finally we had lunch at Tavern on the Green, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and did a short walking tour of the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood. Can you tell we did a lot of walking?

Things we love about New York: The subway (public transportation is so convenient there); pizza and deli sandwich shops on every corner; the distinctiveness of the neighborhoods, culturally, architecturally and otherwise; the peace and quiet of Central Park in the middle of the big city, unless you happen to go on a day when a Bon Jovi concert is going on there, like we did on Saturday; and the "busyness" of everything in New York. Nowhere else in the world are so many things happening at once. The sheer number of people on Manhattan (not even counting all the summer tourists) is staggering.

The crowds, the heat & humidity and the pace of the city wore on us after several days. We were glad to return home to our quiet little lives in Denver. That's another thing we love about going on any vacation, whether to New York City or somewhere else: We love going away, but being in another place somehow makes us more thankful for the home we have.