It's Real -- The Daily Fight

In a really unfortunate turn of events, photos of Josh Hamilton have surfaced showing the Texas Rangers outfielder drinking heavily in an Arizona bar. The pictures were taken in a Tempe bar last January and show Hamilton apparently having a pretty good time with a bunch of women, none of whom are his wife, and slurping whipped cream off the “torso” of a young woman.

Hamilton released this statement talking about the drunken incident:

“I’m embarrassed about it for my wife Katie, for my kids and for the organization,” Hamilton said. “I’m not perfect. It’s an ongoing struggle, and it’s real. It’s amazing how these things can creep back in. But I am human and I have struggles.”

“If I think I can have one drink, I think I can have two, and then it snowballs to 10 or 12,” Hamilton said. “As soon as it happened, I called my support staff — Katie, the organization and MLB — and told them what happened. I was open and honest about it. People with an addiction can make a mistake.”

This story hit me pretty hard. I was at an airport waiting for a flight when the story came up on ESPN, and I let out a fairly audible “oh no.” I was inspired by Hamilton, a top MLB prospect who spiraled down into addiction to crack and alcohol. His addiction was so severe that he actually bounced a check to a drug dealer, even though he was making millions.

But he seemed to have caged his demons and turned his life around. He was on fire last year in the majors. And at the 2008 Home Run Derby he was incredible. His story appeared to be one of redemption and spiritual awakening. We’re America. We love a comeback story, and that’s exactly what this was. It was a sure bet to be made into a Disney movie.

Josh Hamilton slipped at least once and may well slip again. That's the awful truth of life with addiction. Make no mistake about it: every single day is a fight, a terrible, endless fight that is never won. "Once more unto the breach," every day. Consider a life lived one day at a time, one hour at a time against a disease that smothers your heart, corrodes your soul, chews away at your self-confidence and destroys families, careers, you name it. Rust never sleeps.


If you've fought the demons of addiction or if you've had a friend or family member fight the fight, you won't judge Hamilton. You'll pray for him and his family.

Addicts have good days and bad days. On the bad days, the demons creep into their brains, sapping their strength, fight, everything.

We knew this last summer when everyone was writing and talking about Hamilton's heroic fight. His drug and alcohol use almost killed him. There was the morning he knocked on his grandmother's door. He knew he'd hit bottom when she didn't recognize the sad, wasted figure in front of her.

To come from there to do the things he did last summer was almost incomprehensible. Yet somehow, we knew it was just round one of the fight.

Somebody once asked me how many chances an addict should get. Three strikes? Six strikes? I couldn’t answer, but a man next to me snapped “As many as he needs.“ It reminded me of a passage in the bible – and I know I am not getting this completely right – where Jesus is asked how many times should we forgive somebody who wrongs us, how many chances should they get? Jesus replied “a thousand times a thousand,” or something like that. JC was a pretty cool dude, and his response really rocked those Pharisees on their heels.


Hamilton seems like a good and decent man, even though he has put his family through hell and was forced to admit a slip in his sobriety. He'd admitted it to his family members and to Major League Baseball months ago. He did it quickly and apparently set out to get his life back in order.


He plays for the Texas Rangers, but it's a stretch to call him a teammate. Hamilton lives apart from them after games. He can't go the places they go, so he returns to his hotel room, usually won't set foot in a bar, won't be around his teammates if there's alcohol. He typically doesn't even have money in his pocket. One less temptation.

His slip will be national news, and some people will feel duped by his feel-good story. These are the people who simply don't understand that addiction is a disease, not a choice.

These stories frequently don't have happy endings. An NFL general manager once said that there was about a 90 percent chance that a player with a substance-abuse problem would have a relapse. To this particular GM, the report was a mandate to not give addicts a second chance. Why waste time and money on someone who was going to end up disappointing you?


Josh Hamilton may end up a statistic, too. This might be the first of many slips. Then again, he may have been lying to us all along. We just don't know. That's the terrible truth about addiction. God gave Hamilton amazing physical gifts but tested him in ways most of us can't comprehend.
Hamilton has done a wonderful job telling his story and detailing his daily fight. And he surely has helped at least a few people in their daily walk, including me. With his slip, he reminded us the fight will never be won. It’s real indeed.