WOWZA!!!!!!!!

Wow. I am completely speechless. The Home Run Derby tonight was absolutely incredible. If you didn't see it, I feel for you. Haha. Because you missed a spectacle. The setting? The greatest sports venue in all of the world, Yankee Stadium in its' last year of existence. Eight sluggers were ready and willing to send balls over the walls of The House That Ruth Built. One of those sluggers was none other than Texas Rangers outfield, Josh Hamilton. Already becoming one of my absolute favorite Rangers players, he is one of the best stories in all of sports. A cocaine addict three years ago and ultimately on the brink of death, Josh Hamilton found himself on the doorstep of his maternal grandmother's house after his wife, Katie kicked him out of their house three years ago. Josh would have such vivid dreams that he would awake in a sweat and crawl under the covers with his grandmother by his side. What was rock bottom for Josh? When he appeared like a ghost at his grandmother's door - his sunken face as white as a snow, shrunken down from 230 lbs to 180.

Josh admits in Sports Illustrated that he had never dabbled in drugs or alcohol before the spring of 2001, after a car that his mother, Linda had been driving in was rammed by a dump truck that had run a red light. Then, at 19, Josh suffered a lower back injury that would sideline him for a month. After the accident, his parents left Josh to go back to Raleigh so his mother could rehab her injuries. For the first time in his life, Josh Hamilton was alone. He fell into a bad crowd at a tattoo parlor in Florida. Then, he was introduced to cocaine. With an abundance of injuries, that meant more time spent off the field and with the wrong crowd. Josh failed drug tests and getting tattoos was his favorite hobby. Major League Baseball suspended Hamilton for a total of three years. After eight months of being sober, did MLB allow him back to play.

Josh finally found himself on the Major League roster of the Cincinnati Reds. He hit 19 homeruns in his comeback season and attracted attention from all across baseball the the Comeback Story of the Year. The Rangers looked at Hamilton from every possible angle. They talked to people back home and to doctors about addiction. A deal was struck in late December: Hamilton for Edinson Volquez, one of the Rangers high end pitching prospects. And the Rangers have never looked back. The trade was a major success for both teams and Jon Daniels definitely earned the trust back of Rangers fans after this one.

This is one of the best stories in sports, no doubt about it. I am just so glad that he is a Texas Ranger. He is truly an inspiration and has captured the hearts of every Texas Rangers fan, including mine. Josh Hamilton is incredible in every aspect of the word. He has 95 RBI's at the Break and 21 homeruns. If you would have asked Josh or anyone who knew him three years ago if he would be one of the best players in the sport right now, I bet all of their answers would be no.

Which brings me to tonight (finally!). Haha. Josh was one of those aforementioned sluggers in the Derby tonight. He was going last. So, I watched everyone else, no one really standing out. Before he went on, I was getting kind of nervous. What if he couldn't live up to all this expectation? Well, Josh quickly squashed any of those thoughts from my head. His second homerun was a MONSTROUS 502 ft. I believe. Then, he had to beat that with a 504 and 518 (?) ft. shot. He had 2.36 MILES worth of homeruns! Bobby Abreu held the record of 24 homeruns in the first round of the Derby a couple of years ago (I watched that one. It was pretty incredible too). Well, 24 just wasn't enough for Josh. He had to go for 4 more! What I loved was the enthusiam I saw on Ian Kinsler's face watching his teammate crank baseballs out of Yankee Stadium. He looked like a little kid in a candy shop. Mike Young said before that all the Rangers were gonna be hanging together and that "If you see one of us, you're gonna see all of us." Kinsler, Young, and Bradley all sitting together and rooting their boy on brought a huge smile to my face. Bradley even had to go out and wipe Josh down and readjust his cap! Plus, I haven't even mentioned Josh's BP pitcher yet! His pitcher was 71 year old Claybon Counsil, who used to pitch to Josh and his brother when they played American Legion ball. He threw 54 pitches the first round!! It was truly incredible to watch and probably one of the best memories of Yankee Stadium. What a way to send it off!

So, Josh came out for a couple of AB's in the second round, even though it was unnecessary. He hit 4 but got 4 outs as well. It seemed he had gotten tired. Justin Morneau beat out Ryan Braun to make it to the final round against Mr. Hamilton. So, it should have been a shoo-in, right? Well, not exactly. All those early round homers seemed to have made Hambone tired. Morneau hit five homers. I was getting nervous when Josh kept making outs and I was disappointed when he lost. However, Josh is by no means a loser or even a runner-up. Morneau might have won, however Josh was just as big a champion as he was. Hearing the Yankee Stadium crowd chant "Hamilton!" was truly amazing. (After the Yankee Stadium crowed chanted "Josh Hamilton smokes crack." a few series ago when the Rangers were playing there, this was truly revenge for Josh.) Josh put on the better performance by far and he stole the show. What is ironic is that 10 years from now when you hear talk about this HR Derby, who do you think they will be talking about? I don't think people will be talking about Justin Morneau, even though he won the competition. Don't get me wrong, kudos and great job to Morneau. He was very consistent and having a small sample of Derby experience he knew what he had to do to win. However, Josh Hamilton stole the hearts of America and the fans at Yankee Stadium tonight and I can't think of another better person to do so. Who knew that his prediction earlier in the day of hitting one completely out of the park came sooo very close to being true?

Oh, and it was quite funny when Edinson Volquez (the guy he was traded for) came out and put a suitcase of money on the plate and he had to pause to sign autographs for players' young children. I also loved when Milton Bradley came up and interrupted him and had to take a picture with the man of the hour. Did anyone catch John Kruk at the end say that Josh Hamilton would be a Yankee in 3 or 4 years? That was met with an eye roll from me. Yeah, righttttt, Kruk. Dream on.

28 HR's in the first round - 13 consecutive.

35 in the whole thing.

Unreal.

I love this quote from an SI.com article. "The House That Ruth Built, 85 years ago, became the House That Hamilton Brought Down last night."

<3 hannah