Josh Hamilton?

Josh, Softball, with Natasha and Tiaria US Olympians

What a show.....

You heard the announcers saying it tonight...
" balls have a different sound coming off his bat "

People used to walk up to the counter at Grand Slam,
hear the crack of the bat, and comment...

Josh is here... right...

Here are some pictures that have never been made public..
Josh doing a softball camp with me back in 2005...
along with Natasha Watley and Tiaria Flowers of the US Olympic
team...... Also pictured is Gerry Mauro, presently an assistant coach
at St Joesph University..

Enjoy...

 

Not enough was made about this. Holy Cow! The guy was absolutely splitting the spot everytime. Josh's 28 were 50% his.

And he's 71! Seventy-one! I'm calling the Doc today & getting my rotator cuff surgery done. I'm not dead...I have a future!

I'm telling you, that 30 minutes was as much fun watching TV baseball as I've ever had.

 

I was at a Legion game and missed the HR Derby, highlights this morning looks absolutely great. Wow what a story. I hope that ESPN replays it later, I also forgot to record it.

 

tools- I hate that you missed it. No matter how many times it will be shown on ESPN, it will never be the same as the drama and electricity of watching it live. It will never be duplicated.

Of all the things said last night during Josh's at bat, Joe Morgan said the most telling. He explained that ML players have a hard time hitting ML pitchers if they are out for a month.....Josh was out for 3 years (and he wasn't working out during that time). Morgan went on to say that it would be nearly impossible for a veteran ML player to do what Josh does (he mentioned Ted Williams being gone during the war. But was experienced with ML pitching)...Josh is doing it with a background of only 40 AA games.

For those that watched his performance live, there is only one similar experience that made you feel... "I've seen this before"...Roy Hobbs!!!! But this was real!!!

It was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever seen in baseball. In fact, for me, it was the most amazing!

I hope and pray that he can continue to fight his demons the rest of his life.

 

Legendary

This may have been the single best 30 min. of sports I had the pleasure of watching. The old Coach and his boy really put on a show that my son and I will remember for years to come. This is Baseball at it's best, and life stories that comes with it. No other sport comes close.
Thanks Josh and Coach Council for reminding us why we love this game.

 

I'm hoping that we can get some stories of Coach Council from our Raleigh members. What a fitting experience for an obviously deserving coach....another chapter of demonstrated great character of Josh Hamilton. In this era of self absorbing athletes, Josh pinned another chip from God.

 

Josh only had 8 outs when he hit the 28th...& he just gave out. It was very clear he was emotionally spent.

I told Tyler: "He probably won't win this thing now....but Josh has already made his money." I bet his agent's phone was ringing off the wall all night long. Can you say Nike/Gatorade/You-Name-It??? Cha-Ching!!

 

5 tool player?

He is the true example of a five tool players, and those high school parents in the stands these days who say their son is a five tool player needs to look at this kid. I know he is a major leaguer, but when he was 15 years old he was a true five tool player. He could run, he threw mid 90's off the mound, he could hit for power and average, and was great defensively. One of those guys who doesn't come around too often.

 

Stories about Clay? I have so many but most of them are the "you had to be there" kind...

My favorite is when I was sitting with him by the on-deck circle and he was spitting all down the front of his shirt. I said, "Clay, you got spit all down your shirt!" and he just laughed back and said "Well, I don't have my teeth right now." One of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. Clay had given his dentures a rest and was just spittin chew all down his shirt.

Great guy. He's been like a grandfather to me ever since I knew what a baseball was. He's the easiest going person in the world. Cary HS got a coach a couple years ago that changed the locks and all that good stuff... I saw Clay walking around at a local park with 7 ball fields and I asked him what he was doin... he told me they changed the locks at the HS and he just wanted to watch some ball.

You're the man Clay.

 

Agreed! When Morgan made his point, nobody else seemed to jump on board. I thought it was excellent, but I guess the others were wrapped up in the excitement. He was dead on this time.

There was another interesting quote that was kind of glossed over as well. I think it was Rick Reilly who said, "It's a bad night to be an atheist."

Amen to that, brother. Nothing but the best for Josh......