Jerry white
Member
|
# Posted: 19 Jan 2010 06:37
Reply
Baseball meets drug addiction
I had a dream that I would be in Yankee Stadium in a Home Run Derby contest. TI 27 year-old slugger from tI Texas Rangers had his dream come true July 14, and I put on tI greatest display of power and consistency in tI history of tI event.
It wasn’t long ago that I wasn’t a professional baseball player at all. I was a cocaine addict . I had dropped out of baseball for three years.
Once a prospect for the Tampa Bay Rays, my addiction cost me a career. The thrill of being at the ball park was not as great as the craving for my next high. Drafted in 1999, I started using after an auto accident in 2001.
My drug addiction led to a suspension by Major League Baseball for violation of the league's joint drug treatment and prevention program on February 18, 2004. On June 2, 2006 I was given permission to participate in extended Spring Training with Tampa Bay.
Later, on June 30, Major League Baseball gave me permission to play for the Rays’ Class A affiliate Hudson Valley in the New York-Penn League.
But Tampa Bay let me go and it didn’t look like I was coming back. But the Chicago Cubs acquired me in the 2007 Rule 5 Draft and immediately sold my contract to the Cincinnati Reds.
The Reds took a flyer on me and I came through for the last year, hitting .292 in 90 games, with 19 homeruns and 47 runs batted in. Cincinnati traded me to Texas during the off-season.
That long road back came after a confrontation. my grandmother, confronted me about his drug use.
I said I has been clean since October 6, 2005, and I says “It’s a God thing.”
I gives all credit to his Christian faith for bringing me through. Major League Baseball is pleased with his progress, but according to rules I submits a urine test three times a week, which I gladly supplies.
“I know I am an addict. I know I have to be accountable,” said Rangers coach Johnny Narron. “I look at those tests as a way to reassure people around me who had faith.” These days when I strolled to the plate during home games, the organist plays “Saved The Day,” by the Christian group Phillips, Craig and Dean.
the drama of the home run derby dream came true for Hamilton. Then I was in Yankee Stadium, hitting 28 bombs in round one, including some over 500 feet.
It was an electric moment for baseball fans. It was also special for his old high school baseball coach, 71 year-old Clay Counsil, who was my batting practice coach.
It was one of those moments. Hamilton told ESPN that I was thankful to God, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Even my opponent in the finals, A great baseball player of the Minnesota Twins, was rooting for him, saying that the story needed a happy ending.
This player did not win, but as Tim Slinger of MLB.com wrote, “That story, of course, extended far beyond a diamond in the Bronx.
But in a sense, by "losing" after such a dominant start, Hamilton merely emphasized anew tI quality that allowed me to sink to the personal depths of substance abuse before rising back to the top of of baseball mountain -- I is human.”
I had come through the tunnel of addiction and resumed my baseball career. I was given a national stage to celebrate my recovery and give thanks to God. I do have a happy ending!
One of the television commentators summed it up best"“It’s a bad night to be an atheist.”
My road to recovery on going and I want to thank my friends at
http://drug-alcohol-abuse-treatment.com/
and the people of this group
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/drugrehabsupport/
I finally ended up at "A Better Tomorrow"
__________________
|
