Josh Hamilton Speaks Out

With last night being the Rangers Awards Banquet, I knew I would wake up this morning with a few things to report, but I didn’t realize that Josh Hamilton would give his entire life story like this….okay that may be a bit of a stretch.

The first thing that caught my eye was an interview with him about his injury during the playoffs. After hitting .307 with five RBIs in the ALCS, Josh was 7-for-29 (.241) with a homer (the tenth inning of Game 6…Sad Face) and six RBIs in the World Series as he played with the injury. He said that three of his muscles that help pull his knees and thighs togethers, his adductors, were torn.

“My fourth one was about to pop and I had a torn abdominal muscle,” Hamilton said on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM on Thursday night as he made an appearance at the Texas Rangers Award Show. “I was hurting pretty bad. I was doing everything I could do to play the best I could, save my bullets as far as if I hit a ball hard or got a hit, do the best I could to run. If I had to score from first, just suck it up.

“I was in pain there at the end of the season, more than people realize. But we get paid to play, especially in the playoffs.”

He goes on to talk about his recovery and that he is right on track. Hopefully everything will be right for spring training. We all know what a healthy Josh Hamilton can do(see 2010).

The next topic that was discussed was his new accountability partner, his Father-In-Law Michael Dean Chadwick.

“I feel like I was fine to not have anybody, but at the same time, if it helps confidence with the organization to have somebody or Major League Baseball to have somebody. helps their confidence in me, than I’m all for it,” Josh said on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM

Hamilton said he had Chadwick in mind, but was pleased the Rangers brought him up as well. I’m somewhat neutral on this information. I want Josh to be ok, and I understand what perspective the Organization has, but I also believe Josh when he says it probably isn’t necessary at this point, he knows what he has to do.

This next part made me laugh pretty hard. When asked about the Yu Darvish visit, Josh explained the club made a video for the 6’5″ Japanese Star. The video included many hello’s and Josh said he included a “Welcome to Texas” in Japanese.

“I told him, ‘if you come in, give us your best and we’ll definitely give you our best everyday and at the same time, don’t take offense because we’re going to pick on you a lot — it just means that we love you” Hamilton said.

So we may see the return of Derek Hollands pink backpack, except on a guy that hasn’t posted anything above a 2.00 ERA in over 5 years. So, a pretty productive night for Josh. Richard Durrett over at ESPN.com/Dallas has more information on everything that went on last night. Until next time, Go Rangers.