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The Texas Rangers and Josh Hamilton Suffer Another Setback

By Ben Davila

Third baseman Steve Buechele played eight seasons with the Texas Rangers. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
Third baseman Steve Buechele played eight seasons with the Texas Rangers. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports /
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As the Texas Rangers continue spring training, Josh Hamilton seems less and less likely to return to any semblance of serviceable form.

This is a something of a shame, in and of itself. There is no doubt that Josh Hamilton is still a mighty polarizing figure in the DFW sports landscape. There seems to be a measure of glee going around in light of the reports that surfaced yesterday. Hamilton’s knee isn’t responding to treatment, and he is headed back to Texas for further evaluation. Yet another surgery appears to be on the immediate horizon.

Accordingly, a cursory glance at the comments section of a given column regarding the subject varied from derision to indifference. Further, sentiments on local sports radio generally veered toward the dismissive.

If you are a sports pragmatist–and there are admittedly few–then the injury news should not be surprising in the least. Josh Hamilton exacted a toll on his body that would have killed most of us. There is no need to rehash the stories of alcohol and drug abuse. When you tack his style of play on, it’s a minor miracle the man isn’t dead.

So with that in mind, let’s step back and take a deep breath. Sure, in this day and age of social media, it’s easy to grow a set of Twitter muscles and hate. But if you take the big picture into account, we’re talking about a minor league deal at the veteran minimum with no guarantee of making the big club.

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In other words, if Josh performed well and made the club, the Rangers get him for a song. If not, it wasn’t going to cost them much to begin win. As far a major league deals go, it was/is win-win for the organization.

No, the motivation for the ill will from the fan base wasn’t based in practicality. It was–and has always been–based in the “baseball town” comments surrounding his acrimonious departure from Arlington back in 2013. In short, we acted like spurned lovers. We watched as Josh made googly eyes at the Angels. We fumed over how he could be so disparaging as he packed up his belongings and moved on.

Never once did we stop and think about the fact that he was mostly right. Sure, there was the steep downfall after the four home run game in Baltimore in 2012. There was Hamilton’s half-assed wave at a pop-up during said collapse at Oakland. The subsequent confrontation between Josh and then manager Ron Washington certainly raised eyebrows. But for all the negatives, it sure is easy to forget how Hamilton should have won us the 2011 World Series. That home run was as clutch as clutch gets. Alas, it didn’t hold up.

You see, if that homer had propelled the Rangers to the championship, you might have a Josh Hamilton statue standing at the home plate entrance of Globe Life Park. Before we all go dancing on the man’s grave, then perhaps we should consider the body of work. Were his words irksome? Sure. Did he deliver two years of transcendent play? You bet. It’s easy to forget now, but he was at once Paul Bunyan and Babe Ruth. Will all due respect to Adrian Beltre, Hamilton was Mr. Ranger, if only for a fleeting moment.

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So in the meantime, don’t waste too much energy with the knowledge that Josh Hamilton will likely need more surgery. The man has endured more than most of us can comprehend. The Texas Rangers will more than likely still be a very good team this year with or without him. It may be hard to separate emotion from the equation, but if you ask me, the good far outweighed the bad.

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