*If you are not familiar with Josh Hamilton, I suggest you check out his story
Josh Hamilton had a great start to the 2012 season. After the first two months of the season, Hamilton was batting .370 and had 21 home runs. There was talk of him winning the Triple Crown as well as the MVP. And then June and July came. During those two months, Hamilton batted .200 and hit 8 home runs–a far cry from his first two months of the season.
In early August, Hamilton was asked about his struggles. Here’s what he said (emphasis mine with the bolding):
“Professionally, it’s been plate discipline. Personally, it’s been being obedient to the Lord in quitting chewing tobacco,” Hamilton said in the statement. “I was hesitant to address the tobacco once again, because it’s an area that I’ve struggled with trying to quit in the past. I wanted to have some time of success under my belt before addressing again publicly, but felt I haven’t been given that option with all of the speculating out there as to what the ‘mystery issue’ was.”
Hamilton ended the statement with a listing of two Bible verses — Hebrews 12:4-5 and John 3:30.
In the midst of his struggle to quit tobacco, Hamilton managed to hit .310 in August and hit 7 home runs. It appeared if he was back on track. Unfortunately, September and October were horrible months for him offensively. Consequently, the Rangers also struggled down the stretch and barely squeaked into the playoffs where they promptly lost. Hamilton was booed by his own fans during the last couple of games of the season.
Nolan Ryan, the owner of the Rangers, had the following to say about Hamilton’s struggles (emphasis mine with the bolding):
“His timing on quitting smokeless tobacco couldn’t have been worse. You would’ve liked to have thought that if he was going to do that that he would’ve done it in the offseason or waited until this offseason to do it.”
At its core, those comments reflect Ryan’s value that the team’s success is more important than Hamilton quitting tobacco. Some may not have a problem with these comments but can you imagine Ryan saying the same thing if Hamilton had struggled with illegal drugs or even alcohol during
the season and attempted to quit? I doubt he would have said the same thing. One could argue that tobacco is not nearly the same as alcohol or drugs–and I would agree. But is the team’s success so important that Hamilton should have postponed quitting a habit he felt was not only a danger to his health but also to his soul? Apparently, Ryan thinks so. I’m sure many Rangers fans think so. Hamilton, obviously, did not.
How would you have counseled Hamilton in this situation had he come to you in August with this predicament?
