A Second Chance

Gina Carrano
Mini-project #6

The sports-related story I reviewed was "Back In The Game," written by Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports on May 12, 2007. The article discussed the recent improbable and inspiring comeback of the Cincinnati Reds' Josh Hamilton, a talented outfielder and former first-round draft pick whose potential had never come to fruition because of drug addiction.

In 1999, Hamilton was drafted first overall, out of high school, by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Like any first overall pick, he was considered to be an impact player with extraordinary all-around athleticism and a very high ceiling. But he would not play in the majors until Opening Day 2007. While he was working his way through the minors after being drafted, he violated Major League Baseball's drug policy and was ultimately suspended from baseball in February 2004 for violating the league's joint treatment and prevention program (according to mlb.com.)

Hamilton was out of the game until June 2006, when he convinced MLB to let him return to play in a low level of Tampa Bay's minor league system. He played 15 games in the New York-Penn League in 2006, was later acquired by the Chicago Cubs in the Rule 5 draft. The Reds obtained him in an offseason trade, and it was in Cincinnati that Hamilton got the opportunity he'd dreamed of for so long, the one he thought his addiction might rob him of--he'd finally made it to the big club.

And as soon as he got there, he started making up for lost time. He clubbed long home runs, ran the bases well, and nailed down opposing base runners from the outfield with his strong, accurate throwing arm. The offensive tear he was on to begin the season has slowed down some, and he is currently batting .264 with 8 home runs, 18 RBI, 20 runs scored and 3 stolen bases, but it's apparent that he still has the skills to be a very good all-around player.

More impressive than even the gaudiest stats, however, is Hamilton's resurgence, which is the main topic of the Tim Brown article. His comeback is truly against all odds, and it's a feel-good story for a baseball season otherwise mired in beanballs, strange umpire calls and steroid controversies. It makes baseball seem refreshing again, like a sport where anything can happen--including Josh Hamilton, who was once thought to never amount to anything in the majors as a result of his addiction, having his name tossed around as a candidate for National League Rookie of the Year. The article quoted Hamilton's reaction to this news: he laughed and said, "I'm sorry. Rookie of the what?"

The article also discusses the gratitude Hamilton feels for his second chance. He is grateful to be sober and doing what he loves. "It's getting out of bed every morning and knowing I didn't do anything last night to mess up today," Hamilton was quoted as saying in the article.

I chose to review this article because I think Hamilton's comeback is an interesting and inspirational human-interest story, and I wanted to investigate how it was covered by sports journalists. I thought Brown's coverage of it was pretty fair and thorough. I particularly liked his use of quotes from Hamilton, each one was somewhat colorful and not at all dull or canned and illustrated Brown's points well. He also included interesting details about Hamilton's family coming to see him at games. Overall, the story was a good balance of compassionate details and baseball talk; Brown also discussed Hamilton's stats and the strong points and weak points of his game, as well as providing a great quote by Reds reliever Mike Stanton about how impressed he was with Hamilton's bat speed.

The only area in which I thought the article needed improvement was details about the history of how Hamilton got where he is today. It talked about how he was first overall draft pick, didn't play for years due to suspension, and then finally began his path back to the majors last year, but it didn't mention when or why he got suspended, nor did it talk much about how exactly he found his way back. I was curious about these details, but had to find them out from Hamilton's mlb.com player bio instead of reading them in the article.

Although the Reds are a small-market team, I'm glad Hamilton's story is getting lots of national press conference nonetheless. Hopefully his comeback serves to remind many that life is full of second chances--I know that's what I get from it, and I will be rooting for a happy ending to Hamilton's new beginning.