by Mike Kravik
Tomorrow afternoon in Arlington, Chuck Morgan is going to say “Now batting for the Angels, number thirty-two, right-fielder…Josh Hamilton.” A cascade of lusty boos is sure to follow and I don’t get it.
It wasn’t a great idea for Josh (where the hell was his agent?) to let his wife speak at the December press conference announcing his five year deal with the rival Los Angeles Angels. When Katie compared the relationship of her husband and the Texas organization to dating, fans didn’t want to hear it.
The two players most responsible for bringing the Rangers back from a nine year sentence to Baseball Siberia were Josh Hamilton and Elvis Andrus. Everything (winning, improved attendance, level of fan passion) changed when Andrus and Hamilton started playing together in 2009. The Rangers went 87-75 and made a run at the post-season before falling short. More importantly, their style of play had become much more palatable.
The team that allowed 967 runs in 2008 gave up only 740 runs in 2009. Fans returned and behind a major marketing blitz from Nolan Ryan, attendance shot up more than 3000+ fans per game. Since 2010 the Rangers have not only gone to the post-season every year (including two trips to the World Series) but they electrified their fan base, setting records in both television ratings and attendance (nearly 3.5 million) in 2012.
Andrus was a defensive whiz along the lines of Ozzie Smith playing the game with an entertaining flair and a million dollar smile the fans loved. Hamilton was a vanilla Ken Griffey Jr. – A combo platter of power, speed and a bazooka for an arm. Instead of dwelling on what Hamilton’s wife said about relationships, I remember the player who went yard 28 yard times at Yankee Stadium in a home run hitting contest. I remember his 2010 AL MVP season when his .359 batting average was the best in MLB. I remember the player who hit five home runs against the hated New York Yankees in that year’s ALCS. I also remember his extra inning home run in Game 6 of 2011 World Series that was supposed to give the Rangers (one strike away, TWICE!!) their first championship.
It’s weird how the media can work in concert with a front office and spin an issue, especially when fans are upset and feel like they need to point fingers. Since last season’s collapse, Hamilton has been turned into the poster child of blame for what happened last September. His ridiculous start (16 home runs by May 12) is somehow dismissed although he finished the season with 43 HR’s and 128 RBI’s. Fans want their bowl of blood and the local media keeps dishing it up. Never mind the fact that he had a .900+ OPS the last two months of 2012, “he dropped that easy fly ball in Oakland and looked terrible in the playoff game with the Orioles!!”
Check out Hamilton’s month-to-month splits in 2012. The only truly awful month he had was in July (.177 average / .253 OBP). His June was pedestrian (.754 OPS) but his OPS (1182, 1187, .943, .873) the other four months of the season was somewhere between gaudy to Bondsian.
The fan backlash that we’re seeing is also what happened with CJ Wilson after he signed with the Angels. Like Hamilton, the Rangers didn’t seem interested in signing Wilson to a long-term deal. Wilson was a very good pitcher for the Rangers for most of his career and nothing short of outstanding during the 2011 regular season (2.94 ERA in 34 starts) yet local media (columnists, beat writers, talk radio) chose to dwell on Wilson’s post-season struggles as a reason not to sign him. Nobody mentioned Wilson was excellent in three of his four 2010 post-season starts. Instead of talking about what an effective pitcher he had been, we kept hearing sports talk radio beat the drums of “CJ is such a doucher, I’m glad he’s gone.”
With Hamilton, fans are bitching about him saying the Metroplex is not a true baseball town (it’s not, it’s a winner’s town) or just about any time his wife opens her mouth. You also hear people say “No way I give him more than 3 years with his off the field history,” although Hamilton has passed every drug test he’s taken in the last seven years.
Fans like to also say Hamilton’s body was fragile due to years of drug abuse. Really? Paul Molitor somehow found a way to play major leagues baseball into his 40’s. Daryl Strawberry struggled with sobriety his entire career yet hit 24 home runs for the Yankees as a 36 year old. Hamilton has had injury problems but that was more about playing hard and running into walls than anything he did off the field.
In a recent interview posted on CBS Sportsline, Hamilton talked about a meeting he had with (the now powerless) Nolan Ryan the day after he signed with the Angels. Hamilton said Ryan “was upset the Rangers kind of dragged their feet” in negotiations.
Jon Daniels, always cool and calculating, flashed immediate anger at a luncheon when told where Hamilton had signed but wasn’t that (letting him move on) the plan all along? That player and that contract on the Angels payroll is supposed to be a good thing, isn’t it? So why are Rangers fans so anxious to boo Hamilton?
I don’t understand the reaction of Jon Daniels at that luncheon if his motives all along were to let Hamilton walk just like I don’t understand why so many fans are anxious to boo Hamilton after everything he accomplished with the Rangers. Fans are going to boo him this week but not me. I remember the hopelessness of 2007 and how much fun he made it to be a fan of the Texas Rangers.
