Worst Person of the Day

Josh Hamilton sucks.  Not in the baseball sense mind you.  He is the reigning MVP and he deserved to win the award.  He’s a great player he sucks as a person.  Hamilton wants you to believe he is a great guy, a great husband, a great teammate but I’m not buying it.  Maybe he is a nice guy.  I don’t know because I have never met him.  Is he the best husband?  Well obviously not.  But hey, he is a professional athlete and there is a lot of temptation out there.  What I do know is that he is a shitty teammate.

Last night Josh Hamilton broke his arm sliding into home plate in the first inning against the Tigers.  That in itself is not a big deal.  He pulls a quad every time he ties his shoes.  What is news is how he threw his third base coach under the bus.  If you haven’t seen the play here it is.  Was it a smart play?  Maybe not.  But it was an aggressive play and that is how Ron Washington coaches and thats how he instructs his base coaches act.  Now should Dave Anderson (Rangers third base coach) have sent their best player home on a pop up to the catcher, in the first inning, of a game in April?  Of course not, but in the end it was Hamilton’s decision to go.  Anderson wasn’t pushing him down the line.  He even said in the presser afterwards that while the play was going on he was thinking, “Dude, I don’t want to do this.”  (Yes that is a direct quote.  Matthew McConaughey will be playing the lead in the “Josh Hamilton Movie”)

So he admits that he knew it was a bad idea but its his third base coach’s fault.  Hey while we are blaming teammates for your screw ups why not be pissed at Adrian Beltre for popping it up.  Why stop there?  Its really Brad Penny’s fault.  If he would have picked his gut off the ground and lugged it over to home plate to cover then Anderson wouldn’t even have thought of sending him.  What it all comes down to, Josh, is that its your fault.  Stop trying to find someone else to blame for your screw ups.  Really, if your hollow, bird bones will break from that little bit of contact then it was going to happen sooner or later.  After the lengths the Ranger’s staff has gone to to keep him healthy I think they all deserve a little more respect than he is giving.

Side Note:  In the seven years I have been coaching youth baseball one of the first rules is always “Never slide head first into home.”  That catcher is covered in armor and your’e not.  We teach a thing called a hook slide.  Josh must have been drunk on hook slide day.