Seth's 50 Centers

It’s been around a week since my last post and I have to stay with the same subject.

Josh Hamilton.

It appears the rookie outfielder has claimed a starting position with the Reds — he just hit his fourth home run of the season in tonight’s game with the Astros — and I hate to say I told you so, but I did.

Admittedly, my prediction called for Hamilton to end up as the starting center fielder by June. So, here we are in mid April and he has already laid claim to the spot. Still, it would’ve been hard to believe this guy would be starting in the outfield for any big league team this season.

His story fascinates me to no end. It’s another example of a person’s ability to overcome difficulty, even if a lot of it seems self-inflicted. Hamilton was out of the game for nearly four years before getting his chance this season.

People often talk about players taking a year off due to injury and how impossible it is to hit the baseball after the layoff. A perfect example is that of Aaron Boone. Boone tore his knee up playing basketball in the winter between the 2003 and 2004 baseball seasons. He took the ’04 season off before signing with the Indians in ’05.

Boone hit just .243 that season and much of that was attributed to the fact he hadn’t played for an entire season.

The positives

Hamilton comes to the team at the perfect time. After last season’s trade of outfielder Austin Kearns and shortstop Felipe Lopez to the Washington Nationals, the Reds’ offense was terrible the rest of the way. Hamilton has started six games this season and has a run or an RBI in each of those contests. He’s done that while catcher David Ross has spent much of the season with an average bellow .100, third baseman Edwin Encarnacion hasn’t hit much and to no fault of his own, or the Reds, shortstop Alex Gonzalez had to leave the team to be with his ailing son.

The other factor is Hamilton’s ability to play a gold glove caliber outfield. I think Freel can play the position, but I’ve questioned his ability to stay in the lineup with his slender frame and kamikaze-like attitude on the field (IE; he doesn’t really think about his well-being when charging into a fence). I just never thought the Reds were moving Ken Griffey Jr. to right field so that Freel could be the guy in center. Hamilton had to be in manager Jerry Narron and general manager Wayne Krivsky’s plans when that decision was made.

Having Hamilton excel also helps the Reds in that, should Griffey get injured, or left fielder Adam Dunn, Encarnacion or second baseman Brandon Phillips, it gives them the ability to start a solid nine position players even with a man down.

Possible negatives

I’m way to excited about Hamilton to even try to convince you that I’m remaining cautiously optimistic about Hamilton and his sobriety. Aside from dreaming of him being an all star, MVP candidate and all-around great player, I really haven’t pondered just how tough the road ahead will likely be for him.

I read during Spring Training in one of the many profiles about Hamilton that he wouldn’t even allow himself to carry car keys with him anywhere. He’d make his wife drive him everywhere. The Reds also hired Narron’s brother, Johnny, on what appears to be a “watch Josh” basis. The Narrons knew Hamilton growing up in North Carolina.

I was at my favorite baseball card shop today and picked up a few Hamilton rookie cards — currently valued at $5 apiece, but we’ll see how much it’s worth by the end of the season — and Jerry, the manager of the store, and I were discussing some previous baseball players who’ve battled drug addiction.

The point of our conversation was that most of what you see or hear about Hamilton says that he’s clean and that there’s not really much of a worry about him in the future. My optimism about him has made me overlook the possibility that he might not stay clean.

How many times did Steve Howe get reinstated only to fall off the wagon again? Did we really believe Darryl Strawberry would stay clean when he made one of his many comebacks from drugs or other criminal activity? Same thing with Dwight Gooden, who could’ve been even better than Roger Clemens in his career.

I guess the point is that a little cautious optimism might not be a bad thing when it comes to celebrating Hamilton’s success. If he stays clean then he’s a great example of what a person can do with his/her life against all odds. It could be proof that no matter how low your life seems to be, there’s always a way out.

For Reds’ fans’ sake, but even more importantly Hamilton’s, I hope he continues to live the straight and narrow and plays the game he seems to have been born to play for a long time.

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