The Josh Hamilton Movie is a Reality

With the potentially former Texas Rangers superstar currently looking for a monster deal this off season, it's nice to know that one facet of the Josh Hamilton story has been finalized...The Josh Hamilton Story.

Allow me to explain.

This past summer, word came out that producers were shopping a movie of the "fall from grace" and rise from the ashes of the 2010 American League MVP.

And now, well, now the biopic will be turned into a feature film by Relativity Media.

"I truly think this guy’s story is one of the most inspiring stories I’ve ever read," producer Basil Iwanyk said. "It’s also tailor-made for a movie: it has the mythic quality of The Natural, the faith-based angle of The Blind Side and the romance of Walk the Line."

Sooo...baseball fantasy, football movie, music movie.  Got it.  In line to direct...Casey Affleck, who had already helped chip in to pitch the film.

"Casey has totally captured those elements in his take for the movie," Iwanyk added.  "It is an extraordinary odyssey that took him from the depths of drug addiction, estrangement from his family, and suspension from baseball to a spectacular rebirth of his life, faith, marriage and Major League career."

Alright, count me in.

But here's the bigger question...who to play the five-time All-Star?  Do you go with a bankable commodity or someone unknown?

My pick?  Friend of The Hall Casey Bond.

You might remember Bond from his role as Oakland A's reliever Chad Bradford from Moneyball. 

But that's not why I'm going with the guy.

First, you're going to want someone who has experience on the field and Bond was actually drafted by the San Francisco Giants back in 2007 and knows his baseball movies.  Also, well, dude kinda looks like Hamilton.

So, if you're casting The Josh Hamilton Story (my name, not theirs)...who ya got?

Mini Josh Hamilton is Awesome

Happy Halloween!  Alright, now that that is out of the way...I'm a sucker for stuff like this.  Especially when you include eye black and tattoos.

And, much like Lil' Cutch...the Texas Rangers All-Star even re-tweeted the picture to his followers.  Pretty sweet.

Josh Hamilton Being Compared to T.O.?

Given Josh Hamilton's production during his time with the Texas Rangers, critics would have been hard pressed to compare the outfielder to anyone else in the game.

Thankfully, FOXSports.com's Jen Floyd Engel has some suggestions.

Nobody will want to admit this, but Hamilton had quickly become the T.O. of the Rangers, a talented player whose production no longer justifies the headache. The Rangers have decided he is no longer worth it, which is why on Tuesday in their post-mortem wrapup, they said Hamilton will be allowed to “test the market,” the same phrasing used about now-Angels pitcher CJ Wilson.

That is code for we have no intention of Hamilton being a Ranger going forward.

Yikes.

Now, I'm not a huge Hamilton supporter.  Matter of fact...I've publicly called dude a "douchebag", but to compare the 2010 American League MVP to Terrell Owens is a little much given the former wide receiver is regarded by many as the biggest cancer in team sports. 

By comparison, the worst Hamilton has done recently is quit chewing tobacco while his team was competing for the top spot in the National League West.

And as far as Floyd Engel suggesting his production "no longer justifies the headache"?  Me thinks there are plenty teams out there that would love the pains of a guy who has averaged 33 home runs and 107 RBI over the last three seasons.

***Props to Black Sports Online.***

Josh Hamilton is a Douchebag

I don't really remember what I was looking for on YouTube when I found it, but, man...I sure am glad I stumbled on this Josh Hamilton video.

We already know that the Texas Rangers superstar is a stud on the field but off of it? 

BAM!  Dude's a little bit of a douchebag.

Then again, this is the same cat who apologized for his "relapse" wearing a backwards cap and Kaenon sunglasses.

Of Course There's a Josh Hamilton Sex Tape

For whatever reason, the Josh Hamilton "relapse" story was a big one last week.

And I get it, the Texas Rangers star is the drug and alcohol rehabilitation poster child, but just as the story was fading into the night...there's this.

Not only was dude hammered, but he went all Roethlisberger at the Dallas eatery and relapsed in the bathroom with a lady...ifyouknowwhatImean.

So, naturally, now there are stories about a sex tape.  And, really, why wouldn't there be?

According to Deadspin, video of the former American League MVP's bathroom sexcapade (see what I did there?) has been offered up to a local TV station for a tidy sum of $41,000.

"Had we been interested," a station employee told the website, "I'm sure they would have given us some watermarked photos or something from the video."

But as of yet...no one is biting.

Now, I don't want to judge the guy the guy's actions.  I've never walked in his shoes...never will.  However, if he wants us all to buy the whole act...lose the backwards cap and Kaenon sunglasses.

To me, nothing makes a public apology look more like an obligation or inconvenience than showing up looking like a twat.

Sorry Walker...here's my favorite Texas Ranger

I was in a meeting last week when, no joke, someone said…“there’s a reason why it is called the ‘Midsummer Classic’ and it isn’t because it is played in February”.

Dumb statement? Perhaps.

But it wasn’t long after I heard that, that I realized that we were indeed on the cusp of being deluged with All-Star game hype.

Who is in?

Who is out?

Is it wrong to want to see Ken Griffey, Jr. out there for what might be one last time?

All valid topics of conversation and every single one of them was answered this past Sunday when the teams were announced a la the NCAA brackets. I mean, do we really need an All-Star Selection Show?

The answer is “no”…but I digress.

By now, we all know that this is the last All-Star game at “Historic Yankee Stadium”, the Tampa Bay Rays have no starters, Junior fell out of favor over the past week and Jason Varitek is somehow going to be part of the festivities.

All of those are stories that we’re going to hear ad nauseam, but there is going to be one name that we’re likely going to get sick of hearing by this time next week.

Josh Hamilton.

I know, I know…he is a former number one overall pick, struggled with injuries and drug addiction, was out of baseball for a few years and is now back living up to the expectations everyone had of him ten years ago.

I get it…it is a nice story.

All that aside, there is one tidbit about Hamilton that I took notice of…he is the first Texas Ranger outfielder to start an All-Star game since Juan Gonzalez in 1998 and only the third Ranger outfielder (Gary Matthews, Jr. was the other) to be selected in the last twenty years.

That’s not terrible company considering Gonzalez left his own injury filled career sandwiched between ANOTHER Junior, Cal Ripken, and should be Hall of Famer Andre Dawson on the all-time home run leader list.

That’s right, Gonzalez quietly finished his career with 434 bombs…good for 37th all-time. Matter of fact, including Dawson…there are only four Hall eligible players (Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco and Dave Kingman are the others) with MORE home runs than “Juan Gone”.

Drafted at 16 and taking his first Major League cuts at 19, Gonzalez was considered by many to be the best Puerto Rican baseball player since Roberto Clemente...and he could have been. Here was a slugger whose numbers at the plate seemed to mirror those of Griffey, Jr. but never did he garner the adoration “The Kid” received.

Starting in 1992, and setting the 1994 strike year aside, Gonzalez had 35 or more home runs in seven out of nine seasons. From 1992 to 2001, Gonzalez hit 365 home runs out of the yard...Griffey sent 400 packing.

Imagine if Gonzalez would have stayed healthy!

Here is a guy who MISSED twenty or more games in all but FOUR seasons in his seventeen year career. At the time, “Juan Gone” made Junior look durable!

In 1996, Gonzalez won the first of his two MVP awards with a career high .643 slugging percentage, .314 average, 144 RBI and a staggering 47 home runs. And why are 47 home runs staggering considering that it was only fifth best in the American League? Gonzalez sat out close to 30 games and STILL led the Rangers to the playoffs.

His impact was THAT great.

In the 1996 ALDS, Gonzalez tied Jeffrey Leonard's 1987 NLCS record by homering in four straight post-season games and joined Reggie Jackson and Griffey as the only players to hit five home runs in a single post-season series.

Two years later, Gonzalez once again brought home some hardware by hitting .316, 50 doubles, 45 home runs and knocking in 157 runs. Unfortunately, this MVP season was all but ignored on the national stage given McGwire and Sammy Sosa delighting the world with their best Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle impersonation.

But yet again, the Rangers lost to the Yankees in the playoffs and “Igor” was pretty much a shadow of his 1996 postseason self barely hitting my dog’s weight….083.

But if postseason play means anything (and it probably doesn't in this case), Gonzalez's four-year peak, contributed to the only three postseason appearances in the Rangers' history and he also contributed greatly to the Indians' 2001 division championship.

Juan Gonzalez was pretty much an RBI machine throughout the 1990s.

Eight times, Gonzalez knocked in more than 100 runs and for his career, he knocked in a hefty 1404…more than Hall of Famers Orlando Cepeda, Johnny Bench, Duke Snider and only ten less than McGwire. Along with McGwire, there are only seven players eligible for the Hall that have more RBI than Juan Gonzalez.

In 1998, his 101 RBI at the All-Star break was the second most in history. Hank Greenberg had 103 at the intermission of the 1935 season. By comparison, the afore mentioned Josh Hamilton is leading the free world this year with 85 RBI…twenty more than the next closest hitter in the American League.

But let’s get back to McGwire (and I do so ONLY because there is that faction out there that believes he should be enshrined) and compare him to Gonzalez.

As I’ve said before…take away McGwire’s home run total and you’re basically left with nothing. Compared to Gonzalez, “Big Mac” has roughly 500 more plate appearances, but 300 less hits. “Juan Gone” finished just shy of 2000 for his career…McGwire had 1626.

Gonzalez bests McGwire in career batting average (.295 compared to .263), but does far short in both on base percentage and slugging (.343 and .561 versus .394 and .588).

McGwire blows Gonzalez out of the water with his OPS+, but honestly, he has 150 more home runs…he should. Gonzalez’s 132 OPS+ is better than Hall of Fame sluggers Dave Winfield, Eddie Murray and Carl Yastrzemski though.

When Cooperstown comes a callin’ (and I’m suggesting that maybe the writers take a longer look at Juan Gonzalez than they did, say, Albert Belle), it’ll be easy to dismiss him considering some of the talent he played against, the era he played in (his teammates at one time in Texas DID include Jose Caseco and Rafael Palmeiro) and the fact that he played in the Lone Star State for a majority of his career. He had one great year outside of Arlington, but outside of that…the guy is one of the best Texas Rangers to ever walk this Earth.

Sorry Walker.