MLB Player Josh Hamilton’s Relapse Isn’t His Fault

on February 3, 2012 at 11:34 AM

The sports world should be one that understands addiction -- it's claimed so many of its biggest stars. And yet news that Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton has relapsed has been greeted with such contempt that it seems society's general lack of respect for just how strong addiction can be is alive and well in sports too.

The 30-year-old Hamilton was once suspended from playing the game he loves for his drug-and-alcohol addiction. For three years, Major League Baseball did not allow him to play. And yet, he persevered. He came back and triumphed, winning the American League's MVP award in 2010. But if anyone doesn't think he worried that this day was coming, they don't know addiction.

People fall off the wagon. It happens. In fact, Hamilton has done it twice. Three years ago at this time, he was caught getting plastered at a bar in Arizona, and then this week he showed up at a bar in Texas.

But the sports reporters blasting Hamilton for failing to keep his faltering steps hidden in the shadows instead of out at a public bar are missing the point. It's not that Josh Hamilton "doesn't care" whether the Rangers will find out that their star outfielder is back on the booze. It's that he can't help it.

The body that serves him so well on the field, that attracted Major League baseball scouts in the first place, betrays him. How ironic that the sports world that values a person for their body so much is so quick to throw a player under the bus when a piece of that body malfunctions. It's one of the few places in America where it is still acceptable to tell someone that they're no longer necessary because of an infirmity.

And while I understand that in many senses -- you can't pay a guy to catch when his elbow no longer allows him to throw a man out, for example -- that doesn't mean we shouldn't be giving guys like Hamilton a little more respect for the battles they are fighting against nature.

Josh Hamilton isn't trying to throw away a baseball career because he's some cocky jerk. His brain overreacts to the way drugs and alcohol affect its pleasure centers. His body has betrayed him. His fans and colleagues shouldn't.

Have you or someone you know struggled with addiction?

Image via Rubenstein/Flickr

About the author Jeanne Sager

writes articles for The Stir by day, slays closet monsters and bounds through bedtime stories with her elementary schooler by night. Diet Pepsi courses through her veins. The Phineas and Ferb soundtrack reverberates through her brain.

Filed Under: athletes, baseball

Comments (5)

Alma45

on Feb 3, 2012 at 11:45 AM

People on the outside who don't understand addiction need to stop being so judgmental. This is probably embarrassing and a let-down to him...he certainly doesn't need all these outsiders putting him down. Lay off!!!

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MegTheGem

on Feb 3, 2012 at 12:27 PM

Sorry, but it isn't like someone forced him to relapse. How is he not at fault for relapsing? It's up to the addict to stay clean.

Nonmember comment from cmbro

on Feb 3, 2012 at 2:24 PM

It may have been his choice, but have a heart. This is the man that threw the foul ball to the fan, who fell to his death. To say he was struggling with some guilt is probably an understatement.

Phoesable

on Feb 4, 2012 at 11:23 AM

If it were as simple as "it's up to the addict to stay clean" they wouldn't have been addicts in the first place. Addiction is as impersonal and as insidious and imperial a disease as cancer. Why do some people get cancer? Why do some who do get it, achieve lifetime remission and others struggle against it again and again? Would you say it is their doing/their fault? To be sure, there are things that any individual with any disease can do to improve their odds in the battle, and it is their responsiblity to do those things, but regardless, to lose a battle should not be a point of shame. I suspect that the reason we as a society like to think it is, is that it is scary to know that there are things that work on us that are beyond our control. And because we think we're supposed to keep everything in control, we shame those who can't, who are the victims of life being life, rather than holding out hope to them for better days and love in the midst of their loss/grief/misery. That doesn't mean he should be spared consequences for his behavior, but life generates those aplenty. What life requires of us is to generate love -- it can do the rest on its own.

reikiharmony

on Feb 5, 2012 at 11:42 AM

His "body malfunctioned?!? " I just threw up in my mouth. I know him and we're from the same town. I know a few people that he's screwed over. Anytime I see an article with just the mention of his name I roll my eyes but especially this type of garbage. He's received far more attention for things like this than anything pertaining to a sport. In a few months he'll have some more tattoos and talk about his big second, ahem, third, ahem five millionth "comeback."