The greatest batting practice story ever told…

We are not going to hear the end of this one for awhile. Former drug addict puts on show in Home Run Derby hitting twenty eightballs twenty-eight long balls in the first round. Stupid drug jokes about someone’s awful past aside, that was impressive, moving (did he really have to bring his 71 year-old American Legion coach to pitch to him or did he just do that to help the audience rid their conscience of the Three Doors Down performance?) and inspiring. I remember when the Reds picked him in a Rule V draft a few years back, many said his chance of becoming an everyday player were slim to say the least. So yeah he’s talented…as Joe Morgan told the audience three-hundred times: that it takes talent to sit out of baseball for three years (Hamilton did not play baseball while trying to recover) and still hit a baseball at the major league baseball level and do it well (sentence written in the style as if Joe Morgan said it). I thought Rick Ankiel’s story was impressive, as Matt Sussman over at Deadspin notes it actually pales in comparison:

Because already his story dwarfs Rick Ankiel’s comeback. (”Oh, you came back from … sucking at pitching? Well, congratu-fucking-lations, I don’t remember most of 2005.”)

Too bad the news cycle will beat this horse till it’s dead.

Oh before I forget, Justin Morneau actually won the competition and Rick Reilly thinks that too many white people are invited to hit homeruns and “Yankee stadium has more history than Joan Rivers face.” Yuk it up America.

–jw

~ by jwilliamson9 on July 15, 2008.