Josh Hamilton Relapses With Alcohol
Josh Hamilton has had a relapse with alcohol this past week. The Texas Rangers outfielder was spotted drinking alcohol at Dallas area bar on Monday evening, according to reports.
The Dallas Morning News reported the incident on Thursday and the Texas Rangers released a statement to the paper saying that they were aware of the incident, but declined to further comment on Hamilton's condition.
The 30-year-old baseball star has a long history of drug and alcohol abuse and was banned from the league in 2003 for three years due to his struggles with addiction.
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Hamilton shocked the baseball industry when he cleaned up his act and was reinstated into the league in 2006. He was traded from the Cincinnati Reds to the Texas Rangers in 2007 and the team adopted a "zero tolerance" policy requiring that Hamilton get tested three times a week for drug use.
However, in 2009 the baseball star fell under controversy after photos of him surfaced shirtless in a bar in Tempe, Ariz.
The 2010 American League MVP admitted to drinking and told reporters, "I hate that it happened."
"Obviously it was one of those things that reinforce that I can't have alcohol. I got away from the one thing that kept me straight and narrow and that was my relationship with the Lord. That should always come first. Hopefully some good will come out of this," Hamilton said at a press conference following the incident.
Prior to the 2009 slip-up, Hamilton said he had not turned to drugs or alcohol since he made a vow to stay sober in October of 2005.
The North Carolina born baseball star was drafted to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at 18-years-old and at the time he was the No. 1 overall pick.
Hamilton has been very public about his struggles with addiction and how his faith in God transformed his life.
He wrote the autobiography, Beyond Belief, recounting his struggles with drugs and alcohol and discussing how finding Jesus changed his life. A avid Christian, when Hamilton approaches the plate at Rangers home games he does so to the song, "Until the Whole World Hears," by popular Christian group Casting Crowns.
"People think there are coincidences in life. There are no coincidences. God's got a plan. It's nothing I did except try to make the right choices and let God take over from there. There's one solid and permanent way out of it, and that's finding the Lord Jesus Christ and accepting Him," Hamilton told CBN News in Nov. 2010.
