Why We Love The New Roy Hobbs

By E. Spencer Kyte
Love of Sports Correspondent

This isn’t just another scribe wanting to attach his name to a Josh Hamilton byline and catch in on the residuals from Monday night’s home run hitting exhibition.

This is the story of a writer who found a compelling subject and has watched it grow into a national feel-good story and living incarnation of The Natural in under two years.

My writing career began at Bugs & Cranks, one of the foremost baseball websites on the Internet. In February 2007, I was looking for my first big break-out story, something that would elevate the kid from Canada who hadn’t been drawing much attention to the forefront with the guys covering the Phillies and Mets and Yankees and Red Sox, the quad of quality hits amongst our early posts.

I saw something of interest flash across the ticker; “Reds acquire Josh Hamilton in Rule V Draft.”

“THAT Josh Hamilton?,” I wondered to myself.

It was indeed that Josh Hamilton, the former first overall selection who had dropped off the radar thanks to numerous suspensions and a drug addiction.

Over the next couple of days, I put together Five Tools, Eight Years and One More Chance, my piece about Joshua Holt Hamilton, his downfall and the potential for a triumphant return. It was published on February 2, 2007.

Then Josh Hamilton happened.

The prodigious talent reappeared and made the Reds roster.

He hit a home run in his first MLB hit, and another the following night, just to show it wasn’t a fluke.

The Bandwagon started to fill up, and rightfully so. The detractors had their own set up, too.

Seeing him succeed at all, and the attention and love he was receiving from the media, created a sense of pride in me that may sound unreasonable. This was the guy I championed, making good and bringing hope to people who might not have had any to begin with. Unreasonable or not, I like to think I helped start the Josh Hamilton media storm.

Before the season began, Josh got shipped to Texas and became an instant target on all my fantasy baseball teams. Lemme tell you who the best seventh round pick of every draft I was in this past winter was? Playing home games in that hitter’s paradise down in Arlington might lead to a 30-HR, 100-RBI All-Star caliber season.

Then the season began.

Major League Baseball’s Player of the Month for April.

Another POM Award for May.

Talks of Triple Crowns.

The Sports Illustrated cover prompted a proud poppa piece from me entitled Sky’s The Limit, of course a reference to how high Hamilton’s proverbial ceiling is, but also a continuance of the Notorious BIG theme that ran through the first piece.

Then Monday night happened.

Passing by one of the giant flat screens above the bar, I saw Josh’s sweet swing and glanced at the number of home runs he’d hit. Then I looked again to see if my eyes were playing tricks on me.

I looked up once he’d hit No. 22. He pounded out six more before the first round ended.

The noise of the bar drowned out the chants from those packed into Yankees Stadium to see the display first hand. It didn’t matter, though.

I had been cheering for Josh Hamilton all along, even when others weren’t.

Simply put – I’ve got Mad Love for Josh Hamilton. I’ve been on his Bandwagon for years.