We could all learn a lot from Josh Hamilton, an outfielder for the Texas Rangers and the comeback story of the moment.

He is the man of this summer’s Homerun Derby fame — snatched up by the MLB right out of high school, he had the largest signing bonus ever forked over to a high school grad. He proceeded to do what most mixed-up 18 year olds would do with four million dollars — he blew it on coke (no, not the kind that offers endorsements), cars, and just about anything else that could have detracted from his baseball career.

But after a few years of weeklong benders and a sub-par batting average, he did what all good struggling athletes do: he found Jesus, made peace with his demons and went back to work, eventually earning a starting spot on the American League’s lineup for the All-Star Game. 

Now he keeps to a very strict regimen. He never has more than 20 dollars in his pocket and if he isn’t at the Rangers’ clubhouse he is in his apartment. But the most striking element of Hamilton’s turnaround is his handler/mentor Johnny Narron whose sole job is to keep Joshie out of trouble. 

This makes me wonder — what if we all had handlers?

You probably wouldn’t have crawled on top of the bar the other night. Or gone home with that guy, you know, your best friend’s (now ex) boyfriend. You wouldn’t have had to drag yourself to Student Health (now conveniently located on 35th and Market), stopping on the way for something greasy to mop up what remains in your stomach from last night, and you definitely would have been spared asking the receptionist for Plan B as discretely as possible.

Quite the contrary — you would have been tucked in at 10 p.m. sharp, woken up at a time that at least had a.m. following it, fixed yourself a nutritious breakfast, and proceeded to buckle down for that test you have on Thursday.

But then again, what fun is that? 

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 12:30 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.