Nobody asked Cardinals reliever Jason Motte what God was telling him. “God told me I was going to hit a home run.” Hamilton was asked about the home run after the game. How about Hamilton’s home run in the top of the 10th inning in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series? The whole world would have remembered that home run if the Cardinals hadn’t rallied to win the game. What Rangers fan doesn’t remember about his four-home run game against the Orioles in 2012 or the catch he made off Detroit’s Ryan Raburn in the sixth and deciding game of the 2011 American League Championship Series? Five tools? Run? Throw? Field? Hit? Hit for power? He had all of those in abundance. Hamilton was almost certainly the most physically gifted athlete to ever play for the Rangers. The same could be said of Johnny Oates when he was managing Juan Gonzalez. Getting Hamilton to play at a high level may have been one of Washington’s biggest strengths as the Rangers manager. Washington just knew that getting Hamilton ready to play, up for the game and into the lineup on a particular day game was always going to be a challenge. He didn’t need a stat sheet in front of him, one that shows Hamilton was a career. The next morning, Hamilton was in manager Ron Washington’s office, telling his boss that he wasn’t able to play that day. Hamilton was pacing around the room, bouncing off the walls and acting like a pent-up wild animal in a zoo. They had adjoining rooms in the team hotel, and Narron could hear Hamilton next door. ![]() That’s because Josh Hamilton couldn’t sleep. The Rangers were on the road, it was well past midnight and Johnny Narron was unable to sleep. In this two-part installment, Sullivan looks back at Josh Hamilton, possibly the most talented player in Rangers history but also the one who required the heaviest lifting. Sullivan covered the Texas Rangers over 32 years for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and MLB.com and is sharing his “memoirs” with this newsletter.
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