Ex-Angels Outfielder Hasn't Watched Baseball Since He Retired For Unusual Reason

Josh Hamilton's tenure in an Angels uniform was a short one.

Signed to a five-year, $125 million contract prior to the 2013 season, Hamilton was limited to just 240 games in Anaheim, his tenure undone by injuries and a drug and alcohol relapse that led him to be traded to Texas for cash in April 2015.

These days, Hamilton is primarily playing the role of a father supporting his daughters' youth softball endeavors. He was in Colorado last week for a softball tournament when Rockies interim bench coach Clint Hurdle invited Hamilton to speak to his team.

Hamilton, arguably the best hitter in baseball during the prime of his career with the Texas Rangers, certainly holds plenty of actionable insights between his ears. And the Rockies could use the help. Despite playing in the most hitter-friendly park in Major League Baseball, they're averaging 3.5 runs per game — 27th in MLB.

It's been 10 years since Hamilton played his final game with the Rangers in 2015. It's been eight years since he was released from a 2017 comeback attempt with Texas, the unfortunate result of what proved to be a career-ending knee injury.

Since then, Hamilton said on the SportsDay Rangers podcast, he hasn't watched baseball.

"I don’t watch baseball since I’ve been out," Hamilton said. "I haven’t watched baseball, because the more I watch it the more I want to be around it. I was like a little kid in a candy store in the (Rockies') batting cage. I may have — I wasn’t supposed to because I had knee surgery in November — jumped in the cage and hit a few off the tee.”

Turns out eight years away from baseball wasn't long enough to separate Hamilton, 44, from his love for hitting.

"I went, and just dressed out and hung out in early batting practice in the cage with the guys," he said. "I was fortunate enough to share some things with them in the hitters' meeting, about the game and about struggles and about how to move forward together as a team. It was a whole lot of fun."

Hamilton retired with a .290 career batting average, 200 home runs, and 701 RBIs in nine seasons with the Cincinnati Reds (2007), Rangers (2008-12; '15) and Angels (2013-14).

Any story about Hamilton's career is obligated to mention his dramatic fall from being the first overall draft pick by the Tampa Bay Rays in 1999 to losing three years of his career — and nearly his life — to cocaine and alcohol abuse before ever reaching the majors.

Although he's maintained his distance from baseball since retiring, Hamilton is still remembered fondly by fans in Texas. In Anaheim, not so much.