PASSAN: Josh Hamilton 'Didn't Care' About Relapse

Read More: Josh Hamilton (CF - TEX), Texas Rangers

Yahoo’s Jeff Passan wrote a rather knee-jerk reaction to Josh Hamilton’s reported relapse with alcohol, last night. It included this:

The worst part about Josh Hamilton’s relapse is that he didn’t care. The most famous addict in sports does not go to a bar in the town where he is best known without full knowledge that his exploits will become public in a matter of hours. That it took three full days for Hamilton’s latest relapse to go viral – and that incriminating pictures have yet to surface – is something of a miracle.

Passan goes on to say that Hamilton’s possible contract extension is “gone”, and later in the same article:

Hamilton does care, of course, even if for the tiniest sliver of time it eluded him.

Passan’s message is confusing, and whenever writing about topics like this, it’s difficult for anyone who doesn’t suffer from addiction the way Hamilton does to truly understand, as Craig Calcaterra points out:

It’s easy for those of us who do not have experience with addiction to frame this as a black and white issue and think of it as Josh Hamilton making a bad choice. But from what I understand from those who know more about this, the essential nature of alcoholism is that, subjectively speaking, the person doesn’t have a choice. Or doesn’t feel like they’re making one at the time. It’s a compulsion. Reason is cast to the wind. It’s the very thing that separates a person who can handle alcohol from one who can’t.

Craig goes on to say his reaction is primarily “sadness”, and that’s quite true. This isn’t something that ought to be subject to instant analysis, probably the reason the Rangers haven’t made public comment yet.

For more on Hamilton and the Rangers, please visit Lone Star Ball.