The Winter of Our Discontent: Josh Hamilton

Joshua Holt Hamilton has been a Texas Ranger for five years. He has been described in this time as "exciting" "frustrating"  "a transcendent baseball talent" "an addict" and "incredible," among other, more precise  descriptions.  He once hit four home runs in a game - tying the major league record, something that is more rare than a perfect game - and then he saw a total of 8 pitches while going 0-for-3 in a one game playoff situation against a team some call the "Rangers East." He is living a story that some would call miraculous, but the very nature of it causes him to be questioned every day in the echo-chamber of the internet.

Hamilton is also a free agent as of last Friday night and is rumoured to be looking for a contract in the "insane" range. At this point it is fairly obvious that the Rangers are not looking to re-sign Hamilton, and an anonymous member of the front office supposedly said that even if he were looking to play for free, they didn't want him back. Yet, earlier this very season, there were clamors of "Pay that man!" and many a post bemoaning what would become of the offense if he wasn't sitting in that familiar third spot in the lineup.

It's Been a While...

...and basically a whole baseball season has passed by without me actually writing anything for this platform. Part of that is that you can now find me every morning, usually before 11:00 AM, over on OurDailyBears.com rounding up that morning's links about Baylor Athletics. Part of that is that 140 characters is pretty addicting, and you can usually find me ranting about things over on Twitter. And part of that is that I just hadn't had any decent ideas for a longform piece.

Today begins part one of what will hopefully be a series (though it might be a while between parts, due to a few lingering midterms) about the frustrating, disappointing, occasionally thrilling, and interesting 2012 Texas Rangers. I hope to have part one of "The Winter of Our Discontent" up by midnight tonight, addressing the free agent centerfielder with the interesting past-Josh Hamilton. I'll be looking at both the man and the myth and the massive amount of money he supposedly wants.

I hope to have this blog buzzing a little bit more between my off-season writing and Baylor football and basketball posts, so keep checking back!