Josh Hamilton got elected (or selected?) to the rangers hall of fame today and all of a sudden ranger nation had a workday of going through all the feels.  First of all I didn’t even know we had a team hall of fame. Apparently we do have one though and we took no time to wait in selecting (or electing?) our god who is undoubtedly the greatest legend to ever grace the Texas Rangers uniform. Unfortunately it was not an easy day of celebration for us but rather a moment that brought out a lot of mixed emotions.

Let me just start by that never have been more ecstatic after a sports play than that game 6 home run.  I was a premature victory joint deep already that had gone south in a disastrous manner before he resurrected my soul.  God damn it was so fucking incredible and should’ve lived forever as one of the most iconic plays in baseball and sports history.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I3e8S0u_Pb0

It was not his fault (and it is no single person’s fault) for the way that game ended up, but what happened happened and all of a sudden our surefire dynasty sputtered into irrelevance buffalo bills style. It’s hard to find a true comp for the emotions that we felt. Falcons fans had that Julio Jones catch in SB51. But I guess it was worse for them because we at least won basketball earlier that year and they’ve never won shit. That is chill I guess.

Unfortunately the legacy of our god took a nose dive from that point forward. By summer of 2012 he had attained a permanent apathy for his craft that only Barry Sanders could rival.

We were cruising to a first place season all year until a historic August collapse that culminated in three game series at Oakland. We were one game up on home field advantage and would’ve clinched the division at a minimum with just one single win in the three game series. Instead, we got swept and had to enter the wild card.  The key moment of the series was this horrendous error in game 162

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o5Fx4z0V2mY

The play-in game was against Baltimore, the same team that Hamilton had his iconic four dong against four months earlier.  He went 0-4 with two strikeouts on eight pitches.  Never have I seen someone in a 4 spot torpedo an offense that hard. It probably also ruined Yu Darvish’s career too if you really that about it.

He was a free agent that winter and by then it was an obvious decision to for JD to cut loose from the ass of the 2010 MVP and franchise icon. He signed with Anaheim and proceeded to siphon $125M out of Arte Moreno’s pockets.  The rest of his career was cashing checks and relapsing into rehabs.  I will admit that we do have to give him credit for ruining the Angels. Fuck anaheim and fuck that team so I am grateful he plunged that franchise to rock bottom.

Overall, as judgement day on his career comes upon us, I guess it is appropriate to appreciate the hopes our god brought us and to what game six could’ve or should’ve brought us.

Here’s to Josh Hamilton. Please toast your finest cup of ginger ale in his honor, or a beer or whatever. If I know him like I think I do, he probably doesn’t care anymore anyway.