Rockies announcers go on weird tirade against Josh Hamilton

Though he has yet to play in a game, Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton has inspired a number of hot takes this season. Much of that has to do with Hamilton admitting to a relapse during the offseason.

Hamilton was not suspended for his actions after an independent arbitrator ruled that one-time use did not count as a violation of Hamilton’s drug-treatment program. That didn’t sit well with Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno, who chastised Hamilton following the incident. 

A few weeks later, Hamilton was shipped back with Texas. In the trade, the Angels agreed to eat a large portion of Hamilton’s remaining contract. 

During Wednesday’s Rockies/Angels game, Colorado’s Root Sports Rocky Mountain announcing crew decided to discuss the situation. They concluded that Hamilton should thank the Angels for paying him so much money, and apologize to the fans for not living up to his deal.

Here’s the full transcript of the exchange via Awful Announcing: 

“Howie Kendrick is gone. You can focus on that certainly. Also, the whole Josh Hamilton situation. A lot of guys around this club have said that they haven’t fully reconciled what went down in their minds. And a lot of players, not just at the top with Arte Moreno, are upset with Josh Hamilton that he never publicly thanked the Angels for paying him a ton of money. And he obviously didn’t hold up his end up the bargain, I understand he has demons, but he never publicly acknowledged his teammates or the Angels organization at all.”

“And the Angels are still on the hook for about $71 million of the $80 million still owed to him. So yeah, if you want to thank anybody, that’s who you should be thanking.”

“It became more about the Rangers bringing him back, and I don’t know if Josh Hamilton didn’t think it through or got poor advice, but in his situation, in my opinion, you need to spend some time apologizing to the Angels fans, to his teammates, and thanking the organization for what they ended up doing, not only initially, but sending him back to Texas”

There are people out there who wish Hamilton would have taken more responsibility for his relapse, but this seems like the wrong way to bring up the issue.

From what we know, most of the Angels’ players were incredibly supportive of Hamilton following the incident. C.J. Wilson even went on record saying he had some issues with the statement Moreno released shortly after the news came to light. 

On top of that, it’s not as if the Angels were kept in the dark about Hamilton’s addiction issues when they signed him. They had to weigh those risks before they gave him $125 million. While it’s reasonable for them to be disappointed with how the deal turned out, it’s not as if they were blindsided.

The whole concept of asking a player to thank a team for giving them a contract, or apologizing to fans for not living up to that deal is absurd. The announcers aren’t asking Carlos Gonzalez to apologize for hitting .188 this season, even though he’s being paid a ton of money to put up better numbers. 

Hamilton appears to be in a better situation now, and that’s a positive development. But considering some of the comments made by Moreno prior to Hamilton’s exit, it’s tough to expect him to be grateful to the Angels at this time. Maybe he’ll eventually feel that way, but the comments are still pretty fresh.

Hamilton’s situation is surrounded in controversy, and that’s going to lead to people coming up with these types of takes. If you want to demand more from Hamilton, there’s probably a reasonable way to express that. This was not the right way to take on the issue. 

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With Hamilton working his way back from a shoulder injury, this story isn’t going to subside any time soon. Here’s hoping other announcers handle the situation better moving forward. 

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik