Sports fans and collectors love a good comeback story. And when it comes to those types of stories, they don't get much bigger than the one being written by Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton.
In the late 1990s, Hamilton was the epitome of the all-everything prospect. He was a stellar pitcher and outfielder for his North Carolina high school and almost universally considered the number one prospect in the 1999 MLB entry draft. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays selected him first overall and it looked like he was on his way.
But Hamilton's story and his whole life came off the rails shortly thereafter. He was involved in a serious car accident in the spring of 2001 and began abusing alcohol and drugs. It would be five years before he'd play baseball again, and while he battled his personal demons he was largely written off as a sad cautionary tale.
Late in 2005, though, Hamilton was able to finally get clean and make a concerted effort to get his once-promising career back on track. He was selected in the 2006 Rule 5 Draft by the Chicago Cubs, who subsequently sold his rights to the Cincinnati Reds. After tearing through 2007 spring training, he turned in a successful rookie season at age 26, hitting .292 with 19 home runs.
Traded to the Texas Rangers after the 2007 season, Hamilton has looked even better since then. He became the first player in baseball history to be named AL Player of the Month for the first two months of the season in 2008, and he entered the 2008 All-Star break among the league leaders in batting average and homers while pacing all major leaguers in RBI.
Hamilton's amazing resurgence will no doubt get collectors interested once again in his 1999 rookie cards, which were a hot commodity at one time but fell off considerably during his personal struggles. His four rookie issues are fairly easy to find and certainly have the potential to become much more popular if Hamilton continues to author a happy ending to his comeback tale.
Josh Hamilton 1999 Rookie Cards
- Bowman # 431
- Bowman Chrome # 431
- Topps Traded # T66
- Topps Chrome Traded # T66