Newly clean and sober center fielder Josh Hamilton arrived at the batting cages Friday morning with a smile on his face. He is 6-4, 240 pounds and is wearing a royal blue Rangers shirt which he claims brings out the blue in his eyes. Hamilton spends the following 45 minutes in the cage swinging one-handed with an smooth but powerful grace. He hits a few line drives off tees and soft-tosses before spending 25-30 more minutes in full-scale batting practice. This training is nothing compared to last year when he spent hours hitting hundreds of balls a day while trying to catch up on the over 3 seasons that he missed to drug addiction. Later on in the day Hamilton spends 2 ½ hours with a relentless personal trainer before heading off to his similarly rigorous pilates instructor. After all this, when he arrives home Hamilton’s future is tested when he urinates into a cup and waits for confirmation that says that Hamilton is clean, sober and drug-free.
January 28th, 2008
The Detroit Tigers are talking with Curtis Granderson about a long-term contract extension. Curtis Granderson is not set to became a free agent until the end of the 2011 season, however. Last year Granderson made $410,000 and was thinking that maybe the team could sign him a likeminded contract for the 2008 season. The club now has more of a reason to sign Curtis to a long-term contract over the next few months after he was almost selected for his first All-Star game. The Detroit Tigers would prefer the contract to stretch a minimum of one season. At this point contract length or salary have not been discussed.
January 28th, 2008
