Hamilton's Choice

Maybe all the never-ending stories of substance abuse among pro athletes has made me a card-carrying cynic, but I don't have a lot of sympathy for Josh Hamilton. Falling off the wagon is one thing but judging by this picture he was having one hell of a good time with it. I don't see a lot of "remorse" there, do you? His "coming clean" after the pictures came out is no different than a player confessing he juiced after he failed the test.

It's all gotten so old now. Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden turned out to be the biggest disappointments I can remember. They had legitimate Hall of Fame potential, but they screwed their careers up with drugs and drink and cheated the fans in the process. Darrel Porter, a prominent catcher for Milwaukee and St. Louis in the early '80s, also had a major alcohol problem. Now, with the current Josh Hamilton debacle, I have to ask: How long am I supposed to be inundated with sympathy for drug and alcohol abusers, even after more than one failure at sobriety? You have to be from another planet not to know at an early age the dangers and risks involved, but here, a full generation later, Josh Hamilton goes down the same road anyway. Again! I don't believe for a nano-second that he never heard of Strawberry and Gooden - the poster kids for what drugs and drinking can do to your career, reputation and your life. But, as it was with them, it was Hamilton's choice, and his failure to stick with the plan was his choice as well. It's good that Strawberry finally got his life together and I certainly hope Hamilton gets past his problem, but whenever I hear these stories, I can't feel sympathetic. Who was holding a gun to their heads? As kids growing up, and later as amateur and pro athletes, the message of substance abuse was driven into their heads incessantly.They supposed to know better. They're certainly paid enough to. But unless they have a serious mental problem I refuse to feel sorry for the lazy and weak-minded.

None other than Charles Barkley had a recent take: "It's the jackass generation. You got every little nitwit walking around with a cell phone trying to catch you in a compromising position. I mean, my man Michael Phelps can't even smoke no dope with his friends. If you can't smoke with your friends, who the hell can you smoke with?"

How typical of Charles "I don't like white people" Barkley. He makes an excellent point about the "jackass generation" then proceeds to ruin it by defending Phelp's drug use. Talk about nitwits. Here we have a lifelong motormouthed clown who's been busted for drunk driving and actually brags about his gambling addiction, and he's trashing "nitwits" with cell phones? Everyone says, "He's funny," "He's opinionated," "He's entertaining," and the worst excuse of all, "It's just Charles being Charles." No, it's Charles being a loudmouthed, irresponsible, racist fool and anyone who is "entertained" by him and takes him seriously is gullible beyond belief. Barkley should stick to comedy because that's about as seriously as he deserves to be taken.

It's gotten to the point where the only thing left to admire about athletes is their chutzpah. It's disgusting.

Drug addiction is the same as alcoholism, not only for the dangers of becoming chemically dependant, but it's a choice to do so. But since alcohol isn't illegal, that, in a way, makes it more dangerous and presents a different viewpoint. So to all you people who call alcoholism a disease, here's my rebuttal: Alcohol is not an airborne pathogen, a bacteria or a virus that's contracted through sexual or physical contact. It is an intoxicant and consuming it is a deliberate choice - the same as with another well known addictive chemical: Nicotine. And unlike getting sick and relapsing by not recuperating long enough, it's a choice to drink again, not a "relapse." Do you decide to risk catching a cold? Do you plan on risking pneumonia? God forbid, is it your intention not to use protection and risk becoming HIV Positive? Of course not. Nobody plans to be an alcoholic either, but it's a lot easier to become one through carelessness and irresponsibility because it's not unlawful to drink, and the only way to protect yourself against the risks is knowing your limit or not drinking at all. For most young people - as well as many pro athletes in this case - they don't drink because it tastes great or it's less filling. They drink to get drunk because any combination of needing to be the biggest, baddest partier in the room, peer pressure, the thrill of the risks involved (or not giving a damn about them) are the driving force. And only after that drunken "driving force" kills somebody you know with a car (and the drunk driver survives, as often happens), is when you'll suddenly get mad about the dangers of drinking and drugs, only by then it will be too late. How many times have we heard the saga? That's the most tragic part of it because if that anger after the fact can be transported to before the fact, all this could easily be avoided. It's not a difficult concept.

Non-stop sympathy for abusers and so-called relapses is enough of a security blanket for any substance abuser to take a chance again. Now before you give me the usual, "You've never been through it; you couldn't possibly know what it's like; it's not as easy as you think" propaganda, here's my justification: You're right, I've never been through it, and you know why? Because I'd heard enough horror stories by the time I was 12 years old to understand that I did not want to know what it was like. I'm not above anyone, but I am living proof that avoiding trendy chemical amusement aid in the first place is a lot easier than alcoholics, drug addicts and their many sympathizers think.