IBC

I'm not sure how many youngsters in this league (feels weird to say that now) have ever seen or read "The Natural," but I thought this was awesome for all of us oldies.

https://www2.blogger.com/comment.g?blog ... 9875045794

Trying to think about it, I think the power seems a bit high and the avg a bit low - but pretty spot on. Any of you other old-timers with an opinion on this?

Nice post, I remember when Simmons did his thing, though I don't think he did the full stat line, just homeruns. If you haven't seen this movie though, you're not a real baseball fan.

That's pretty cool. Gotta agree.......if the youngin's around the league haven't seen "The Natural" and you are a baseball fan...then you gotta watch that flick........

Naturally, as a baseball fan, I've seen the Natural. I still love Field of Dreams more, but it's number two on my list.

The book, which I prefer, was written two years before I was born and was required reading in both a high School class as well as a college class I took. For anyone who hasn't read the book or seen the movie (which I can't imagine) Wikipedia has a pretty good write-up on both at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Natural.

David Bloom at his fine blog, Baseball Happenings by David Bloom, a while back asked:

Is Josh Hamilton Wonderboy?

In the recent rule V draft, Josh Hamilton was made available to any of the major league teams.

The Reds took a shot on him and plan to give Josh Hamilton a legitimate shot to make it.

Just like a movie the Natural, Josh Hamilton is a baseball prodigy who has his promising career sidetracked, and attempts to return to baseall later in life.

The left hand slugger from Raleigh, NC was the top overall pick in the yearly free agent draft in 1999. The baseball community had tabbed him as a future superstar when the Devil Rays drafted him instead of taking Josh Beckett with the overall top pick.

His career got off to a good start where he posted over a 900 OPS in the low level A ball which resulted to a promotion to Hudson Valley. The following year his bat did not dissapoint where he again terrorized minor league pitching, but that would be the most at bats he would get at 391 at bats. From this point on, he was plagued with an injury on the field, a car accident in Tampa in 2001 that injured his back, and it seemed like it would difficult for him just to get back on the field. But, that was before the cocaine drug addiction took place where he was suspended from the game since 2003 until last year when he was finally reinstated.

At the age of 25, he is not the 35 year old player the Robert Redford played in that incredible movie the Natural. However, what Josh has been through just to get to this point sure parallels the story.

Hobbs got shot by a crazy lady. He had his chance all but taken away.
Hamilton decided natural talent wasn't enough and got involved with drugs and steroids. Repeatedly. Hamilton threw his chances away. If Barry Bonds is the poster boy for the MLB steroid problem, Hamilton was the poster boy for the MILB problem.

Don't get it twisted Bren, Bonds threw no chances away. He used steroids to perfection, generating probably the greatest five year hitting run in the history of baseball on any level AND he's going to make 20 million for playing baseball at age 42

Clearly, Bren, you have not read/seen "The Natural." Hobbs was seduced by a strange woman who was enamored with his potential. That is involved in the trappings of fame - Hobbs was a casualty of being reckless with his celebrity (he garnered it from striking out the Babe Ruth character).

Due to this problem he disappeared for over a decade - no one knows what he got into during that time.

Don't go all high and mighty when there are no facts. He could have gotten messed up with painkillers. He could have gotten messed up with alochol. Hell, he could have found the one man who produced steroids in the mid-1900s and that, not Wonderboy, got him back in the game.

Actually I've seen "The Natural" several times (wish i had it on DVD instead of VHS though).

Falling in love/lust with a gorgeous woman is not a crime, it's not even necessarily a mistake or a problem. That she turned out to be a murderous psycho wasn't his fault.

Getting mixed up in drugs and/or steroids like Hamilton did is ALWAYS a mistake, as well as a crime. One he repeated.

Really? Not necessarily a mistake or a problem? Would you like to ask Andre Rison about that? How about Shawn Kemp? How about Calvin Murphy? How about Magic Johnson? How about Tommy Morrison? How about Larry Johnson? How about Patrick Ewing? How about Juwon Howard? How about Scottie Pippen? How about Jason Kidd? How about Matt Leinart? How about Stephon Marbury? How about Hakeem Olajuwon? How about Gary Payton? How about Wade Boggs? How about Gary Sheffield? How about Juan Gonzalez? How about Jim Palmer? How about Steve Garvey? How about Pete Rose? How about Alonzo Spellman? How about Mark Messier? How about Oscar de la Hoya? How about Roscoe Tanner?

Remind me never to rent or buy in a building you make - you'll probably forget to put in windows.

Shit, you just named half the NBA Hall of Famers. Black guys always get into messes, and you named about 12 of them, I think your argument is invalid

Royals wrote:Really? Not necessarily a mistake or a problem? Would you like to ask Andre Rison about that? How about Shawn Kemp? How about Calvin Murphy? How about Magic Johnson? How about Tommy Morrison? How about Larry Johnson? How about Patrick Ewing? How about Juwon Howard? How about Scottie Pippen? How about Jason Kidd? How about Matt Leinart? How about Stephon Marbury? How about Hakeem Olajuwon? How about Gary Payton? How about Wade Boggs? How about Gary Sheffield? How about Juan Gonzalez? How about Jim Palmer? How about Steve Garvey? How about Pete Rose? How about Alonzo Spellman? How about Mark Messier? How about Oscar de la Hoya? How about Roscoe Tanner?

Remind me never to rent or buy in a building you make - you'll probably forget to put in windows.

Dude, right now, you're reminding me of those people who misuse the word "literally" because they have no idea what it actually means. Some comedian does a great stand up bit about it.
1. Dude, that was so funny I literally peed my pants!
2. So, you just peed your pants?
1. What? No, I said I LITERALLY peed my pants!
2. Uhm, so you're sitting in a puddle of urine now?
Do you know what it means to say that something "isn't necessarily" a problem? It means that action, such as falling in love, isn't a problem in and of itself. Falling in love with a beautiful women isn't a problem all on it's own. other circumstances can make that situation a problem, such as if that beautiful woman turns out to be married, HIV infected or a murderous psycho then you have a problem (of varying degrees depending on what you have done and choose to do next). Hobbs didn't do anything wrong, he just got unlucky.

Then Bren, my friend, you have clearly never dated an attractive woman (not that I didn't intuitively think different).

All HOT girls/women are crazy on some level and to varying degrees. I defy someone to argue that with picture evidence.

RedSox wrote:Hobbs got shot by a crazy lady. He had his chance all but taken away.
Hamilton decided natural talent wasn't enough and got involved with drugs and steroids. Repeatedly. Hamilton threw his chances away. If Barry Bonds is the poster boy for the MLB steroid problem, Hamilton was the poster boy for the MILB problem.

Check out this article recently penned by the respected Evan Grant:

... He spends 45 minutes in the cage working with Johnny Narron, friend and mentor and new Rangers special assignment coach. Hamilton swings one-handed with an easy but powerful grace. He hits a handful of line drives off tees and soft-tosses and then another 25-30 in full-scale batting practice. It's a breeze compared to last winter, when he would hit 300-400 balls a day while trying to cram the 3 ? seasons that he lost to drug addiction into two months.

The rest of the day includes 2 ? hours with a merciless personal trainer. On alternate days, he visits a similarly sadistic pilates instructor.

When he finally gets home and takes off his size 16 shoes, the doorbell rings. A lab technician is waiting. Three times a week, Hamilton's past and future intersect when he urinates into a cup and waits for confirmation that tells the baseball world what he has known for 27 months: He is clean, sober and drug-free.

I think he looks forward to the tests," Narron says. "He knows he's an addict. He knows he has to be accountable. He looks at those tests as a way to reassure people around him who had faith."

...Faith. It comes up often in the story of 26-year-old Joshua Holt Hamilton. It's virtually impossible to tell his story without mentioning his Christian faith. He'd prefer you not even try.

Faith, he regularly testifies, has put him back in baseball after four years of addiction problems so ugly you can't blame his family for not wanting to relive them. But because of faith, they do ñ to churches, youth groups and halfway houses.

If Hamilton could shake his habit ñ it included downing a bottle of Crown Royal almost daily and cocaine and crack cravings so strong he burned through a $3.96 million signing bonus ñ and finally get to the big leagues last season, there had to be a reason.

...Because for all the amazing physical tools Josh Hamilton has displayed, the one that has made him a major leaguer is one everybody is capable of developing.

It's faith.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 8a1b6.html

I liked the movie as a kid, not so much as an adult. The book was better as is the case most times. Rick Ankiel is closer to "the Natural" than Josh Hamilton. It'd take a combo of the two to get a real-life one. It left me with too many questions.

Would any man take Glenn Close over Kim Basinger?
The ball he hit so hard that it unwound like a ball of yarn, what happened to the hard cork in the center?
Why did a ball that hit the lights cause fireworks?
Why could he hit after taking the bullet but not pitch anymore and if he could hit like that why wasn't he a hitter to begin with?

BlueJays wrote:I liked the movie as a kid, not so much as an adult. The book was better as is the case most times. Rick Ankiel is closer to "the Natural" than Josh Hamilton. It'd take a combo of the two to get a real-life one. It left me with too many questions.

Would any man take Glenn Close over Kim Basinger?
The ball he hit so hard that it unwound like a ball of yarn, what happened to the hard cork in the center?
Why did a ball that hit the lights cause fireworks?
Why could he hit after taking the bullet but not pitch anymore and if he could hit like that why wasn't he a hitter to begin with?

Ankiel? Nothing natural about HGH..

Not a whole lot of anything natural with crack tho either.

Well, arguably HGH is the synthetic reproduction of a natural human hormone. Crack is completely alien to the body though.

RedSox wrote:Well, arguably HGH is the synthetic reproduction of a natural human hormone. Crack is completely alien to the body though.

The keyword is in bold right there for you buddy.

I know and I was very conscious of it when I chose the term. However, it's synthetic in that it's man-made, but in almost every way (according to the research I've read) it's as close to identical to natural HGH as possible rather than being a completely different substance which produces similar effects.
Crack doesn't mimic a naturally occurring substance.

RedSox wrote:I know and I was very conscious of it when I chose the term. However, it's synthetic in that it's man-made, but in almost every way (according to the research I've read) it's as close to identical to natural HGH as possible rather than being a completely different substance which produces similar effects.
Crack doesn't mimic a naturally occurring substance.

The Cocoa leaf is as natural a plant on this earth as anything else.. certainly not man made.

The process to get to crack, takes nothing more than cocaine, baking soda, water, and a source of heat. Its a natural chemical reaction.

Its not any more of a stretch to call it a natural substance than HGH. Arguably anyway...

Not natural to the human body however.

[quote="RedSox"]Not natural to the human body however.[/quote]

Kind of like food, huh? They should crack down on all this food eating going on in MLB...