When Matt Ishii told Jason Murray he had a surprise for him, Murray cringed. He doesn’t like surprises. It was late October 2005. Murray was in the initial stages of preparing for the next baseball season, his second as head coach of the Charleston Southern University baseball team. While most sports fans were tuned in to football and basketball, Murray and Ishii, the Bucs pitching coach, were pouring over scouting reports, player stats and other personnel matters.
Archive - June, 2006
Josh Hamilton: Starting Over [Part 2]
Linda and Tony Hamilton returned to North Carolina, leaving Josh in Bradenton, Florida, to recover and resume his climb to the major leagues. For the first time in his life Hamilton was alone.
He struggled through the 2001 season, playing in just 27 games. Hamilton spent most of the 2002 season on the disabled list, battling a variety of injuries, including lingering back problems. By July he was sidelined for the season to undergo back and elbow surgery. The Devil Rays anticipated Hamilton’s arrival for spring training 2003.
Josh Hamilton: Starting Over [Part 1]
Hamilton is 25 years old, the last four felt like a lifetime.
His mind once blurred by drugs and alcohol, his body abused by a serious car accident, tattoos and cigarette burn scars on his skin, Hamilton is trying to pick up the pieces of his life and a promising career as a major league baseball player. On Tuesday, June 8, 1999, Josh and his parents, Tony and Linda Hamilton, and 50 friends and members of the media camped out at Hamilton’s home in Raleigh, N.C., waiting for the phone to ring. The room was filled with quiet anticipation.
If the Shoe Fits …
By May 2006, Julie Goodenough was 14 months removed from the last time she stepped on the basketball court as head coach at Oklahoma State. Job prospects came and went at Goodenough’s will. Each opportunity felt like a pair of shoes one size too small: uncomfortable – and ultimately – painful to walk in.
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