Hamilton not out to ‘stick it’ to Angels this weekend
The biggest upcoming series for Josh Hamilton will likely be July 24-26, when the Texas Rangers travel to Anaheim to face his old team in front of a fan base that has soured on the former American League MVP.
But the Rangers-Angels series that begins Friday has significance because it’s the first time Hamilton gets to square off against the club that all but gave him away in April after his relapse with drugs and two unproductive seasons on a five-year contract that guarantees him $125 million.
Hamilton is trying to avoid any drama. He said Thursday that he’s simply looking forward to seeing his old teammates and isn’t interested in rehashing what happened earlier this year.
“The only thought I have is it will be good to see the guys,” Hamilton said. “I had my short stint over there, and it didn’t go the way I wanted it to for me. Wherever I go play, I try to perform the best I can, and I didn’t do it there. For that, I feel bad.
“But you can’t live there and you can’t stay there. It’s a different day and a different situation. It’ll be good to see some of the guys, and that’s it.”
Hamilton wants to do well against the Angels, who entered Thursday in second place in the AL West by a game over the Rangers, but he is also wary of trying to do too much.
He said that he believes a player can lock in his focus, but he doesn’t want do to anything beyond what he normally does.
“I wouldn’t say there’s any extra motivation to stick it to them,” he said.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia, embroiled in another in-house controversy this week, said he wants Hamilton to reach out to his ex-teammates and express his gratefulness for all their support in 2013 and 2014, and do the same with owner Arte Moreno, who did all he could to get rid of Hamilton.
“I’m hoping he’ll take the opportunity to thank the teammates that supported him,” Scioscia told Angels writers. “Again, I really think that he should reach out to Arte and let Arte know that some of the things he did weren’t what he signed up to do, you know? I’ll leave it at that.”
Hamilton, though, is under the impression that many of the Angels players understand his situation and that he enjoyed being their teammate. As for Moreno, Hamilton said that he tried on multiple occasions to speak with him, only to be turned away by president John Carpino and then-general manager Jerry Dipoto.
“Most all of those guys are behind me,” Hamilton said. “When they came through Houston, I had lunch with three or four of them, and everybody was cool. That’s it.
“Even when I was there in the midst of the season and it wasn’t going well, I reached out to Carpino and to Dipoto. ‘Can I speak to Arte, just to assure him that I’m not the guy that you got right now but I’m working to become that guy again?’ And I was always turned down. ‘We’ll make sure he gets the message.’ I don’t know if he got the message or not.”
Angels players who were Hamilton’s teammates, including left-hander C.J. Wilson and reigning AL MVP Mike Trout, said that they are looking forward to seeing Hamilton but will try to beat him and the Rangers.
“Obviously, we bonded here and had a good friendship,” Trout said. “He’s a great guy, and hopefully he doesn’t get any hits against us.”
Jeff Wilson, 817-390-7760
This story was originally published July 2, 2015 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Hamilton not out to ‘stick it’ to Angels this weekend."