Support system
Nightengale: Rehabbed pitcher says Angels wrong to shun Josh Hamilton,
ST. Milwaukee Brewers
LOUIS reliever Jeremy Jeffress has never met Josh Hamilton but knows everything about him.
He has never used drugs with Hamilton but understands everything about the addiction.
Jeffress, who twice has been suspended from baseball for smoking marijuana in the minors and faces a permanent ban if he tests positive again when not on the 40-man roster, is thankful every day for being clean.
He made the most of that one last chance. He prays every day Hamilton will get the same.
He implores the Los Angeles Angels to find that same compassion in their hearts to help Hamilton’s recovery, just as the Brewers did for him.
“I know what he’s going through. I know exactly that feeling,” Jeffress, 27, told USA TODAY Sports. “You get back to your room at night, and if you don’t have anyone with you, that (temptation) is always there.
“It’s tough. It’s bad, man. You got to have a lot of mental toughness. It’s always something. I know I’m always going to be fighting it.
“I know how hard it was to break away for me, to be clean from all that. You’ve got to know what you’re fighting for. What’s going to be there at the end waiting for you?”
Jeffress, suspended for 50 games in 2007 and for 100 games in 2009, had the Brewers awaiting him with open arms. They placed him in drug rehabilitation centers after each suspension. If not for the Brewers, Jeffress wonders whether he’d even have a baseball career.
Hamilton, who was out of baseball from 2002 to 2006 for his drug use, has nobody waiting for him. The Angels, who contractually owe Hamilton $83 million, have made it painfully clear they don’t want him back. Hamilton has no locker at Angel Stadium, no merchandise bearing his name or number at the ballpark.
Owner Arte Moreno, livid that Hamilton wasn’t suspended after informing Major League Baseball in February he had an alcohol and drug relapse, declines to say whether Hamilton will play another game in an Angels uniform. He is bracing for a fight with the MLB Players Association about whether Hamilton even gets paid, insisting there are specific clauses in his contract that provide the Angels recourse in the event of a relapse. The union argues any language in his contract is superseded by the Joint Drug Agreement.
The tension and awkwardness between Hamilton and the Angels is so acute it’s unknown whether Hamilton will visit his teammates this weekend when they are in Houston, where Hamilton is rehabbing his damaged shoulder. Manager Mike Scioscia says he plans to visit or contact Hamilton personally, but it’s unclear whether he would have the team’s blessing.
“To go through what he’s going through,” says Josh Kusnick, Jeffress’ agent, “and then to have the club piling on afterward, that’s heartbreaking.
“I know what Hamilton did can be viewed as self-inflicted, but I can’t understand what they’re doing. It’s troubling.”
Hamilton, 33, is a drug addict. He has never shied from admitting his disease.
Twice in the last few years, Hamilton had public bouts with drunkenness. Two months ago, he admitted to MLB officials he had a relapse.
When he recovers from shoulder surgery — expected to be in June — he is free to rejoin the Angels, according to an arbitrator’s ruling two weeks ago.
Yet the Angels organization hasn’t provided any sign it wants to see him again. Maybe it’s best he takes time off and gets help. One of his mentors, Roy Silver, thinks it might be best for him to even retire.
“I think he should play, man,” Jeffress says. “That’s the only thing that will keep him sane.
“You take that away from him, after family, what else does he got?”
Jeffress, the Brewers’ firstround draft pick in 2006, receiving a $1.55 million signing bonus out of high school in Virginia, says his family and the Brewers saved his career. His parents, Freddie and Yolanda, who have been married for 34 years, were always there to support him.
And never once did the Brewers turn their back on him.
“Obviously, he’s fighting it, just like me,” Jeffress says of Hamilton. “I wanted to go to a rehab place. I wanted to get better. I wanted to play baseball.
“I just had to straighten a lot of stuff out first, but the Brewers had my back since Day 1.”
Jeffress was drafted by Milwaukee, traded to the Kansas City Royals in the Zack Greinke deal and opted for free agency in 2014 after the Toronto Blue Jays demoted him. Three teams offered big-league jobs within an hour. He chose one that wasn’t offering the most money or the best opportunity but the one that stood by his side. Yes, the Brewers. Jeffress, diagnosed two years ago with juvenile epilepsy — he had two seizures during the offseason — was told anxiety and stress can lead to the attacks. Maybe it was the reason he used to smoke marijuana. Who knows for sure, he said, but he stopped cold turkey and has sponsors, friends and family he calls during times of distress.
And always, he thinks of his 14-month-old daughter, Jurnee, with her name stitched inside his glove.
“It was just a matter of being stressed and having a lot of pressure go along with it,” Jeffress said. “I got drafted at 18. I went all the way across the United States and was away from my family. I was young. I signed for a lot of money. And I had no one. So part of it was being stupid. Part of it was stress.
“I just decided to take a puff here and there, you know, just to relax. It was a dumb decision. I regret it. I’ve moved past it.”
Jeffress, who yielded a 1.88 ERA in 29 appearances last season with the Brewers, has never been better. He has limited the opposition to a .125 batting average this year. He’s healthy, happy and confident his troubled days are behind him.
“He was on the brink of losing his career,” said Reid Nichols, the Brewers’ director of player development. “But he worked so hard to get back, and look at him today.
“When he came back this spring, he walked through our offices, shook hands with everybody and said, ‘Thank you so much for your help and by sticking by me.’ I’ll never forget that.”
Old teammates couldn’t be happier to see the man he is.
“There were so many things at that time of his life he was battling,” said catcher Jonathan Lucroy, who played parts of three years in the minors with Jeffress. “You got to understand that guys face a lot of temptations, especially within this game. We’re all inherently weak on the inside.
“This game is a mental and physical grind. Guys turn to other things to relieve that stress, and we end up making mistakes.”
Hopefully, Jeffress says, Hamilton gets a chance to make up for his Everybody has their issues,” he says. It’s how you learn from them. You come through it, and you’ll have the testimony at the end. Believe me, that’s what keeps me going. Hopefully the same for Josh, too.”