The True Natural stands tall

I’ll admit, we’ve been slacking lately in our coverage of America’s greatest game here at Diamond Hoggers. It’s almost football season. Editor George has left us for dead. The Reds are all but out of it while the Indians are sailing into first place in the AL Central. There is nothing like a career game from our favorite ballplayer to bring us right back into editing here at the blog.

Elsewhere in baseball and in blogdome, Rick Ankiel has grabbed the headlines lately being dubbed as ‘Roy Hobbs’ and also for being linked to HGH in reports about 24 hours ago. This calling Ankiel ‘Roy Hobbs’ had us shaking our collective heads, as the true Natural in baseball since the season’s beginning has been Josh Hamilton. Hamilton’s OPS is .940, over a full season he’d have just less than 40 homeruns and 100 RBI. He plays phenomal defense and is a great guy. He’s baseball’s best story and tonight he just wrote another chapter for us all, while the imposter Hobbs (Ankiel) went 1 for 4 in the wake of his alleged HGH usage.

Tonight in a Reds 11-4 victory, Hamilton was the whole damn show. The Reds beat the Brewers as Hamilton laced the ball all over the ballpark. A double to the deep part of the park in center, a single to right in the same inning, a single to center, a homer to left (he loves hitting them out the other way in impressive fashion) to finish it off. He did it all tonight.

On a Reds ballclub that has underachieved all year long, Hamilton has been the bright spot. When healthy he has simply done things that make you do a double take or your eyes bulge on a baseball field. He is the reason I can’t wait for 2008 to get under way. To see the things this guy could still do for the next decade, knowing where he’s came from and what he’s gone through to get here–the best of all could still be yet to come. Something tells us it is.

[Box Score]