Of all the missteps Jon Daniels may have made over the past two years, letting Josh Hamilton walk wasn't one of them. This man is in the process of going 2-for-2 in alienating fans of A.L. West teams.
If you blinked, you likely missed the Los Angeles Angels' exit from the American League Division Series against the Kansas City Royals. Hamilton went 0-for-13 in the series, which means you have to go back to Game 6 of the 2011 World Series to find his last postseason hit. Now, Hamilton is making a nuisance of himself in Southern California just like he did with the Rangers.
The Angels are stuck with his immovable contract for another three years. Not even the blow-out-the-budget Dodgers would take Hamilton off their hands at this point. The former Rangers slugger was as out-of-touch as ever while talking with the Orange County Register following the ALDS.
"I thought it was pretty funny, after my third at-bat of the first game, I got booed," said Hamilton, referring to his return from a back injury. "I'm like, seriously? I'm out for a month, put all kinds of poison in my body to even attempt to play, and get booed. Whatever. It's kind of comical.
"I don't take offense to it because they don't know me. There is no personal interaction."
It's hard to believe this man was once a fan favorite in Arlington. His path back from drug and alcohol addiction was a story that caused a lot of folks to root for him. And he played a huge role in the Rangers' back-to-back trips to the World Series. After that infamous Game 6 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, Hamilton said that God had given him a vision that he would hit a home run in that game. His homer nearly gave this remarkable story a new chapter, but we know what happened next.
Still, I believe Rangers fans should be thankful that Hamilton's career peaked here. He may have left a sour taste in everyone's mouth, but he was at the center of the greatest run in the franchise's history. It doesn't appear that Angels fans will ever experience Hamilton at anything close to that level.
They will only get the head-scratching quotes and lifeless at-bats. The Angels gambled that a change of scenery might turn him into an elite player again. Instead, he seems more lost than ever. This man who was known to pull out his Bible in news conferences shouldn't have turned up his nose at a team located in the Bible-belt. By the time his contract ends with the Angels, he'll be a designated hitter. His aging process has almost certainly been accelerated by all those years of drug abuse. And being sober hasn't helped Hamilton gain much common sense. He's still tone-deaf when it comes to relating to fans. How can he not understand that fans might be let down by his poor performance? Does he want to be graded on a curve because of his difficult past?
"We don't necessarily play for the people in the stands," he said. "We play for each other. We spend every day with each other. We have relationships with each other. We love each other. We fight for each other. That's what we play for."
Hamilton has always been pretty candid. That's why I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt in the past. Now that his skills have diminished, Hamilton just comes across as an excuse-maker. Fans don't care if they have any personal interaction with him. They just want him to act like he cares.
Sadly, that's never been one of his strengths.
MORE FROM FOX SPORTS SOUTHWEST
- The Biggest Bromances in Sports >>
