Hamilton on Broadway

On July 14, 2008 it was the final All-Star Week at old Yankee Stadium. The Home Run Derby was stolen by a guy who, three years earlier, was out of baseball entirely. Josh Hamilton's road to that batter's box was the stuff of a screenplay: the No. 1 overall pick in 1999, then addiction, suspensions, and years lost before a comeback that landed him in Texas. And he didn't come to the Bronx alone. Years before, during his climb back through the sport, Hamilton made a promise to Clay Council - a 71-year-old volunteer batting-practice pitcher from his American Legion days in North Carolina - that if he ever made the Derby, Council would be the one throwing to him. He kept it. And Council kept dealing. Hamilton hit 28 home runs in the first round - still the record for a single round - including 13 in a row at one point. Several were 500-foot moonshots off the facades and out toward the black, the longest measured at 518 feet. The old ballpark's short right-field porch never stood a chance, and 50,000 New Yorkers stopped being a crowd and became a congregation: "HAM-IL-TON! HAM-IL-TON!" - for a player who wasn't even a Yankee. The cruel twist? Derby totals reset for the finals, and a gassed Hamilton lost the trophy to Justin Morneau, 5-3. Morneau himself basically apologized. Ask anyone who was there who won that night, though. It remains the greatest single round in Derby history. The night a redemption story and a kept promise to a 71-year-old BP pitcher turned a home-run contest into live showing; Hamilton on Broadway.

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