LITTLE ROCK — Hamilton offers fans true feelings
Los Angeles Angels outfielder Josh Hamilton said Sunday night in an interview with Dallas television station KTVT that the Dallas-Fort Worth area is not a true baseball town.
“There are true baseball fans in Texas, but it’s not a true baseball town,” he said.
The former Texas Ranger and 2010 AL MVP signed a five-year, $125 million deal with the Angels in December and said that Dallas has “always been a football town.”
“They’re supportive,” Hamilton said about the fans, “but they also got a little spoiled at the same time pretty quickly.
“You think about three to four years ago. It’s like, come on, man, are you happier there again?”
Hamilton, who helped lead the Rangers to two consecutive World Series appearances in 2010 and 2011, and the Angels visit Texas on April 5. His Rangers tenure ended in disappointing fashion when he misplayed a routine fly ball in center field in the final game of the season at Oakland, who beat Texas by one game for the AL West championship.
“It will be mixed feelings from the crowd,” Hamilton said. “People who really get it will cheer and the people who don’t will boo. Either way, I’ll do what I got to do to help my team win.”
Hamilton didn’t back down from his comments when speaking with media members Monday.
He said that New York, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia are “baseball towns” and added that when he said the Texas fans were spoiled, he meant by the team, not by him individually.
“Everything I talk about is team, man,” Hamilton told MLB.
com. “It’s not saying I don’t still appreciate them, and thank you for cheering for me and all that. But reality’s reality. I think I’ve always spoken the truth in what I said and not beat around the bush. But I loved my time there.”
“Just a hunch here, but he’s going to hear A LOT more boos,” wrote Mike Oz of Yahoo! Sports.
Cashing in
The two highest-paid outfielders for the New York Mets this season won’t be with the team this season.
Jason Bay and Bobby Bonilla will receive more money from the Mets this season than any of their current outfielders.
Bay, 34, who is now with the Seattle Mariners, will get all of the$21 million he’s owed ($16 million this season, a $3 million buyout in 2014 and a $2 million signing bonus in 2015). He originally signed with the Mets for four years and $66 million in 2010.
Bonilla, 49, has received annual contracts of $1,193,248.20 since 2011 and will continue to receive those payments from the Mets until 2035. He signed a five-year, $29 million deal with the Mets before the 1992 season.
He said it
From Mike Bianchi of the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel:
“If Ray Lewis was on deer-antler spray, [Hedo] Turkoglu must have been on muskrat-whisker spray.”
“Can you believe two former Florida State football players - defensive tackle Darnell Dockett and quarterback Chris Rix - were feuding on Twitter earlier this week after Rix went on national radio and questioned Dockett’s sexuality? After all these years, Rix is still doing dumb things like parking in handicap spots, oversleeping and missing final exams and now tossing flaming spears at former teammates.
Somewhere, Jeff Bowden is probably thinking, ‘You can’t blame me for Rix’s performance this time!!!’ ”
Quote of the day
“They rolled the car over us a couple of times. Over, back, over, back, make sure we’re done.” Kentucky men’s basketball Coach John Calipari on his team’s losses to Florida and Tennessee this season
Sports, Pages 18 on 02/19/2013