A man that will admit his faults...

Inspirational sports stories are my favorite. Like this one: yesterday, the Texas Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Rays to advance in the MLB playoffs. And, they planned to celebrate in the traditional baseball fashion - with champagne showers.

(source)

But there was one problem. One of the Rangers' star players - their American League MVP front-runner - doesn't drink alcohol. In and of itself, that's perhaps not so weird - surely there are other abstinent professional athletes, and he doesn't have to actually drink it, just get sprayed with it. But for Josh Hamilton, a recovering alcoholic and drug abuser, that's not good enough. He doesn't want to even be near the stuff, as he knows he can't handle just "one little drink" and doesn't trust himself to even be around it.

All of this means that the last time the Rangers had a champagne shower, when they won their division title in September, Josh didn't hang around. He missed out on the team-bonding and celebration, because staying clean was more important to him. But, this time, his team wasn't going to let him get away with that.

Before Josh had an opportunity to escape, he was corralled to the locker room in Tampa Bay where his teammates greeted him not with champagne - but with a ginger ale shower! For 10 minutes, the Rangers celebrated their victory with Josh with soda, not wanting him to miss out on any part of the excitement of baseball playoffs. And, I think that is really classy of them.
(source)

Since my Red Sox were never in the playoffs, I didn't know who to cheer for. As long as it wasn't the Yankees, I didn't really care who won. But, now, I'm all about the Rangers going the distance, because that is a team I can support. And Josh is a player I can rally behind.

Very outspoken about his past, Josh credits his ability to get (and stay) clean, to his relationship with the Lord. Even when he had a one night lapse last year, Josh came clean about what he had done, realized then that having one drink simply was not an option for him, and hasn't touched alcohol since. He stays accountable to his wife, never even looking at compromising pictures of him that surfaced during his relapse, not wanting to relive what his wasted mind had forgotten, and his coach said he thinks Josh looks forward to the league's drug tests - another way for him to stay accountable. Josh travels around speaking to groups about how Jesus saved him from his life of destruction. And, he walks up to the plate to Casting Crown's song, "Until the Whole World Hears", a message, which, it sounds like, he has taken quite literally.

Josh and quite a few other celebs made some brief videos a couple years ago for a project called "I Am Second". You can watch his video here, and hear the rest of his fantastic story. Otherwise, go Rangers!

P.S. I do feel compelled to say that the miners' rescue was also extremely inspirational, and I loved watching it.