The Slide

I have to weigh in on this slide, which has gotten in my opinion to much attention.  Sure Chase Utley could have started his slide earlier but other than that I can't see anything dirty about this play.  Chase was going into the bag hard to break up the potential double play like every player has been taught since little league.  Ruben Tejada went to try and turn the double play, he was using the base for protection, like we're all taught and Chase Utley came in hard.  Chase was with in an arm's reach of the bag, thats not the issue. Chase slide a little late and to the outfield side of the bag, but in my opinion it was a clean, hard baseball play.  Ruben Tejada broke his leg but Chase Utley could have gotten hurt to.  Are we arguing about a slide, a baseball play or the fact that high priced baseball players are getting hurt.  Now their talking about changing the rule, like they did with blocking the plate when Buster Posey got hurt.  Baseball is protecting their bottom dollar, every high priced player that gets hurt and is not on the field is hurting their on field product.      

Josh Hamilton and the Texas Rangers

I know I haven't done this in a while but I am frustrated and want to get back into it.

The Anaheim Angels are frustrated with the league that Josh Hamilton was not disciplined for his recent drug and alcohol relapse.  The Angels are going to pay a significant part of Josh's contract to make him go away, they will ship him off to Texas.  He was on the DL anyway with offseason shoulder surgery and not going to come back until May at the earliest.  Once news broke of Hamilton's latest relapse and no discipline was handed down it became clear that he was never going to play another inning for the Angels.  The Texas Rangers know how to deal with this guy, who has missed a significant portion of his career to drugs and alachol.  This is where Josh was before the Angels, where the buddy program was established so that he was never alone.  Hopefully Josh will be able to go back and find a since of normalcy in Texas, he's a good player when on.  The Texas Rangers are not taking much of a risk here as the Angels are going to be paying most of what's left on Josh's deal.  The Rangers need outfield help and their willing to take the risk.  Hopefully they'll reinstitute their programs to keep Josh on the straight and narrow and he can show us what he has left.
I think part of this that some people are missing is that Josh filled for divorce from his wife whose father, Josh's father in law, a preacher helped Josh early on with his troubles.  I hope Josh goes back to Texas and gets his life back in order and can get back to being the player he was.  Josh is a good player and was once a top prospect, when drafted by the hen Tampa Bay Devil Rays before he got involved with drugs and alcohol.  Josh is a good man who fell off the tracks and needs to regain his faith in God and find normalcy playing baseball for the Texas Rangers.