Major league baseball needed help. America's past time had taken a brutal public relations beating with the steroid scandals. The congressional hearings were painful for any diehard baseball fan to witness. Players that some of us grew up describing as heroes were (deservedly) stripped of all honor and dignity in front of the nation. Next, the greatest record in baseball fell to the man many believe to be the greatest cheater of all. And if the Bonds fiasco wasn't enough to turn most casual fans away from baseball then Roger Clemens surely served as the nail in the coffin. Yes, Major league baseball needed some serious help...

Now enter the 2008 season! The league is currently enjoying a plethora of good, CLEAN story lines to keep fans intrigued - the Tampa Bay Rays, John Lester, Ken Griffey Jr., Rick Ankiel, Cliff Lee. However, as good as these story lines are none of them can compare to the greatest comeback story of this century - the story of Josh Hamilton.

I won't bother retelling his painful tale. You can Google the man's name and come back with hundreds of pages that detail his rise to the top and his fall from grace. The sad thing is that we have all heard this story before. How many star athletes have risen to the top only to see their potential flushed away due to questionable life decisions? We hear it time and time again - Mike Tyson, Barry Bonds, Travis Henry, Darryl Strawberry, Chris Henry, Ricky Williams - the list goes on and on. However, we rarely get to witness the rise back to the top. Hamilton has provided us with a heartwarming story fit for a Hollywood film studio. Even more impressive is the fact that he has done it with an amount of modesty and humility that should make even the most polished braggart feel guilty.

Hamilton's return to the top and his amazing start to the 2008 baseball season were capped off by his unbelievable performance at the Home Run Derby. The last real celebration in Yankee Stadium was already feeling a little underwhelming with A-Rod opting to not participate in the derby.  The news of the scandal involving him and Madonna was not helping matters much either. Add Reggie Jackson's timely comments to that and MLB seemed to be heading into an All Star break that was going to be labeled as a publicity nightmare. Yankee stadium, the fans in New York and baseball fans everywhere needed a feel good story for a change. Luckily, Hamilton came through.

 I felt bad for Justin Morneau. He is probably going to be remembered as the Home Run Derby champion that nobody wanted to see win. Hamilton stole the show - not only with his 13 straight 1st round homers, 28 total 1st round homers or 35 total dingers. No, he stole the show with his sense of community and modesty. Hamilton honored a promise he had made at the age of thirteen and brought his former batting coach - the 71 year old Clay Council - all the way from Raleigh, NC to pitch to him. The look on Council's face when he took the mound will forever be etched into my memory. I don't think I have ever seen a grown man smile that big! Council and Hamilton looked like two twenty year olds just having fun in the park. The two of them were smiling, laughing, joking and having a good time with the other All Stars. Most importantly, though, was seeing Hamilton interact with the kids who were on hand. He was the only participant who took the time to speak to, laugh with and sign autographs for EVERY kid he came into contact with -even between pitches! To see an athlete with his kind of talent and baggage put on that kind of performance with an air of humility about him is a rare sight indeed.

We should all be thankful for what we witnessed at this year's Home Run Derby. Hamilton managed to put on a fantastic show at (essentially) the closing ceremony of one of the most storied stadiums in sports history. He also managed to give hope and inspiration to teammates, athletes and young kids around the country. He also managed, if only for one night, to make baseball fans nationwide forget about the problems that have plagued Major League Baseball for the last ten years. Is Josh Hamilton the savior that MLB has been looking for? Probably not. However, when his story is combined with all the other feel-good stories of the 2008 season there definitely seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Luckily for all of us that light brightened just as the beacon of Yankee Stadium began to fade...