Every day this summer, since the opening day of major league baseball, the first thing I do when I read the newspaper’s sports section is to check the box scores and find the name of Josh Hamilton. I can tell you, for instance, it wasn’t until June 4th that his batting average finally climbed back to .300.

And I can also tell you that in Tampa, when Josh took his Texas Rangers against the Rays to open the American League’s Division Series, my man Mr. Hamilton was the best hitter in baseball with a .359 average and, as he himself wirily admits, “It’s pretty cool to come full circle.”

You see, Josh had always pictured himself taking center field in the playoffs at Tropicana Stadium. That was a long-ago dream, back in 1999 when he was the first-round draft choice for what was then called “The Devil Rays.” The trouble was, Josh soon got to running with the Devil rather than the Rays.

In a story that ought to be required at every high school in America, he blew through his $4 million signing bonus is as many years, once spending over $100,000 on a lethal combination of drugs and booze in just six weeks. He went to nine – that’s right, nine – different rehab centers, lost two of the most precious years that a rare five-tool player (one who can run, hit, hit for power, field and throw) could ever imagine, and was eventually banned from major league baseball.

Because of a grandmother who refused to give up on him when all others had turned in disgust, and a Jesus whose equally giving of second, and third, and eighth, and eleventh chances, the same Josh Hamilton was finally able to fulfill his teenage dream when, as a Texas Ranger, he took his center-field spot in the first post-season appearance of his life.

Make no mistake, Hamilton is why Texas is still playing for the first time in 11 seasons. This season he not only won the AL batting title at .359, he pounded the sky with 32 homers and had 100 RBIs to become a solid contender for the league’s Most Valuable Player Award. By comparison, the top hitter in the National League was Colorado’s Carlos Gonzales with .336, 23 points less than Hamilton.

Further, in early September Josh broke two ribs when he slammed into the outfield wall, missing the next 24 games. When he came back, he blasted a fifth-inning homer that caused the adoring Rangers fans to go berserk and management to vow they are preparing a contract “bigger than the state” to keep him.

The team’s manager, Ron Washington, will quickly say, “We’re a different team with Josh Hamilton in the lineup,” pointing candidly to the fact the team went 71-58 and averaged 5.02 runs in Hamilton’s starts and 19-14 and 4.53 runs in games without their slugger.

But the best story of all goes back to Jan. 22, 2009, when a pre-dawn telephone call shattered the morning’s chill in North Carolina. Josh was calling his wife Katie to sobbingly admit that he’d relapsed, that he’d gotten totally wasted after three years of sobriety, not to mention redemption, while attending on off-season conditioning session in Arizona.

This was after he made his way back into baseball, after the fabulous home-run derby in old Yankee Stadium, after his All-Star appearances. He had to then call the Rangers, endure lurid pictures of his drunken self on the Internet, but – worst of all – somehow face the millions who had bought his heart-wrenching book, “Beyond Belief: Finding The Strength To Come Back.”

Guess what happened then? Josh “came back.” As Rangers general manager Jon Daniels told a Dallas Morning News reporter the other day, “I don’t want to call the relapse in Tempe a blessing in disguise, but you have to look at the positives. It was a reminder to Josh that he can’t sneak off, that this can’t happen privately. It made his system for dealing with it that much stronger.”

However, by quite literally what he says is the grace of God, Josh Hamilton finally lived the dream of trotting to centerfield at Tropicana for a playoff game in Tampa. No, it wasn’t in the Ray’s home whites – he played for Texas – but he’s come full circle.

Has he ever. Today he’s the best baseball player in America because he’s added three more tools to a forte that is “beyond belief.” – Jesus Christ, family and sobriety.

Play ball, Josh.