It's way down on Josh Hamilton's list of priorities–he's recovering from an injury, facing a possible suspension from pro baseball for relapsing with cocaine and alcohol and hearing friends urge him to retire–but one unresolved question is what will this do to the budding reality television careers of Josh and Katie Hamilton?
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The Anaheim Angels of Anaheim outfielder and his wife are to debut on the next season of Real Housewives of Orange County, which is in the middle of taping. They were the big new casting “catches” for the pioneering show of Bravo's Real Housewives franchise, along with former Angel Jim Edmonds and his wife Meghan.
It might represent a loss of cachet for the show to have a suspended ballplayer vs. a current ballplayer, even if the Hamilton's scenes were taped before news broke that he had been summoned to Major League Baseball headquarters over a disciplinary matter.
Then again, a reality show can't get much more real than having a family deal openly with chronic substance abuse, which has been battled by past RHOC families–including one with ties to Major League Baseball.
Hamilton has been struggling with addiction for about as long as he has been a pro ballplayer. He took the 2003 season off citing “personal reasons” and was suspended from playing from February 2004 through June 2006 for issues related to cocaine and alcohol addiction. Upon Hamilton's return to the league in 2006, he was ordered to undergo drug tests three times a week. He allegedly relapsed in 2009 and 2012. While with the Angels, and in particular on the road, he has been accompanied by an anti-drug “accountability partner.”
The Hamiltons are a Christian family, and on Thursday Katie's new co-star Meghan King Edmonds reached out to them via Twitter: “I am praying for you @thejoshhamilton and @KatieHamilton32… Much love coming your way from the Edmonds family.”
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.