Angel Soft

Dear Josh Hamilton,

We don't hate you.  You irritated us and we are just letting you know about it.  You don't seem to understand the difference between the two, or why we would be irritated.  As a result, we become more irritated, to the point where it is fun to rag on you like we did today.

You and I share a same belief system.  I appreciate your stance on the Gospel and helping others off the field.  There are times when baseball and your faith are strongly tied together, but there are other times you try to link things together that don't fit.  Arlington isn't your Nazareth.  That's just the selfish drama queen in you speaking.

You may be the best baseball player I ever watch in my lifetime.  You helped bring my favorite franchise, which is like an extension of myself, farther than we've ever been before.  Almost to the pinnacle of the sport.  You can win homerun titles, batting titles, MVP awards, All Star nominations and almost anything you want.  However you are lacking in common sense, work ethic, focus, dedication, baseball IQ and knowing when to shut your mouth.

Why would we "turn on you?"  First of all, a person with such thoughts shows how self centered he is.  Second, see things from our perspective.  We as a fan base were coming off of two seasons in which we tasted success, but never felt the fullfillment of a championship.  In 2012, we were rolling back toward the playoffs with another chance to hopefully reach that final achievement.  Then seemingly out of nowhere, the best player on the team loses focus.  He misses critical games against the Angels, but has time to visit Jimmy Kimmel.  It turns out to be a problem eye drops can fix, meanwhile Adrian Beltre is gutting it out, playing games on one leg with a jacked up rib cage, fighting Wash to put his name in the lineup every day.  Fast foward to the last week of the season.  You can't seem to make contact, and when you do it's swinging at a bad first pitch and rolling out weakly to an infielder.  Then you go back to the dugout and half grin, in that irritating way that Rich Harden did when he gave up a dozen runs and left games in the 3rd inning.  We saw that, and that's what made us upset.  The same thing happened with the dropped ball in Oakland.

In our town, classify it with whatever sport you want, we love successful players, which is why we loved you from the beginning.  But more than that, we love gritty players.  Guys that tough it out, play hurt, don't make excuses, put their teammates before themselves, accept responsibility when they make mistakes, and don't shy away from failure.  Perhaps you noticed the reception we always give Rusty Greer and Ivan Rodriguez when they return.  Or the way we respect Adrian Beltre when he's in a slump, because he's a gamer, he'll grind it out and get it right eventually, backing his teammates all the way, not making excuses.  I'm sure you heard us boo Alex Rodriguez and CJ Wilson, not only as members of other teams, but we did it when they were Rangers too, just like you.  We did the same thing to Juan Gonzalez.  When you show you don't always try, or don't care from time to time, we let you know that is not acceptable behavior here in the only real voice we have.  We boo.  It's not a reflection of the person, it's more about work ethic.

That's where were stood at the end of last season, and you didn't seem to get it then.  Then as you are apt to do, you ran your mouth and said stupid things, putting down the fan base that was already irritated, and now frustrated that we didn't get another chance at a ring because our best player "quit" at the end of the year.  You insulted us for booing, not understanding why we did it.  It didn't help that you followed CJ to the division rivals.

So today you got your feelings hurt because people had fun with you.  This time the boos were to poke sharp sticks back at you, retaliating in the only voice we have to the comments you made about us and our team.  People brought up your past mistakes and threw them in your face, the same ones we were willing to forgive you for at the time they happened because we'd never seen you quit on us at the time.  Surely some people crossed the line, that's what happens when you mix opinions and alcohol (right?), but they did so to get under your skin, and from your post game comments, it worked.  So expect more.  The more you talk about it, the more you fan the flames of the booing Rangers fan.

We had great times here.  We were happy to wear your name on our backs.  Then you showed yourself to be soft, and instead of manning up, you folded, made excuses, pointed the finger back at us, then signed with the division rivals, and showed up today thinking half the crowd would treat you as if you were Pudge returning to town with the Marlins or Tigers.

You are an opponent now.  We will continue to treat you as one, with a little more noise since you let us down.  Get used to it.