The Angels’ Hail Mary: The hope is that signing Josh Hamilton to a five-year, $125-million contract will put the Angels on top of the AL West again, ending their playoff drought and validating their recent series of expensive contracts.

The fear? That Hamilton could stumble in his fight against addiction, and regress toward the low he hit in 2005.

It was 2 a.m. when Josh Hamilton, strung out on crack cocaine, his once-robust 6-foot-4, 230-pound body withered to 180 pounds, most of his $3.96-million signing bonus squandered on booze and drugs, staggered up the steps to his grandmother’s house in Raleigh, N.C.

Read the rest of Mike DiGiovanna’s revealing interview with Hamilton here.

Photo: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

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9. mclark26 reblogged this from latimes and added:

   Hamilton is boss.

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12. tehwilburforce reblogged this from swagandpassion and added:

    Honestly, I’m glad the Rangers don’t have him anymore. Kinda clashed with the good attitude of the team. I just hope...

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20. daisysoverdiamondsss reblogged this from empoweringmylife and added:

    Good for him=] I always like to see recovery when an athlete struggles.

21. hannah4reneau reblogged this from latimes
22. littlegoo reblogged this from jkomo18 and added:

    Barf. I don’t by any means want him to fall back into addiction, but I wouldn’t mind if he slumped right when they need...

23. empoweringmylife reblogged this from latimes and added:

    Happy Angel fan right here =)

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27. swagandpassion reblogged this from latimes and added:

    Baseball players make too much damn money. For doing nothing.

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30. itsaniceviewfromthetop reblogged this from latimes and added:

    Fucker.

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