TexasBrewFan

Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton acknowledged a January barincident Saturday in which he became drunk and was photographed withseveral women, not including his wife, in lurid poses in Tempe, Ariz. "I'm embarrassed about it. For the Rangers, I'm embarrassed about it.For my wife, my kids," Hamilton said in Anaheim, Calif., before theRangers played the Los Angeles Angels. "It's one of those things thatjust reinforces about alcohol. "Unfortunately, it happened. It just reinforces to me that if I'm outthere getting ready for a season and taking my focus off the mostimportant thing in my recovery, which is my relationship with Christ,it's amazing how those things creep back in." The photos were first posted by Deadspin.com on Saturday morning. "Honestly, I hate that this happened," he said. "But it is what it is.You deal with it. I realized that, obviously, I'm not perfect, in thisongoing struggle, battle, that is very real. A lot of people don'tunderstand how real it is." Hamilton, 28, won't face discipline from the Rangers. Hamilton, who had been in Arizona preparing for spring training, told the team of the incident the next day. "As soon as it happened, I called my support system -- my wife, theRangers, MLB and told them what had happened," he said Saturday. "I wasabsolutely open and honest about it." General manager Jon Daniels spoke with Hamilton in the clubhouseSaturday before they addressed the media, and said later the tone oftheir conversation had a different kind of emotion than the one inJanuary because of the time Hamilton's had to think about it. "I'd hesitate to say it's something we're going to put behind us, butwe're not going to allow this to become a distraction the rest of theseason and we'll try to move on as best we can," Daniels said. Hamilton, who hadn't had a drink since Oct. 6, 2005, was chosen as theNo. 1 draft pick by the Tampa Bay Rays as an 18-year-old in 1999. Out of baseball for three years while serving suspensions and gettingclean, Hamilton reached the majors in 2007 with the Cincinnati Reds. Hewas traded to Texas in December 2007 for pitcher Edinson Volquez. Thoughts?