Hamilton's comeback 'Beyond Belief'

APEX -- Even though he never played an inning for the Tampa Bay Rays, and that franchise remains connected with some of the worst moments of his life, Josh Hamilton will be rooting for them to beat the Boston Red Sox and advance to the World Series tonight.

Just because he wasn't part of Tampa Bay's first playoff team -- as the Rays envisioned when they drafted him with the first overall pick in 1999 out of Athens Drive High School -- doesn't mean it wasn't supposed to work out this way.

As far as Hamilton is concerned, it was all part of God's plan for him. That's also the theme of Hamilton's new autobiography, "Beyond Belief," which chronicles, in stark detail, his descent into drug abuse and subsequent recovery and triumphant return to baseball.

It's a religious book, not a baseball book; a self-help book as much as an autobiography. The Texas Rangers outfielder, who hit .304 with 32 homers and 130 runs batted in this season, said he was less interested in telling his story than in offering it up as an example for anyone who finds himself in the same position.

"The book is mainly for people who have had some kind of struggles and felt like they couldn't get through it," Hamilton said. "I felt the same way, like I wasn't going to get through it. Hopefully, this inspires people to keep going. We'll see."

Hamilton, 27, left town Monday for New York to begin the promotional tour accompanying the book's release -- although not before an agent hired by Major League Baseball showed up at his house to collect a urine sample.

The tour brings him back to the Triangle today, where he'll do a signing at the Borders on Fordham Boulevard in Chapel Hill at 7 p.m. before moving on to Los Angeles and Dallas.

His stunning performance in July's Home Run Derby gave him a wider platform to spread his message: that his faith saved his life and baseball career. The book, co-written with sportswriter Tim Keown over the past year and a half, is the next step in that effort, as painful as it may be to relive it.

"Some of my family has read it so far," Hamilton said. "Obviously the people who know me best, it might bring up a little more -- well, it hits home closer, because they've been through it with me. It might be a little more emotional for them. Then again, they know, not the end of the story, but they know me now."

Hamilton wanted to answer critics -- including some of the psychiatrists and therapists he saw -- who depicted his parents as smothering and controlling. Hamilton said he feels they have been unfairly scapegoated -- "People have to put blame on what happened somewhere," Hamilton said -- and set out to defend them.

He also wanted to lay out the details of his drug abuse, which he has been reluctant to do in person, from trading his wife's wedding ring for drugs to making crack pipes out of bud vases and scouring pads.

The goal was to make it clear how far he fell, in an attempt to reach people who find themselves in the same situation.

"They might think, well, has he really been where I've been? I wanted to let them know that I have," Hamilton said. "I've been about as far down as an addict can go. ... I've been through these things. Hopefully they do read it and they can identify that I've been there."

The solution for them, Hamilton says, is faith, although he and his publisher chose not to make that explicit in the book's title in an attempt to reach as wide an audience as possible.

"I wanted to make sure people weren't turned off by the cover of it, but that was the ultimate goal," Hamilton said. "I think that turned out good. Just looking at the outside of it, you'd never think I'd be talking about Christ or Jesus in there."

As for the Rays, they have Hamilton's support. Their roster includes Carl Crawford, who they also drafted in 1999, and many others who crossed Hamilton's path in the minors or at spring training.

The Rays also cleared the way for his return to baseball, supporting his reinstatement and making him eligible for the Rule 5 draft in December 2006, which put him on an express path to the majors.

For that, he's grateful.

"You know, they've been doing good since they dropped 'Devil,' " Hamilton said, laughing like a man who knows something about happy endings.