Keidel: Shallow Hal Steinbrenner Should Have Signed Josh Hamilton

Could have been the city of Josh (BOOM!)

The Yankees should have signed Josh Hamilton. You know the old man would have, even if the Boss did it to bogart the back page more than anything. Signing Hamilton to a long-term deal is a bad business decision because of his age and injury history. But not because of his peripheral appetites. The idea that Hamilton and New York City were a toxic bond because he’s a recovering drug addict is laughable.

They don’t sell drugs in Dallas? While he was supposedly struggling with his dark side, he led the American League in RBI (130) in 2008. And then he hit a measly .359 in 2010, wining the batting title and AL MVP. Last year, on the north side of the toxic chronological watermark of 30, he hit 43 home runs, with 128 RBI and 103 runs scored. Hard to do while hitting the pipe.

And surely they don’t sell drugs in Los Angeles, his new home. For all my profound love of New York City, where I was born and will die, we are guilty of grotesque elitism. Hamilton can’t handle the five boroughs because of the night life. They don’t have dealers in Dallas, no nightclubs or narcotics in Los Angeles. Only in New York City will he be drawn to some dark corner under a broken streetlamp, where the demons congregate.

...Narcotics are a $300 billion industry because they’re sold everywhere, not just Newark, the Bronx, and Baltimore, If you don’t want Hamilton because of age, wage, injury, or attitude, fine. But the drug addict angle is so obtuse that maybe you need to sit down and watch an episode of “Drugs, Inc.” – where they throw darts at a map and chronicle the rampant, irrepressible drug trade, where cops run up the eternal treadmill of the “War on Drugs.”

If they had Hamilton, the Yankees wouldn’t have to fumble for a power source today – an emergency, overpriced generator to keep the team afloat, like Kevin Youkilis ($12 million). Imagine Cano and Hamilton batting 3rd and 4th until the troops arrive? We don’t have to, because it’s just a dream. We didn’t have to dream with George Steinbrenner. He made them come true before we could.