Yesterday, May 30, at about 5:00 p.m., me and a friend went to the annual Casting Crowns pre-game concert at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. We were going to watch the concert and then watch the first place Texas Rangers take on the visiting Oakland Athletics. We parked, got out of the car, and walked across the main street right next to the ballpark. I would have never guessed that about an hour after we walked across that street, Rangers superstar Josh Hamilton, would be riding a golf cart along the sidewalk right next to the same street I had just been on.

So we walked through the ballpark gate with our tickets and ushers directed us to where the concert would be. It was going to be on a huge lawn hill and at the bottom of the hill was the stage backed with a I AM SECOND background. Also to the left of the stage was a picture of Josh Hamilton. The lawn was packed with about 3,000 fans. Casting Crowns, a very popular christian band, played a few songs before they got to one of their most popular songs ,"Voice of Truth." After they played it, their lead singer, Mark Hall, said "Give it up for Josh Hamilton!" Out from backstage came Josh Hamilton as everyone at the outdoor concert went crazy. It was about 5:45 by now, and I don't know if you know this, but baseball players usually arrive at the stadium 3-4 hours before game time to take batting practice and get warmed up. Game time was less than an hour and a half away and Josh Hamilton was about to give a short speech. To start his speech off Josh said, " I don't know how long that song has been out (Voice of Truth), but I know it's been my wife's ring tone for 5 or 6 years now, man do I love these guys." Josh then told his famous life story about how he overcame his drug and alchohol addictions. He overcame them through Christ Jesus and that is the only way to overcome your hardest difficulties. For more on Hamilton's story go to iamsecond.com. Josh then went backstage and the band came out and played more. I looked backstage and saw Hamilton still back their so me and my friend ran over their trying to get his autograph. By the time we got there, there were already at least 100 people over their, wanting the same thing we did, the superstars autograph. Hamilton stayed backstage for about 20 minutes talking to different people, but I couldn't figure out who they were. As he was leaving all the fans were yelling at him for autographs and he said back to us," I can't, there's too many of y'all. I need to go get ready." It was about 6:15 at that time. Game time was in 50 minutes. Josh ran right in front of me and signed one auograph for a little boy about 2 or 3 years old. Then he got on a golf cart in between 2 police motorcycles and was escorted down the sidewalk next to the street I had just been on.

After Hamilton left the band played one more song and then the great concert was over. We then went to our seats to watch the game. After the first pitch was thrown, the announcer welcomed Casting Crowns who would be sing the National Anthem for the game. They did a great job with it, as did the Rangers in their game. They ended up winning 14-1. Hamilton finished the night 1-5 with 2 RBI's. That 5 hours at Rangers Ballpark had to be some of the best 5 hours in my life. It definately the best thing you could possibly get for only 6 dollars.

Note: If you had tickets you were welcome to the pre-game concert for free. My tickets were only 6 dollars and my parking was free.

Link to Josh Hamilton's story: http://iamsecond.com/#/seconds/Josh_Hamilton/