Josh Hamilton, a Texas Rangers outfielder and author of Beyond Belief (FaithWords), has made a believer out of ESPN The Magazine.

In the Dec. 15 issue of the sports publication, Hamilton was spotlighted as “possibly the most inspirational story of 2008.”

The first overall pick in the 1999 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Hamilton was considered a blue-chip prospect until injuries and drug addiction derailed his career in 2001. He made his MLB debut in 2007 with the Rangers, and had a successful rookie season. This past season, Hamilton had record-breaking performance in the All-Star Home Run Derby and he finished seventh in the American League MVP balloting.

Beyond Belief details how drugs and alcohol derailed Hamilton’s life, but also his spiritual journey that broke through pain and heartbreak, leading to the rebirth of his major-league career.

ESPN The Magazine observed that Hamilton was traveling across the country selling “the most appropriately titled book of the year, talking especially to people who looked a little too much like him.”

“Could God have used me had I stayed the clean-cut kid I was and made it straight out of high school like I was supposed to?” Hamilton asked in the back of a bookstore. “Probably. But when someone who looks like me and has been through the things I’ve been through talks about life, people see that no matter how far down you go, there’s always a way back.”

Then he told the magazine’s reporter: “If I read your story and you haven’t put God in there, I’m coming after you.”