NewsHampton's return to Atlanta bittersweet
Healthy in Houston after four injury-filled years with Braves
By Mark Bowman / MLB.com
05/01/09 9:28 AM ET
ATLANTA -- Outside the Braves clubhouse, Mike Hampton is viewed by some as a fragile multi-millionaire who perfected the art of getting rich while establishing residence on the disabled list.Over the course of his final two seasons in Atlanta, the Braves paid Hampton $44.5 million and saw him prove healthy enough to make just 25 starts. Projected as a determined pitcher who would stand on the mound every five days, the veteran left-hander instead became a regular inhabitant of the trainers' room.
Throwing salt into the wounds of an organization that helped him rehab from two elbow surgeries and multiple other ailments, Hampton declined a more significant offer from the Braves and opted to sign a one-year, $2 million contract with the Astros in December.
"I have to thank the Braves for everything that they did for me," Hampton said. "They did everything right and I really enjoyed being around all of the guys in that clubhouse. But I wanted to be closer to my family."
While attending December's Winter Meetings in Las Vegas, Hampton ran into Braves general manager Frank Wren, manager Bobby Cox and a handful of the club's other scouts and executives. Instead of exchanging artificial waves sometimes offered to former acquaintances, the two parties shared hugs and firm handshakes most often reserved for close friends and family members.
"He didn't owe anybody anything," Cox said. "He wanted to be closer to home and the whole works. Baseball is a business."
When Hampton makes his return to Turner Field to oppose Derek Lowe and the Braves on Friday night, he understands the fans aren't likely going to share Cox's thoughts.
"I'm sure there will be some boos -- just like there was in Colorado, New York and other places I've pitched," Hampton said. "That's fine. I accept that. If they don't boo you, it means they don't care that you left."
While he has tried to downplay it, Astros pitching coach Dewey Robinson believes Hampton will be especially fired up for the game.
"It's human nature. You want to do good,'' said Robinson. "But he's a pro's pro, and he knows how to approach the game just like any other game. He's focused in on making quality pitches and getting people out and let the results take care of themselves. If he makes his pitches, he will get outs and good things will happen."
Hampton's days in Atlanta proved to be cruel in so many ways. With a trade at the end of the 2002 season, the Braves exiled him from his disastrous two-year stint in Colorado and then started to watch him re-establish himself as a top-quality pitcher just before his elbow failed him early in the 2005 season.
During a May 14, 2005 start at Dodger Stadium, Hampton encountered the first hint of left forearm stiffness. Over the course of his previous 20 starts, he had gone 14-3 with a 2.51 ERA.
In the process, a pitcher who had been doomed by Colorado's thin Rocky Mountain air was being looked at in the same light that he'd been in 1999, when he'd established himself as a 20-game winner with Houston, and 2000, when was named the National League Championship Series MVP while leading the Mets to the World Series.
"I know this for a fact, there isn't a better competitor in the game than Mike Hampton and nobody wanted to be out there more than him," Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said. "So I sympathize. I don't know what kind of reaction he'll get. But I know everybody in here liked him and wanted him out there on the mound, because we knew we would get everything that he had, every time he went out there."
Once the forearm started bothering him, it would be another three years before Hampton was fit enough to even attempt to regain his successful form. Tommy John elbow ligament transplant surgery in September of 2005 erased his availability for the 2006 season. His expected return in 2007 was negated when a tendon in his left elbow didn't react normally to the previous surgical procedure.
After undergoing yet another season-ending surgery, Hampton began to face even more ridicule from Braves fans, primarily frustrated by the fact that he was financially strapping their team without providing any return.
Then, when he strained his left pectoral muscle while warming up before his scheduled season debut on April 3, 2008, Hampton found himself as the punch line of many jokes and jabs delivered by fans and media members.
It would be nearly four more months before he was able to make his much-anticipated return to the mound.
"I know that I prepared myself every game, every season just like I have every other season," Hampton said. "For some reason, I had to battle the injury bug the last 2 1/2 - three years. It stinks. Nobody wants to get hurt. I wished it didn't happen."
While developing a close bond with Hampton over the past four years, Braves right-hander Tim Hudson saw the daily frustration that consumed his friend. But it wasn't until Hudson had to undergo the same Tommy John surgical procedure last year that he understood the depths of the misery.
"You really don't know what's it's like until you've walked in somebody else's shoes," Hudson said. "After I got hurt last year, there were days when I was ashamed to come to the park to pick up my check. It was miserable and I only had to deal with it for a couple of months.
"He had to go through it a lot longer and I can at least understand why he felt he might need a new change of scenery."
Instead of pointing toward a change of scenery, Hampton has continued to simply say that he wanted to be closer to his children, who reside with their mother in Phoenix, Ariz. But given that he could have reached that destination on a plane in nearly equal time from either Houston or Atlanta, the Braves have simply held the belief that the pitcher's ex-wife played a large role in his decision.
Whether Kautia Hampton simply wanted the veteran pitcher out of Atlanta or at least one time zone closer to her children is unknown.
But some of Hampton's closest friends say there's no disputing the reality that he's certainly much happier than he was last year, when he was dealing with his prolonged injury woes and simultaneously going through a divorce.
"At the end of last year, we saw that he still has gas in the tank," Jones said. "Unfortunately, his time ran out here. Fortunately enough for him, he got another opportunity somewhere else, somewhere where he's closer to home, closer to family and somewhere where it's probably a little better situation for him."
Truly, the most encouraging aspect of Hampton's new situation stems from the fact that he's healthy and pitching again. The veteran left-hander has completed at least six innings and thrown at least 100 pitches during each of his past three outings.
"I still have a passion for this game," Hampton said. "I still love to play this game. I think this is an important year for me to stay healthy and prove that I can be that guy you can go to every fifth day. Everything has been good. I kind of feel like where I left off in the '05 season before the injury."
That positive outlook is shared in the Astros clubhouse. Robinson says despite the past injuries, he doesn't worry about each pitch Hampton throws on the mound.
"I never look at it that way,'' he said. "It's not going to do us any good to worry about 'what if' happens. If it happens, then we deal with it. I just deal with how he feels and try to be educated and smart about how we treat him.''
Astros ace Roy Oswalt says a healthy Hampton is good for him as well as the team.
"It takes a little pressure off me," Oswalt said. "Last year going into the season, I put a lot of pressure on myself in the beginning of the year to throw shutouts every time out just to make everybody feel good.
"This year, I took the approach that I have another guy, or two guys, with me that can take a little of the load off."
While some Braves fans might have a different perspective focused more on the money lost while paying Hampton over the previous four seasons, the tragic human element perspective stems from the reality that money couldn't erase the misery created by the inability to pitch
"You're talking about his left arm being his livelihood," Jones said. "He was in here every day busting his butt and rehabbing to get back on that field. Guys respected that. If we'd have just seen him on the first and the 15th of the month, that would have been a different story."
Mark Bowman is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
