LA CROSSE — There is no doubt that outfield RJ Hamilton is playing this Northwoods League season for the La Crosse Loggers with something to prove.
He thought he proved something last summer by batting .339, hitting 16 doubles and stealing 42 bases in 48 games for this same team, but that didn’t lead to a real opportunity at Vanderbilt University this past spring.
Hamilton is again tearing up Copeland Park and other fields on the loop with the hope it gives his future collegiate home at Duke University no choice but to play him.
“I came into (this season) with a chip on my shoulder,” said Hamilton, who played in the Northwoods League All-Star game this week. “I’m just playing my game, being free and trying to get back to myself.”
Hamilton played in 13 games but received just 3 at-bats at Vanderbilt in the spring. He drew one walk and finished with 2 stolen bases.
He has followed that up by a monstrous summer that has included a .377 batting average, 6 extra-base hits and 15 stolen bases in 16 attempts over 18 games.
Hamilton has driven in 7 runs and scored 33 for the Loggers, who won the first-half championship in the Great Plains East and were 31-18 overall this season heading into Saturday night’s game against Duluth.
“He’s probably one of my favorite players I’ve had to coach in my career so far,” Loggers field manager Josh Frye said. “He’s very talented on the field, obviously, but what he does in the dugout is second to none.
“He’s a team leader, a vocal leader. He’s a guy other players can look at and say, ‘Hey, look what this guy’s doing. I want to do that.'”
The All-Star nod was something that was important to Hamilton, who has been batting at the top of the order and will be a redshirt freshman for the Blue Devils — a team that was 41-21 last season.
He has at least 1 hit in all but 2 games this summer. Hamilton was 0 for 3 in the All-Star game, but he walked and stole a base to take advantage of that opportunity.
“It was great to go out there and compete with the best talent the Northwoods League has,” Hamilton said Friday afternoon. “That was a goal of mine last year that I kind of fell short of, but being able to do it this year was a blessing.”
Hamilton said he has always been an athlete but added that he gravitated to baseball only because of his stepdad. Growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, football was king, so he started that at 6 years old.
“At 9 or 10 years old, he said, ‘Let’s go to the baseball field,” Hamilton explained. “I was like, ‘Why are we going to the baseball field? I don’t play baseball.
“I tried it out for a season, and I was the only kid to hit a home run. I thought maybe I am a baseball player.”
Hamilton also played basketball, soccer and competed in track and field, but he liked the one-on-one challenge he received as a wide receiver. A similar challenge against opposing pitchers drew him to baseball, and the love for the sport grew.
Hamilton said his ‘light-bulb moment’ in baseball was when he played in a tournament at Cooperstown Dreams Park when he was 12.
“I was still playing baseball for fun and not taking it too seriously,” he said. “Cooperstown is the best talent in the country, and I had a great performance that weekend. That clicked for me, and I thought maybe I could play this game at a high level.”
Hamilton was second in the Road Runner competition, which was one timed trip around the bases. He was timed at 12.38 seconds, which was just two-hundredths of a second behind the winner.
The speed has continued to be an important part of Hamilton’s game. He has stolen 57 bases in 61 attempts during his career with the Loggers as he has developed the right approach to exploit his speed.
“I have the speed, but a lot of it is anticipation,” Hamilton said. “I’ve picked the brains of a lot of good base-stealers I’ve played with. I think football helped with the anticipation, too.
“You have to watch the pitchers close and understand the rhythms they get into. Sometimes, they don’t even know they do it, but you have to pay attention to that.”
As far as his performance in the batter’s box, Frye said part of that is the result of always being in the moment. Hamilton doesn’t get ahead of himself or let a negative pitch impact what he’s doing in a given at-bat.
“He’s always about this pitch right here,” Frye said. “He’s clear-minded for this pitch every single time, and I think that’s a huge development for him.
“That’s allowed him to continue to have that success from last summer to this summer.”
