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Josh Hamilton's Comeback Trail; School Board VP Posts Anti-Gay Tirade

Aired October 28, 2010 - 09:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Game one in the World Series in San Francisco was supposed to be a pitcher's duel but the big bats came out and the Giants beat the Rangers 11-7. Game two of (INAUDIBLE) goes tonight.

One of the Texas Rangers on the comeback trail, Josh Hamilton wasn't slumping on the field. He was getting high off the field. Now a recovering addict, Hamilton has earned the respect of his teammates, and they have even changed a championship tradition just for him.

Here's CNN's Mark McKay.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK MCKAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Josh Hamilton is one step away from every major leaguer's dream, winning his first World Series. Only for Hamilton, it's a dream he stopped thinking about a few years ago.

HAMILTON: all I could think about was how to get and use more drugs. That's all I cared about. And all I thought about.

MCKAY: Hamilton was the top choice in baseball's 1999 draft, a can't-miss center fielder with all the skills to be one of the games greats. Then he got hurt. Too much time away from the field found him hanging with a dangerous crowd, descending into drug and alcohol abuse.

Sports Illustrated's Albert Chen remembers Hamilton telling his story.

ALBERT CHEN, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: You know, the heavy drinking started, the drug use started, and then you had this cycle of failed drug tests, suspensions, you know, relapse, rehab, relapse again, and more failed drug tests.

MCKAY: Hamilton spent three years banned from baseball, blowing some $4 million on drugs before finally hitting rock bottom.

CHEN: One night he woke up from a crack binge in a trailer with half a dozen strangers. He had no idea who these people were. He had no idea where he was. He kind of wandered the streets that night and as fate would have it, he actually ended up at his grandmother's doorstep. And at that point, he had lost 50 pounds, his wife had kicked him out. MCKAY: His climb back since 2007 has been nearly as swift as his demise once was but not as quick as a swing that helped him lead the majors and hitting this season and the Rangers into their first World Series.

IAN KINSLER, RANGERS 2ND BASEMAN: Just for him to get back in the position he is in now takes a lot of fight and a lot of courage. You know, at the same time, he inflicted it on himself somewhat, but for him to fight through that and to fight through the addiction that he had and to overcome it, and to be where he's at now is pretty impressive.

MICHAEL YOUNG, RANGERS 3RD BASEMAN: I can't pretend to understand what he's gone through but as teammates, we respect Josh's decisions and we respect where he's at his life right now. And we try to make sure we put him in situations where he can thrive.

MCKAY: That means that the Rangers dowsed Hamilton with ginger ale rather than the traditional champagne after each of their playoff wins. It fits with the steps that he takes to keep him sober, including never going out alone at night or with teammates after games, never keeping more than $20 in his wallet to avoid temptation and being drug tested every three days.

He's obviously a guy who can't sit after a game, drink beer with us or go out to dinner and have a couple of glasses of wine or beer, so we try to do what we can to make him feel like he's part of the team.

JOSH HAMILTON: My teammates understand my situation and let's you know what kind of character they have, they want me to be a part of the celebration.

NOLAN RYAN, RANGERS CO-OWNER: We are really proud of him and understand that it's something that he has to be very vigilant about, but we feel like that it's a great story and that he - and he very much is committed to helping other people that have the issues he has.

HAMILTON: It's truly a miracle that I'm here in this situation. I've been blessed and god is absolutely the biggest reason I am where I am.

MCKAY: Mark McKay, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's the top of the hour. 10:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 7:00 a.m. out west. I'm Kyra Philips. Here's what we're talking about this morning.

Storm-weary residents cleaning up from Wisconsin to the deep south. A freak storm spawned more than two dozen suspected tornadoes. The left a trail of damage for thousands of miles.

(INAUDIBLE) high winds blamed for the death of a 20-year-old college student on the Notre Dame campus who was actually in a camera tower videotaping football practice when the winds caused that structure to collapse.

And out of Arkansas, a shocking story of intolerance, a Facebook entry urges more gay people to commit suicide, and the person who posted such a hateful thing? A school board member.

Let's begin with the five days until the most important midterm election that we've seen in sometime. President Obama is doing a final campaign blitz to keep Democrats in office. Last night he reached out beyond the party base.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, HOST "THE DAILY SHOW": Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the president of the United States, Barack Obama.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The president did this guest appearance on "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart. CNN's Ed Henry is at the White House. So, Ed, what's the buzz over there about how it went, and, also, the fact that Jon Stewart called him "dude"?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they think that maybe that will humanize him a bit. This president has been accused of being aloof and didn't emote enough and he sort of laugh that off here in the White House. But when he's there, sort of one dude to another, if you will, with Jon Stewart, maybe that humanizes him before this midterms.

But I think more seriously, what they tried to do is they've been aggressive about sort of unique forms of media, newer forms of media, the president going on "The View" recently, and some people raised their eyebrows but it was a way for him to reach out to female voters, and now with Jon Stewart, reaching out to younger voters.

And this was not softballs. I mean, he got some hardballs from Stewart on whether or not he sort of lived up to the hype of 2008. And from the White House standpoint, they think the president gave as good as he got.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have passed historic health care reform, historic financial regulatory reform. We have done things that some folks don't even know about.

STEWART: What have you done that we don't know about? Are you planning a surprise party for us? Filled with jobs and health care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now, there was another light moment when the president defended his economic team by saying that Larry Summers was doing a heck of a job, and that's when Jon Stewart jumped in and said "I'm not sure that's the analogy you want to use," thinking back to the Bush days when and, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job, after Katrina." And that's also when Jon Stewart said, "dude, I'm not sure you want to go there." Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about the timing of this appearance. Stewart has got his rally this weekend, right?

HENRY: That's right. The "Rally to Restore Sanity" is what he's calling it and trying to maybe improve the political dialogue in particular in this country, something the president has talked about as well. And look, there have been other rallies here in Washington, people like Glenn Beck from the other side certainly beating up on the president, getting hundreds of thousands of people on the National Mall. We'll see how big a crowd Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert can draw on Saturday.

But sure, the White House says they agreed to this interview long before they knew about the rally. Because Jon Stewart was going to be here this week, leading up to the midterms. But look, if the rally is going to happen anyway, they think it's a nice bonus that the president has been saying, get out there and vote and they assume that with a lot of activity on the mall this weekend, it's going to spark some people to get out and vote, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Ed Henry live at the White House. Thanks, Ed.

We got a developing story this morning on an alleged terror plot in the nation's capital. A Virginia man charged with planning bomb attacks on Washington's subway system. The feds say that Farooq Ahmed thought that he was conspiring with Al Qaeda operatives. They were actually federal agents working under cover. Investigators say that the public was never in danger and one official actually tell us that Ahmed had no known connections to any terror groups. If convicted he could face five years in prison.

Also this morning, safety precautions being beefed up for this weekend's Marine Corps marathon. That race begins at the Pentagon less than two weeks after someone shot at the building with a high powered rifle. There were also recent shootings that targeted the nearby Marine Corps museum and earlier this week, a Marine recruiting depot in Virginia. Pentagon will not say what additional security measures are in place.

Now people running for cover in parts of the southeast. Those storms are part of the massive system that actually spawned two dozen tornadoes in the midwest yesterday. In Hamilton County, Tennessee, one man watched a tornado touch down by his work site. Allen Clark said that he knew something was wrong when he saw the rain going up instead of down.

Here in central North Carolina, tornado watches and warnings were issued for several counties. The storm brought high winds and heavy rains, downed trees and flooded roads. And parts of the midwest also pounded yesterday. A tornado ripped through three barns in Hamilton County, Indiana. (INAUDIBLE) man said his truck was hit by flying debris as he was driving right through that twister. Rob Marciano, I tell you what, pretty crazy couple of days.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It has been. A huge storm. The number of severe weather reports that we had from this, truly staggering across such a wide range of real estate, from the upper midwest to the southeast. This thing continues to sit and spin. There is the center of it. It is weakening a little bit and finally beginning to move out. But the bottom half of this is seeing still some showers and thunderstorms, mainly across parts of southern Georgia, South Carolina, the panhandle of Florida. These are trying to make their way to the coast, the front has actually finally caught up to the convective bands and as that happens, we will start to see some dry, a little bit of cooling and more importantly more tranquil weather.

They are starting to see that from Boston to New York to Philadelphia and D.C., dry air starting to fill in. There will be some showers just leaving the Great Lakes. But that's about it. And then cooler air (INAUDIBLE) will get temperatures close to freezing. So freeze warnings and freeze advisories and some frost advisories out for parts of the central plains and the southern plains as far south as New Mexico and parts of southern Texas.

San Francisco to Seattle, some showers here but probably won't get into San Francisco until after the game tonight. Here's your game two forecast, 58 degrees expected at game town, cloudy skies, southwinds at about 10 miles an hour. If the game goes into extra innings, we might see some sprinkles, but until then, I think we'll be all right.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Rob.

MARCIANO: Sure.

PHILLIPS: Here's a blast from the past. Remember the "Goonies"? It's been 25 years since the movie hit the theaters. Now the cast members are all grown up, and a collector's item is coming your way.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chunk! Chunk! Chunk!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's Chunk! It's Chunk! It's Chunk!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, Captain Chunk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chunk, chunk!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Can you believe it's been 25 years since the movie "The Goonies" came out in theaters? Now get ready for the ultimate collector's edition in Blu-Ray. The original cast members of the "Goonies" actually attended a launch celebration. Remember Data, Mouth and Chunk? Well, guess what? They're back, and they're all grown up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KE HUY QUAN, "DATA": There's that great chemistry between all of us, you know, and it's really to Dick Donner's credit that he allowed us to be who we were. You know, it didn't feel forced or staged or rehearsed. It was that genuine organic performance from all of us.

COREY FELDMAN, "MOUTH": If you look at what's going on today in the economy, in the environment, in the world, 25 years later it was almost like it was a premonition of things to come because now we really are dealing with big, corporate takeovers, and you know, the demolition of all things that are intimate and personal and private, and it's all being taken over and run by these big massive conglomerates. And that's really what it's all about.

JEFF COHEN, "CHUNK": Well, the truffle shuffle was kind of a key thing where as a kid I shake my belly. That's something people want me to do. I will only do it if I had four martinis. It's actually takes four dry vodka martinis to make that happen.