There are many things that are considered tragedies to a baseball player. They could strike out, ground into a double play, or they could get injured and never play again.
But for Mark Hamilton these would be seen as petty incidents, when compared to his junior year at Tulane University.
What Hamilton didn't know was when he chose to go to Tulane, it would change not only his baseball life, but also his life in general.
On August 29, Hurricane Katrina changed the landscape of the New Orleans area forever. The storm also destroyed most of Tulane and Tulane baseball, which was located right in the path of the devastating storm.
When Katrina hit on August 29, it didn't only destroy the stadium, but it also flooded the athletic facilities and players' nearby apartments and even the off-campus houses weren't spared.
This included the house Hamilton was renting near the baseball field. He lost practically everything he owned on that fateful day in late August. Hamilton's house was filled with roughly six-feet of water, which was the norm for most houses in the greater New Orleans area. His voice still sounds defeated when talking of the catastrophe. Even after a little more than eleven months, it's still fresh in his mind.
But even through the tragedy, Hamilton learned a very important lesson.
"One, take more with you when you have to evacuate," he said. "But more than that, there are a lot more things important than material things. Like worrying about teammates, family and what not. That you can always move on and get over the big things as long as everyone you care about came out okay."
Prior to Katrina, Tulane used to play its home games at Turchin Stadium in uptown New Orleans. The stadium stood at a walking distance from the streetcars, lush greenery and majestic mansions of St. Charles Avenue.
Before the devastation, the university was in the process of rebuilding Turchin Stadium. It was to be a $7.5 million project, which included a grandstand design of structural steel and a new playing surface. The maximum seating was set to increase from 3,000 to 5,000 seats and also include private suites, a covered club seating area and a new press box. The upgrades -- scheduled to be completed by February -- were put on hold when several feet of water covered the field after the storm had set the process back. The construction resumed last month.
"The stadium got completely wiped out," Hamilton said. "It was in the middle of a renovation so we were suppose to be playing in a brand new stadium, instead we played at the Triple-A ballpark in Zephyr when we came back."
Zephyr Field -- the home of the New Orleans Zephyrs -- is located west of the greater New Orleans area. The Green Wave had played games there in the past including the 2001 Super Regionals. Penn State was the first weekend opponent to visit Tulane -- McNeese State played the first game -- and Hamilton said it was more of an emotional experience for the fans than the team. The Green Wave fed off the home crowd as they destroyed the Nittany Lions in the three-game series. They outscored Penn State 30-7, including a 12-0 victory.
"We'd been back for a little while, and had been practicing out there. So it kind of became a routine for us, it started to feel like home," he said. "But for our fans it was big, I think it was the first sporting event in New Orleans -- there might have been a basketball game.
"It was very emotional for our fan base, we have a very large fan base that was happy to have us back."
After the destruction caused by Katrina, the Tulane baseball team was evacuated to Lubbock, Texas and was allowed to attended classes at Texas Tech for the rest of that fall semester. It was during this change of scenery that Hamilton shook off the tragedy and decided to immerse himself in baseball, and he said that semester allowed him and his teammates become the closest Green Wave team he had been on.
He carried what he had learned in Lubbock on to the baseball field during his junior season at Tulane. Hamilton had a breakout year for the Green Wave. The slugger hit 20 home runs and climbed the draft board quicker than a football player after a 4.3- second 40-yard-dash.
Hamilton carried over that zeal for success to his first professional team, the State College Spikes. The Spikes, an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, play in the New York-Penn League, which is the first rung on the major league ladder for most collegiate baseball players. The transition to pro baseball doesn't seem to have effected the 6-foot-5 first baseman -- he has a .315 average with six home runs and 17 RBI. He attributes a lot of his success to playing summer ball in Cape Cod, Mass.
"I played two summers in the Cape, and if anyone gets the opportunity, I tell them to take it. It's something else," Hamilton said. "It's good coaching staffs, and you get to play against the best college players in the country.
"It's a really good experience to be up there and play against that caliber of ball, it really prepares you for, well, this. It's a similar-type thing, a daily grind we play every day. It gets you ready for minor league ball."
The Cape Cod Baseball League, or the Cape for short, is renowned as a place where many college baseball stars start their careers. The league is notable for its continuing use of wooden bats, which for its players is usually their first experience playing with one. Because it draws top-tier college players, the level of play is often considered the equivalent of high-A Minor League Baseball.
Hamilton played against some of his former teammates in the Cape. Seven current Spikes played summer baseball on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, and oddly enough they played on seven different teams -- in a 10-team league. But Hamilton believes that playing against this competition turned him into the player he is today. He believes that if anything helped him learn how to be a professional, it was the Cape.
"It made me a lot better of a player," said Hamilton, who recorded 62 RBI in two Cape league seasons. "Playing everyday, playing with a wooden bat, and like I said playing against the best collegiate players out there. It teaches you how to shake the bad ones, how not to get too up on the good ones, and just come back and play everyday."
