Devil Rays Prospect Arrested

Durham, NC -- Baseball player Josh Hamilton, a one-time top prospect of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, was arrested Saturday for destroying the rearview mirror and shattering the windshield of a family friend's pickup truck.Hamilton, 24, of Fuquay-Varina, told a Wake County magistrate that he was drinking alcohol at a party Saturday evening and got into an argument with his wife before the incident.Hamilton, a graduate of Raleigh's Athens Drive High School, signed with the Devil Rays in 1999 for a $3.6 million bonus. He is in the second full season of suspension from professional baseball for drug use and has been in a recovery program.In March, Hamilton said he had been sober and drug free for nearly six months and hoped to return to baseball by midseason.Cary police said Hamilton left the party with his wife, Katie, but she stopped the car and he began walking down U.S. 1.Police received a call about 7:20 pm about a man who allegedly was harassing customers at a gas station, said Cary Police Lt. Michael Williams.Hamilton left the gas station as a passenger in a friend's Jeep. Police stopped the Jeep shortly afterward, Williams said.Police contacted Hamilton's father-in-law, Michael Dean Chadic, who came with a friend in a pickup truck to get Hamilton. En route to a residence in Cary, Hamilton used his fist to shatter the windshield of the pickup truck, ripped off the rearview mirror and broke a baseball bat over his knee, authorities said.He was charged by Cary police with misdemeanor damage to property and released on a promise to appear in court.