Texas’ Josh Hamilton to be focus of biopic

Hamilton on film

Josh Hamilton’s life reads like a movie script and, sure enough, a film about the Texas Rangers slugger is in the planning stages.

Hamilton has given rights to producer Basil Iwanyk and Thunder Road Pictures for a movie to be written and directed by Casey Affleck, the entertainment website Deadline.com reported.

Hamilton, of course, battled back from drug and alcohol abuse to become a star with the Rangers, and he won the American League most-valuable-player award in 2010.

He’s hot again this year, ranking among the AL leaders in home runs and runs batted in. On May 8, he hit four home runs in Baltimore, becoming only the 16th player in history to homer four times in a game.

Hamilton’s life “is an extraordinary odyssey,” one that took him from addiction and estrangement from his family “to a spectacular rebirth of his life, faith, marriage and major-league career,” Deadline.com quoted Iwanyk as saying.

Now the question is: Which actor could play the 31-year-old Hamilton, who is 6 feet 4 and weighs about 240 pounds?

Dickey forecast

The amazing run of knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey has sparked a torrent of commentary, including this query: If Dickey leads his New York Mets to the playoffs, would he still be effective in colder weather?

The theory is that knuckleball pitchers tend to lose their feel for the baseball when temperatures drop. But a glance at past knuckleballers indicates that might not be true.

Tim Wakefield was 33-36 during his career in June, according to a monthly breakdown by Baseball-Reference.com. The website lumps September and October together, and in that period Wakefield was 33-33.

Phil Niekro (“Knucksie”) was 58-43 in June and 50-47 in the September/October period. Hoyt Wilhelm was 21-29 in June and 36-14 in September/October.

September can be plenty warm, of course, so that might skew the September/October figures away from the effect of cold days in October.

In any case, the World Series this year doesn’t start until Oct. 24, by which time Dickey and the Mets — if they get that far — might have those hand warmers ready just in case.

Dickey is 11-1 with a 2.00 earned-run average and has won his last nine decisions. He’s scheduled to start again Sunday against the New York Yankees.

Dickson shines

O’Koyea Dickson, a first baseman with the Dodgers’ Class-A Great Lakes (Michigan) team, went two for three with a two-run home run to help the East win, 18-2, in the Midwest LeagueAll-Star game.

The San Francisco native, selected by the Dodgers in the 12th round of the first-year draft in 2011, was batting .331 with six home runs in 39 games for the Great Lakes Loons before the break.