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Hamilton's comeback inspires Jupiter's Allison

Jupiter starting pitcher Jeff Allison

Jupiter's Jeff Allison is trying to recapture what was once a promising pitching career that lost three seasons to drug addiction.

By Chuck King

JUPITER, Fla. – Texas slugger Josh Hamilton’s journey from drug addiction to celebrated, even heroic, ballplayer is baseball’s feel-good story of the decade. It’s a path Florida farmhand Jeff Allison is trying to follow.

Though Hamilton and Allison, a pitcher at Single-A Jupiter have never spoken, their careers appear destined to be linked. Allison’s progress became part of national stories on Hamilton throughout the All-Star break, most notably during Hamilton’s historic run during the Home Run Derby.

Allison didn’t hear the report – Jupiter was playing Fort Myers in a Florida State League game at the time – but subsequent text messages told him the positive words.

“It was definitely cool,” said Allison, a Peabody, Mass. native who missed three of the past four seasons with drug and legal troubles. “To be mentioned in the same sentence as [Hamilton] is amazing.”

Things may be getting even cooler for Allison. ESPN’s Peter Gammons told Allison in a phone interview on Wednesday that Hamilton asked for his phone number. .

“I can honestly say he motivates me to do better on and off the field, and to make the right decisions,” said Allison, who’s pitched fewer than 200 innings since Florida chose him 16th overall in the 2003 draft. “It will be nice to talk to him and ask his experience trying to cope with all the things he’s done and been through. I’m sure we have similar stories to tell. I’d like to hear what he’s been through and his strength - what he does to better himself.”

Allison says he’s been clean for 18 months, putting the two heroin overdoes that almost killed him and a string of arrests that led to prison time behind him.

His renewed concentration on baseball hasn’t produced the same meteoric rise as Hamilton’s, but Allison is experiencing success. Named to the Florida State League All-Star team earlier this season, Allison owns a 6-7 record in 18 starts with a 4.41 ERA.

The fastball that hit the upper 90s during his senior season in high school may never return to the 23-year-old, but in the last few weeks his fastball has consistently reached the lower 90s.

“The maturity level is way different,” said Jupiter manager Brandon Hyde, who also managed Allison with Greensboro in 2005. “He’s more of a man. He’s more mature now. He’s dealt with a lot.”

Allison’s maturity is evident in the clubhouse, where most players say they haven’t talked to him about past problems. In fact, Allison frequently doesn’t talk much at all.

“I do my own thing,” Allison said. “I don’t like to be bothered. Sometimes people like to be alone. I like everybody on the team. I get along with everybody on the team.”

His teammates seem to share that sentiment.

“He’s a really good guy,” pitcher Graham Taylor said. “I’m really enjoying him being on the team. He brings a lot to our team. With everything he’s gone through, going out and pitching this way, it’s kind of an inspiration.”

Unlike previous years, the Marlins aren’t coddling Allison off the field. Florida separated Allison from the rest of the organization during 2004 spring training, also held in Jupiter, stashing him at a rehabilitation house in nearby Riviera Beach.

He didn’t make it through the spring that year in part because many of the other local inhabitants of the place were constantly offering to bring him drugs.

“That was terrible,” Allison said, shaking his head. “I know [the Marlins] were just looking out for me and they wanted what was best for me. There were a lot of different bad things going on there. And I got caught up in a lot of things I shouldn’t have.”

Allison now regularly attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and shares an apartment with former teammate Jonathon Fulton.

The pair met while in high school at a perfect game tournament and grew close while playing for the Marlins in the Gulf Coast League the year they were drafted.

“We'll talk about some of his struggles,” said Fulton, who is back in the GCL attempting to convert from being an infielder to a pitcher. “But as time goes on it gets less and less about the bad times and more and more abut the good things he wants to do in the future."

Allison credits his family, Marlins owner Jeffery Loria and team doctor Jeffery Fishbein with helping stay on the right path.

Regardless of whether he’s ever able to come close to Hamilton’s success, Allison thinks being back with the organization among teammates and friends, and taking the mound once every five days, aids in his quest for sobriety.

“Being part of something – just baseball in particular – is great because I haven’t been a part of something in so long,” Allison said. “I’ve been alone for a long time.”

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