Being the slow sports news day that it is, there’s no way you can escape coverage of Josh Hamilton’s historic performance in the first round of last night’s Home Run Derby. It was a pretty magical moment, to be honest.

Imagine if, 5 years ago, I had told you that this drug-addicted kid would have all of Yankee Stadium chanting “HAM-IL-TON, HAM-IL-TON” as he pounded 13 homers in a row into every deck of right field. You might have believed me, I guess, just because of the enormous potential that this kid always had. But to see him follow up a 95-RBI first half with that sick display of power was, in the words of Tommy Boy, “AWESOME!”

We wrote about Hamilton back in January, pointing you to a story on his recovery in the Dallas Morning News. It’s a good read if you’ve got a few minutes. The story talks about Hamilton’s faith, something he mentioned last night in multiple interviews with ESPN’s Erin Andrews. Before his turn at bat last night he talked about a dream he had of hitting home runs in Yankee Stadium and using the platform to tell people about what God has done for him. 28 Home Runs later (including one that traveled 518 feet), he did just that, telling the crowd and the National TV audience how amazed he was that God turned his life around so fast.

It was a heartfelt moment of sincere gratitude and praise for God on the grandest stage of all, and something Hamilton will probably remember for the rest of his life.

I know I will.

Update: Here’s the video of all 28 of his first round homers.