Darryl Quinn Hamilton (December 3, 1964 – June 21, 2015) was an American professional baseball outfielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1988 and 2001 for the Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Rangers, San Francisco Giants, Colorado Rockies, and New York Mets.
[1] He made his professional debut that season with the Helena Gold Sox of the Rookie-level Pioneer League, hitting .391 in 65 games.
[2] Hamilton made his MLB debut on June 3, 1988, as a defensive replacement for Robin Yount in the top of the seventh inning against the California Angels.
Then, in his first at-bat, in the bottom of the inning, he singled to center field off Stew Cliburn of the Angels for his first major league hit.
[1] His most notable moment that season was during his first start in left field, on September 3, he collided with shortstop Dale Sveum while chasing a blooper over third base.
[6] Hamilton avoided injury but spent the entire 1989 season back in the minors with the Zephyrs, where he hit .286 in 129 games.
[17] Despite missing most of the season, the Milwaukee chapter of the Baseball Writers Association voted him the recipient of the "Michael Harrison Award" for community service.
[19] In his final season as a member of the Brewers, in 1995, Hamilton played in 112 games and hit .271 with 11 stolen bases.
In his seven seasons with the team, he had an overall .290 batting average in 666 games and hit 23 home runs, drove in 253 RBI and stole 109 bases.
Hamilton filed a grievance against the Brewers, claiming he had been benched in the final weeks of the season in order to keep him from reaching 550 plate appearances which would have automatically picked up the option.
[1] Hamilton was traded to the New York Mets with Chuck McElroy for Rigo Beltrán, Brian McRae, and Thomas Johns on July 31, 1999.
[1] He signed a minor league contract with the Rockies a week later, but was released on July 25[1] after four games with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox.
[38] In 2014, Hamilton served as a part-time color analyst on Brewers radio broadcasts, rotating with Craig Counsell and Jerry Augustine to call games with Joe Block when primary announcer Bob Uecker was absent.
[43] At the time of his death, Hamilton was living in an affluent neighborhood in suburban Houston, Texas, in a house belonging to his girlfriend, Monica Jordan.
[44] Around 4:45 p.m. on June 21, 2015, Hamilton, 50, and his ex-girlfriend, Monica Jordan, 44, were found dead in their Pearland, Texas, house, in what appeared to be a murder–suicide.
[44] According to Brazoria County District Attorney Jeri Yenne, Jordan previously pleaded guilty to felony arson in 2008 arising from a 2006 incident in which she burned down the house in which she had been living with her then-husband Rohaven Richards.