Every day's a holiday

February is a short month, but I didn't realize until lately how many holidays are crammed into it.
It has Presidents' Day, which used to be the separate birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, two allegedly honest politicians who wouldn't stand a chance today.
There's the fake holiday of Valentine's Day.
Yesterday was another pretty fake holiday, Groundhog Day. Six more weeks of winter? Didn't you mean last winter. A year ago, everything here was frozen over for the week of the big game. At 4:30 this afternoon, depending on which thermometer you believe on T.L. Townsend Drive, it was either 73 or 71 degrees. A little bit of rain, but no ice in sight unless it was in Josh Hamilton's glass Monday. More later.
There's also sort of a holiday all month, Black History Month. These days, many -- maybe most -- black/African-American people would say about what Kevin Durant said in an interview Wednesday night, "I celebrate Black History Month all year."
That brings us to the really important holidays, which actually began Jan. 31.
That's the eve of the month in which pitchers and catchers report, so at the stroke of midnight, it is that month. One year when I was in college, my friend Tom and I took our gloves to a Friday or Saturday night party so we could play some catch at midnight to celebrate this holiday. Of course, all day Feb. 1 celebrates the holiday. And so do several consecutive days when one team or another has its pitchers and catchers report for PACR Day.
Back to Hamilton. Now that the Susan G. Komen Foundation has relented, Hamilton is reluctantly hogging the air waves as an even bigger story than the big game was last year. And speaking of Komen, even for non-profits, money talks.
The money that talks to Hamilton will be a lot quieter than anyone would have thought a week ago. Randy Galloway on DFW's ESPN Radio station speculated that Hamilton's relapse could knock his next contract down from 6 years and $120 million to 1 year for $20 million, with strings attached. I was thinking more along the lines of 3 voidable years at $15 million per season.
It is a sad story. Hamilton already has lost some productive years to his addictions. He might lose more, but right now it's impossible for his teammates, fans and major league teams to count on him.
That puts Hamilton's fantasy owners in a precarious position. Their expectations no doubt already were dampened by the amount of playing time he has missed even during the years when he has played. He could be a huge bust or an unbelievable bargain. Unquestionably, he is a big gamble.
You'd be perfectly justified in dropping him if he's a potential keeper. If he has the kind of contract year for you that other star players have had, good for you. But if he's a colossal bomb, you can't complain and say you weren't warned.
My recommendation would be not to expect anything more nor less than what he produced in 2011. Let the fantasy bidding or drafting stop there.