High school and college After a long and illustrious career in the Randolph Little League, Hamelin's family moved from their home in
Randolph, New Jersey to
Irvine, California, when he was 12 years old. Hamelin attended
Irvine High School, where he excelled in both
football and
baseball, Hamelin enrolled in
Santa Ana College after graduating from high school and played on the school's baseball team.
Major leagues Hamelin won the 1994 AL Rookie of the Year Award as a member of the
Kansas City Royals, when he posted a .282 batting average and hit 24
home runs (earning him the nickname "the hammer") with 65
RBIs during the
strike-shortened season.
After the major leagues Hamelin abruptly quit his professional baseball career while playing in the minor leagues for the
Toledo Mud Hens (Detroit Tigers AAA Team) in 1999. After grounding out, he went back to the dugout and told manager
Gene Roof, "I'm done", ending his professional baseball career as a player. He attended scouting school and returned to professional baseball as a
scout for the
Washington Nationals and the
Toronto Blue Jays. In 2012, he joined the Major League scouting corps of the
Boston Red Sox. His scouting contract was not renewed by the Boston Red Sox for the 2021 season. Hamelin's 1996
Pinnacle Foil baseball card is commonly referred to as the worst baseball card of all time. In 2019, Hamelin and a collection of his baseball cards were featured in the first episode of
SB Nation's two part series "The Bob Emergency", narrated by
Jon Bois. ==Highlights==