BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton has seen better weeks.

Los Angeles Dodgers coach Manny Mota knows how the 2010 American League Most Valuable Player feels.

Playing with the Dodgers in 1970, Mota hit a foul ball into the seats along the first-base line at Dodger Stadium, hitting 14-year-old Alan Fish. Fish died four days later due to the inoperable head injury. That had been the only other death at a major league game involving a player and a spectator before Thursday.

Rangers' players have been offered grief counseling after the death of Texas fireman Shannon Stone, who fell 20-feet from the stands while trying to catch a foul ball tossed by Hamilton for his son.

The Sporting News reported that Hamilton tossed a foul ball toward Stone and his son Thursday night, and Stone fell over the railing, into an area out of sight from the behind the 14-foot-high outfield wall.

When Hamilton returned to left field, he went to the area and asked about Stone’s condition, and was told he had hurt his arms and head but was speaking and asking about his son. Hamilton said. "Then I found after the game that he had passed on, and it was just a shock.”

Hamilton turned down an offer for some time off from Rangers manager Ron Washington. But in the sixth inning of the Rangers’ 8-5 win over Oakland, a foul line drive by Hamilton hit an unidentified male spectator, who received stitches for a head wound.

"I'm sad for Josh, because I know how he feels now," Mota said to the Bellingham Herald. "He didn't do anything wrong, but this is a tough time for him. I felt the same way."