In a six-season career, Hamelin posted a .246 batting average with 67 home runs and 209 RBIs in 497 games played. In 1994, at the age of 26, he was the American League Rookie of the Year. But his stint as a professional player was marred by leg injuries, both in the minors and majors. He also suffered from an eye problem.\n', '

After a long and illustrious career in the Randolph Little League, the Hamelin family moved from their home in Randolph, New Jersey to Irvine, California, when Bob Hamelin was 12 years old. Hamelin attended Irvine High School where he excelled in both football and baseball and was named the School\'s Athlete of the Year as a senior. The University of Notre Dame recruited him to play football, however Hamelin had already decided to pursue a career in baseball. Hamelin enrolled in Santa Ana College after graduating from high school and played on the school\'s baseball team. Soon thereafter the young baseball prospect transferred to UCLA, where he continued to play baseball for his new school.\n', '

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.\n', '

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