During Josh Hamilton’s bombastic power display in this week’s Home Run Derby, ESPN’s Peter Gammons said something about the likelihood of a movie being made of this.

That movie was made a couple of decades ago: “The Natural.”

The outline of Hamilton’s story is becoming ever more widely known. As a high schooler, he was the stuff baseball scouts dream of — power, speed, a rocket of a throwing arm, magnificent hand-eye coordination. There is usually a debate before any sport’s professional draft about who the first pick should be; there was none in the early summer of 1999. There was Hamilton, and there was everybody else.

And then came the failed drug tests — a seemingly endless string of them — and the suspensions that accompanied them. Hamilton was barred from baseball for almost four full seasons, his promise broken by his addictions.

And now, suddenly, gloriously, his promise is fulfilled. Hamilton — now with his third organization — hit the All-Star break with 95 RBIs, by far the most in the majors. He is among the American League leaders in home runs and batting average. He was voted into the starting lineup for the All-Star Game in his first season as a full-time regular.

He has gone from the hell of crack addiction to having a full house at Yankee Stadium chanting his name.

There’s a baseball cliché that applies to Hamilton’s very life now. One day at a time. It applies as well to all the countless others battling to stay clean and sober. One day at a time.

Hamilton, as a high-profile, highly compensated professional athlete, has the advantage of an elaborate support system and the restrictions that come with it. He is tested at least three times a week; he has a full-time minder to keep him from going off alone. His minder gets Hamilton’s meal money when the team goes on a road trip; this keeps the temptation a bit further at bay. It is not easy for the addicted to stay clean, but it should be easier for Hamilton than for most.

One hopes Hamilton does stay clean, for his story has been picked up upon by others (as he told ESPN.com last summer) as “proof that hope is never lost.” Should Hamilton drive his life back into the ditch, he won’t be the only loser.

Hollywood gave “The Natural” a happy ending. The novel on which the movie was based gave it a decidedly different outcome — in the story’s original form, Roy Hobbs strikes out and is banned from baseball for throwing the game.

The novel’s overriding theme: Nobody ever learns anything. We root for Josh Hamilton because we want to believe otherwise.