Say Goodbye to Hollywood: A Tribute to Cole Hamels

Cole Hamels retired from baseball on Friday, inflicting vital consternation to individuals who learn that headline and thought they’d been transported again in time to the winter of 2019. (Buy a home now, when you nonetheless can, and make sure you top off readily available sanitizer.)

It’s been 4 years since Hamels pitched successfully within the main leagues; earlier than the 2020 season, he signed a one-year take care of the Atlanta Braves, and was restricted to simply 3 1/3 innings by accidents to his triceps and shoulder. Two additional comeback makes an attempt, with the Dodgers and his hometown Padres, got here to nothing. Hamels by no means fairly recovered from a 2021 surgical procedure to restore a torn rotator cuff, and was nonetheless unable to throw with out ache when he determined, at age 39, that he’d lastly had sufficient.

Hamels, the 2008 NLCS and World Series MVP, will most likely seem on only one Hall of Fame poll. But few gamers’ reputations suffered extra by comparability to their instant environment than Hamels’ did; he was one or two breaks from giving a speech in Cooperstown sometime, even when no person realized it on the time.

Outside of Philadelphia and Texas, the place he loved his biggest success, Hamels shall be most remembered as a topic of images. The baseball author Ted Berg saved an encyclopedic assortment of awkward Cole Hamels pictures, which was a straightforward factor to do within the late aughts and early 2010s. Hamels was a first-round choose at 18, a giant league debutant at 22, an All-Star and Cy Young contender at 23, and the World Series MVP at 24. He ascended from childhood to nationwide stardom earlier than he grew out of his child face or ditched his by-then-dated boy band haircut.

But as a result of he was good-looking and profitable, Hamels ended up starring on billboards and TV commercials. He and his then-wife, a former Survivor contestant, ran a much-publicized charity, and the Hamelses have been regulars at an annual style present to profit teammate Shane Victorino’s basis. In distinction to the laconic Chase Utley, Hamels was outgoing and unafraid of celeb. His nickname in Philadelphia, “Hollywood,” referenced his Southern California roots and penchant for big-game heroics however by no means felt greater than 90% complimentary.

My favourite picture from Hamels’ profession is a photograph from October 10, 2010. Hamels had simply climbed the ladder with a 95 mph fastball to strike out Scott Rolen, the 119th and closing pitch in a complete-game shutout that despatched the Phillies to the NLCS.

Hamels had a particular windup, deliberate and easy and unmistakably left-handed, the pitcher’s model of Ken Griffey Jr.’s swing. Hamels was an excellent all-around athlete; he hit .169 for his profession, with two triples, two dwelling runs, and a stolen base on his document, and retained these lean, managed actions properly into his mid-30s.

Even at 6-foot-4, and able to mid-90s velocity when he wanted it, Hamels was a finesse pitcher at his core. His greatest pitch was all the time his changeup, and he leveled up in his late 20s when he realized a cutter and began mixing it in along with his four-seamer; every thing labored due to his impeccable command. But whereas Hamels was as sleek as a sea lion in water on the mound, he might be as ungainly as a sea lion on land off it, as anybody who’s seen him on a catwalk can attest.

The celebration after his complete-game shutout in Cincinnati was the right fusion of the 2, a herky-jerky fist-pump-and-kick that degaussed three hours of pent-up rigidity out of him instantly. I watched this sport with a pal in a packed bar in Northeast Philadelphia, and in that second everybody within the room felt the very same mixture of pleasure, aggression, and reduction Hamels expressed one state over.

It was a masterful efficiency, the likes of which you merely don’t see in postseason baseball anymore, and it bought utterly swept beneath the rug as a result of three days earlier Roy Halladay had thrown a no-hitter.

That’s the Hamels story, in a nutshell. Consistently nice, steadily clutch, repeatedly overshadowed by somebody higher.

When Hamels bought traded from the Rangers to the Cubs in 2018, he was 34 years outdated with 47.4 profession WAR. Given his command, sturdiness, and refined arsenal, I figured he might proceed to be a league-average pitcher till he was 40, possibly even longer. After the commerce, he was excellent for the Cubs, posting a 2.36 ERA in 12 begins towards the top of that season.

He wanted just some extra seasons of league-average manufacturing to get to the 60-WAR threshold that often begins a Hall of Fame dialogue. If he’d lasted lengthy sufficient to get there, 200 wins was a risk, and three,000 strikeouts a close to certainty. At the time, I used to be making ready a Hall of Fame case that in contrast Hamels favorably to Tom Glavine. (I admit that you must actually need to see such a comparability, however I had by no means beloved a baseball workforce as a lot as Hamels’ Phillies nor hated a baseball workforce as a lot as Glavine’s Braves. Suffice it to say, no person needed that comparability to work greater than I did.)

In the top, it didn’t matter. Maybe if the 2020 season had gone forward as scheduled, Hamels would have had a standard ramp-up and averted screwing up his triceps on the eve of the season. And if that hadn’t occurred, possibly he doesn’t endure the shoulder harm that in the end ended his profession. It’s all educational now anyway.

But even when Hamels had hit these key statistical markers, my Glavine comp most likely would’ve gotten laughed out of the room. Glavine received two Cy Young Awards; Hamels by no means completed within the prime three. For a few decade, from 2007 to 2016, Hamels was top-of-the-line 10 to twenty beginning pitchers in baseball most years. But he was not often the very best pitcher on his personal workforce.

After storming by means of the postseason in 2008, Hamels took an enormous step again in 2009. Or at the least he appeared to; his strikeout and stroll charges remained about the identical. His FIP was precisely the identical in 2008 and 2009, all the way down to the hundredth of a run, however Hamels’ ERA jumped from 3.09 to 4.32. At the time, he suffered a precursor to what Aaron Nola’s gone by means of the previous few years — the outcomes are often good, however frustration at his unhealthy outings outweighed the positives of his good ones.

At the deadline, the Phillies traded for Cliff Lee, one other athletic, command-first left-hander who did every thing Hamels was good at a little bit bit higher. Lee endeared himself to followers rapidly along with his angle of what I’d name aggressive nonchalance, which appeared to convey a gorgeous self-confidence that Hamels didn’t possess at that stage of his profession.

Relegated to no. 2 starter standing after Lee’s arrival, Hamels bought hit onerous in his first postseason begin of 2009. He made the beginning — and I can barely imagine this occurred as I’m typing it now — whereas his spouse was going into labor. That outing, during which Hamels allowed 4 runs in 5 innings, wasn’t as unhealthy as individuals bear in mind; the Phillies virtually got here again to win, in actual fact. But the distinction to Lee was simple.

After getting lit up by the Yankees in Game 3 of the World Series, a weary Hamels advised reporters, “I can’t wait for [the season] to end. It’s been mentally draining.” It would’ve been bizarre, all issues thought-about, for Hamels to not have felt one thing to that impact on the time, but it surely was unwise to say so in public, significantly contemplating that he was lined as much as begin a possible Game 7. Three days later, teammate Brett Myers accused Hamels of quitting, and the 2 practically got here to blows within the clubhouse. (Of all of the issues Hamels has taken crap for through the years, attempting to battle Myers has aged the very best.)

The arrival of Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt the next season took a number of the strain off Hamels, who got here to view Halladay as a mentor. Halladay died instantly in a aircraft crash in 2017; one among my most vivid recollections of that day was of Hamels, then with the Rangers however nonetheless spending his offseason in Philadelphia, coming again to Citizens Bank Park to speak to reporters about his former teammate. Hamels additionally spoke at Halladay’s public memorial service on the stadium per week later.

After Halladay joined the workforce, Hamels responded by reeling off seven consecutive seasons of at the least 200 innings, at the least 194 strikeouts, and an ERA of three.65 or decrease. That took him by means of the steadiness of his time in Philadelphia and his first season and a half in Texas. Playoff success adopted as properly, as Hamels posted a 0.86 ERA throughout his closing three postseason appearances in a Phillies uniform.

Hamels’ fame amongst Phillies followers had largely recovered by the top of the workforce’s dominant run in 2011, but it surely was straightforward to overlook simply how dominant he’d been in 2008 as a result of within the seasons that adopted, Lee and Halladay made such postseason excellence look routine:

Then, because the 2010s progressed, Madison Bumgarner took the established commonplace for dominant postseason pitching, picked it up, and swallowed it complete like one among Cronus’ kids. No matter what Hamels did, there was all the time one thing extra spectacular to level to.

Hamels wasn’t the final of the championship Phillies to go away; Ryan Howard and Carlos Ruiz lasted a 12 months longer than Hamels did. But he was the one one of many three in something resembling his prime when the top got here. In reality, Hamels’ final look in a Phillies uniform was one among his greatest: a 129-pitch no-hitter at Wrigley Field.

Watching that video, seeing the names who’d changed Utley, Rollins, Jayson Werth, and so forth, drives dwelling how far the Phillies had fallen: 102 wins in 2011, 99 losses simply 4 years later. Hamels joined an up-and-coming Rangers workforce in want of a playoff-seasoned ace whereas Yu Darvish recovered from Tommy John surgical procedure.

Hamels obliged, and pitched Texas to inside three innings of the franchise’s first playoff sequence win since 2011. We all bear in mind the wildest inning in baseball historical past, culminating in José Bautista’s iconic three-run, game-winning dwelling run and bat flip. In typical style, Hamels’ position has been overshadowed. He took the mound within the backside of the seventh with a one-run lead; the Rangers then dedicated three errors behind him on the primary three batters of the inning. The successful run Bautista drove in ended up being an unearned run charged to Hamels.

What are you gonna do? Between Game 5 of the Rangers-Blue Jays sequence, the weather-suspended Game 5 of the 2008 World Series, and 2018’s NL Wild Card Game, during which Hamels pitched two innings of scoreless reduction, Hamels has no scarcity of weird playoff recollections to name on. Had he been wholesome sufficient to stay it out with the Braves in 2020 and 2021, he might need had extra. But that’s the what-if of his would-be Hall of Fame case once more.

There are two sorts of Hall of Very Good pitchers. The first: Johan Santana, Bret Saberhagen, and arguably Lee as properly. These have been no-doubt no. 1 starters of their prime, however mentioned prime got here up agonizingly wanting lasting lengthy sufficient to convey vital milestones into the dialog. The different: Hamels, Jon Lester, Kevin Appier. These pitchers’ peaks have been undeniably excessive, together with a number of All-Star appearances and even some postseason success, however not excessive sufficient to cross the Hall of Fame odor take a look at.

Hamels is all however sure to make the workforce Wall of Fame in Philadelphia, the place he had his biggest successes and threw about two thirds of his main league innings. Retiring a jersey quantity is an honor the workforce tends to order for gamers who’re inducted into Cooperstown, although the membership made an exception for Dick Allen after his near-miss in 2015.

Apart from Halladay, who performed solely two full seasons in Philadelphia, there isn’t a no-doubt Hall of Famer from that five-year run of NL East titles, and no person from the 2008 championship workforce. Utley has a bulletproof case, in my view, although I worry that BBWAA voters, even now, will underrate a participant whose profession document depends so closely on protection and effectivity. Hamels and Rollins don’t have an actual case for the Hall of Fame however meant extra to the workforce particularly than the game typically.

Hamels is fourth in franchise historical past in WAR amongst pitchers — behind Steve Carlton, Robin Roberts, and Pete Alexander, all Hall of Famers — and third in strikeouts. Since Carlton left the membership in 1986, no person has thrown extra innings in a Phillies uniform. Hamels was the postseason MVP of the franchise’s solely championship-winning workforce since 1980. Numbers get retired for much less.

Some gamers belong to an period aside from the one they really performed in. Some gamers have been born 10 years too early or 10 years too late. Or each, in Hamels’ case. He was one of many final pitchers to reside as much as the expectation that an ace throws 200 innings a 12 months, yearly, with out fail. His exact, refined sport may not have been appreciated at the moment. For that matter, it would even have been survivable at the moment, such is the standard of the trendy main league hitter.

On the opposite hand, it’s a bit jarring to look again at Hamels’ 2009 season with 2023’s sensibilities. Nowadays, he by no means would have been requested to pitch that playoff sport towards Colorado. Public pitching evaluation has improved to the purpose the place his up-and-down common season would’ve been written off as unhealthy luck. And whereas expressing a public need to finish the season whereas the World Series hangs within the steadiness would by no means have performed properly, I think that had Hamels admitted to feeling psychological fatigue in at the moment’s local weather, it might’ve gone over higher than it did 14 years in the past. Even Phillies followers are beginning to notice that whereas giving a participant a tough time might be cathartic, and even justified, it isn’t all the time constructive.

I received’t declare to understand how, or even when, baseball historical past will bear in mind Hamels. He had an awesome profession and was concerned in so many necessary moments. But there’s all the time a greater pitcher on the market someplace.