Tastykake Soft, Hamels Can't Do Game 7

PHILADELPHIA -- This is where they booed Santa Claus but gave a standing ovation to a dog killer named Michael Vick. This is where they taunted Mike Schmidt, maybe the best third baseman ever. This is where Donovan McNabb is viewed as an emotional dishrag, where MIchael Irvin was cheered when he lay motionless on the field, where I saw a woman in an UTLEY jersey tell a guy to "stop being a (p----)," where men are men unless someone wonders otherwise, which means your life is screwed.

It is in this Yuengling-and-cheesesteak culture that Cole Hamels, a California pretty boy not blessed with the Bruno/Rocco/Angelo first name like many Philly tough guys, decided to commit parochial suicide. Shelled again in Game 3 of the World Series, he emotionally unraveled afterward, suggesting very strongly that he wanted his season to end right then and there. In any town, such an acknowledgment would be viewed as a breach of cowardice. In Philly, where the home team trailed only 2-1 at the time, Hamels is being called a sulker, quitter, crybaby, wimp and (p----) of the worst ilk.

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"I can't wait for it to end," Hamels said famously. "It's been mentally draining. At year's end, you just can't wait for a fresh start."

If Rocky Balboa embraced such a thought process, there never would have been a movie, a statue or even an Adrian. These are comments best left unthought, much less unsaid, particularly by a pitcher who so ruled the postseason a year ago that he was named MVP of the World Series and National League championship series. The Phillies, losers of more than 10,000 games in a mostly futile existence, finally have settled into a championship era and are trying to become the first NL team to repeat as Series champs in 33 years. And here is Hamels, the presence who defined them last autumn, shrinking into the antithesis of all things Philly and, when you think about, all things proud and noble in athletic competition. So he's pitching poorly, as he has much of the season, going 1-2 with a 7.58 ERA this postseason after a 10-11 regular season. To be so self-absorbed to talk about quitting, when his teammates are known for their heart and resilience, is insulting to the human spirit.

After Game 5, when the Phillies saved their season and sent the Series back to Yankee Stadium, Hamels tried to backtrack and explain what he "really" meant. "Sometimes I might not say the best things or the smartest things, but I've learned and am learning," he said. "I wasn't able to sleep the past couple of nights because of it." He also sought a meeting with manager Charlie Manuel, who had expressed surprise that Hamels would say such dangerous things.

"I went to Charlie to talk to him because that's who I am, and I think he understands that," Hamels said. "I just wanted to tell him my true thoughts -- I'll never ever quit. I want to play this game until somebody takes it away from me. I think Charlie knows me. He has managed me for quite a few years. I think the only doubt it left in people's minds were the fans, and you know, it hurts. I love the city of Philadelphia, I play as hard as I possibly can. I might not necessarily have the results that they hope (for), but I know that if I go out there, and do everything I possibly can, and in the end they see (that), then I think they can respect that."

Too bad it was the third time of late that Hamels has had to explain controversial moments. He launched the postseason with a rip job on why Major League Baseball and the TV networks insist on so many night games. Then he embarrassed second baseman Chase Utley, the new Babe Ruth, by staring him down after a throwing error during the NLCS. Now there is Quitgate, which officially turned Hamels into a distraction at the absolute wrong time. Not only has it dominated the psycho babble on the local sports-talk stations, it has become a major story in the Phillies clubhouse, where teammate Brett Myers walked past Hamels' locker early Tuesday morning and, according to Yahoo! Sports, fired a shot.

"What are you doing here? I thought you quit," Myers said.

Hamels fired back with an obscenity, said the Web site's source, adding that Phillies communications official Greg Casterioto promptly led Myers away from the locker. Later Tuesday, the Phillies were spinning the story thusly: Myers was being a character in the Manny Ramirez vein and meant no harm. "First of all, they're friends, and that was more of Brett being -- when you say 'Manny being Manny' or something like that, well, Brett was being Brett," Manuel said. "Brett likes to throw that jab at you, and sometimes it doesn't matter who's around, and I think people when they hear that sometimes, they don't know how to take it. So they kind of put it where they want it to be or take it as they're looking to take it. And I think that's what happened. I think that was just actually Brett playing around, messing with him.''

True or b.s, it's not what Manuel needed to address on the off day. With his team down 3-2 and facing Andy Pettitte and, most likely, a big dose of Mariano RIvera in Game 6, the Phillies need to focus on the most difficult assignment of their two-year run. Talking about Hamels is an exercise in counterproductivity. Manuel did anyway Tuesday.

"He came in and talked to me last night, and we sat there probably 10, 15 minutes and we talked about some of the things that were said, and I felt very good about it, really,'' Manuel said. "I know Hamels. I've been a Hamels guy ever since I first came to work here. I want you to listen to this -- I never, ever questioned his mental toughness, because he's just as tough as anybody on our team. And I mean that. That part I've never, ever doubted.

"There's definitely no quit in him, and I know he shows emotions at times, and he's had like a freakish year and he's going through a bad time. But at the same time, he'll get through it, and he'll be the pitcher that you saw last year. That pitcher you've been seeing for the last couple years, that's who Hamels is. He is a gamer and he's a fighter. I can't say enough about him, really. And when I talk to him, I can tell everything about him, that he definitely wants to win and he wants us to win the World Series, and he definitely wants to play a big part in it. As a matter of fact, he might be wanting to play too big a part in it."

Well, then Hamels should say so and emphasize the point. We know about the heart of Pedro Martinez, the perseverance of Pettitte, the big-game will of CC Sabathia, the steel-trap competitiveness of Rivera. All we know about Hamels right now is that he melts down at the slightest sign of trouble, such as the situation in Game 3 when he didn't get a 3-2 call against Mark Teixeira. After retiring 10 of the first 11 batters, Hamels imploded and allowed the two-run homer to Alex Rodriguez off the TV camera. Before you knew it, he was out of the game.

And talking about quitting.


It goes without saying, then, that he is not in the frame of mind to start a Game 7, even though the Phillies have no one else remotely ready for the role. Begin with the rookie, J.A. Happ. Follow for a few innings with Cliff Lee, who would be starting the game had Manuel not blundered and chosen to start him in Game 4, not 5. All hands can be on deck except the left hand of Hamels. When Mitch (Wild Thing) Williams, a baseball analyst these days after a long career as an adventurous reliever, says Hamels isn't emotionally stable enough to start Game 7, well, that says it all.

Then again, the Phillies have to win Wednesday night before they can ponder a seventh game. Martinez returns to Yankee Stadium for another Broadway show, not worn down by flu symptoms as he was in last week's quality start. He again was in rare emotional form on game's eve, mixing serious comments about his future with high comedy and flicking away questions about the fans' "Who's Your Daddy?" chant. Last we heard him, Pedro was tweaking the media about our obsession with him.

"It took me a while to realize that anything I say, everything I do, has a meaning to you,'' Martinez said. "I hope that when I need you for the community work and other things that I'm going to need to help people, that you guys actually bring the message across because that will give me help for all those things that I have in mind for after I retire. But I'm pretty sure that my name will be mentioned. I don't know in which way. Maybe after I retire, because normally when you die, people tend to actually give you props about the good things. But that's after you die. So I'm hoping to get it before I die. I don't want to die and then hear everybody say, 'Oh, there goes one of the best players ever.' If you're going to give me props, just give them to me right now.

"I hope that you guys realize that I'm a human being that really likes to help, that really likes to do things in the community, that's a fun human being and a great competitor. That's probably my legacy. I don't want to just leave a legacy in baseball and be a (expletive deleted) human being. I'm sorry about the word. I hope I can be remembered more as a human being to take his clothes off to probably give it to a man down the street. I don't mind doing that any time."

Sounds like he's running for political office. It may well be that a rested Martinez outpitches a fatigued Pettitte. But anyone who saw Ryan Madson sweat and struggle to close down the Yankees in Game 5, while Brad Lidge watched from the bullpen, realizes that Rivera becomes the focal point of the Series. Alex Rodriguez has been a big-hit monster, but clearly, Rivera is the MVP of this series. One last save Wednesday night might be a silver lining for the enigma that is Cole Hamels.

That way, he can go home and avoid the Game 7 megapressure, just as he wanted it all along.