Rich Hofmann: Phillies ace Hamels makes pitch for greatness

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - He is like a god, the great and mysterious Steve Carlton. All of these years later, there really is no other way to put it. You could say that he is a forever member of the Phillies' franchise pantheon, except that this does not quite do the man justice. What is above the pantheon? What?

As we ask these questions, Cole Hamels begins to join the conversation.

Curt Schilling made his name in October. He did it in Philadelphia, and in Arizona, and in Boston. He cemented his image, forever, with a bloody sock when he played for the Red Sox. It was long after his Phillies days. But it all began with a towel over his head in the dugout at Veterans Stadium in 1993, a towel on his head and big game after big game after big game on the mound.

And now, Hamels enters the circle.

Game 1 of the World Series, ridiculous atmosphere, pressure beyond calculation - and Hamels shrugged. Last night, Tropicana Field, Tampa Bay Rays, an enormous game, a gigantic moment - and Hamels excelled.

He was good. He was tough, because he really didn't have his best stuff. He was bailed out by a couple of doubleplays. He threw 102 pitches in seven innings, allowing only two runs and five hits.

Hamels and the Phillies beat the Rays in Game 1 of the Series, 3-2. Hamels and the Phillies have gone on the road and done their carpe-diem best, again.

"Every round, you play better and better teams," Hamels said. "You definitely have to be a little more focused. You can't screw up as much. When I did, I left a couple of pitches out there and they were able to capitalize.

"But with being able to score runs early, it just helps out my game a little bit . . . It lessens the pressure."

What we are witnessing now is the birth of greatness. It sounds hokey, overdone, completely over the top - but if not that, then what? At the age of 24, Hamels has pitched his way into Phillies history. That's it. There can be no dispute.

He does not have Lefty's career pedigree - we are a decade away from even beginning to make that comparison. Neither has Hamels had the sheer volume of playoff opportunities that Schilling had - the man was a horse but also a fortunate horse; he did get a chance to pitch in 12 postseason series and 19 postseason games, after all.

But the Hamels we are seeing now, age 24, in 2008, is demonstrating a mastery over the opponent and the moment that rivals anything the Phillies have ever seen. Granted, there is not an enormous basis of comparison in franchise history - but what Hamels is doing this October, this outrageous October, is worthy of inclusion on any list you want to make, any baseball list, any October list, anytime.

His record this fall is 4-0 in four starts. His ERA in 29 innings is 1.55. Sometimes it is that simple. Sometime the numbers do tell the story.

"Cole is pretty good, man," Phils manager Charlie Manuel said. "I'm glad he pitches for us."

Against the Rays last night, he allowed an infield single to lead off the game by Akinori Iwamura - but Iwamura was quickly erased on a doubleplay. In the third, two singles and a walk loaded the bases - but Pedro Feliz made a slick grab of a sharply hit ground ball and began a 5-4-3 doubleplay that ended the threat.

In the fourth, Hamels allowed Carl Crawford to hit a solo home run to right-centerfield. In the fifth, with two outs, he walked Jason Bartlett, the ninth-place hitter, and saw him score when Iwamura banged a double to left-center.

But that was it. In the biggest game of his still-young career, against a lineup that he called "devastating," that was it.

We all talk about the kid's composure. He got a taste of the postseason last year, and he has said he learned from it. But what we are seeing has to be genetic. The steel, the calm - Hamels had to be born with it. There is no other explanation.

" . . . The excitement they have with the crowd, you just have to take a step back and know that you have a job to do, no matter how loud it gets," he said. "That's what I was able to do.

"I'll still kind of play it slow and easy until the World Series is over, until I really get excited about it, because that's kind of the mind-set I always have about playing."

Still, we can begin to count it up.

In 1980, Carlton was 3-0 in the postseason with a 2.31 ERA.

In 1993, Schilling was 1-1 in the playoffs with a 2.59 ERA.

So far, in 2008, Cole Hamels has been better. Historians of a franchise with so few stars in tar-black sky, take note. *

Send e-mail to

hofmanr@phillynews.com, or read his blog, The Idle Rich, at

http://go.philly.com/theidlerich. For recent columns go to

http://go.philly.com/hofmann.