Cole Hamels back on the mound after busy off-season

CLEARWATER, Fla. - In the last six months, Cole Hamels has won four postseason games and the most valuable player award in two series, chatted with David Letterman, appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, spoken about education in Malawi, and began a transition from baseball phenom to mainstream celebrity.

Hamels, 25, is scheduled to start today for the Phillies in an exhibition game against Canada's team in the World Baseball Classic, marking the end of a hectic, shortened off-season for the pitcher.

Constantly in demand after the World Series, the young ace admitted that the experience was draining, but said that he was eager to return to work.

"The off-season is supposed to be time to be off," Hamels said. "We want to be able to get right mentally, but me and my teammates haven't really been able to get away, and that hurts you a little. . . . But we have a job to do now, and we're excited about that."

He added: "At this point, you almost have to forget about [winning it all], pretend it never happened."

But it may be hard to forget such a life-altering year, when Hamels began to cultivate and publicly discuss his other interests, which include efforts to adopt a child afflicted with AIDS, and to build a school in Malawi.

"We play baseball, but we go home and we have wives, families, kids, and other ambitions," he said. The attention after winning the World Series "lets the public know that you are not just an athlete."

Hamels' involvement in Africa originated during his 2006 honeymoon in South Africa with his wife, Heidi.

"In addition to enjoying our honeymoon, we got to know about Africa and its issues," Hamels said. They later learned about Malawi from Heidi's friend, Ethan Zohn. Heidi and Zohn were contestants on the TV show Survivor, though in different seasons. Cole and Heidi decided to dedicate his foundation to opening a school in that impoverished country.

"I think education is the way to get out of situations of extreme poverty, and to better yourself," Hamels said. "I'd love to introduce baseball there, too, but these are all just goals right now. That's what we initially want to do."

Though his ultimate ambitions stretch far beyond baseball, Hamels' aim today is much simpler: toss an inning or two, and get a feel for the strike zone.

In the lefty's first game action since the World Series, he plans to throw 40 to 50 pitches - a typical first outing of the exhibition season, albeit a week later than most of the Phils' other starting pitchers. Including the postseason, the once-fragile Hamels pitched 2621/3 innings last season, or 72 more than he had previously thrown in a single season. This is a significant increase for a young pitcher, and the team, careful to protect such a valuable asset, has eased Hamels into the spring rotation slowly.

"He pitched [a lot of] innings last year," said pitching coach Rich Dubee. "Probably more than he pitched in his entire minor-league career. We just want to let him get his spikes in the ground."

Though Hamels has remained mostly healthy since arriving in the major leagues in 2006, a litany of ailments, including elbow and back issues, plagued him as a minor-leaguer in the three years prior. He said that maturity, and better knowledge of how to treat minor injuries, have kept him on the field. For example, he began visiting a chiropractor four years ago. This was considered a slightly left-of-center move by some baseball traditionalists, but it worked for Hamels.

"Oh, I'm a lot stronger and more mentally aware," he said. "Now, when I have a tweak here or there I know what I have to do to fix it. That's what I've learned from the trainers; they definitely know how to get me on the field. Pitchers make about 30, 35 starts a year, but we only feel really good for about eight of them. The rest of the time, you just have to make it work."

Last season's innings total creates a potential risk for the young ace, though Hamels sees no point in dwelling on it.

"If you worry about that, you'll put a lot of extra pressure on yourself," he said. "All I can do is listen to how my body feels, and do my strength exercises."

Now, after expanding his interests and delivering a desperately coveted championship to Philadelphia, Hamels returns to work today, ready to begin the next phase of his increasingly public life.