Up Close with Phillies Pitcher Cole Hamels

Earlier this year Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels and his wife, Heidi Hamels, founders of the Hamels Foundation charity, opened the foundation's retail store in Bryn Mawr.

Hamels is the cover story of the April issue of Main Line Today magazine. Here is an excerpt from the story:

Cole Hamels is grinning from ear to ear as Jon Dorenbos joins him in front of photographers and TV crews before the Hamels Foundation’s Diamonds & Denim fundraiser at Center City’s Crystal Tea Room. With his white T-shirt, denim overalls and matching cap, the Eagles’ long-snapper looks like an outcast from the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. And, wait, is that woman wearing painted-on overalls and nothing else? (Look away!)

With its unorthodox mix of sports superstars, reality-TV personalities, media types, close friends and diehard fans, last August’s third annual Diamonds & Denim event was a late-summer soiree like no other. Away from the body paint, lavish auction items and massive duffel bags filled with gifts, a table in the back of the ballroom was reserved for teachers from Philadelphia’s Bayard Taylor Elementary School. Earlier that month, a $300,000 grant from the Hamels Foundation went toward renovating its playground, building a greenhouse, and painting a mural. Before dinner, Taylor’s student chorus entertained the likes of Cliff Lee, Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard, the Flyers’ Scott Hartnell, WMGK’s John DeBella, and a slew of other faces you might recognize but can’t quite place.

The well-mannered mayhem found its focus when Cole and Heidi Hamels spoke about the foundation and its work in Philadelphia and Malawi, Africa. “We always use the word hope in Africa,” said Heidi. “We provide hope. Hope can save a life … It can. That’s what keeps you going. If we can provide the same hope here, maybe that’s what keeps them finishing high school.”