Life is good.. Why are we booing Hamels?

Written by Mike Mariano | 13 April 2010

The Phillies won yesterday 7-4 over the Astros to improve to the a tie for the best record in baseball.  Life is good here.  Really good.  And better yet, it's infinitely better than it is there (in NY).  So why I ask, are we booing Cole Hamels?  I wasn't at the game, but apparently Phillies phaitful felt it necessary to stand and boo Hamels after he allowed a solo home run to Josh Willingham in the top of the first inning.

Mets fans around the site (cough... Benny... cough) must be happy as hell about this because we scream about the rights and wrongs of booing your own all the time.  However, in this instance I'm not putting up a fight.  Booing Cole Hamels in his second start of the year makes little to no sense and will do vastly more harm than good.  Crashburn Alley put together a great piece on exactly how stupid this decision was that is well worth your reading time.  But, let's talk about it some more here.

Cole Hamels is two years removed from being the WORLD SERIES MVP and possibly the most important piece of the best Philadelphia sports team in three decades!  Fast forward to the end of his career, is there anything else he can or needs to do from there to be a Philadelphia icon and hero?  No.  So, what's the problem?  Expectations are the problem.  After his World Series performance, Cole Hamels the ace looked poise to make the jump to Cole Hamels the Cy Young.  To join Johan and Roy and Sabathia as the best around.  But something funny happened, he regressed.  Not only in the regular season, but he carried his sluggish performances into the '09 playoffs and his entire '09 campaign got filled immediately as a colossal disappointment.

Philadelphia reaction:  "What the fuck man."  And that was completely justified.  What in the hell happened to our ace, but more importantly will he ever truly figure it out and recapture that '08 October splendor? All off-season the Philly optimists and pessimists waged war, ultimately settling to wait for the season.  Then after two sub-par pitching outings, patience has been throw to the wind and we're booing.  In the first inning of his second start.

Wake up people, it's a long season and we have the most potent offense in the National League bar none and arguably the entire MLB.  If he gives up three first inning home runs, it sucks, but there's plenty of game left.  Should you be pissed off -- of course, but control yourself.  Is booing him going to reboost his lost confidence?  Is booing him going to get his fastball down or make his curveball more useful?  No.  Booing your own players only serves one purpose -- telling management that you don't want to watch the crap in front of you anymore.

That leaves one question, do you want Cole Hamels out?  If yes, get a hold of yourself.  He's a 26 year old pitcher who shows flashes of brilliance and already has a World Series MVP award.  Is he occasionally soft, annoying, and weird?  Yes, yes, and yes.  Does he occasionally pitch like Johan and occasionally pitch like a beer leaguer?  Yes and yes.  But this is Philadelphia and we don't do anything the easy way, so deal with it.  You have been your entire life.