The Rotation Read Online Free

often pitch to his dad until one day, when the boy was about 13, Gary went in the house and told his wife, “I don’t think I can catch this kid anymore.”
    Mark Furtak saw the magic early in 2000 when Hamels threw for him in the bullpen at Rancho Bernardo High School in San Diego.
    â€œI think I can make the JV team,” the gangly sophomore excitedly told the pitching coach.
    To hell with that , Furtak thought to himself.
    â€œI want you to think varsity,” Furtak told the kid. “From this day on, I want you to act like a varsity guy.”
    Hamels did just that.
    â€œHe started off the season as our Number Three pitcher and by the end was our Number Two,” Furtak said. “Our Number One was a first-round draft pick and by the end of the season Cole was keeping right up with him.”
    Scouts always flock to Rancho Bernardo because it has a tremendous baseball program that always turns out great talent. Former All-Star third baseman Hank Blalock came out of the program in 1999. In the spring of 2000, scouts came to watch pitcher Matt Wheatland, a first-round pick of the Detroit Tigers, and catcher Scott Heard, a first-round pick of the Texas Rangers.
    When they were done watching Wheatland and Heard, they stuck around to see Cole Hamels.
    â€œHe was dominant—even as a sophomore,” said Jim Fregosi Jr., who in those days was one of the Phillies’ top West Coast scouts.

    The Hamels kid had a nice, loose, easy-working arm, a beautiful delivery, and a tall, angular, projectable frame. His fastball was only in the mid-80s his sophomore year, but it would improve, no doubt, when Mother Nature did her work on that body.
    What made scouts’ jaws drop was that changeup, a baffling pitch that made hitters flail at air. Scouts scribbled Hamels’ name in their notebooks. This kid had first-rounder written all over him. He’d be worth following the next two years.

    Cole Hamels is the only member of The Rotation that is homegrown. Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Joe Blanton came in trades, Cliff Lee as a free agent. The Phillies got Hamels with the 17 th overall pick in the 2002 draft.
    Being drafted in the first round is the realization of a dream, a reward for hard work and talent, for any ballplayer.
    For Hamels, and everyone close to him, it was extra special because his selection came less than two years after he wondered if he’d ever throw a baseball again.
    Furtak is a middle school physical education teacher and a former pitcher at the University of Hawaii. He will enter his 23 rd season as Rancho Bernardo’s pitching coach in 2012.
    He easily recalls his most difficult day on the job.
    â€œI still remember hearing the pop,” he said.
    Hamels had just finished an impressive sophomore season and was pitching in a “coaches’ league” in the summer of 2000. The league is designed to give coaches a look at younger players who will be moving up in coming seasons. Furtak recalled being excited before one of Hamels’ starts that July. He always got a little rush when the lefty took the mound.
    â€œI remember it like it was yesterday,” he said in the fall of 2011. “It was at Grossmont High School. We were playing Poway.”
    Furtak paused.
    â€œIt was the worst thing I’ve ever gone through as a coach,” he said.
    Early in that game, Hamels threw a pitch and collapsed to the ground in pain. Furtak recalled seeing the ball hit halfway up the backstop as he sprinted the mound to tend to Hamels.

    The young pitcher’s face was white.
    â€œMy whole body hurts,” he told Furtak.
    Hamels clutched the upper part of his left arm. Furtak knew from the pop that something was dreadfully wrong. He had been in the stands on May 9, 1994, the night Cincinnati Reds pitcher Tom Browning suffered a broken left humerus while throwing a pitch in a game in San Diego. The injury effectively ended Browning’s career.
    â€œI was