It took 29 years, but Jason Hammel finally got the perfect birthday present.
Hammel’s son, Beckett William, was born Friday, which happened to be his dad’s 29th birthday.
“Supposedly, they never come on their due date, but he hit it,” Hammel said. “Best birthday present ever. You could never give me another present I would appreciate as much as him. Obviously it was a very, very special moment for me.”
Hammel’s wife, Elissa, and the baby are doing fine. Next up on his wild emotional ride: pitching tonight at Coors Field, where he will get another start after being dropped from the rotation in August.
“The anticipation of him coming, now that he’s here I can kind of let that go,” Hammel said. “We’ve still got a lot left in the season. I’ve been working on some things, and I can still put together something pretty respectable.”
Hammel came out of spring training thinking career year after back-to-back 10-win seasons. But after a 3-1 start with a 3.23 ERA in April, things have spiraled downward. He will go into today’s start 7-13, 5.15 with eight losses in nine decisions in his last 10 starts at Coors Field.
Said Hammel, when asked what he felt was at stake, “I wish I could answer that.”
His disappointing season has left him in a gray area, what with the Rockies’ front office expected to make several offseason moves to upgrade the roster. Hammel will earn $4.75 million in 2012, the second year of a two-year contract.
“I’m not going to really worry about what my role is here next year or for the next month,” he said. “This season as a whole for us has been pretty disappointing, so some things will change. But that’s nothing to talk about right now. That’s offseason talk.”
Footnotes.
Pitchers Greg Reynolds and J.C. Romero joined the major-league team from Triple-A, and a handful of other call-ups will arrive today, including pitchers Jim Miller and Drew Pomeranz, infielders Jordan Pacheco and Chris Nelson and catcher Wilin Rosario. . . . The left-handed Pomeranz, the centerpiece of the Ubaldo Jimenez trade, pitched three perfect innings at Double-A Tulsa on Monday in his first outing since an appendectomy two weeks earlier. . . . Todd Helton sat out Monday’s game after experiencing back stiffness the day before at San Diego. “We’re not going there,” Rockies manager Jim Tracy said. “When he’s stiff, you don’t mess with it.”
