Hamels' 'bad boy' image forever tainted by minivan joyride; Phils weigh options

Cole Hamels has landed in hot water after being seen driving what is alleged to be his wife’s  minivan on CSN SportsRise this past Tuesday. The staff ace  was en route to an MRI appointment to check on his pitching elbow when cameras caught the Sports Illustrated cover boy with his pants down, looking like a manscaped Screech.

“I’m thoroughly embarassed by this entire ordeal,” Hamels said in a phone interview. “I’ve spent my entire life building up this rough and tough exterior, then I go and ruin it by looking like a dag gum soccer mom in front of the whole city. My original plan was to just take the Bug like I normally do, but my gosh darned wife made me take the van, which is how all this happened.”

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel told PhillyGameday.com that he is still weighing his options of how to handle the situation, though he didn’t rule out a demotion to Triple-A Lehigh Valley to allow Hamels to regain his “bad boy edge.”

“It goes without saying that I’m disappointed with the decision he made to run off in that van like he did,” Manuel said. “We’re trying to figure out the best way to handle this right now, but we may send him down to Lehigh for a few weeks. There’s a good chance we’ll just send him to work with Nails [Lenny Dykstra] and hope he picks up on some of his s****y behavior.”

Zaki is the Chief Rocka and senior writer for PhillyGameday.com.