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GO Getter: Heidi Strobel Hamels

Photo by Jeremy Lawson

Heidi and Cole at their 2006 wedding, featured in 417 Bride magazine.

You might not remember Heidi Strobel Hamels from Survivor: Amazon in 2003, but she’s still one of the most famous of Springfield’s disproportionate number of reality TV stars. Heidi was in Clearwater, Florida for spring training (her husband is Cole Hamels, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher and MVP of the 2008 World Series) when she spoke with us by phone.

Her story in a nutshell: After graduating from Buffalo High School and Drury (2002), while teaching at Eldon, she applied for CBS’s The Amazing Race because it relies “more on athletic ability”. She invited her 70-year old grandfather to join her. Producer Mark Burnett instead asked Heidi to sign on as a Survivor. It took a month of persuading, but she finally agreed. She finished a strong fifth that season, and gained notoriety—along with eventual winner Jenna Morasca—for doffing her clothes for peanut butter and Oreos.

Heidi said that her only regret in participating in Survivor were the health problems that resulted from living in the Amazon. She was bitten by a spider and was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down; she had worms hatching out of her feet; she had severe hair loss and her weight got down to 87 pounds. The poison administered to kill the parasites in her body hurt her kidneys. It took four-and-a-half months to recover. However, she doesn’t regret how the show changed her personal life. Heidi made a new friend in that season’s Survivor winner, Jenna Morasca. And, while recovering in the hospital, she became aware of children and families suffering from AIDS in the ward above hers. It touched her.

Heidi doesn’t watch reality TV anymore. She says that the physical demands of the shows are very real, but she doesn’t trust the rest. Just search for her name on the Internet and you will find sites devoted to loving her and to laughing at her. “They were comments (from Survivor) and situations that were taken out of context,” Heidi says in her own defense. The one clarification that she would like to make is that before posing for Playboy in 2003, she had already resigned her position as a teacher and had taken a job in Los Angeles. The rumor that she had been fired because of the way starvation drove her and Jenna to strip was not the reality, according to Heidi.

A personal bonus from being on Survivor was that Heidi met her husband, Cole Hamels, while throwing out the first pitch at a minor league game in Florida in 2004. He was there with the Florida Threshers on the disabled list due to elbow tendonitis, so Heidi didn’t even know that he was a baseball player. Two security guards told Cole that he should meet her. He listened and they were married on New Year’s Eve of 2006 in Missouri. Sports Illustrated interviewed Cole and put him on the cover of the February 23, 2009, issue. This is when one of Heidi’s dreams was revealed to a larger audience.

They were married on New Year’s Eve 2006 in Missouri (the photo, at left, is from her 2007 417 Bride photo spread). The pair have undertaken significant charitable efforts since, a dream that began during Heidi’s four-week stay in the hospital (for spider-bites, temporary paralysis and malnutrition) after she was in the Amazon. Heidi and Cole are founders of the Hamels Foundation to help stop the spread of AIDS in Africa and the U.S. They are partnering with the people of Malawi to build a school and provide books, supplies, etc. Heidi would also like to adopt AIDS orphans from the African countries most affected by the disease. The Hamels host charity events to raise awareness and funds by auctioning off Cole’s baseball memorabilia.

While interviewing Heidi, Heidi asked her mother to pick up Cole. Mrs. Strobel was visiting them for a while to help with the foundation. When I heard Heidi’s Maltese dog, Royce, bark, I knew that her family was home. It made me wonder if baseball players’ wives and girlfriends form a family of sorts. Heidi said that they are “close, but if you are a newcomer you have to be patient. They want to know everything about you before a close friendship can begin. It is self-preserving.” Teammates and their families get uprooted a lot in baseball.

Heidi’s family still lives in the Springfield area so Heidi and Cole come to visit about five times a year. Heidi and Cole also recently purchased 100 acres in Branson and they would like to build a home there.

I told her about Southwest Baptist Coach Ben Wade losing his job after he was on this season’s Survivor and I asked if she had any advice for him. She said, “You would be surprised how far that God and family can get you. People who value money over everything are the people who have trouble. I’m sure he will be fine.”