Cole Hamels, wife donate $9.4M Missouri mansion to charity

ByABC News
December 18, 2017, 5:49 PM

— -- Texas Rangers pitcher Cole Hamels and his wife, Heidi, donated a mansion and 100 acres of land in southwest Missouri to a charity that provides camps for children with special needs and chronic illnesses.

The donation of the 32,000-square-foot home to Camp Barnabas was made Friday. It was listed for?$9,418,400, according to Realtor.com, at the time of the donation.

Cole Hamels said in a news release that he and his wife wanted to help the charity make children's dreams come true.

"Seeing the faces, hearing the laughter, reading the stories of the kids they serve; there is truly nothing like it," he said in the statement. "Barnabas makes dreams come true, and we felt called to help them in a big way."

The mansion and land are near Table Rock Lake near Reeds Springs. Heidi Hamels grew up in Buffalo, Missouri, about 85 miles away.

An attorney for the couple told the Springfield News-Leader that they thought the mansion would be their dream home. However, when Hamels was traded from the Philadelphia Phillies to the Rangers, they moved to Texas and never moved into the Missouri house.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.