Glew: Hamilton’s thoughts with Baba, Carter on his Canadian ball hall induction day
Larry Walker helps Greg Hamilton put on his Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame blazer at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies on Saturday. Photo: Callum Hughson, Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
June 7, 2025
By Kevin Glew
Canadian Baseball Network
It’s a big reason why Greg Hamilton is so beloved in the Canadian baseball community.
He always thinks of others first.
On Saturday, the day he was being inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ont., the longtime Junior National Team head coach and director of men’s national teams was thinking of two of his ex-bosses and closest friends, Jim Baba and Ray Carter. Both couldn’t attend Saturday’s ceremony because they are battling cancer.
Baba, Baseball Canada’s executive director from 2000 to 2021, has been fighting blood cancer while Carter, Baseball Canada’s president from 2000 to 2016, underwent surgery for jaw and cheek cancer on Wednesday.
“Everybody knows Babs and Ray . . . both are in the fight of their lives right now . . . My heart is with them. They are here with me today and are going to go into the Hall of Fame with me. Ray is already in and Babs is going to join me today,” said Hamilton during his induction speech on Saturday afternoon.
At the press conference earlier in the day, Hamilton spoke more about how much Baba and Carter have meant to him.
“Jim and I are really close. He means the world to me,” said Hamilton. “He’s in a pretty tough fight right now. I’ve been thinking about him almost every moment that I’ve been here this weekend. I spoke to him on the phone on the way down.”
Hamilton says he first met Baba when they were two young coaches on the Senior National Team in 1992. Later, he would work under Baba at Baseball Canada for more than two decades.
“It was 20 plus years of working with a friend that I respect immensely,” said Hamilton. “He’s incredibly selfless and he’s just a regular Saskatchewan guy that never changed and made it fun to work with him . . . I take him into the Hall with me today. He might not be here, but I want to give him a front row seat.”
And it was Carter, in his role as Baseball Canada vice-president, who hired Hamilton to be a full-time national team coach in 1998.
“Ray was the president the vast majority of my time with Baseball Canada. He was incredibly selfless and he was always there when we needed him. He supported us. He believed in us. He let us go and do our jobs,” said Hamilton.
“He was a president that would put a suit and tie on to do the presidential things, but he loved being at the field . . . We were really, really fortunate to have him for a long time. I’ve always told Ray that I don’t think I would’ve had the time and tenure I’ve had here without his leadership. He’s just an awesome guy.”
Baba and Carter would be touched that Hamilton was thinking of them, but they would not be surprised.
“I honestly don’t know anyone who dislikes Greg Hamilton,” said Carter on Friday in a phone interview. “He’s a true gentleman in all aspects of the game and in life in general. I know he’d do anything for me and likewise. I haven’t been the president of Baseball Canada since 2017, but he contacts me on a regular basis just to see how I’m doing. We have a really strong friendship.”
Baba has a similar bond with Hamilton.
“We have had a great relationship,” said Baba. “Yes, we have coached together and we have worked together at Baseball Canada, but we are friends first.”
Friends who helped elevate “a failed player” (using Hamilton’s words) into a Hall of Fame coach.
Born in Toronto in 1965, Hamilton grew up and played his minor ball in Peterborough, Ont.
It was his father, Hewitt, who introduced him to baseball, but his mother, Gayle, was also very supportive. Locally, Hamilton was a standout right-handed pitcher, but also an excellent hockey forward.
How good?
Good enough for the Peterborough Petes to select him in the ninth round of the Ontario Hockey League draft in 1982. But from a young age, Hamilton knew he preferred baseball.
“I just wanted to go to the states to play baseball,” said Hamilton.
And he accomplished that mission when he secured an athletic scholarship to Princeton University where he pitched for four years and played one season for their hockey team.
From the stage on Saturday, Hamilton described himself as an average 5-foot-11 college pitcher. He knew he didn’t have much of a shot at a pro career but a conversation with his gruff, old school Princeton coach, Tom O’Connell, confirmed that.
“In my senior spring at Princeton, I was walking off the field – and I had been battling shoulder issues all year long and some elbow issues . . . and my coach tapped me on the shoulder and he said, ‘Have you ever thought about coaching?’”
The next year, Hamilton began his coaching career as O’Connell’s assistant.
As noted earlier, Hamilton became the pitching coach for Canada’s Senior National Team in 1992, joining Baba, who was the club’s third base coach.
“When he first got there, right away, I could see his intelligence for the game,” said Baba. “He just absorbed everything. He really knew his stuff and he knew what he wanted to do as a coach. And he knew he could help people because he had that right mentality. I could really see all of that from almost the first time I met him.”
Not long after that, Baba was promoted to manage the Senior National Team and he kept Hamilton as his pitching coach.
In 1996, Hamilton became the head coach of the Junior National Team and two years later, Carter hired Hamilton full-time.
“Bob Elliott said hiring Greg was the best thing I ever did for baseball in this country and I agree with him,” said Carter.
Carter then hired Baba to be the executive director of Baseball Canada in 2000. So, for most of the next two decades, Carter, Baba and Hamilton worked closely to oversee the most successful era in the history of the national teams.
Under Hamilton’s guidance, the Junior National Team has won three medals: a silver at the U-18 Baseball World Cup in 2012 and bronze medals at the same event in 1997 and 2006. Among the players Hamilton has coached on the junior squad are major league all-stars Jason Bay, Justin Morneau, Michael Soroka, Josh Naylor, Russell Martin and Michael Saunders.
“Greg has the right mannerisms and attitude to handle almost all situations, especially the junior national team players,” said Baba. “They ask him a lot of questions. They listen to him a lot and they trust his advice. He has developed a junior national team program that has turned out to be tremendous and has made many other countries envious.”
Carter offers similar praise.
“It’s never just been about baseball with Greg,” said Carter. “He really works on the character of the athlete. He works on all aspects of the athlete’s life. He’s really good at developing not only their baseball skills, but their life skills as well.”
Greg Hamilton was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame on Saturday. In his induction speech, he looked out in the audience to thank his mother, Gayle, his wife, Sonia, daughter Talia and son, Ty. He also thanked his late father, Hewitt. Photo: Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame
As the Senior National Team GM, Hamilton assembled the Canadian squads that captured gold at the 2011 and 2015 Pan Am Games – the first two golds ever won by the Canadian senior team. Hamilton also put together the rosters for the Canadian teams that competed in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics and in all five World Baseball Classics.
He counts the Pan Am Games gold medals as two of his biggest career highlights.
“I will never forget standing with our guys at both of those gold medal ceremonies, particularly the one in Toronto,” said Hamilton during his induction speech. “And watching as the anthem is being played . . . watching the flags go up and there are three of them. That’s never left me. It motivates me every day . . . And when the flags stopped, the highest one was Canada, the second highest was the United States and the third one was Cuba . . . That will forever be etched in my heart.”
Patriotic, dedicated, loyal, selfless. These are traits that Hamilton possesses and help explain why he has stayed with Baseball Canada for more than three decades and is so beloved by his players and coaches. Many of them were there on Saturday for his induction, including Larry Walker, who was back in St. Marys for the first time since 2009. Dustin Molleken travelled from Saskatchewan. Mike Johnson came from Sherwood Park, Alta. Ernie Whitt, Paul Quantrill, Pete Orr and Phillippe Aumont also trekked to Southwestern Ontario to support Hamilton.
“His former players love him,” said Carter. “They will run through a wall for Greg. They absolutely love him.”
The same could be said for Baba and Carter, his close friends and former bosses, who are both fighting cancer but still wished they could be there on Saturday.
“I’m super proud of him,” said Baba. “He has been a dedicated coach to Canada with over 30 years service to Baseball Canada and his induction into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame is well-deserved.”
Carter echoes Baba’s sentiments.
“I was ecstatic when I heard Greg was being inducted,” said Carter. “I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more than him.”
*Featured image provided by Callum Hughson.