CDN Hall-of-Famer Greg Hamilton talks past, present and the Futures

Baseball Canada chief discusses passion for his country and the game

The 11^th annual Canadian Futures Showcase was staged at the Rogers Centre, last week, Monday to Friday, as the Blue Jays played 7-games in the U.S.A. on their final road trip to Tampa and Kansas City, concluding the team’s 2025 away schedule.

The Canadian Futures Showcase concept of a national, six-team, round robin tournament begins with scouring the country for the best teen prospects, chosen from summer camps, coast-to-coast, inviting them for five days to play in a major-league facility in front of college and pro scouts, as well as making sure they are seen by Baseball Canada, to be considered for this nation’s Junior Program. Pared down to 150 players, these talented youngsters are carefully distributed for the week to six separate squads, playing for coaches that have mostly played, coached or otherwise taken advantage of their own NCAA and pro ball opportunities.

Since the tournament debuted, as the T12 in 2015, there have been 161 alumni drafted into pro baseball, with 13 going on to play in MLB. The full week of games finishes with a Friday home run derby. In fact, last year’s derby winner, infielder Tim Piasentin, from British Columbia went on to be chosen by the Blue Jays in the fifth round of the 2025 draft. This year’s derby winner was 17-year-old outfielder Daril Rodriguez from Red Deer, Alberta, eligible for the 2026 draft. The highlight blast was a composite-bat homer off the top of the right field foul pole…at 17.

On a personal level, I try and attend the Futures Tournament at least one day, every year, and this time it was Wednesday, because, as it happened, my grandsons, Chase, 11, and Brett, 9, were acting as bat boys in that day’s early contests. It was the second year they had volunteered. Exit advice, I told each of them I fully expect they will be playing on one of these teams in six or seven years. Hopefully they have become inspired by the atmosphere and promise of the event. They love the game.

Walking down the aisles from the main concourse to the field level seats, upon entering, I made my way past Baseball Canada Executive Director, Greg Hamilton, a constant at this annual tournament. In addition to being head coach of the Junior National Team, he is Team Canada’s manager Ernie Whitt’s boss with the Senior program, organizes the annual Baseball Canada Banquet every January, and is, in reality, the face of baseball, both in Canada and internationally.

The importance of his presence at Futures is not to recruit players for the Junior program, but more-so to be present for elite program representatives there to see their boys and for the players’ families, to know that they have been considered and appreciated. There were three topics I looked to discuss with Hamilton.

1-Jim Baba RIP: The longtime chief executive of Baseball Canada passed away at the age of 69, earlier in September. The native of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan was a constant at every international tournament and the winter tours of Florida, Arizona and the Caribbean. He presided over two senior Olympic teams, four WBCs and numerous Pan-Am Games and other international competitions. His passing was devastating to his friend, Greg Hamilton, who saw him as a mentor in his own personal development and in running the national program.

“To me, personally, Jim and I go back to 1992, when we first started coaching in the National Team program and worked together from 1998 until his passing,” Hamilton said. “He’s had immense impact on the game in the country. He was a great boss to work for. He was as terrific guy to … I say work for, but I worked with him. Jim was just a great human being that didn’t have any agenda. He just loved the game.”

What is undervalued with regard to Baba is that, being from the middle of the country, in Saskatchewan, it blunted the occasional accusation that Baseball Canada and its many programs were east and west coast centric, focused on Ontario, B.C. and Quebec to the detriment of anyone else. This is a national sport. The Blue Jays have taken great pains to hold their Futures tryout in every province and most Territories. But Baba very subtly was a key part of the coast-to-coast perception.

“That was tremendously important,” Hamilton agreed. “He connected with everybody from coast-to-coast in the communities and parks. That was where his heart was, where his passion was and that’s where he just had an ease. Obviously, he excelled at the high end of the game, at the elite level internationally, but, to me, it was his roots in Saskatchewan that I circle back to and that he really had an affinity for.”

2-World Baseball Classic 2026: This will be the first W.B.C. at which Baba will not be in attendance as Canada’s chief, or as chief advisor. The first round will be March 6-11, with Canada in a group that includes Cuba, Panama, Puerto Rico and Colombia. The first round of games will be played at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in Puerto Rico.

“I think our pool is fair,” Hamilton assessed. “It gives us a pretty good fighting chance. It’s exciting. A lot of (Canadian player) careers are at points where they’re peaking, as opposed to maybe on the backside and still hanging on a little bit. We’ve always suffered from depth. That’s always been a challenge. There’s enough, if we can get it all, this time.

“It’s a little bit early to get overly excited. It always kind of plays itself out, but I think, realistically, we have a chance to put together a starting rotation that would have big league experience which would have some depth. We’ll have a bullpen that should be able to get us from the seventh to the ninth, with big-league experience and big-league impact. And we should be able to roll out a major-league lineup, if everybody stays healthy.”

Consider Canada’s national team possibilities for ‘26. Catcher: Liam Hicks, Bo Naylor … 1B: Josh Naylor, Freddy Freeman, Jared Young … 2B: Edouard Julien, Tyler Black … 3B: Abraham Toro … SS: Otto Lopez …Outfield: Tyler O’Neill, Owen Caissie, Denzel Clarke, Tristan Peters, Dasan Brown … Starters: Nick Pivetta, Jonah Tong, Adam Macko, Cal Quantrill, Mike Soroka, Jameson Taillon … Bullpen: Cade Smith, Matt Brash, Jordan Romano, Rob Zastryzny, Calvin Ziegler.

“We’ve never really had a circumstance where players have been indifferent to (the WBC),” Hamilton said. “They’ve always wanted to come back and play. A lot of that is the family feel. They grew up around it and it’s coming back to, kind of, represent the country again. It’s something that they’re familiar with and they care deeply about and are passionate about. It plays a significant role.”

It's easy to observe that family feel every January at Baseball Canada’s annual awards banquet. But, in fact, it is Hamilton’s presence at the Futures tournament that is the beginning of instilling that family feel into young players on their way up?

“It’s tremendously important,” Hamilton said. “It’s not just about playing for Team Canada or playing professional baseball. So many of these kids are going to go on and play baseball after high school. They’re going to play collegiate baseball. They’re going to continue to play. They’re going to come back. They’re going to get involved in the game. They’re going to coach. That’s what kind of pushes the needle and moves the game forward.

It's clear through all of this carefully optimistic talk that if Canada is, indeed, fortunate enough to advance to the second round for the first time in WBC history, that the man for whom Hamilton will be happiest is field manager, Ernie Whitt.

“Absolutely for Ernie, because Ernie is us,” Hamilton said of Whitt, a Michigan native. “He’s led this team for so long and done such a great job and is so selfless. I would shed a tear for Ernie, for sure. He’s been with us through thick and thin, a lot more ups than downs, thankfully. Not just in the limelight, but he’s been there for all the tournaments and cares so deeply. I would be very, very happy for him.”

Canadian Baseball Hall-of-Fame: The third topic of conversation that was important to Hamilton last Wednesday, rounding out an emotional last six months, was his own, well-deserved induction into the Canadian Hall in St. Marys, Ontario, about an hour outside of London. He easily admits how surprised and honoured he was.

“It was an incredible honour and it just brings you to think about all the people that you’ve done it with,” Hamilton said. “To have an honour like that is the utmost respect, and to me, I just reflect so much on the people I had an opportunity to do it with. So many great people in the country. When you have an honour like that, that’s where it takes you. To the experiences, to the people that you’ve had success with. The people that have contributed so much. It was a tremendous honour.”

Greg is used to giving speeches, but always about others, about fund raising from sponsors and politicians, about any upcoming national issues. He is uncomfortable speaking about himself. Therefore, it hit him hard at the induction ceremony, looking out into a sea of faces that meant something special to him.

“I’m not a public speaker by nature, so I was surprised (that the moment of my speech) it kind of slowed down instead of speeding up,” Hamilton said. “It was just so comfortable seeing so many people that were just peers and people that you have run the journey with and gone through the journey with and have contributed so much. I feel so fortunate. We have a (baseball) family in the country. It’s an extended one and everybody has a part in it. It’s been an honour to serve and have been a part of it.”

Then, as we finished up the Rogers Centre interview, for this Canadian baseball lifer, it was turning attention back to the field to watch two more Futures games.