Glew: Modest, much-respected Hamilton elected to Canadian ball hall
Longtime Junior National Team head coach Greg Hamilton has been elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. Photo: Baseball Canada
February 12, 2025
By Kevin Glew
Canadian Baseball Network
It was the Greg Hamilton those of us in the Canadian baseball community have come to know and respect so deeply.
Fresh off being named a 2025 Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, Hamilton, who in his leadership role with Baseball Canada has overseen the most successful era in national teams history, participated in the Hall’s media call on Wednesday afternoon.
Hamilton prefers to remain out of the spotlight, but he handled the questions thrown at him with grace. And in typical Greg Hamilton fashion, he redirected much of the talk towards his players.
“As a coach, for me I think about the players, I mean that’s why you coach,” said Hamilton when reflecting on his Canadian ball hall honour. “You kind of hope you had a little bit of an impact on the players.”
To be clear, Hamilton has had a huge impact on his players.
Some of them have gone on to play in the big leagues, but he’s equally proud of those that have used some of the lessons they were taught on the diamond to succeed away the field, in their professional and personal lives.
“That’s why you coach, you just want to see people realize their potential and succeed,” said Hamilton. “Personally for me, it's the only time where you feel a little bit of gratitude and a great sense of accomplishment and happiness when you see people kind of figure it out, as we would say on the coaching side of things. And to see them mature and grow and see wherever their potential is made to take them, that’s a great feeling and it’s tremendously rewarding to spend a lifetime doing it.”
Hamilton is part of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s new class that also includes ex-Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista, former big league left-hander Érik Bédard (Navan, Ont.) and longtime Women’s National Team star Amanda Asay (Prince George, B.C.) who will be inducted posthumously.
The Canadian ball hall’s Veterans Committee also elected former All-American Girls Professional Baseball League legend Arleene Noga (Ogema, Sask.) and Gerry Snyder, the Montreal city councillor who played a crucial role in bringing Major League Baseball to Canada. Noga and Snyder will be inducted posthumously.
The 2025 class will be honoured in a ceremony on the Hall of Fame grounds in St. Marys, Ont., on June 7.
Born in 1965 in Toronto but raised in Peterborough, Ont., Hamilton has served in prominent leadership roles with Baseball Canada for more than three decades.
A Princeton University graduate, Hamilton was named the pitching coach of Canada’s Senior National Team in 1992. He held that post through 1995 until he became the head coach of the Junior National Team the following year.
Hamilton continues to head the junior team today, while doubling as director of men’s national teams. Under his guidance, the Junior National Team has developed into a globally recognized program that has graduated hundreds of players into collegiate and professional baseball. And those numbers have grown significantly in recent years.
Hamilton deflects much of the credit for this to the high level of coaching players are receiving from Canadians who have played in U.S. colleges and returned home to coach.
Under Hamilton’s leadership, 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.
Playing for the national team has become like joining family under Hamilton and that’s the reason so many Baseball Canada grads return to the National Teams Awards banquet each January.
“We have a group of alumni that care enough about the next generation to come back in January when it’s minus-40 in Canada,” said Hamilton. “And to come back with the sole purpose of supporting the dreams and aspirations of those that are young and coming after them. We’re really fortunate. It’s a community and it’s something that I believe has had a huge impact on player development for the next generation.
“It just makes you feel great and feel good to see a major league player like Russell Martin, who came from Quebec, talking to a younger player from Quebec in Canada in January about their dreams. And Justin Morneau doing the same thing with a young player from Vancouver . . . To me, that’s really what it’s all about at a personal level.”
As 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.
“Baseball Canada would like to congratulate the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame's Class of 2025 including our own Greg Hamilton who has had an immeasurable impact on Canadian baseball for over three decades,” said Baseball Canada CEO Jason Dickson in a statement. “Greg’s passion and commitment to Baseball Canada and the National Teams program has had a profound impact on our organization that will be felt for generations to come. He is a true Canadian baseball legend.”