Scott Radley: New Hamilton Cardinals owner will do anything to grow the franchise — even take out the garbage

Every few years a press release arrives announcing a new owner of the Hamilton Cardinals. Each bulletin offering a variation on the theme of the one before.

This person will finally be the one to turn around the fortunes of the Intercounty Baseball League franchise that has won a lone championship since 1958, more often than not sits near the bottom of the standings and always struggles to draw fans.

So why does new majority owner Eric Spearin think his hand on the rudder will produce different results than his predecessors?

Answer? Because it's been so tough.

What gets me up in the morning is the ultimate challenge," the Dundas native says.

He may have found it.

The 34-year-old is the president of a Los Angeles-based company called Transervice Integrated Solutions that's now expanded to six other countries. A couple years ago, the 10-year-old logistics and supply chain business was listed as one of the fastest growing private companies in America. So he's shown he can make things work.

Last year, he saw a story on TV about the Brantford Red Sox and that legendary franchise's struggles. Since he's a passionate sports fan and is now living back here, he thought maybe he could help. Then he had an epiphany of sorts.

What am I doing?" he asked himself. I'm from Hamilton."

So he reached out to Carmen's Group which owned the Cardinals. Not knowing it was interested in some help with the team.

We were happy to accept his offer of support," says P.J. Mercanti, president of Carmen's which is staying on as minority owner.

So far so good. But ...

This 65-year-old franchise - part of the IBL that's the oldest amateur men's baseball league in Canada - has been a conundrum for ages now. There have been a few years in which the team on the field has been decent, including the few seasons right before COVID when things were looking good. There have been some times when money was spent. There have been efforts to spread the word. Yet it's never all seemed to click. Not in any significant measure. Not in the past few decades, anyway.

That may sound like a deterrent to some. To Spearin it was a lure.

I'm more interested in the Cardinals than any other team in the IBL because of the failures," he says.

This is that challenge he's talking about. He believes making it work is entirely possible.

He explains that there wasn't much infrastructure in place before he took over. There wasn't even a phone number to reach the office. He's fixed that. There wasn't enough corporate support so he's gone out knocking on doors and landed some deals. The marketing wasn't sufficient so he's modernized it.

Social media will be increasing, there's been a rebranding, a new logo, Bernie Arbour Stadium is being repainted, and all home games (beginning with the May 19 home opener) will be on Cable 14. There's a ton of new merch for sale through the website, there's going to be stuff going on between each inning, tickets are now available through Ticketmaster and there's a third uniform with The Hammer" written across the front of the jersey.

There's even a new mascot cleverly named Bernie R. Bird - if you didn't catch it, say it again and then say the name of the team's home stadium - thanks to a name-the-mascot contest that drew hundreds of entries.

Whatever it takes.

If I have to take out the garbage, I will," Spearin says. There is nothing beneath me."

As for the on-field product, one of the first things he did was to look for someone who lives in the area and works in baseball full time. One name that came up was Grimsby's George Halim, a 31-year-old who is Canadian director for Prep Baseball Report, a scouting service for high school players.

He was hired as general manager and promptly changed a big chunk of the roster.

Even with all that, one of the biggest underlying issues remained. People just don't know about the Cardinals, Spearin believes. Even people who are sports fans who've lived in this city for years are unaware of the team and where it plays. If they do know, they often don't know when games are on.

That, he says, is about to change.

We're going to make enough noise that people can't ignore us anymore," he says.

Will all these efforts work? Will Spearin be the owner that finally unlocks the potential and makes this franchise a significant player on the local sports scene?

I wouldn't have taken the time or invested in it if I felt otherwise."

Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com