T-Birds opt to return to historic city baseball name and colours
The Hamilton Thunderbirds will have a new look and new name when the senior Intercounty Baseball League team hits the field at Bernie Arbour Stadium this spring.
Thunderbirds officials announced late last week the team is changing its name back to the Hamilton Cardinals, the name the franchise carried prior to the team’s purchase by some local business people in 2005.
“You think baseball in Hamilton and everyone thinks Cardinals,” said team field manager Matt Fortuna, who played five seasons for the Cards, mostly in the mid to late ‘90s.
Fortuna is also excited about the affiliation deal the senior Cardinals have with the Hamilton Cardinals AAA minor baseball group.
He said that should guarantee a strong pool of local talent for years to come.
“In order to build a good team, you have to have a good base in your own city to pull from,” Fortuna said.
When Dean Dicenzo and some like-minded Hamilton baseball people brought a group of elite organizations together in November 2007 to form the Hamilton Cardinals Rep Baseball Association their work was still not complete.
The new association, featuring AAA players from 8 to 18, did not have a junior or senior team for their players to move up to.
At the end of last season the Hamilton Thunderbirds junior baseball team came under the Cardinals’ umbrella and the last piece of the puzzle fell into place after the Thunderbirds’ senior Intercounty baseball squad agreed to return to the Cardinals name and to affiliate with the Cards’ organization.
“You should probably see anywhere from 12 to 14 kids locally on that team every year that come up through our organization,” said Dicenzo, who is also president of the Cards association.
Dicenzo said he has been actively pushing for an affiliation with the senior team for the past three years and Fortuna has helped move the plan forward.
When Fortuna broke into the IBL as a 17-year-old with the Cardinals nearly two decades ago Dicenzo was the team’s skipper.
Dicenzo said the affiliation should result in more young Cardinals players and their families coming to Bernie Arbour Stadium to watch the senior team.
“I think it gives them a shot in the arm,” said Dicenzo, who spent 20 years in the IBL, including 18 in Hamilton as a player and manager.
Both Dicenzo and Fortuna said baseball remains a popular sport in Hamilton, particularly at the AAA level.
They estimate more than 500 children and teens are playing the game at the house league and elite levels.
Plans are in the works to add a coat of Cardinal red paint to Bernie Arbour Stadium in place of the T-Bird blue.
The Cardinals name has a long history in Hamilton.
At the minor pro level it can be traced back to 1946 when the Hamilton Cardinals (farm club of the St. Louis Cardinals) played in the old Class D Pennsylvania, Ontario, New York League.
The PONY League Cards won a championship in 1955.
The senior IBL Cardinals date back to1960 making them the second oldest sports franchise in the city after the Tiger-Cats.
After a name change or two the Cardinals name returned in 1975 where it remained until 2005.
They won their first and only IBL championship in 1978.
