Fernando Rodney can't quit pitching. So he went to Canada's backfields

HAMILTON, Ontario - Just over an hour before first pitch at Bernie Arbour Memorial Stadium, the line to greet Fernando Rodney in the outfield is long. Kids who just finished shagging flies during batting practice are now swarming the former three-time All-Star for autographs as he warms up.

Everyone's in luck. Rodney - easily the most famous baseball player to ever call Hamilton home - is patient and gracious in interacting with each of his admirers.

A few hours later, Rodney makes the long trek to the makeshift left-field bullpen during the fifth inning. There's still a game going on, but no matter - Rodney's signing anything coming his way, posing for photos, and conversing with all ages in both English and Spanish. Some kids are wearing their caps crooked in honor of their unlikely hometown hero. Many around the ballpark mimic his famous celebration.

"A lot of kids ask me, 'How do you do the arrow?' Every time they ask me for a picture, they say, 'Can we do the arrow?'" Rodney told theScore earlier this month. "(I say) 'Yes, let's do it.'"

Nearly six years after throwing his last MLB pitch, Rodney, now 48, is still firing his bow and arrow after saves. Except he's now doing it for the Hamilton Cardinals of the Intercounty Baseball League, a Southern Ontario semi-pro circuit where salary is essentially free housing and a meal allowance - and that's just the way he likes it. Rodney has found the soul of his sport at a rickety old stadium within a blue-collar Canadian steel town.

"We had the school day here, it was all the local school kids," Cardinals owner Eric Spearin told theScore. "We were sold out, and he said to me, he's like, 'Eric, this is baseball.' Like, the kids being excited. He just loves the game so much and likes seeing others excited about it too."

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The IBL has a long and storied history in Canadian baseball circles. Established in 1919, its teams are scattered throughout the Greater Toronto Area and Southwestern Ontario. Most players are Canadian, although teams are allowed up to five "imports." Games are only on weekends from mid-May through to the championship in early September.

There's a surprisingly long list of IBL alumni who have played in "The Show." Sometimes, a player passes through en route to fame: Jesse Orosco, MLB's all-time leader in appearances, threw a no-hitter for Cambridge in 1977, two years before he debuted with the Mets. Mostly, though, the most famous names are recognizable only to hardcore Canadian baseball fans.

This all makes Rodney and his 327 big-league saves quite the anomaly in the IBL. It also begs an important question: How the heck do you even convince a Dominican baseball icon to spend a summer in Hamilton, of all places?

"I just told him, we pay for the food and the housing, ... (and he said) 'Sure, I'll come,'" Spearin said with an almost disbelieving chuckle. "He's like, 'Let's do the paperwork right now.' We just did it on the spot in the D.R."

Spearin, 37, bought his hometown baseball team in 2022 and quickly upgraded all aspects of the Cardinals' operations, although he wasn't initially searching for a star name to sell tickets. Signing Rodney fell into his lap thanks in large part to the pitcher's good friendship with Hamilton's manager, Luis Bernardo.

"Eric came to the Dominican, knocked (on) my door a couple times, and he asked me if I want to keep playing. The door is open here," Rodney told theScore. "So I sit and think about it first and say, 'OK, I like it, to go see how the league is, and I think it's proper.' And when players like me come here, I think it opens the door for the next generation if you'd like to come to play baseball."

Pitching in Hamilton means Rodney's spending his summer rooming with his fellow Latin American teammates in a house owned by the Cardinals. "We have fun over there," he said with a smile. Road trips are hardly first class; bus rides can range from 40 minutes to 2 1/2 hours, depending on traffic and destination. Not that he cares.

"There's a vibe (like) I'm younger. I'm traveling, (like) playing in West Michigan, road trip on the bus, in Lakeland, in Erie, Toledo," Rodney said, fondly recalling his days as a Detroit Tigers prospect. "And (I) remember when I took the bus. What kind of conversations we had in (the) back - veterans in the back, the younger guys in the front.

"So this reminded me, like, (of) beautiful moments (in the minors). So now I can share it with these guys, and they're good, they feel good."

Everybody around the Cardinals seems to have a Rodney story, from his organizing a pitcher's Home Run Derby - Rodney calls himself a "power hitter" and proudly points out where he homered in right field - to seeing him serve as bat boy for the Cardinals' under-22 team on a random afternoon.

"We've met guys before that have had a cup of coffee in the majors or whatever, and sometimes they come in with demands that this league can't meet," Spearin said. "But when I met Rodney, I was like, 'Oh, this is gonna work.' Because he's just so chill. He was so laid back.

"He says it best himself. This is like a hobby for him, like fishing or dominos. He just still likes to play baseball."

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Of course, the main reason Rodney's in Hamilton is to pitch, and he's been pretty effective for a 48-year-old.

Despite a 4.02 ERA that Spearin chalked up to the IBL's smaller ballparks, Rodney's six saves are tied for third in the league, while his 14.3 K/9 rate ranks near the top among IBL relievers. And he continues to rely on his famous changeup, which he says is "still moving." Bernardo told theScore that Rodney's been hitting around 92-93 mph with his fastball.

This is no small feat, given the mileage on Rodney's right arm over 25 seasons: He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2004, but hasn't had a major arm injury since then. Rodney keeps his arm in shape with the same unique program he's used for most of his career.

"I'm playing long toss with that ball," he said, pulling out an extra-large and very worn baseball with needles stuck in between the seams. "Just keep(s) my arm strong and fast."

"I've been using that (since) I signed (with the Tigers in) 1998," Rodney continued. "Every time that it's broken, I switch and change and make the other one, and that's what I've been using. It saved my arm. So I play long toss with that, like three or four times a week, and I go 120, 130 (throws) with that. Just make sure my arm's okay."

Rodney credited his longevity to his unique slide-step delivery. He abandoned the traditional leg kick in favor of the slide-step after joining the Tampa Bay Rays in 2012, when he produced a career-best 0.60 ERA and finished fifth in AL Cy Young voting.

"I only use my low hip. And my arm comes loose," he explained. "And you do that, you control more of the game and the runner at first."

In Hamilton, Rodney's also fully embraced the role of mentor, serving as the Cardinals' de facto second pitching coach.

"He's been helping me try to get more depth on my changeup," Cardinals pitcher Chris Boatto, a nine-year IBL veteran, told theScore. "So he's been trying to show me different pitch grips and how he throws it. ... Basically saying, like, 'Hey, because I'm not a guy who throws hard, I have to not only hit my spots, but to make sure I get ahead of guys early.'"

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If Rodney's big-league career is indeed over, he went out on top with the 2019 World Series champion Washington Nationals. But it certainly wasn't by choice.

Rodney signed a minor-league deal with Houston during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign but was released after a few weeks on the taxi squad. He then moved south of the border, winning Mexican League Reliever of the Year honors in 2021 for league champions Tijuana and then authoring another strong campaign in '22. But those feats still weren't enough to get him a minor-league deal in the U.S.

A stint with Gigantes of the Dominican winter league seemed like it might finally be the end. Then last November, the same month he debuted on the Hall of Fame ballot (Rodney didn't receive a vote, but said he was "surprised" and "proud" to have made it), Hamilton gave him the chance to keep pitching.

Rodney says he's already received coaching offers from multiple big-league teams, and he wants to take that path back to the majors at some point. He's just not quite ready yet. His stated goal is to keep pitching - whether in Hamilton or elsewhere - until his age-50 season in 2027.

So, for at least the next two years, you might catch Rodney firing his bow and arrow on a backfield mound in a small town. And he'll do it while preaching his key gospel: Baseball is just a game. Baseball is fun. Enjoy yourself.

"(It's) just about more," Rodney said. "Have fun and love this game for (as) long as I can be in the field."