Playing for the Sioux Falls Canaries has earned Lowell native Mike Hart many fans, but none bigger than his grandmother, Joan Hart, a lifelong resident of Lowell. Mike Hart is in the midst of a great season in South Dakota. (Photo courtesy of Mike Hart)

Mike Hart was just a freshman who hung up his football boots after high school.

When Hart stepped onto the campus of Division 1 UMass to study economics, he had just one season of varsity baseball under his belt at Lowell High. Though that one campaign was one for the ages, as he earned all-conference honors while leading the Red Raiders to a 21-5 record and a state semifinal appearance, the 18-year-old thought his playing career was over.

He was at peace with it.

“I’m retired,” Hart said. “I played intramural softball at UMass, and I was just messing around with that.”

Twelve years later, Hart is in his seventh season of professional baseball in the American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB). The three-time All-Star will represent the Sioux Falls Canaries at Tuesday’s festivities in Kansas City, as he is hitting .318 on the field with four home runs and 30 RBI for the South Dakota team this summer.

He’s played professionally all over the world, from Canada to Australia to Mexico. The dream never died for Hart, and it all started after his freshman year at UMass.

Hart was technically retired, but that didn’t stop him from playing for the Lowell Post 87 American Legion team that summer. He missed baseball, and a successful summer with the club got him thinking.

Hart took his newfound dream and ran with it, beginning to train and prepare for a tryout with the Minutemen as a redshirt sophomore in 2014. The walk-on earned a scholarship before becoming the team’s co-captain in 2017. As a junior, his .313 average led the team with seven doubles and three home runs.

“It was absolutely shocking,” Hart, 30, said of his turnaround. “I didn’t think I’d be playing Division 1, let alone being captain. I just never stopped working.”

Still, Hart wasn’t satisfied. He played just two games with UMass that season, breaking into the lineup of the Lexington Blue Sox of the competitive Intercity Baseball League in 2015 to hone his craft. Hart dominated, winning MVP honors and a batting title.

After graduating in 2017, Hart found himself at another crossroads in his playing career. He played semi-pro in Toronto and Australia before a professional opportunity arose later that year. He didn’t hesitate and joined the Perth Heat of the Australian Baseball Winter League.

“If they’re going to pay me to travel the world and play a little baseball, I’ll do it,” he said.

Then his teammates suggested he contact the Canaries of the AAPB, an independent league founded in the Midwest in 2005. It has been his home ever since, save for a brief hiatus in 2022 when he played in the Frontier League and the Atlantic League.

Hart has certainly made an impression, winning Rookie of the Year in 2019 and having a banner year in 2023. In 85 games that season, he led the league in slugging percentage (.643) while hitting 26 home runs and 21 doubles, earning him First Baseman of the Year honors.

Hart believes he is in the best shape of his career, but credits his mental strength with helping him withstand the various injuries he has sustained as he has gotten older.

“My body is starting to wear me down,” Hart said. “So my mental side of the game is helping me get through those things and be a smarter player, whereas in my early years at UMass I was just running through walls and trying to force things instead of letting the game come to me.”

Lowell High head coach Dan Graham points to Hart as an example for his players who expect him to achieve breakthrough results early in their careers.

“I use him and others as an example a lot,” said Graham, who coached Hart in high school. “There are kids in the high school program who want that instant gratification. Some of the best players we’ve ever had in high school were one-year starters. He didn’t have that sense of entitlement. He did what the coaches thought he should do.”

Hart was converted from an infielder to a catcher in his third year, playing a full season behind the dish at the college level to gain experience in his new position.

“He was a little skinny second baseman,” Graham said. “He started to blossom and his junior year we made the decision as a staff that we were going to convert him from an infielder to a catcher.”

Hart played outfield for the Canaries, but he remembers how his high school staff handled his development. He plans to model his teaching afterward as he sets his sights on a coaching career. Hart has pulled double duty for Sioux Falls the past two seasons, leading the team on the field and also serving as hitting coach. Hart also teaches clinics for Route 2 Baseball Club out of Arlington during the offseason.

“This league is trying to expand and hopefully one day I can be a manager,” Hart said. “That’s where I’m at right now, really trying to shadow my manager, Mike Meyer, and get my foot in the door as a professional coach.”

At one point in his career, Hart had aspirations of taking the next step. He had MLB tryouts with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Milwaukee Brewers pre-COVID, which ultimately made the minor league circuit tighter and those goals more unrealistic.

Hart is now eager to make the most of his active time as a player before transitioning to his current role as a coach.

“You build a lot of relationships,” he said. “It’s independent baseball, this is people’s lives and it’s all they have. I want to bring a championship back to this city. I’ve called it home for six seasons now.”

Regardless of whether that aspiration comes to fruition, Hart can make peace with where his career has taken him. It’s certainly better than intramural softball.

“I never thought I would still be playing baseball at 30 and be able to travel to almost every state in the United States and four different countries. It’s been a journey,” Hart said.