Opening Day for the Flag City Sluggers on June 6, 2025. More than 600 people came to support the team. Photos by Zachary Stewart.
By Sarah Mayle
It had rained in the morning of the Flag City Sluggers’ opening day, and it was a damp and cloudy evening. No one had any idea how many people might show up to support Findlay’s new collegiate baseball team, especially under less than perfect conditions. And so, when more than 600 people took to the stands to cheer on their new team, organizers could hardly believe their eyes.
Eric Stoller, Sluggers board member, unofficial director, and a professor at the University of Findlay.
“Opening day was crazy, it was better than anything I could have anticipated,” said Eric Stoller, Sluggers board member, unofficial director, and a professor at the University of Findlay. “And on top of it we have such a great group of students and board members, and it all ran smoothly. But to see 600 people in that fenced-off area, I couldn’t have dreamed it any better.”
Reegan Hayward, assistant general manager of the Sluggers.
Reegan Hayward, assistant general manager of the team agreed, “If I were to describe it in one word, it would be ‘rewarding,’ she said. “When I think of all of the late nights and the deadlines we set for ourselves and our interns to make sure everything would be done… We had no idea how many people were going to show up. But having 600 fans that Friday night was just one of the best feelings ever.”
The Sluggers are part of the 8-team Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League, which competes regionally against teams in Ohio and Southern Michigan. The GLSCL provides a summer opportunity for college players to improve and be seen with the goal of making it to the minors or majors and is supported by Major League Baseball. And there’s no shortage of talent. The Sluggers’ roster is filled with exciting players from the region and from across the U.S. – California, Florida, Arkansas, Texas – even from Canada.
The Sluggers started as a dream in 2023 when Findlay baseball fans Joe Fenimore and Chad Feasel – who are now president and vice president of the Sluggers – were sitting around a campfire one night. After some consideration, they decided to go for it, and sought guidance from the University of Findlay’s Oiler 10, a student marketing and consulting agency. Through their involvement with UF, they met Stoller.
Fenimore, Stoller, Feasel, Blake Hamlin and Stacey Foltz formed a board of directors for the Sluggers and brought on the help of four interns to get the team started. One of the interns was Charles Anderson, and his father, AR Marketing Co-Founder and Director, Eric Anderson, wanted to help make the Sluggers happen. Anderson joined the board, and AR Marketing created and donated services for the now-beloved Slider the Slug logo.
The Flag City Sluggers logo, created by AR Marketing.
“We knew right away that people were going to love the logo,” Stoller said. “AR Marketing did an incredible job with it. Our hats and shirts are selling really well and people from all over the U.S. are buying the hats, so much that we’re sold out right now.”
Stoller developed and taught a “Business of Baseball” class at UF that came up with marketing strategies, marketing materials, kids club ideas, ticket options, and much of the Sluggers’ extensive website. The UF College of Business is a major sponsor and partner of the Sluggers through its support in people and logistics. The Sluggers can use their facility for meetings; they have the Sluggers’ logo on the wall; and UF-TV streams the Sluggers’ games – an opportunity for interns to gain important experience.
Sydney Craig, general manager of the Sluggers, ready to roll on gameday.
Fourteen volunteer interns called the “Dream Team” continue to build everything out and make it all run, including Hayward and General Manager Sydney Craig, who is from Colorado and attends Bowling Green State University. Craig is director of baseball operations for the BGSU Men’s Division I Baseball Team. Craig and Hayward conducted most of the interviews to hire the Dream Team, the majority of whom are between the ages of 18 and 22. Both said they couldn’t ask for a better experience.
“There’s no second guessing. (Board members) let us learn through trial and error, and if it doesn’t work, then they let us fix it,” Craig said. “If we come to them for help, they help us but otherwise, they have the vision, and we execute it.”
Hayward, a Findlay native, added, “The authority and freedom we have in this experience is really amazing. Yeah, maybe we’re not getting paid, but we’re getting paid with so much more experience than, I think, if we were working for an already established program.”
Sponsors and Games
When the founders created the team, they envisioned something that would bring the community together. Platinum sponsors – AR Marketing, Doughtroit Pizza, loanDepot, Key Realty The Keller Team, and VisitFindlay have been crucial partners in making it happen. With their partners, the Sluggers tailor a business package that works best for the company, sprinkling in bits and pieces of name recognition, driving traffic, brand loyalty, customized partnerships, innovative marketing, enhancing community image, product sampling and association with a community baseball team. A variety of sponsorship opportunities are available on their website.
“Our partners are the backbone of our organization, and we could not be where we are without them and their support,” Stoller said.
During the games, organist Joel Starkey entertains, there are kids’ activities, sing-a-longs, concessions, even a beer garden where you can buy False Chord Brewery’s specially crafted Sluggers beers – Slugger Lite Ale or Juiced IPA. You can, of course, also see some exciting, quality baseball.
“It’s just great, you know the kids have a lot of fun, it’s not expensive, Joel Starkey is phenomenal, and who wouldn’t want to have a summer night just kicking back with a beer and friends, right?, Craig said. “I think it’s just a great get-together. I’d like to see more groups of people who don’t necessarily just want to go sit at a bar or a restaurant but want to have a drink and have a good time come hang out there. You don’t even have to like baseball to have a good time.”
Stoller said the effects of the team could be long-lasting and beneficial to Findlay in many ways. The team brings people from the region and players from across the country to Findlay, where they learn about the community and get a positive feeling. Parents may be watching their son play from California, but they still have learned about Findlay, Ohio. Stoller said UF’s partnership with the team is sure to increase enrollment at UF, especially for sports management. Many of the team’s sponsors are seeing new customers through exposure in Slugger advertising. And, of course the team brings the community together – the ball diamond is a place where families can gather and have fun, rally together, and take pride in what Findlay has to offer.
The team celebrates the Sluggers first-ever home run, hit by Charlie Smith, a catcher from Georgia, center. Photo from the Sluggers’ Facebook page.
What Really Matters
At the end of the day, the main goal of the Flag City Sluggers is to facilitate a place for growth and help young people succeed. Sluggers players hope to make it to the next level. Sluggers coaches are looking to build their resumes. Interns and volunteers are gaining important work experience that could lead to something bigger.
“A lot of the teams, they have on their websites the guys who made it to the minors or the majors, and that is great,” Stoller said. “But we want more than that. We want to figure out where they all go – and what they all do, our interns, our coaches – we want to help all of them get to that next level. That’s what it’s all about.”
When Hayward received her offer letter to work for the Sluggers last fall, she hung it on the wall in her bedroom, now complimented by two neatly displayed False Chord Sluggers craft beers. She played for Tiffin University’s women’s basketball team for two years and her dream job is to work for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever. Craig said she would love to keep working for the Sluggers if there were a position. She plans to pursue a career in college athletics, with a long-term dream of one day opening a sports complex.
Craig and Hayward are thankful to be able to work with Fenimore and Stoller, the board, the rest of the Dream Team…everyone. They are making lasting friendships, enjoying the community, having a blast at the games, gaining amazing experience, and love being a part of the Sluggers’ beginning.
What is something they will remember most?
“Joe Fenimore is a character, and he started this tradition that we do every game now during the seventh inning stretch,” Hayward said. “We’ll have a member of our team or anybody who wants to sing “Take Me out to the Ballgame” and that’s been pretty special. Everybody sings along, everybody comes together – through baseball.
“It’s all been super cool, super good memories.”
To Learn More:
Slugger interns – the Dream Team – know how to work hard and play hard. From left to right: Ben Christiansen, Lauren Foerster, Sydney Craig and Reegan Hayward.
