Former Red Sox infielder launches IT support firm

Mike Stenhouse still wears his 1986 Red Sox American League Championship ring, with the signature “B” made of tiny diamonds, a prize from his five-year career in the big leagues.

Now, 20 years after serving as a backup infielder for Boston – he wasn’t on the actual playoff roster during the team’s trip to the World Series – the Cranston native is using his baseball experience as a selling point for his new company.

Launched in May, CMIT Solutions of Greater Providence, a local franchise of Austin, Texas-based CMIT Solutions, bills itself as a provider of “major league IT support” for small businesses.

Stenhouse started the franchise after six years working in marketing for Massachusetts technology companies. He has also worked in corporate communications at Staples Inc., run his own sports event management firm for six years, and worked as a sports broadcaster.

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In his new move, he said, “my primary interest was starting my own business.”

CMIT, with 120 U.S. outlets, is a 10-year-old company that enables people to open a franchise with an initial investment of $55,400 to $104,900, according to its Web site. Stenhouse said he completed most of his training to run his franchise with a two-month online course and a weeklong orientation at CMIT headquarters.

His is the second CMIT franchise in Rhode Island; the other serves central and southern Rhode Island. Stenhouse said he has worked closely with the state’s other CMIT franchise owner, Jason Arabian, and they plan to share resources.

Stenhouse, 48, operates the business from his ranch-style house – in sight of Cranston High School East, on Park Avenue, where he was a three-time All-State shortstop. “I’m a Cranston guy,” he said. “I always wanted to come back home.”

A top student and athlete in high school, Stenhouse went on to play college baseball at Harvard University, and was twice named an All-American. The Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals) drafted him in the first round of the amateur draft in 1980.

Between 1980 and 1987, Stenhouse spent most of his playing days in the minor leagues with the Expos, the Minnesota Twins, the Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers. He was named Topps’ “Minor League Player of the Year” in 1983, yet he never matched that success in the Major Leagues.

“I had that kind of potential,” he said, sitting in a sunroom where a few photos of him in Major League uniforms hang on the wall, “but it never panned out.”

In the 207 games he played in the majors from 1982 to 1986, he had a career batting average of .190 with 79 hits in 416 at bats, according to BaseballReference
.com.

“I had the expectation of it turning out differently, and I’ve learned a lot from it,” he said.
Bob Miller, president of The Entrepreneur’s Source in Warwick, helped Stenhouse set up his new venture.

Franchises are “a natural progression for retired athletes,” Miller said, offering a proven system that increases the chances of success. He cited a report showing that 59 percent of the $300 billion IT services market is outsourced to companies such as CMIT.

Stenhouse’s firm is targeting small business customers with fewer than 100 employees that are looking to outsource IT support work, such as fixing frozen computer servers and maintaining anti-virus systems.

The company has three other full-time employees and hires additional technicians when needed, Stenhouse said.

Although he’s busy, he said, he’s still had time to watch his two sons play high school baseball. And in June, he attended an event and game at Fenway Park to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Red Sox’ American League Championship.

Stenhouse got a hug from Hall of Fame third baseman and former teammate Wade Boggs, he said, and stood out on the field with Sox’ slugger Manny Ramirez before the game.
“It was big thrill for me.”

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