STILL KINGS OF THE HILL
Dominico’s Intercounty Maple Leafs launch 50th season with familiar formula for homespun success
There’s a certain sense of permanence when the first Sunday in May rolls around at Christie Pits.
That’s when the Toronto Maple Leafs open their Intercounty Baseball League season, a date that has taken on the romance of a postcard from another time: baseball returning to the Pits. The lot was originally a sand pit, and called Willowvale Park from 1909 until a name change in 1983.
For the man who has kept the baseball tradition alive at the Pits, there’s a flood of memories — from thrilling wins to countless hours spent at the park with the woman he loved.
“Every memory I have is, when you win a championship you feel great,” says Jack Dominico, who is entering his 50th season as team owner. It’s a milestone seldom reached. Former Philadelphia Flyers owner Ed Snider was the longest-serving owner in the big four North American pro sports ( hockey, baseball, basketball and football) at 49 years.
“It’s a great feeling to think I have done it, and it’s a great feeling to go the park and still help out,” Dominico says.
Dominico helps out, but not like he used to. At 78, he’s delegated the myriad chores it takes to run the club. He doesn’t trot up and down those steep, 70degree hills at the Pits, getting fans to purchase raffle tickets for the usual giveaways (VIA Rail passes, bikes, restaurant vouchers).
In fact, he doesn’t go to league meetings anymore, either. But he does manage to keep a team together, finding former minorleaguers, college players and top-shelf local talent for a franchise that has won eight league championships and compiled 20 first-place finishes.
“I’ve been a personal friend of Jack’s since the 1980s,” says hall of famer Fergie Jenkins, who pitched two seasons in the IBL in the early ’80s after his retirement from the major leagues. “And I can tell you he’s steadfast … he’s always been a big part of the (Intercounty league), and I think what he’s been able to accomplish all those years, playing out of Christie Pits, is remarkable.”
The Leafs have long carried a mix of former major-league pros and local talent, with the likes of former Jays Paul Spoljaric and Rob Butler forming the core of a team that won IBL championships in 2002 and 2007.
Some players, such as former infielder Justin Lawrence, ventured all the way from San Diego, taking up temporary residence in Toronto to spend summers playing for the Leafs. Jim Wojcik used to arrive from Buffalo five minutes before a Sunday morning game, put on a uniform and play, then drive right back to Buffalo afterward.
“I can tell you I’ve always had two relationships with Jack, a kind of Jekyll-and-Hyde type of thing,” says IBL commissioner John Kastner, a former sports editor with the Stratford Beacon Herald. “But I don’t think there’s anybody in the league who could make that (Leafs) business model work. He doesn’t charge admission, and he can’t. People just come off the streets and sit down on the hills and watch the game … you can’t keep track of that. There’s people from all walks of life. It’s unique ... but Jack makes it work.”
Dominico had a background in newspapers; he sold ads for the North Bay Nugget and Etobicoke Guardian. He met his wife Lynn at the Guardian, and the two shared a love of baseball that led to the Leafs, and that little pressbox high atop the hill behind home plate.
Lynn Dominico passed away 10 years ago, and her husband will still tell you the loss was like “having your arm cut off,” because their marriage was in large part dedicated to running the team.
In February 2010, the baseball park at Christie Pits was renamed Dominico Field, prompted by a petition from long-time fan Mike Zimmerman and a motion by then deputy mayor Joe Pantalone to the city’s community council, which quickly approved it.
Dominico quickly recites the date his wife passed away when the subject comes up (Nov. 8, 2008). She’s the reason he isn’t entertaining the thought of giving up running the Leafs any time soon.
“I never thought that way, ever. Lynn wouldn’t want that to happen. She’d never want me to pack it in,” Dominico says.