When the Intercounty Baseball League celebrated its 100th season in 2018, the Toronto Maple Leafs checked in with a milestone of their own – 50 years in Southern Ontario’s top independent baseball circuit in. While the Leafs had been a middle-of-the-pack team for the past half dozen years, they own the second-best overall winning percentage (.633) of any organization in league history. The Leafs have also captured eight league championships themselves, 18 first-place finishes, and chalked up the 1,000th win in their history during 2015 season, becoming the fifth team in league history to reach that milestone.
No talk of the Toronto Maple Leafs, however, exists without mentioning Jack Dominico. Having passed away in 2022, Jack co-founded the Leafs in 1969 and, five decades later, was still pre- siding over the day-to-day operations of the club, looking after everything from recruiting players for the coming IBL season, selling ads for his twin publications or rounding up a handful of Major League Baseball greats of the past for his popular Reception and Forum which kicks off each season. And that’s just the off-season. Once the season starts, then he really dove into it, making sure he has a hand in everything from game-day lineups to media releases, all while hanging on every run scored or out made when his troops take the field.
“Who still has their thumb on an entire organization after 50 years?” asked long-time player and current manager Damon Topolie a few years ago. “The fact that he’s so hands-on, with Jack, it’s got to be done a certain way. And he has made it work.”
The extent of Jack’s involvement and longevity can be seen in the basement of his modest Etobicoke house – a veritable museum of Intercounty and baseball memorabilia, ranging from old uniforms (a few still that have never been unfolded or un-packed) and programs to the original scoreboard at Christie Pits and a framed photo of Bobby Thompson’s famous “Shot Heard ’Round the World.” “Perks of the job,” he laughs.
Dominico had never been short on ambition, chutzpah or the power of persuasion. A career newspaper ad salesman, he hails from North Bay where he starred in the local fastball league, even leading the circuit with a .500 batting average one season, and played alongside future NHLers Ken Wharram, Tod Sloan and Leo Labine. Jack was also a pretty fair hockey player himself, skating for the local minor hockey teams up through juvenile. He started selling ads for the North Bay Nugget where his dad, Fred, worked as a press superintendent, then moved on to Sault Ste. Marie and then Gravenurst before continuing south to Toronto’s west end where he began working for the Etobicoke Advertiser/Guardian.
Then, when the triple-A Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League ceased operations following the 1967 season and moved to Louisville KY, Jack saw an opportunity to rekindle his love affair with baseball.
Two years later, in 1969, his Maple Leafs officially joined the Intercounty Major Baseball League. And while the Blue Jays were still nine years away from their inaugural season in Toronto, the new team, playing out of quirky Christie Pits, from which sand, gravel and clay were excavated for construction purposes back in the 1800s, filled a vacancy for Toronto baseball diehards after the exit of the triple-A team.
As expected, that inaugural Leafs team of 1969 was nothing to get excited about, posting a 5–23 record and finishing in last place. Gerry Sinclair, who was also their top pitcher, led the team in hitting at .329, but no one else was over .260 and the team, in fact, had 19 players (pitchers included) who batted less than .200.
The growing pains, however, would not last long and only three years later, the Leafs claimed their first championship. It was 1972 and, after playing respectable ball for two summers, they busted out to finish 22– 6 and in first place before rolling to the title. Pitchers John Osborne and Doug Beckett dominated opposing hitters. Jim Ridley, who would go on to become a scout, and a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, was the league’s batting champion while Alf Payne was named league MVP.
The Leafs were projected for last place the following season after losing more than three-quarters of their lineup. But aggressive recruiting paid off as the Leafs ac- quired Sheldon Plener, who wound up a league all-star all five years he played in Toronto. They also dipped into the import game for the first time that year, bringing in a couple of Californians in right-hander Marshall Gates, who went a record-breaking 11–0, and shortstop Jimmy Draper, who stole 30 bases. The result was a surprisingly solid 18–12 record.
It was the beginning of a decade of very good, though not great, Maple Leafs teams that finished in first place in 1979, 1980 and 1981 – winning no fewer than 20 games each year – but couldn’t get over the playoff hump.
The 1982 season, however, proved to be different. The Leafs finished in third place, but this time put it all together in the post-season to capture their second championship, outlasting the London Majors in a six-game final that, because of bad weather, went on from Sept. 8 to Oct. 1.
The pitching staff was led by the terrific 1–2 punch of lefty Tom Dejak and mid-season addition Tony Nicometi. And when those two ran out of steam in the late innings, right-hander Bob Oravec was there to shut the door, compiling a then-league-record 10 saves.
At the plate, catcher Jim Eliopoulos and first baseman Greg Darichuk provided the big bats, but the most impactful Maple Leaf that year was outfielder Jamie Hodge. Competitiveness in an athlete is something that can’t be measured or quantified in a boxscore, but Hodge brought it to every game. He didn’t know how to quit and made sure his teammates followed suit, all the way to the championship.
Unfortunately, as happened following their first crown in ’72, most of the Maple Leafs who had led the charge to the IBL title decided not to return, opting to exit as champions. And, once again, it produced disastrous results – an 11–23 record and missing the playoffs for the first time since their expansion season.
