Home Plate Demolition Night

Game 36: Barrie Baycats at Toronto Maple Leafs, August 1, 2018 

(Play suspended in the 3rd inning)

Dark skies and swirling weed. Kids running on the field. The playing surface wrecked and unplayable.

Those were the scenes at Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park in the summer of 1979.

Those were also, to a much milder extent, the scenes at Christie Pits, 39 years later.

The Toronto Maple Leafs hosted the Barrie Baycats last night for the final Wednesday nighter of the regular season. There was plenty on the line. Both Toronto's place in the IBL standings and their first-round playoff opponent are yet to be determined.

So the Leafs took the field on a muggy night, shortly after a brief sprinkle of rain.

Zach Sloan was on the mound for the Mapes against Emilis Guerrero for Barrie. Both starters worked a pair of scoreless innings to start the game.

In the top of the third, the Baycats got on the board with a run as Ryan Spataro crossed home plate. That would be the last baseball action of the night.

As fans looked on from all around the park, a crowd gathered around the plate. It had come loose from its moorings. It had been newly-installed that morning, but the glue underneath had not fully set. 

We waited. Players, umpires, coaches and field staff gathered around like a team of conferring surgeons. No amount of manipulation, stomping or pleading could get the plate back into place.

During the delay, attempts were made to contact city staff for emergency repair work. Players intermingled in small groups. Fans bantered. Glenn Jackson's kids ran the bases.

After a half hour of delay, it was determined that the plate could not be repaired that night. The game was suspended, Home Plate Demolition Night was born, and it just as suddenly came to an abrupt end.

The game will be resumed if necessary to determine the final league standings.


Barrie 1-3-0
Toronto 0-2-0
(play suspended in the 3rd inning)


The Leafs play their final road game of the regular season tonight at Nelson Park against the Burlington Herd. First pitch is at 7:15.