The Sweet Second Summer of Damon Topolie

You can go home again: Damon Topolie, back in his happy place and all smiles.

Last Saturday, the Toronto Maple Leafs hosted the Kitchener Panthers at Christie Pits.

As per habit, I arrived a few minutes before first pitch.  As per habit, I kept my head down and tried to stay invisible.  Being an extreme introvert, I didn't want to be accosted.

Al Ross immediately accosted me.  With good reason.

"Have you seen today's lineup?"

"No, what is it?"

"You'll never guess who's back."

I raised my phone and went to the Leafs' Instagram page.  The day's starting lineup was posted.  The usual names were there.  Dos Santos, Javier, Castaldo, a couple of the rookies... and Damon Topolie.

HOLY F-BOMB!

Al smiled like the Cheshire Cat.  I shook my head, wondering if it was heatstroke.

The Leafs were gathered on the third base side of the infield.  There among them, wearing the club's classic retro-white uniform, was the man himself.

Back in the late 1990s, Damon Topolie was a hot-hitting catcher who caught the eye of then-Leafs' owner Jack Dominico.  After a period of determined wooing, Topolie agreed to leave the Stratford Hillers and join the Leafs.

From 1998 to 2022, Topolie evolved from young hotshot to wily veteran, adding more hats along the way.  He was promoted to player-manager and general manager.  He was a coach, a scout, even a groundskeeper.  In Dominico's declining years the task of running the club increasingly rested with Topolie.

Dominico passed away in January, 2022.  It was the end of an era, and the start of a transitional period for the organization.  At the end of a caretaker season, Topolie announced his retirement.  

On December of that year he posted a farewell: 

"Yes the rumors are true I did resign.  This is the first time since 1995 that I will not be involved with a major intercounty team.  No regrets!!!  Nothing but great memories and teammates!!! #ontothenextchapter"

"I was glad to see new ownership. I had to disconnect myself from Leafs in the state they were in," he said.

After sixteen seasons, Topolie took his place among the IBL's greats.  Second all-time in hits.  Fourth in doubles and RBIs.

Away from the league for the first time in decades, Topolie remained heavily active in baseball.  Currently, he is involved with the Mississauga Tigers High Performance Program, Canada's elite amateur baseball program.  He also moved back home to North Bay to help build rep baseball back up as it had dwindled in the last few years.

The Leafs moved on.  A new ownership group took over in 2023.  With it came a whole new experience at Christie Pits.  New faces in new uniforms, ballpark improvements, a gameday hype team, beer and merch sales, and a steady stream of promotions and activity at the park and online.  The Leafs of today look nothing like the organization did just a few years ago.

Some things never change.  As the 2025 season ground on, injuries were inevitable.  Players out of action, players having to work, players travelling.  In the first week of July all of these factors combined to leave general manager Dustin Richardson and manager Rob Butler with a perilously short bench.  Coach Brian Sewell was briefly added to the roster.  Scrambling to field a complete team, an unexpected call went out.

"I got the call to play Friday," said Topolie, perhaps as surprised as anyone else.  "I thought I was done."

A prior commitment prevented him from joining the team Friday night.  The following day, the 49-year-old suited up after two-and-a-half seasons away from the Pits.

"I love being on the field so it was an easy answer to say yes."

Topolie got to experience something few players can.  After being away long enough to miss the old days, he got to return.  While he was on the field, he smiled a lot.  Did it feel different to play without the burden of running the club and dealing with all the little tasks that fell to him back in the day?

"It was easy to just show up and play.  [On Saturday] I saw a staff of fifteen people working at the Pits.  I was a one-man band."

This weekend, he played two games at first base.  In a home-and-home series against the Panthers, he went 0-for-6 at the plate with a couple of walks.  On Sunday he helped manufacture a run in a 9-5 Leafs victory.

It was a sweet second summer for the Leafs legend.  Sweet but fleeting.  

On Monday, the Leafs released Topolie and signed infielder Chad Picton, his junior by 25 years.

Once again, Topolie leaves with no regrets.

"I am a team-first guy and I was just glad to help the team."

Many Hats, One Goal: An Interview with Damon Topolie

The dugout gaze.  London, June 8, 2018.

A recent ESPN column declared that “parts of baseball are disappearing before our very eyes”.

Any grump would happily tell you that every play of the game is becoming dominated -- ruined even! -- by analytics and probabilities, guiding MLB managers towards risk-averse decision-making. Aggression on the basepaths is declining in favour of waiting for the home run. As a result, stolen bases and pitchouts are trending downwards, same with sacrifice bunts and the hit and run. 

All of these features of the game we grew up with are becoming rarities. Another rarity is the player-manager.

The Miami Marlins made Martin Prado their player-manager as a one-off for their final game of the 2016 season. The last full-time player-manager in MLB was Pete Rose from 1984 to 1986.

Player-managers have appeared throughout the game’s history, a list that includes names such as Connie Mack, John McGraw, Ty Cobb, Joe Torre and Frank Robinson. An interesting combination of mind and muscle, this dual role has vanished from the major league game.

With players reduced to data, the modern manager can sit back and let a ballgame play itself out like computer chess. The only on-field participation expected of managers these days is delivering lineup cards and changing pitchers.

In the Intercounty Baseball League, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been bucking this trend for years.

Damon Topolie is a bona fide player-manager of the old school, and he relishes the role. He stepped into the position in 2015, after the Leafs parted ways with manager Perry Mader.

The 42-year-old wears many hats. He works for a tech company based out of Vaughan, but baseball is very much a part of his daily life. He began his IBL playing career with the Stratford Hillers in 1995, and joined the Leafs in 1998. When he is not running the show at Christie Pits, Topolie is the catching coordinator for the Ontario Blue Jays baseball development organization. He also provides a lot of private lessons.

“Most of our current players have been coached by me at one time or another,” he says, and immediately rattles off half of the Leafs' current roster.

Asked if he still feels like “one of the guys”, he doesn’t agree. He prefers to see himself as a manager who is lucky enough to still be able to play.

“I have some baseball equipment that is older than some of the players on the team.”

While his playing time has been reduced, his output remains solid. Batting .263 in 38 plate appearances, he has 10 RBIs, including a home run.

A home run swing.  Burlington, May 26, 2018.

Topolie no longer sees himself as the kind of alpha dog team leader that can rally a club, but believes that the Leafs have found those types of players. A look at the league standings would indicate that this is the case. As mid-season approaches, the Leafs have been off to one of their best starts in years with a 10-7 record, just two games behind the Kitchener Panthers.

“The team chemistry has changed,” he says. “Some of the new players have really helped the team bond quickly.”

The ballclub that has been put together for 2018 reflects the longtime partnership that Topolie has forged with Jack Dominico, who is marking his fiftieth year as team owner.

“It’s a combined effort. Jack has been around for 50 years so I count on his opinion, but we both have a solid network of people that we know in the game.” In that sense, you could add a general manager’s hat to Topolie’s collection.

Despite all the responsibilities of running the team, from building the roster, to coaching, to literally hauling equipment around, Topolie still has the greatest zest for the game itself.

“I love being on the field, especially when I hear the camaraderie in the dugout – guys talking the game and making in-game adjustments. That has become a lost art in the analytics age,” he says, noting that he likes to see the ex-pros helping the younger college guys understand the game. He wants to see more of that.

“I had some awesome veterans who really helped mentor me when I started in this league.”

Topolie is currently fourth all-time in hits in the IBL. He began the season with 750 and would like to break the record of 769 held by Arden Eddie.

At the end of the season, however, it’s all about bringing the Jack and Lynne Dominico Trophy back to its ancestral home, Christie Pits.  Topolie is a veteran of three championship-winning Leafs teams (1999, 2002 and 2007), but winning again would mean the world to him, and stand as the culmination of one man’s unique effort as a player, manager and team-builder.

The zest is still there.  Christie Pits, May 6, 2018