Ballparks Around The World: Dominico Field

In this episode of “Ballparks Around The World,” we talk about Dominico Field, located at the Christie Pits Park in Toronto, home of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Toronto Maple Leafs is the oldest name in Canadian Baseball. Back in the late 1800s, there was a club with that name already. The current club was founded in 1969, by the Dominico family, in response to the Toronto Maple Leafs of Minor League Baseball relocating to Louisville, Kentucky. Jack and Lynne Dominico, owned and operated the club. In 2010, the City of Toronto, which owns the ballpark, named the it after the family because of the positive impact it had on baseball community in Toronto. Since the inception of the club, it plays in the Intercounty Baseball League.

The ballpark is located at the lush surroundings of Christie Pits Park, which was named after the Christie Sand Pits which were on the location until the early 1900s. The sand pits had been named after Christie Street, which was named after Christy MacDougall, wife of Peter MacDougall, a landowner in the area.

The current ballpark was erected in 1969 with the establishment of the Maple Leafs.
The ballpark is located in a pit, down surrounding streets. The small bleachers offer a limited seating capacity. Most spectators prefer to sit on the grass berms that surround the diamond.

But there was a ballpark before the current one. That ballpark was the location of the worst ethnic violence in Toronto, back in 1933 that were sparked by Nazi-inspired youths flying a swastika flag at a public baseball game to antagonize and provoke their opponents, a team of Jewish Canadians, who were also the largest minority group in Toronto. The event became known as The Christie Pits Riot. While no-one was killed during these riots, the snow-covered slopes would, be the site of segregated religious and ethnic groups as they sledded down opposing hills of the Pits, for years to come.

The ballpark doesn’t have a clubhouse where players can change clothes. They have to go to the public restrooms near the concession stand way beyond center field. The scoreboard of the ballpark has an odd location. It is situated on top of the broadcast booth behind the backstop.

As the Maple Leafs offer free admission for fans, many passersby that have a stroll in the surrounding park, can watch some innings for free.

Here are some photo’s of this quaint little ballpark (photos taken from the website wwwballparkbrothers.com, mapleleafsbaseball.com and from Mindtrip.ai.