September 5, 2022

By Ryan Eakin

Toronto Maple Leafs

TORONTO, Ont. - With tremendous sadness, the Toronto Maple Leaf Baseball Club announces that Peter "Papa Tops" Topolie has passed away at the age of 76.

Peter, the father of Maple Leafs vice president of baseball operations and general manager Damon Topolie, was the Leafs third base coach from 2015 to 2021.

Prior to his time with the Maple Leafs, Peter was an assistant coach on the Ontario Blue Jays' 2005 USSSA World Series winning team and was the former president of Baseball Ontario, serving three terms.

Peter, who worked closely with the Toronto Blue Jays in the mid-1990s, was also inducted into the North Bay Sports Hall of Fame in 1992 and was eventually joined in the Hall of Fame alongside his daughter Stephanie and his son Damon.

The trio is the first and only father, son, daughter trio in the Hall of Fame, the same Hall that our legendary former owner Jack Dominico is in.

In a year that has been absolutely gut-wrenching to the franchise, between this and the passing of Jack Dominico in early 2022, the team would like to send its deepest condolences to Damon and the entire Topolie family.