Three IBL fans biking around Ontario to see their beloved Leafs
Patrick Meredith-Karan, Joe Sismondo and Jared Westreich (from left to right) are three hardcore fans of the Intercounty Baseball League’s Toronto Maple Leafs that have been biking to their favourite teams games around Ontario. Photo supplied.
June 30, 2022
By Evan Gravelle
Canadian Baseball Network
While baseball season for many Toronto fans involves traveling down to the Rogers Centre and seeing a Blue Jays game, some fans of the Intercounty Baseball League take a different commute to see their team play.
Joe Sismondo, 23; Jared Westreich, 27; and Patrick Meredith-Karam, 25, are supporters of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Intercounty Baseball League (IBL), and they have been traveling around southern Ontario to see the team play. Their mode of transportation has been their bicycles.
“None of us have cars and really the way to get places [is] by bike and, we're all strong and willing to spend a day on the road,” Sismondo said. “We've got tents, cooking equipment, sleeping equipment, clothing, baseball, gloves, everything strapped to our bikes.”
Sismondo works as a bicycle mechanic, Westreich as a medical technologies engineer, and Meredith-Karam as a transit planner. The trio met at the University of Toronto, and are residents of the Christie Pits area, near the home field of the Maple Leafs. Their love of the team began before last season, when they were spending a usual sunday in the park.
“I guess at some point we just noticed that there was a baseball game going on and it looked pretty competitive and there were fans and it was pretty serious,” Sismondo said.
“Before last season, we found out about the team and we were pretty excited for it,” Westreich said. “I remember I had gone to a game or two when I was much younger with my family. So we put all the pieces together and decided we'd start going to the games on Sundays.”
The three Toronto Maple Leafs fans getting ready for another journey to see their favourite team. Photo supplied.
The trio of twenty-something guys became devoted fans, joining the 200 or so attendees at a regular Leafs game. Westreich and Meredith-Karam went to an away game against the Barrie Baycats and the idea to travel with the team became a point of interest.
When asked why they would do such a thing, Meredith-Karam pointed to the unique nature of IBL baseball saying that “it's just such a community thing. It definitely brings that neighborhood together and you see the same people out every week when you go. We definitely noticed that there is this cult following.”
In terms of the logistics of getting from Toronto to each stadium, Westreich said, “We’re planning the whole tour as one big network that we’re building over time, which allows us to practically reach some of the farther stadiums without taking two full days to bike to London. For example, now that we’ve biked to Guelph from Toronto, we’re allowing ourselves to take the GO train to Guelph and use that as a starting point for London.”
You can’t ride a bike on the 401, so the three Maple Leafs fans have to make their treks mostly on backroads. Photo supplied.
As for their adventures traveling around Ontario following the team, Sismondo says seeing the Leafs in Toronto is different from any of the other parks they’ve gone to see.
“Christie is a completely unique park in that they don't charge admission. You just sit on the side of the hill, but there's a lot of really dedicated fans,” Sismondo said. “The other stadiums are very popular in their cities, because a lot of those cities don't have other professional teams. So when we were up in Barrie you go up to anyone and say, ‘We're going to the Baycats game tonight,’ and they instantly know what you mean.”
Biking around the province isn’t all about baseball for these fans though, they also devote time camping and exploring Ontario’s provincial parks. After a recent Leafs road game against the Brantford Red Sox, they spent time exploring Norfolk county and camping Lake Erie.
They’ve had some challenges along the way. While Sismondo is a bike mechanic and avid cyclist, there were some challenges ramping up to long distances for Westreich and Meredith-Karam.
“The Toronto-Barrie-Guelph trip which strung together a couple 125 km+ days in a row was a pretty tough one to get started with,” Sismondo said, “but after that we’re feeling like we have our legs under us for the summer. We’ve all spent a fair bit of time backcountry camping before, so planning out sleeping, food and navigation hasn’t been too bad. The hardest part has realistically been trying to plan the trips around the Leafs’ schedule (and our work schedules) to make it out to every stadium this year. We’re confident that we’ll get Barrie, Guelph, Brantford, London, and Hamilton checked off, but we may have to wait until the playoffs to make it out to Kitchener or Welland.”
Joe Sismondo relaxes at a campsite after one of his Ontario excursions to see his beloved Toronto Maple Leafs. Photo supplied.
Seeing the Baycats in Barrie required camping outside of a normal campsite, which had its own problems.
“The Baycats stadium is located in a rural area north of Barrie so we had plenty of prime real estate for stealth camping,” said Westreich. “After the game, we biked a few minutes to a wooded trail, stumbled up a steep sandy hill and found a small patch of dirt to pitch our tents on.”
When they woke up, they realized that their campsite, which seemed remote at night, was only a few feet from the trail.
“Some guy walked by with his dog and asked us what we were doing,” said Westreich. “We were worried he would be upset but he seemed supportive and wished us good luck on the rest of our trip.”
The next stop for Westreich, Sismondo and Meredith-Karam is London, the home of the reigning IBL champion London Majors who play at Labatt Park, the oldest continually operating baseball grounds in the world.
“It's been pretty awesome to see the culture around this league from a couple different views,” said Meredith-Karam. “We’d never run into anyone we know at a Jays game so for us, it was really cool to build a group around this team.”