The meeting took place at Windsor Station, where, on March 12, 1955, Claude Raymond’s great adventure into great baseball was to begin.
That night more than 67 years ago, the Quebec native was waiting in downtown Montreal for the train bound for Georgia, United States, to attend the Milwaukee Braves rookie camp. The athlete from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu was not yet of legal age.
“It touches me to do the interview here,” said the former pitcher, whose biographical story, titled Frenchie, is published this week.
“We were in a hurry to leave, but the train didn’t leave because we were expecting the Canadian’s players,” says Claude Raymond immediately, happily reminiscing about 1955. Tonight there had been chaos in the forum – there… It was Maurice Richard who got on the train first to shake hands and wish us luck. »
While young Claude, accompanied by some other Quebec players, went to the Braves camp, Quebec history will remember that the Habs’ famous No. 9 would play the Bruins in Boston the next day. There, the Rocket had a collision with Hal Laycoe and then knocked out a linesman. Richard was suspended and the famous Forum riot ensued.
When the book Frenchie first tells the story of Claude Raymond, it simultaneously picks up many events spanning eight decades. This book is a memory task created in collaboration with author Marc Robaille. Raymond’s journey itself is fascinating and deserves to be documented.
“That’s how Marc convinced me, he told me that I have to leave a legacy for my children, my grandchildren, but also for everyone
Quebecers,” says the baseball man.
His father’s sentence
Still tall as an oak at 85, Raymond shows a touch of emotion when it comes to his family. Such is the case when it comes to his late father, Rolland.
Also in 1955, before putting his name under the Braves organization’s contract offer, he had received another offer from the Pittsburgh Pirates. This could allow him to play in familiar territory with his school club in the provincial league in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
“That’s when my dad asked me, ‘Do you want to play at Saint-Jean or do you want to play baseball?’ That’s a sentence that has stayed with me my whole life. That’s how it started…”.
Thierry Laforce / QMI Agency
A handy nickname
In fact, shortly after the father’s explanation, Raymond found himself at Windsor train station, going to Waycross. During this famous rookie camp, the 17-year-old earned the nickname Frenchie.
“Because I didn’t speak much English and we had trouble pronouncing Claude Raymond in Georgia, they nicknamed me Frenchie,” he says. It was convenient. Other players and coaches remembered me from season to season. It was easy to remember that I was a Frenchie. »
A former Toronto Maple Leafs player
At 85, Claude Raymond still has his child’s heart. He likes to say that he has worn the colors of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“Even today I sometimes say that I played for the Maple Leafs,” he says and laughs heartily. And I have fun with it, I don’t always say it was baseball…”
In fact, in 1962, Raymond briefly played in the International Baseball League with a team called the Toronto Maple Leafs, like the famous hockey club.
It was with this organization that he played for the Minors for the last time and then got a real chance in Major League Baseball with the Milwaukee Braves.
With Tim Hortons
While in Toronto, he had also befriended a few hockey players, including Tim Horton, the same man who launched the popular chain of donuts and coffee.
“One day, before he played the Canadians, Tim said to me, ‘We’re going to beat the French,’ says Raymond. The Leafs’ plan was to put five defenders on the ice to start the game and shake up the CH players. After five minutes, Montreal was leading 3-0 in my opinion. I called him over the following week to ask him, even though I knew exactly what happened and how the game was going. »
Giving back to young people
Aside from the Maple Leafs, Raymond appears to have played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball, most notably after being invited to the 1966 All-Star Game.
He wore the colors of the Chicago White Sox, the Braves [à Milwaukee et à Atlanta]the Houston Astros and finally the Expos from 1969 to 1971.
He appeared in a total of 449 major league baseball games before becoming a sportscaster and then a coach.
“It’s amazing to think of all that when I picture that little guy on Boulevard Gouin in Saint-Edmond,” said the former pitcher, smiling.
When he recites his many anecdotes from the past, the man wants to talk about the present and the future. From the Claude Raymond Fund, which awards numerous scholarships to young people in the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu region, and the annual Classic that bears his name, which brings together the best under-14 baseball players in Quebec every summer.
“If a young person is inspired by reading my story, then I have achieved my goal,” he concludes.