When Michel Laplante was offered the job of managing the Quebec Capitals in 1998, he was 29, he was a pitcher on a Wisconsin team, and he was almost insulted. For his athlete, that meant he became a lesser player.
But surprise: owner Miles Wolff wanted him to manage the team while playing in it!
Photo courtesy of Michel Laplante
Michel Laplante with Miles Wolff in 1999, who recruited him as director of Les Capitales and made him his longtime partner.
“I’m probably one of the few players who’s experienced anything like this in baseball. I was a player sitting in the locker room in front of the coach I hired!” says the one who begins Season 24 of the Capitals.
It looks great: the team has never sold so many advance tickets and interested so many sponsors. Quite an achievement in terms of longevity and success, while the half-dozen teams that preceded the Capitals never lasted more than four years.
“24 seasons is 20 more than we were predicted. “Initially we called people to sell season tickets and we were told it never promoted baseball in Quebec,” recalls the president, who is also a shareholder in the team.
Outsmart the predictions
Michel Laplante represents the impossible. It always lies to those who dare to utter this word. Last summer, as inflation neared the ceiling, he slashed the price of beer from $5 to $4 and kept prices low on nearly all concession products in hopes that affordability would fill the stadium. Winning Bet; there were even a few sold-out parties.
The journey of the impossible began in Abitibi, where Michel grew up. He became a tennis player in a field where there was no tradition. Then he started playing baseball late. Nevertheless, he managed to rise to the ranks of the professionals. In 1999, he had a dream season with the Capitals, recording 11 wins and 2 losses. After that, he signed a contract with the Expos, then with the Atlanta Braves. It was a shoulder injury in 2000 that prevented him from continuing to work as a pitcher.
“What are you going to do with your life now? I’ve heard that many times and it hurts more than you think. I had to show that I could do something else. Then it went off like a bomb and I didn’t sleep much for the next ten years,” Michel admits.
Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
Michel Laplante was a pitcher, coach, director and president of the Capitales de Québec.
Not only did he work hard to get the Capitals off the ground, but he also founded a baseball academy in Quebec. He founded B45, a company that made baseball bats out of birch, a type of wood notorious for being impossible to make. He became coach of the Capitals to prevent their relocation to another city. And he did it against the grain, leading through trust rather than fear. He gave what he would have liked to get as a player. He then offered the stadium an inflatable roof for the winter: another foiled impossibility.
Michel would tell you that today he no longer has the inclination to take on such crazy challenges. But one thing is for sure, he continues to give to his city and the young people so that a baseball culture can thrive. In 2016, he survived a helicopter crash that killed friends. He told himself that he owed something to life…
MUCH:
entrepreneurship is? “To fully engage in a project, knowing that the road can be bumpy. And it should also support. »
Who inspires you? “Claude Raymond, for his authenticity. Miles Wolff, for his passion, which led him to implement crazy projects and without which there would be no Capitals. Jean Tremblay for his ability to simplify.”
What did you keep from your childhood? “The one who became my spouse. We met when we were 8 years old! I’ve been dreaming a lot and I’m trying to find that state of mind!