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Toronto Blue Jays
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2006-03-20 --


Ron Stead: Brantford�s other "Great One"

By Kevin Glew

Right around the time that Wayne Gretzky was born, there was another "Great One" making waves on the Brantford sports scene.

Only this athlete was overpowering opponents on the diamond, not the rink.

In 1961 � the year the hockey legend was born � Brantford Red Sox southpaw Ron Stead was on his way to establishing himself as the most dominant pitcher in Intercounty League history.

And while Gretzky would later lead the Edmonton Oilers to four Stanley Cup championships, Brantford�s other "Great One" was in the midst of a stretch in which he would carry the Sox to five consecutive league titles from 1959 to 1963.

When his nine-year tenure in Brantford ended in 1966, the ace lefty had won six Intercounty League crowns, three MVP awards, and was selected to seven all-star teams.

It�s only fitting then that Stead will become the first player inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame based on their amateur playing career. The former hurler who now lives in Chatham, will be enshrined in a ceremony in St. Marys, Ont., on June 24.

"It�s a great feeling � and for a lot of other people too, not just me," he said of the honour.

More than 1,000 people signed a document sent to the Hall endorsing his induction. Blue Jays president Paul Godfrey and previous Hall inductees Ron Taylor and Dave Shury also filed letters of support.

"A lot of people did a lot of hard work to make it happen," said Stead.

The resilient southpaw certainly made things happen on the mound during his Intercounty League career. After his tenure in Brantford, he would toil for the Guelph C-Joys for six more seasons, adding another championship and MVP award to his resume.

Stead retired in 1972 and remains the Intercounty League�s all-time leader in wins, innings pitched, shutouts, and complete games. He also holds single-season marks for innings pitched (149 in 1960) and strikeouts (156 in 1965).

Born in London, Ont., in 1936, Stead grew up in Toronto close to the old Maple Leaf Stadium.

"Where I lived in Toronto was right behind the Maple Leaf Stadium. I climbed the fence one day and I saw a guy out there hanging out sweat socks and towels and went over and talked to him. And it was the trainer for Toronto, Bill Smith," recalled Stead. "I just started going over when I thought he�d be out."

The young baseball lover was anointed the Leafs mascot in 1946, before becoming batboy the following campaign. While employed with the club, he also honed his pitching skills by tossing batting practice. And soon, he had developed into a decent prospect, earning himself a tryout with the Cleveland Indians in 1955.

In Cleveland, the skinny teen would impress the Tribe�s brass enough to offer him a contract, however, Hank Greenberg, who was the general manager at the time, would not include a signing bonus.

"He (Greenberg) said, �Well, you know we would love to have you in our organization, but we can�t get you any kind of a bonus because of your weight . . . We don�t know if you can get through a full season, especially if you have to go down in the hot weather," recounted Stead.

The Toronto native would get a better deal with his hometown Leafs, who were an independent, Triple-A team at the time. Stead inked a contract with Toronto and the club sent him to the Florida State League for the 1956 and 1957 seasons.

After the 1957 campaign, the Leafs asked him to go back to the Florida State League, but he declined.

"It was my decision to get out (of pro ball) . . . Toronto asked me to go back to the Florida State League again and I said, �No, that�s the wrong direction.� . . . I didn�t see that anything was getting any better," said Stead.

So the young hurler opted to return to Hogtown to plan his future.

"When I got back to Toronto . . . Art Holliman � he was the owner of the Brantford Red Sox at the time � he had a connection at Maple Leaf Stadium and they let him know that I was back. And he contacted me and asked if I would be interested in going down (to play for him)," he recalled.

And the rest, as they say, is history. Stead agreed to join the Sox and his record-setting Intercounty League run began. Of course, not playing professionally meant that he had to find work to support himself. The Red Sox helped him in his quest, but landing a steady job wasn�t easy.

"1957 was a very bad year for employment in Canada � in Ontario especially � and they (the Red Sox) had got me several jobs where I got laid off," he recalled.

Eventually, he secured work as a meter reader with Union Gas in 1959. The legendary left-hander would parlay that job into a successful career with the company that lasted until he retired in 1994.

It was in his near decade in Brantford (1958 to 1966) that Stead would establish himself as an Intercounty League star. In his first MVP season in 1960, he won 12 games and tossed a league-record 149 innings. He would top that in 1963 when he went 14-1 with a miniscule 0.63 ERA. But the former ace ranks his 1965 campaign as his finest.

"I had hurt my arm in the spring (of 1965). . . . I would stop at the doctor�s office on the way down (to the game) and get a . . . treatment on my arm and then go out and pitch," he recalled. "And that year for some reason . . . I suddenly had a legitimate fastball because I had always had a lot of movement on the ball, but it wasn�t overly fast � for some reason that seemed to pick up. So I was able to actually throw the ball by a few guys."

And throw the ball by a few guys he did, his 156 strikeouts that season set an Intercounty League mark that still stands today.

When Union Gas asked him to move to Guelph in 1967, he brought his overpowering arsenal to the C-Joys. In his first season with the club, he would post a 0.35 ERA and lead the team to a finals berth. Three years later, largely due to Stead�s mound mastery, the C-Joys would capture the league title.

Another highlight for Stead was pitching at the 1967 Pan Am Games in Winnipeg for the first national team that Canada ever assembled. The Intercounty League ace holds the distinction of being the first hurler to throw a pitch for Team Canada in an international competition.

"When we got to Winnipeg before the games, the last practice we had before Opening Day . . . I tore a cartilage in my knee," he recalled.

The determined southpaw overcame the injury, however, to hold the Mexican team to five hits over seven innings, while amassing 10 strikeouts.

Stead also pitched for the gold medal-winning Team Ontario squad at the 1969 Canada Summer Games.

When his playing career was over, Stead coached his children (Ron Jr., David, Heather, and his late son, Jeff) in minor baseball. Today, he lives with his wife, Betty, in Chatham. And while he still watches baseball, he doesn�t enjoy the modern game�s emphasis on relief pitching.

"To me one of the biggest things I liked about pitching was you got two or three men on and they let you work at it and you got out of it," he said.

This bulldog approach is the reason that Stead holds the Intercounty League record for most innings pitched in a season. It�s also one of the reasons he will be the first amateur player inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. He�s hoping, however, that he won�t be last.

"There�s a lot of kids that have got a lot of talent and there are many reasons why they can�t follow it . . . It�s just the brakes of life in some cases . . . I think they deserve some recognition for it too," he said.

But to gain this type of recognition, players will have to rack up some pretty unbelievable numbers before they can follow Brantford�s other "Great One" into Canada�s most hallowed baseball shrine.





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