Claude Raymond

Jean Claude Marc Raymond
(Frenchy)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 175 lb.

• Debut April 15, 1959
• Final Game September 25, 1971
• Born May 7, 1937 in St. Jean, QC CAN

BR page

Biographical Information

Claude Raymond is considered a baseball hero in Quebec as the first Québécois to play for the Montreal Expos. He was an Expos French-language analyst on baseball broadcasts from 1972 to 2001, first teaming up with Jacques Doucet on radio broadcasts, and following the retirement of Jean-Pierre Roy in 1984, on Société Radio-Canada telecasts where he teamed up with Raymond Lebrun.

He was one of the public address announcers for the 1996 Olympics baseball tournament in Atlanta. The International Olympic Committee specifies that announcements at Olympic venues must also be made in French, making Raymond, who had previously pitched in Atlanta, uniquely well-suited for the job. He was later an Expos coach for the team's last three seasons in Montreal, from 2002 to 2004, with special responsibilities for liaison with the French-speaking media.

During his three years in a Milwaukee Braves uniform, Claude Raymond teamed up with Ron Piché in the bullpen. Piché, like Raymond, was Québécois.

In 2022, he teamed up with writer Marc Robitaille (the author of the young adult book Un été sans point ni coup sûr) to write his autobiography. Just after his retirement as a player, in 1973, he had written a much more superficial autobiography, which also served as an instruction book for young players, at a time when there was no market in Quebec for a serious biography or autobiography of a sports figure. In between, a biography intended for a young adult audience had been published in 2004, during the Expos' final season.

Notable Achievements

• NL All-Star (1966)

Further Reading

• Carl Dubé: Ma recherche sur Claude Raymond, Duchesne Éditeur, Montréal, QC, 2004. ISBN 2-922974-13-8
• Danny Gallagher: "Raymond a wonderful personality", in Remembering the Montreal Expos, Scoop Press, Toronto, ON, 2005, pp. 261-265.
• Claude Raymond and Marcel Gaudette: Le troisième retrait, Collection Sport, Les Éditions de l'Homme, Montréal, QC, 1973. ISBN 0-7759-0382-5
• Claude Raymond and Marc Robitaille: Frenchie: L'histoire de Claude Raymond, Éditions Hurtubise, Montréal, QC, 2022. ISBN 9782897817251

Related Sites

• Claude Raymond at the SABR Bio Project