Ron Piché
Ronald Jacques Piché was a Canadian professional baseball player who pitched in the Major Leagues from 1960–63 and in 1965–66 for the Milwaukee Braves, Los Angeles Angels and St. Louis Cardinals. A native of Verdun, Quebec, he threw and batted right-handed and was listed as tall and .
Piché's professional pitching career lasted for 17 seasons between 1955 and 1972, and included 134 games in the majors. Only in, when he worked in 37 games for Braves, all but one of them out of the bullpen, did he spend a full campaign at the major league level. All told, Piché had a 10–16 win–loss record with 12 saves. Although he started only 11 of his 134 career MLB games pitched, he threw three complete games. In 221 innings pitched, he allowed 216 hits and 123 bases on balls, with 157 strikeouts, while posting a career earned run average of 4.19. He appeared in 500 minor league baseball games, and compiled a stellar 130–65 career record with an ERA of 2.96. After retiring from the mound, he served in the Montreal Expos organization as a minor league coach and was the Expos' bullpen coach in under managers Karl Kuehl and Charlie Fox.
One of his best days in the major leagues occurred on May 30, 1962. He was the starting pitcher for the Braves in the first game of a doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds. He pitched a complete game, allowing six hits, and also got his first and only major league hit. In the last of the fourth inning, with two outs and runners on first and second, he hit a single to the shortstop Leo Cárdenas driving in two runs and reaching second on an error by Cárdenas. The Braves won the game, 5-4.
During his time in the major leagues, he was a teammate of eight Baseball Hall of Fame players, those being Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Red Schoendienst, Warren Spahn, Lou Brock, Steve Carlton, Orlando Cepeda and Bob Gibson.
Piché was also a volunteer firefighter with the Montreal Auxiliary Firemen. He died of cancer on February 3, 2011, at age 75.
