Ron Stead

Ronald Duncan Stead (September 24, 1936 – December 5, 2011) was a Canadian baseball pitcher. He played briefly in Minor League Baseball, then went on to play for over a decade in the Intercounty Baseball League of Ontario, setting multiple league records. He was inducted to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. Listed at and , he threw left-handed and batted right-handed.

Biography Stead grew up in Toronto near Maple Leaf Stadium, home ballpark of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League. In 1956, he signed a player contract with the Maple Leafs and was assigned to the Florida State League (FSL).

Stead played in Minor League Baseball during 1956, 1957, and part of 1958. His statistics for the season are incomplete, although a newspaper box score shows he allowed eight runs in innings of relief during a game in May.

In early June 1958, Stead joined the Brantford Red Sox, a team in the amateur Intercounty Baseball League of Southern Ontario. One of his teammates with Brantford was outfielder Jimmy Wilkes, who had played several seasons in Negro league baseball. Stead went on to pitch for Brantford for nine seasons, through 1966, and pitched 14 total seasons in the Intercounty Baseball League, finishing in 1972 with the Guelph CJoys. Stead had great success in the league, including a 0.35 ERA in 1967, setting a new league record. He was named an all-star 10 times, Stead's uniform number, 11, was retired by the Brantford Red Sox in 2002. He still held multiple Intercounty Baseball League records, including career wins (104) and strikeouts (1,231), when he was inducted to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. Canada won its second game in the tournament, defeating Puerto Rico by a 3–2 score. The win over Puerto Rico was forfeited, and the Canadian team continued in the tournament without the ineligible players, Stead later played for the champion Ontario baseball team at the 1969 Canada Games.

Outside of baseball, Stead worked for Union Gas. He died in 2011, aged 75.