Pierre-Luc "Pete" Laforest (born January 27, 1978) is a Canadian former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catc ...

and was the first manager of the Trois-Rivières Aigles.

Career

Laforest is a graduate of

Fort Scott Community College Fort Scott Community College is a Public college, public community college in Fort Scott, Kansas. It has satellite buildings in other cities in Crawford County, Kansas, Crawford County, including Pittsburg, Kansas, Pittsburg and Frontenac, Kansa ...

. He was a draft pick of the

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos () were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in the National League (baseball), National League ...

, but has also played for the

Tampa Bay Devil Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in the Tampa Bay area. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. They are one of two major league clubs based i ...

, the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. ...

, and the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

. In 2003, Laforest missed spring training and the first month of the season due to

visa Visa most commonly refers to: * Travel visa, a document that allows entry to a foreign country * Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Vi ...

problems. Since 1997, he had improperly used a student visa to enter the United States, and in the wake of the

September 11 terrorist attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

he was denied entry to the country until an

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

background check had been completed. Laforest did not speak English until moving to the United States to attend community college, as he was raised in Quebec where the main language is French.Rays: Rays tales
/ref> In winter 2007/08, Laforest played for the Mexicali Eagles in the

Mexican Pacific League The Mexican Pacific League (, or LMP), also known as the Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacífico for sponsorship reasons, is a professional baseball Winter league baseball, winter league based in Northwestern Mexico. The league comprises 10 teams. It wa ...

. In February , he signed a minor league contract with the Florida Marlins, but was released during training camp. He then signed a contract with the Rojos del Águila de Veracruz a AAA-level team in the

Mexican League The Mexican Baseball League (, or LMB, ) is a professional baseball league in Mexico. It is the oldest running professional sports league in the country. The league has 20 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games ...

. In May of the same year, he joined the Capitales de Québec, an independent team in his home province of Quebec. In 2013, he was hired as the manager of the Trois-Rivières Aigles in the

Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball The Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball, commonly known as the Can-Am League, was a professional baseball league with teams in Eastern Canada and Northeastern United States. Founded in 2005 in Dayton, Ohio, the league was for ...

. Laforest was fired on July 11, 2016, and replaced by batting coach Maxime Poulin. He is now owner of B45 Baseball Academy in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

International career

He was part of Team Canada at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

and

2006 World Baseball Classic The 2006 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was the inaugural tournament between national baseball teams that included players from Major League Baseball. It was held from March 3 to 20 in stadiums in or around Tokyo, Japan, and the American cities o ...

References

External links

1978 births Águilas de Mexicali players Arizona League Padres players Baseball managers Baseball people from Quebec Baseball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Canadian expatriate baseball players in Mexico Canadian expatriate baseball players in the United States Caribes de Oriente players Canadian expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Charleston RiverDogs players Durham Bulls players Fort Scott Greyhounds baseball players Gulf Coast Expos players Gulf Coast Devil Rays players Lehigh Valley IronPigs players Living people Major League Baseball catchers Major League Baseball players from Canada Mesa Solar Sox players Mexican League baseball catchers Mexican League baseball first basemen Mexican League baseball third basemen Minor league baseball managers Olympic baseball players for Canada Orlando Rays players Portland Beavers players Philadelphia Phillies players Princeton Devil Rays players Québec Capitales players Rojos del Águila de Veracruz players San Diego Padres players Somerset Patriots players Sportspeople from Gatineau St. Petersburg Devil Rays players Tampa Bay Devil Rays players Tomateros de Culiacán players Trois-Rivières Aigles players World Baseball Classic players of Canada 2006 World Baseball Classic players {{Canada-baseball-catcher-stub