Jacques Doucet Cooperstown: Hall of Fame Case

The Ford-C.-Frick Award, which is synonymous with a pass to the Baseball Hall of Fame, will be awarded on Wednesday. Former Montreal Expos describer Jacques Doucet once again finds himself among the finalists. He has been waiting for the call from Cooperstown for more than 20 years now.

I’ve lost count a bit, but I think this year is the 10th time he’s been nominated.confides his daughter, Martine Doucet.

We discussed it (at the end of the week), he told me that he no longer really believed in it, but that it would make him immensely happy to be admitted. But he told me: “If I see Baseball Hall of Fame on my display on Wednesday, I’m going to respond!”

The Ford-C.-Frick Prize has been awarded each year since 1978 to a commentator to highlight his contribution majeure au baseball.

RDS baseball game describer Alain Usereau is convinced that Jacques Doucet’s entry into Cooperstown is only a matter of time.

I have no doubt he will come in at some point, I just hope it happens sooner rather than later. As Jacques gets older, it would be nice if he were recognized soonhe said.

There are still some very big names in candidacy this year, that’s the problem. There are no bad choices on the listindicates Mr. Usereau.

Very few describers or analysts can, however, boast of having enjoyed as much popularity as that of Jacques Doucet, according to him.

The number of ears that have listened to the voice of Jacques Doucet is immense. It had ratings around a million. There was an entire province listening to him. In the 70s and 80s, you were walking in a vacation spot, near a lake, and what you heard on the radio was an Expos game described by Jacques. It was part of the summer of most Quebecers at that time.

His mark is still very present today, recalls his daughter. He is an icon of popular culture in Quebec. We hear his voice in Marc Déry’s latest album. I heard his voice in The little one and the old mana recently released filmshe said.

He has had almost all possible recognition in Canada and Quebec. All he’s missing is the Baseball Hall of Fame. I think that would further consolidate the influence he had. At the same time, I think his legacy is well etched.

His legacy is notably that of a French-speaking vocabulary to describe a sport which was practiced and listened to mainly in English. Alain Usereau is one of those who inherited the dictionary Little Doucet.

He and his analyst Claude Raymond did an enormous amount of work to build a lexicon. There had already been translations, books written in French. They put it togetherhe recalls.

His daughter Martine remembers, when she was very young, hearing her father, now 85 years old, in the middle of a brainstorming session. He was on the phone with Claude Raymond. He searched through dictionaries. I have a very clear memory of them discussing the choice of the term shortstop to refer to the position of shortstop.

His father was a French teacher, by the way. His desire to speak the language well also comes a little from theresays Martine Doucet.

As much as the French language has served Jacques Doucet well in Quebec, it harms him south of the border. There is a lack of awareness of his work in the United States. There is a lack of understanding of the contribution he made to the French-speaking worldunderlines Mr. Usereau.

These are Americans who vote, and it’s difficult to evaluate my father’s candidacy if you don’t speak French.

The other element that works against Jacques Doucet is the departure of his team, when the Expos moved to Washington in 2005.

It’s been years since the Expos existed, time passessays Alain Usereau. Fewer and fewer of the people called to vote have been in contact with Jacques.

Dave Van Horne, Jacques Doucet’s English-speaking partner in Montreal, was elected in 2011.

Three Spanish speakers earned their place in the Hall of Fame through the Ford C. Frick Award. Buck Canel in 1985, Jaime Jarrn in 1998 and Felo Ramirez in 2001. Ramirez also delivered his induction speech entirely in Spanish.

If they nominate him again, it is because they consider that he has a certain importance. It would still be strange if he never wonindicates Martine Doucet. Obviously, we all want him to win during his lifetime. There are still many who obtain the prize posthumously. There he would still be fit enough to make the trip to Cooperstown.

A Netflix effect?

In October, while the Toronto Blue Jays were in the midst of a run to the World Series, another Canadian team was attracting attention on Netflix. The American giant has dedicated a documentary to the history of the Expos, trying to elucidate the mystery of their disappearance.

The work brought the rich history of the team to the forefront, but Jacques Doucet does not appear there. He is completely absent. We see it briefly, once or twicepoints out his daughter. He was also not approached to participate in the documentary.

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For this reason, Martine Doucet does not believe the documentary will have a real effect on her father’s chances of being inducted this year. There are historians among those who vote, there is already the history of baseball. Will this put the Expos back a bit? Maybe, but I doubt it.

I know the documentary had a certain impact. People from the United States have written to me about the documentary, but I really doubt that it will influence the vote for this awardadds Alain Usereau.

It’s hard to blame the voters when you look at the quality of the candidates. Rather, the problem is that there is no one in Cooperstown to defend his candidacyhe concludes.

And as for the documentary on the Netflix platform, Jacques Doucet has not seen it, mentions his daughter. I asked him, and he said, “No, because I already know the ending.”

But there remains at least one page in the history of the Expos to be written, that of the entry into the Hall of Fame of the man who described 33 of their 36 seasons.