Jacques Doucet, the beloved French-language voice of the Montreal Expos whose signature home run calls became the soundtrack of summer for generations of baseball fans in Quebec, died Thursday evening at the age of 86, according to his family. His daughter Martine confirmed his death on social media on Friday, though a specific cause of death was not disclosed. Doucet had publicly revealed in 2024 that he was living with Alzheimer’s disease.
A Transformative Career Behind the Mic
Born in Montreal on March 8, 1940, Doucet originally trained as a print journalist, launching his career with The Canadian Press in 1959 before covering the fledgling Expos for the Montreal newspaper La Presse when the Major League Baseball expansion franchise debuted in 1969. Initially, Doucet called only about one game a week before taking over as the team’s full-time French-language radio play-by-play announcer in 1972—a post he held for 33 seasons until the franchise relocated to Washington, D.C., following the 2004 campaign to become the Washington Nationals.
Reflecting on his transition from newsroom writer to broadcaster in a 2020 interview with The Canadian Press, Doucet admitted he initially doubted his fit for the medium. “I didn’t know if I was going to like it: I knew nothing about the job,” he said. “I was a reporter at La Presse. I was used to writing, not talking. I didn’t know whether people would take to me. You can do the best job in the world as a broadcaster, but if people don’t take to you, you won’t last long.”
Shaping the French-Language Baseball Lexicon
Beyond calling games, Doucet played a pioneering role in developing and popularizing the French-language vocabulary used to describe baseball in Canada. Because baseball terminology was overwhelmingly English, Doucet helped create and standardize French equivalents, enabling generations of francophone fans across Quebec to follow and understand the sport deeply.
Over a career spanning more than five decades, Doucet called over 5,500 Major League Baseball games. Among his most memorable broadcasts was Dennis Martinez’s historic perfect game for the Expos on July 28, 1991, against the Los Angeles Dodgers. His work earned him widespread recognition, including induction into the Quebec Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Expos Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2004, he received the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s prestigious Jack Graney Award, followed by the Quebec National Assembly’s Medal of Honour in 2011.
Tributes from Across the Baseball Community
Following the announcement of his passing, figures from across Canadian sports and politics shared memories of a broadcaster who felt like a personal friend to listeners across the province. Marc Griffin, a former Expos radio analyst and Doucet’s longtime broadcast partner, noted that Doucet’s passing marks the loss of a genuine giant in Canadian broadcasting. “His voice was part of our lives for generations,” Griffin said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “He’s the one who made me fall in love with baseball. His honesty, his frankness, the way he described things… He was in everyone’s living room, so when people ran into him on the street, they felt like he was their buddy.”
Broadcaster Denis Casavant, who worked alongside Doucet at CKAC and TVA Sports, wrote on X that his mentor had left an indelible mark on his own career. “Thank you, Jacques, for your generosity and kindness, and especially for the influence you had on my career as a play-by-play announcer,” Casavant wrote. RDS baseball broadcaster Alain Usereau echoed those sentiments on Facebook, noting that anyone who has called baseball in Quebec was influenced by Doucet. Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette also offered condolences via social media, stating that the province had lost a voice that defined the sporting culture of an entire era.
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