Jacques Doucet, the longtime French-language radio voice of the Montreal Expos and one of the most influential broadcasters in Quebec baseball, died Thursday evening, his family announced Friday. Doucet revealed in 2024 that he had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Doucet was born March 8, 1940, in Montreal.
He began his journalism career with the Canadian Press before moving into sports reporting. When Montreal was awarded a Major League Baseball franchise in 1968, La Presse assigned Doucet to cover the new Expos. He also served as an official scorer at Jarry Park.
During the team's inaugural season in 1969, he began making occasional radio appearances, filling in on the Expos' French broadcasts. In 1972, Doucet moved into the booth full-time as the team's French-language play-by-play announcer. He remained there for 33 seasons, through the Expos' final game in Montreal in 2004.
During that span, he called more than 5,500 major league games. He also broadcast postseason and World Series games in French. Doucet became closely associated with the development of baseball terminology in French.
His broadcasts helped establish a vocabulary for the sport in Quebec at a time when much of baseball's language was imported directly from English. More news: Former Tigers, Red Sox Catcher Dies After the Expos moved to Washington following the 2004 season, Doucet continued broadcasting. He worked with the Quebec Capitales from 2006 to 2011 before joining TVA Sports, where he called Toronto Blue Jays games in French.
His honors accumulated over the years. He was inducted into the Quebec Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Montreal Expos Hall of Fame in 2003. He received the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame's Jack Graney Award in 2004 and was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020.
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