Jacques Doucet, the ‘Voice of the Expos’ for 33 seasons, dies at 86

On Oct. 3, 2004, Marc Griffin, an analyst on Montreal Expos radio broadcasts, ended the final report in the baseball club’s history with the words: “Let me remind you of the final score: 1969-2004.”

Today, he could end his report by saying “1940-2026.”

Griffin’s longtime broadcast partner and mentor Jacques Doucet, known as the “Voice of the Expos” after calling the team’s games for 33 seasons, died Thursday evening at the age of 86.

His daughter Martine confirmed his death on social media Friday. The cause was not disclosed, but Doucet revealed in 2024 that he had Alzheimer’s disease.

“He was certainly a giant, and his loss is immense,” Griffin said in an interview with The Canadian Press on Friday. “His voice was part of our lives for generations. 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. He talked to them every night about what was happening with the Expos. There was a unique bond.’’

Tributes poured for a broadcaster whose voice became synonymous with baseball for generations of francophone fans in Quebec.

“My teacher and mentor left us today,” broadcaster Denis Casavant, who worked alongside Doucet at CKAC and TVA Sports, wrote on X. “Thank you, Jacques, for your generosity and kindness, and especially for the influence you had on my career as a play-by-play announcer. My condolences to his partner Corrie and the entire family.”

RDS baseball broadcaster Alain Usereau said the entire baseball community was mourning Doucet’s death.

“Anyone who has called baseball in Quebec was influenced in one way or another by Jacques,” Usereau wrote on Facebook. “His was the most-listened-to voice of the summer during the Expos years. Thank you for all those wonderful moments he brought us.”

Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette also paid tribute, saying the province had lost “a voice that left its mark on generations of baseball fans.”

“His legacy will remain very much alive in our memories and in our sporting culture,” she wrote on X.

Born March 8, 1940, in Montreal, Doucet began his career as a sports journalist with The Canadian Press in 1959 and later covered the Expos for Montreal newspaper La Presse when the expansion franchise began playing in 1969.

He initially called about one game a week before becoming the team’s full-time French-language radio play-by-play announcer in 1972, a role he held until the franchise left Montreal after the 2004 season and became the Washington Nationals.

Doucet acknowledged in a 2020 interview with The Canadian Press that he initially wasn’t sure broadcasting was for him.

“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.”

The next 33 years showed he had little reason to worry. Expos fans not only embraced Doucet, but his voice became the soundtrack of baseball for three generations of francophone fans.

Doucet called more than 5,500 Major League Baseball games during his career, including Dennis Martinez’s perfect game for the Expos on July 28, 1991. For years, he also provided French-language broadcasts of Major League Baseball playoff and World Series games.

For Griffin, the departure of the Expos was probably the hardest moment of Doucet’s career. Doucet was also repeatedly passed over for the Ford C. Frick Award, an honour presented by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., for excellence in broadcasting.

“The Expos leaving was probably what hurt him the most,” Griffin said. “Because that was 36 years of his life, of passion, of trying to sell his sport, the Expos, of getting everyone to love baseball, which he succeeded in doing.’’

After believing his broadcasting career was over with the departure of the Expos, Doucet received an unexpected call from the Quebec Capitales, then an independent professional baseball team in the Can-Am League.

He called their games from 2006 to 2011 before returning to Major League Baseball broadcasts with TVA Sports, where he called Toronto Blue Jays games and MLB playoff action in French.

His final innings behind the microphone came in September 2022, alongside longtime colleagues Rodger Brulotte, who died in March, and Casavant.

The Blue Jays were scheduled to honour Doucet before Friday’s game against the Seattle Mariners.

Doucet was inducted into the Quebec Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Expos Hall of Fame the following year. He received the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s Jack Graney Award in 2004 and the Quebec national assembly’s Medal of Honour in 2011.

He was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020, though the COVID-19 pandemic and later health problems delayed his formal induction ceremony in St. Marys, Ont., until 2023.

Doucet also played an important role in developing and popularizing the French-language vocabulary used to describe baseball, helping generations of francophone fans follow a sport whose terminology was overwhelmingly English.

He also wrote several books, including “Les Secrets du baseball” with former major-league pitcher Claude Raymond and “Il était une fois les Expos,” an extensive history of the franchise co-written with Marc Robitaille.

In 2014, Doucet published his autobiography, Mémoires d’un micro.