September 22, 2022

By Kevin Glew

Canadian Baseball Network

Jacques Doucet officially announced his retirement on Wednesday night.

The 82-year-old Canadian broadcasting legend, who has been unable to work this season due to health issues, told Rodger Brulotte and Denis Casavant of his decision during the French broadcast of the Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays game on TVA Sports last night.

An emotional Doucet told Brulotte and Casavant that he has no regrets about his career, but that it is time to stop broadcasting.

Doucet was the French voice of the Montreal Expos from 1972 to 2004 and since 2011, he had been calling Blue Jays games in French for TVA Sports.

Earlier this year, Doucet announced he wouldn’t be able to attend his induction into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ont., because he was battling anemia.

TVA Sports ran a touching tribute to Doucet during their broadcast.

Born in Montreal in 1940, Doucet called major league baseball games for more than four decades and many Quebec baseball fans credit him as the reason they fell in love with the sport.

Doucet served as an Expos beat reporter for La Presse from the time the franchise was awarded to the city in 1968 to 1971. He began performing play-by-play for the Expos’ French language radio broadcasts in 1972 and continued for 33 seasons. For many years, Doucet also broadcast major league playoff and World Series games in French.

In a Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame Zoom call in February, Doucet said there are a few games that stand out as highlights.

“First, the [1982] All-Star Game in Montreal,” said Doucet. “That was the first time it was held outside the United States and it was a large success. And I was part of it because I was one of the emcees.”

Doucet also cited the two perfect games he called – Expos ace Dennis Martinez’s masterpiece against the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 28, 1991 and New York Yankees right-hander David Cone’s flawless performance against the Expos on July 18, 1999 – as highlights.

“And also I had the privilege of calling, well I have to say two perfect games, but there was three because Pedro Martinez had one for nine innings (on June 3, 1995 against the San Diego Padres), but he lost it in the 10th,” said Doucet.

After the Expos left for Washington following the 2004 season, Doucet continued his broadcast career in his home province, calling games for the independent Can-Am League’s Quebec Capitales from 2006 to 2011.

In August 2011, he returned to the big leagues to broadcast select Blue Jays games in French for TVA Sports and he continued in that role until last season.

In total, Doucet has called more than 5,500 big league games during his storied career. For his efforts, he was inducted into the Quebec Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Montreal Expos Hall of Fame in 2003. The following year, he won the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s Jack Graney Award, which is handed out annually by the Hall to a member of the media who has made significant contributions to baseball in Canada through their life’s work.

In 2019, he was one of eight finalists for the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s 2020 Ford C. Frick Award.

Doucet has also been a strong supporter of baseball at the grassroots level in Quebec. As an ambassador for Baseball Quebec, he has been an active supporter of many fundraising activities for minor baseball teams in the province. He also served as an executive with the Quebec Junior Elite Baseball League from 2004 to 2010 and was involved in the Quebec Summer Games held in Longueuil in 2014.

Doucet was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020.

“I feel a little bit out of place among all of those great baseball players [that have been inducted] . . . But since you’ve given me the honour of being among those stars, I will accept it humbly,” said Doucet at the beginning of the Canadian ball hall’s Zoom call this past February.