French-language broadcaster Jacques Doucet, ‘Voice of the Expos,’ dies at 86
Pioneering Canadian French-language sports broadcaster Jacques Doucet, known as the “Voice of the Expos,” died Thursday. He was 86.
“We join the MLB community and our colleagues at TVASports in extending our sincere condolences to the family and friends of Jacques Doucet,” wrote the Toronto Blue Jays in a statement. “The ‘Voice of Baseball’ in Quebec and a Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer — his impact on the game and the Montreal Expos will be remembered forever.”
The French Canadian was born in Montreal in 1940 and went from journalist to radio broadcaster, serving as the play-by-play announcer for the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals) for 33 seasons, calling more than 5,000 games, including two perfect games (Dennis Martinez, July 28, 1991; David Cone, July 18, 1999), as well as World Series games from 1982 through 1995.
We join the MLB community and our colleagues at @TVASports in extending our sincere condolences to the family and friends of Jacques Doucet.
The ‘Voice of Baseball’ in Quebec and a Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer – his impact on the game and the Montreal Expos will be remembered… pic.twitter.com/vPzqzIJVI3
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) August 28, 2026
In doing so, he broadened interest in baseball within Canada’s French-speaking audience. Doucet is also credited with helping coin many of baseball’s terms and phrases that did not exist in French. For instance, a shoestring catch became “vol au sol,” the type of lyrical mastery that led many to consider him the French equivalent of the late Vin Scully, a pioneering voice in his own right and the backdrop of Los Angeles Dodgers games for many generations.
“Everywhere I went, people said, ‘Jacques, we miss you,’” a 70-year-old Doucet told The New York Times in 2010. “It was part of my life for 33 years. To me it could be Little League or semipro or Major League Baseball; once the game starts, it’s all the same to me. I still jump out of my seat when I see a fine double play.”
Long after the Expos left Montreal for Washington, Doucet continued to call games, his deep voice providing the sounds for independent league games, his place in history solidified, his passion for an adopted sport unwavering.
“My teacher and mentor left us today,” broadcaster Denis Casavant, a colleague of Doucet, wrote online. “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.”
Doucet is a member of the Quebec Baseball Hall of Fame, the Expos Hall of Fame and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. However, despite being nominated multiple times, including as recently as 2011, for the Ford C. Frick Award, the Baseball Hall of Fame’s highest honor for broadcasters, Doucet never received it.
“My only regret is that I never had the opportunity to broadcast a World Series game involving the Expos,” Doucet wrote in an article published by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).