MONTREAL, Quebec — Jacques Doucet, the legendary French-language baseball broadcaster whose voice became inseparable from the Montreal Expos and helped generations of Quebec fans fall in love with the sport, died Thursday evening, August 27, 2026. He was 86.

Doucet’s death was confirmed Friday morning by his daughter, Martine, prompting an outpouring of tributes from former players, broadcasters, baseball organizations and fans across Canada.

For more than three decades, Doucet provided the French-language play-by-play soundtrack to Montreal Expos baseball, describing virtually every important period in the franchise’s history from the early 1970s until the club left Montreal following the 2004 season.

He later continued broadcasting baseball through the Quebec Capitales and Toronto Blue Jays, remaining behind a microphone until health problems eventually forced him to retire in 2022. In 2024, Doucet publicly revealed that he was living with Alzheimer’s disease. His family had not publicly announced a specific cause of death in the initial reports Friday.

For baseball fans in Quebec, however, Doucet represented much more than a broadcaster.

He helped build a French-language vocabulary for a sport whose terminology had largely developed in English, giving French-speaking listeners words and expressions through which baseball could become part of their own culture.

Baseball Québec, paying tribute after his death, described Doucet as a builder, ambassador and passionate teacher whose relationship with the sport in Quebec stretched across more than six decades.

Jacques Doucet’s Daughter Martine Confirms His Death

News of Doucet’s passing began spreading Friday morning after his daughter Martine announced that he had died Thursday evening.

Canadian media organizations quickly confirmed the death.

Doucet was 86.

No detailed medical explanation for his death was immediately released, although his declining health had been publicly known.

He revealed in 2024 that he had Alzheimer’s disease, two years after health problems brought his active broadcasting career to an end.

The news immediately resonated throughout Montreal and Quebec.

For generations of families, Doucet’s voice had accompanied summer evenings, long car rides and countless Expos games.

Some fans experienced Montreal baseball from the seats at Jarry Park or Olympic Stadium.

Many more followed the team through the radio.

For those listeners, Doucet became the person who transformed what was happening hundreds or thousands of miles away into something they could imagine in detail.

Jacques Doucet Became the Voice of the Montreal Expos

Doucet’s connection with the Montreal Expos began before he became their celebrated radio announcer.

He started his career in sports journalism in 1959 with La Presse Canadienne, according to The Canadian Press.

When Major League Baseball arrived in Montreal, Doucet covered the Expos for the daily newspaper La Presse, including their inaugural period beginning in 1969.

By 1972, he had moved into full-time French-language radio play-by-play.

That decision would define the next 33 seasons of his career.

From 1972 through the final season in 2004, Doucet described the Expos for Quebec listeners.

He was there as the franchise developed from an expansion team into a club capable of producing stars, playoff races and some of the most memorable moments in Canadian baseball history.

He described victories and losing streaks.

He followed generations of players.

He called games from Montreal and stadiums across Major League Baseball.

His career eventually included more than 5,500 major-league games, according to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Few broadcasters become so strongly associated with a team that their voice effectively becomes part of the franchise’s identity.

Doucet achieved that status in Montreal.

He Called Some of the Biggest Moments in Expos History

Over three decades, Doucet was present for many of the franchise’s defining moments.

Among them was Dennis Martínez’s perfect game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 28, 1991.

Martínez retired all 27 batters he faced, producing one of the rarest accomplishments in baseball.

Doucet’s French-language description helped preserve the moment for Quebec listeners.

The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame specifically cites the Martínez perfect game among the historic Expos events Doucet called during his career.

His years in the booth also covered the Expos’ only postseason appearance in 1981, the careers of stars who became deeply connected with Montreal, and the emotionally difficult final years when uncertainty surrounded the franchise’s future.

When the Expos eventually relocated to Washington after the 2004 season and became the Washington Nationals, Doucet’s 33-year run as their full-time French-language radio voice came to an end.

The departure was not merely the loss of a sports franchise.

For longtime fans, it ended a cultural routine that had lasted decades.

Doucet’s voice remained one of the strongest reminders of that era.

Doucet Helped Give Baseball a French Vocabulary

One of Doucet’s most important contributions was linguistic.

Baseball developed largely through English-language terminology, creating a challenge for broadcasters attempting to describe the game naturally to French-speaking audiences.

Doucet helped solve that problem.

Rather than relying constantly on English terms, he developed, refined and popularized French-language expressions that allowed listeners to experience baseball entirely in French.

Baseball Québec director general Maxime Lamarche described Doucet after his death as a kind of “poet” of baseball and credited him with finding the words needed to communicate a heavily English-language sport to Francophone audiences.

His influence extended beyond individual broadcasts.

The language he used became part of the way baseball was discussed in Quebec.

That meant children learning the sport could hear it described in their own language.

Parents could explain games using terminology familiar from Doucet’s broadcasts.

Other broadcasters had a foundation on which to build.

For that reason, his legacy exists not only in recordings of famous Expos games but in the vocabulary of French-language baseball itself.

Denis Casavant Remembers His Mentor

Broadcaster Denis Casavant was among those who offered particularly personal tributes after Doucet’s death.

Casavant began working around Doucet and broadcaster Rodger Brulotte at CKAC in 1986 when he was only 21.

He later recalled Doucet taking him under his wing and teaching him how to prepare and operate as a professional baseball broadcaster.

Casavant credited much of his own approach to baseball terminology and broadcasting methods to what he learned from Doucet.

He remembered an intensely prepared broadcaster whose work began long before the first pitch.

Doucet’s preparation involved detailed score sheets, notes and information organized in advance so that listeners would receive context without the broadcast becoming overwhelmed by statistics.

Casavant’s tribute illustrated another dimension of Doucet’s legacy.

He did not simply entertain audiences.

He trained and influenced the broadcasters who followed him.

After Doucet’s death, Casavant publicly described him as his teacher and mentor and thanked him for his generosity and influence on his career.

Rodger Brulotte and Jacques Doucet Became a Famous Broadcasting Combination

Doucet’s name is also closely linked to late broadcaster Rodger Brulotte, another giant of French-language baseball broadcasting.

Brulotte joined the Expos’ French radio operation as a color commentator in the 1980s and became one of Doucet’s best-known broadcasting colleagues.

Their voices became familiar to generations of Quebec fans.

Brulotte died on March 20, 2026, at age 79, only about five months before Doucet’s death.

That means Quebec baseball has lost two of its most recognizable voices in the same year.

Tributes following Doucet’s death repeatedly connected the two broadcasters and reflected on how their work shaped French-language coverage of the Expos.

For longtime listeners, their conversations, descriptions and personalities became part of the rhythm of baseball season.

Doucet Continued Broadcasting After the Expos Left

The Expos’ relocation did not end Doucet’s career.

From 2006 through 2011, he called games for the Quebec Capitales, an independent professional baseball team.

His presence brought additional attention and credibility to the organization and allowed baseball fans in Quebec to continue hearing one of their most familiar voices.

The Capitales remembered Doucet after his death as an important part of the organization’s history.

The club said his voice, passion and love for baseball had influenced several generations of Quebecers.

Doucet later returned to Major League Baseball broadcasting through French-language coverage of the Toronto Blue Jays.

He worked games on television, including for TVA Sports, and continued until his retirement after the 2022 season.

His career therefore extended far beyond the Expos.

Yet Montreal remained the team with which his identity was most permanently linked.

Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame Recognized His Career

Doucet received numerous honors over the course of his career.

He was inducted into the Quebec Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Montreal Expos Hall of Fame in 2003.

In 2004, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame awarded him its Jack Graney Award, presented to media members who have made significant contributions to baseball in Canada through their careers.

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

Pandemic disruptions delayed the formal ceremony, and he was ultimately honored in person at the Hall’s induction festivities in St. Marys, Ontario, in 2023.

His induction recognized a career that had extended across journalism, radio, television and baseball promotion.

The Hall noted that many Quebec baseball fans credited Doucet with being one of the reasons they became interested in the game.

Doucet Was Repeatedly Considered for Cooperstown Broadcasting Honor

One major honor remained elusive.

Doucet was repeatedly considered for the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award, the prestigious honor recognizing excellence in baseball broadcasting.

He was a finalist multiple times.

Most recently, Doucet was among the 10 finalists for the 2026 award alongside broadcasters including Joe Buck, Gary Cohen, Dan Shulman and John Sterling.

Joe Buck ultimately received the honor.

Doucet never received the Frick Award during his lifetime.

His supporters frequently argued that his enormous influence on baseball broadcasting—especially his role in establishing French-language terminology—deserved recognition in Cooperstown.

Following his death, those discussions resurfaced.

For admirers, the absence of a Frick Award did little to diminish the significance of his career.

His influence was already evident in Quebec homes, ballparks, broadcasting booths and the vocabulary of the game.

National Assembly Honored Doucet

Baseball organizations were not the only institutions to recognize Doucet.

In 2011, he received a Medal of Honour from Quebec’s National Assembly, another indication that his significance extended beyond sports broadcasting.

Doucet later described the National Assembly honor and his Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame election as among the highest recognitions of his career.

That broader recognition reflected the cultural role the Expos once occupied in Quebec.

The club was not simply another professional sports franchise.

For many Quebecers, particularly during its strongest years, the Expos were part of the province’s identity.

Doucet was the voice through which much of that relationship was experienced.

He Also Supported Baseball at the Grassroots Level

Doucet’s contribution did not end when a broadcast finished.

He remained involved in developing baseball at the community level.

The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame notes that he served as an ambassador for Baseball Québec and supported fundraising efforts involving minor baseball teams.

He was also involved administratively with Quebec junior baseball and participated in other provincial baseball initiatives.

Baseball Québec emphasized this aspect of Doucet’s life in its tribute Friday.

The organization remembered him not simply as a famous voice but as someone who continued showing up for the sport and supporting people working at levels far below Major League Baseball.

That willingness to participate helped preserve his connection with ordinary fans and young players.

Even decades after becoming one of Quebec’s most recognizable sports personalities, Doucet remained accessible to the baseball community that had embraced him.

Tim Raines Among Those Paying Tribute

Former Expos star and Baseball Hall of Famer Tim Raines was among the prominent baseball figures responding to Doucet’s death.

Raines offered condolences to the Doucet family and Quebec baseball fans.

Former Expos broadcaster Jerry Trupiano also remembered Doucet as a legend in Quebec.

The reaction extended beyond former players.

Baseball organizations, broadcasters and people involved in preserving Expos history shared memories throughout Friday.

Perry Gee, well known for promoting the history of the Expos, remembered Doucet as someone who consistently participated in events connected with the team and described his impact on Canadian baseball as immeasurable.

The range of those tributes demonstrated how many different parts of baseball Doucet had touched.

Toronto Blue Jays Plan Tribute

The Toronto Blue Jays also joined the tributes.

The organization announced that it would observe a moment of silence at Rogers Centre before Friday’s game against the Seattle Mariners.

The Blue Jays described Doucet as Quebec’s “Voice of Baseball” and emphasized the lasting influence he had on both the sport and the history of the Montreal Expos.

The gesture was especially fitting because Doucet spent the later portion of his career broadcasting Blue Jays games in French.

That work allowed him to introduce another generation of Quebec fans to Major League Baseball long after Montreal no longer had a team of its own.

Doucet Retired in 2022 Amid Health Problems

Doucet’s final retirement came after the 2022 season.

By then, his broadcasting career had stretched across more than six decades from his earliest days in journalism.

Health concerns brought the long run to an end.

Two years later, Doucet revealed publicly that he was living with Alzheimer’s disease.

A 2024 interview showed that although the illness had affected aspects of his life, memories of the Expos and baseball remained remarkably powerful for him.

The disease became part of his later years, but it did not erase the enormous body of work he had already created.

Nor has his family said in the initial death announcement that Alzheimer’s disease should be considered his official cause of death.

Absent such confirmation, it is more accurate simply to say that Doucet had previously disclosed the diagnosis.

His Voice Remained Connected to Montreal Even Without the Expos

More than two decades have passed since the Expos played their last season in Montreal.

Yet the team continues to occupy an unusually powerful place in the memories of many fans.

Expos hats remain visible.

Former players continue returning for events.

Discussions about bringing Major League Baseball back to Montreal periodically revive excitement and disappointment.

And recordings of old games preserve a world in which Montreal still had a place on the Major League schedule.

Doucet’s voice is embedded in those memories.

When fans revisit famous Expos moments, they often hear him.

That connection helps explain why his death feels to many people like the loss of another piece of the franchise itself.

Jacques Doucet Helped Generations Understand Baseball

The best broadcasters do more than describe where a ball travels.

They explain why a moment matters.

They make complicated strategy understandable without slowing the game.

They recognize when excitement requires volume and when a moment is powerful enough to speak for itself.

Doucet developed those skills over thousands of broadcasts.

But his challenge was even more complicated because he was helping create the language through which French-speaking audiences discussed many aspects of baseball.

As Baseball Québec and fellow broadcasters emphasized after his death, that linguistic work helped establish a tradition that continues today.

A young broadcaster working in French today inherits vocabulary and conventions built by people such as Doucet.

The contribution can be difficult to quantify, but it is enormous.

More Than 5,500 Major-League Games

The sheer volume of Doucet’s work is extraordinary.

The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame credits him with calling more than 5,500 Major League Baseball games.

That number represents thousands of hours behind a microphone.

Every season required travel, preparation and knowledge of constantly changing rosters.

Players arrived and retired.

Managers changed.

Stadiums opened and closed.

Broadcast technology evolved.

The Expos themselves went from an expansion franchise to a playoff contender and ultimately disappeared from Montreal.

Doucet remained.

That continuity made his voice a reliable presence through decades of change.

A Career That Began in Print Ended as a Broadcasting Institution

Doucet began as a journalist writing about sports.

He ended his career as one of the most important sports broadcasters Quebec had produced.

Between those points were more than 60 years of work connected in some way to baseball.

His progression from newspaper reporter to radio voice also placed him in a generation of journalists who learned to communicate the game through several different media.

On radio, the challenge was particularly demanding.

Listeners could not see the field.

The broadcaster had to create it.

Doucet developed an ability to give people enough detail to visualize what was happening while maintaining the rhythm of a baseball game.

That talent made his voice familiar even to people who may not remember individual scores or seasons.

The Baseball Community Mourns a Second Broadcasting Giant in 2026

Doucet’s death comes during an already painful year for French-language baseball broadcasting in Canada.

Rodger Brulotte died in March at 79.

Now Doucet has died at 86.

Together, the two names represented decades of baseball history.

Their deaths within months of each other underline the passage of time since the Expos era ended.

A generation of players, executives, journalists and broadcasters associated with Montreal’s Major League franchise is gradually disappearing.

But recordings and the memories of those who listened ensure that their work survives.

Family and Loved Ones Mourn Jacques Doucet

Public tributes have understandably focused on Doucet’s career, but his death is first a personal loss for those closest to him.

His daughter Martine was the person who confirmed his death.

Broadcaster Denis Casavant’s tribute also extended condolences to Doucet’s partner Corrie and the entire family.

Details concerning funeral or memorial services were not immediately included in the first reports.

Those arrangements may be announced by the family later.

For now, tributes have centered on the enormous professional and cultural legacy Doucet leaves behind.

Jacques Doucet Leaves an Enduring Baseball Legacy

Jacques Doucet lived long enough to see his contribution formally recognized by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

He lived long enough to hear younger broadcasters describe him as a mentor.

He saw generations of children who first encountered baseball through his broadcasts become adults who still associated summer with his voice.

And although the Montreal Expos disappeared after the 2004 season, the bond between Doucet and the franchise never disappeared with them.

He had narrated too much of their history.

From his beginnings as a sports journalist to 33 seasons behind the Expos microphone, from independent baseball in Quebec to French-language Toronto Blue Jays broadcasts, Doucet spent much of his life explaining a game he loved.

He did so in a way that helped French-speaking audiences feel that baseball belonged to them as well.

That may ultimately be his greatest legacy.

Awards document the career.

Hall of Fame recognition confirms its importance.

Statistics show that he called thousands of games.

But those numbers cannot fully measure what it meant for families across Quebec to switch on a radio and immediately recognize the man describing the game.

For decades, Jacques Doucet was that voice.

He was the connection between the field and the listener.

He was a link between Major League Baseball and French-speaking Quebec.

And even after the Expos left Montreal, he remained a living connection to the summers when professional baseball occupied a unique place in the city.

Jacques Doucet died Thursday evening at the age of 86, but the vocabulary he helped create, the broadcasters he influenced and the memories preserved through thousands of games ensure that his voice will remain part of Quebec baseball history for generations