Jacques Doucet (born March 8, 1940) is a retired Canadian radio announcer of baseball play-by-play in the French language. He broadcast Montreal Expos games for every year of the team's existence, from 1969 to 2004. After commenting on the Québec Capitales from 2006 to 2010, he became the French play-by-play voice of the Toronto Blue Jays on TVA Sports from 2011 until his retirement in 2022.
Early career
Doucet began his career in 1959 as a translator for the Canadian Press news agency. in addition to being the official scorer for games at Jarry Park.
Sometime in the middle of the Expos' first season in 1969, Doucet was asked to occasionally replace Jean-Pierre Roy as colour commentator including two perfect games (by Dennis Martínez in 1991 against the Los Angeles Dodgers and by New York Yankees pitcher David Cone against the Expos in 1999).
Awards
Doucet was inducted into the Quebec Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002,, the Montreal Expos Hall of Fame in 2003 this has not occurred (although he has been a finalist five times, including in 2011). Doucet has been described as "the French-Canadian equivalent of Jaime Jarrín" and that the language barrier might keep Doucet out of Cooperstown;
Later career
In March 2005, Doucet became the official spokesperson for Encore Baseball Montreal, an organization initially created to keep the Expos in Montreal and which is now focused on promoting baseball in Quebec.
In June 2005, Doucet's efforts to create a French-language version of standard baseball terminology were underlined at length in a front-page story by the Wall Street Journal.
Return to commentating
From 2006 to 2011, Doucet was the play-by-play voice for the home games of the Quebec Capitales. The Capitales play in the Can-Am League, an eight-team independent baseball league; their games are heard on CHRC 800 in Quebec City.
In August 2011, Doucet was hired by TVA Sports, a new sports television channel which went on the air a month later, as the play-by-play voice of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Books
In collaboration with Marc Robitaille, Doucet has published a two-volume history of the Montreal Expos titled Il était une fois les Expos. The first volume was published in 2009 and the second volume was published in 2011.
Doucet previously published, in collaboration with Claude Raymond, a book titled Les secrets du baseball in 1980.