By Danny Gallagher
Jacques Doucet has never been one to take it easy.
Retirement is not something he thinks about, not even at age 72.
He was the Montreal Expos’ play-by-play voice en francais for 33 seasons before the franchise moved to Washington in time for the 2005 season. The loss of the Expos was a difficult time for him and for many connected with the organization, whether it was the fans or those who worked in the media.
After sitting out the 2005 season, he was back in the booth calling games for the Quebec Capitales of the independent Can-Am league. He would go on to do play-by-play of that team’s games until the end of the 2011 season.
But during those years without the Expos, he also had a book on his mind to paint the history of the franchise from start to finish. So what did he and co-author Marc Robitaille do? They compiled a two-volume history, the first one 647 pages (released in 2008), the second one a whopping 755 pages (released last year).
“Originally, we were talking about one book of 500 pages but I had put down a lot of material for a second book," Doucet says in a recent interview. “Then we sat down and after many hours of taping my memories, all my stuff, there was no way you can tell a complete story in one book of 500 pages.
“So we went back to the publisher Hurtubise. In the French market, sports books not based on hockey are very rare. But the publisher was convinced to take on the second volume. We did a very thorough job to mark the Expos evolution over 36 seasons.”
A few months before the second volume was released, the classy Doucet also received good news when he was hired to do 12 Blue Jays games in French on the Quebec-based channel, TVA Sports.
The story doesn’t end there.
He’s back on the airwaves again this season doing some 60 Jays’ games for TVA with former Expos radio analyst Rodger Brulotte. Some games are done on location at the Rogers Centre, but the majority are done out of a Montreal studio on de Maisonneuve, where Doucet and Brulotte provide audio while looking at a video-monitor feed supplied by host broadcaster Sportsnet.
“To me, I feel so lucky that at my age that I can go back to Major League Baseball as a broadcaster,” Doucet says. “One thing nice about us teaming up again is that Rodger had a lot of experience in TV. I had very little experience. It’s a new medium as far as I’m concerned, but with Rodger’s help, I can get the hang of TV. On TV, you don’t have to describe each play as thorough as you do on radio.
“The good thing about it, too, is that the Blue Jays have really accepted us. If I had not accepted the plan to go to Quebec City and do the Capitales’ games, I probably would not be doing the Blue Jays’ games."
In one stretch from June 25-July 5, Doucet and Brulotte will call 11 consecutive Jays’ games. After doing Expos’ games for more than three decades and describing more than 5,000 games, Doucet admits it would have been difficult for him to accept a Jays’ broadcast role in 2005 if he had been approached because of the rivalry between the two teams.
However, after seven years, he had no qualms about switching organizations.
“The Blue Jays are the only Major League team in Canada so we have to get behind them and make sure they don’t leave too," Doucet said. “The Jays are very conscious that they are the only team in Canada and they do a lot of promotions and clinics in the province of Quebec and elsewhere in the country."
At the behest of the Jays, Doucet also does a weekly blog in French for the Jays’ web site. The writing doesn’t stop there. Doucet and Brulotte are also featured once a week in Le Journal de Montreal. Doucet is on one side of the page, Brulotte on the other, both talking about a baseball topic.
“Sometimes our stuff is published in Le Journal de Quebec too so we get a lot of exposure in the province," Doucet said.
The Blue Jays’ player who impresses Doucet the most?
“Brett Lawrie,” he said. “He might need to tone down his enthusiasm, but not too much. He really should be – barring injury — the best position player ever produced in Canada."
Should there be a void in Doucet’s life it would be that he has not been voted into the broadcasters’ wing at the Hall of Fame via the Ford Frick Award.
He has been on the ballot for a few years but so far, no dice.
“Hopefully, the door to Cooperstown will open soon," he said. “Dave Van Horne, the former Expos’ English voice, is in Cooperstown and Tom Cheek, the late Jays’ broadcaster, is on the ballot so it would be nice to get in at some point."
We hope so, too.