(Montreal) The pandemic will no longer be able to postpone the inevitable: after being admitted to 2020, Jacques Doucet will officially enter the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame on Saturday. An honor that should have come sooner according to many.
Posted at 3:13 p.m.
“It’s about time he was inducted!” Sadly, it’s not Cooperstown yet, but at least its impact on baseball in Canada is underscored, said Denis Casavant, who worked with Doucet in the late 1980s. been influenced by him, like hockey descriptors were influenced by René Lecavalier and Richard Garneau. Everyone knows the voice of Jacques Doucet, everyone has already heard it once in their life.
“When I arrived at CKAC, I left CKCH in Hull to do Expos baseball with Jacques and Rodger (Brulotte) as director and to give the results abroad. I was 21; Jacques was my mentor. Every time we arrived in a city, I had never been there. He was the one who took me to the stadium, who showed me where to find the press gallery. […] I always compare it to training: I did my CEGEP at CKCH and I did four years of university working with Jacques and Rodger at CKAC, until I left for RDS in September 1989.
Rodger Brulotte and Doucet are still working together on TVA Sports. The analyst is full of praise when it comes to talking about the work of the descriptor.
“Jacques Doucet, it’s not complicated, in addition to being the voice of the Expos, he was the voice of hope, the swallow of spring! When training camp started and Jacques went on the air, that meant winter was over, Brulotte said.
“You also have to think about his impeccable French: he spoke the language of Molière as only René Lecavalier could do, but in a way that everyone can understand. »
And Doucet did not need to be asked to teach the trade.
“I remember his great patience when I started with him: how to explain to me how to describe a match without offending me, without stirring me up, underlines Brulotte. He said to me: ‘Rodger, try so and so, to say it like that’. He has always, always guided me. »
“During the matches, I saw him take a pen and a piece of paper. I immediately wondered what I could have said that was not correct!, remembers Marc Griffin, who still acts as an analyst at the Sports Network. After each match, he went back over his notes: ‘Attention Marc, you said such a word, such an expression; I suggest you say this or that. I went to a really great school for those four years. »
This is without a shadow of a doubt his greatest legacy.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is that of all the people who play baseball in French in Quebec, at some point, they worked with me,” Doucet admitted. All these people recognize that I have in a way been their teacher. My legacy is that we continue to perpetuate baseball in French. »
Methodical
Jacques Doucet was the voice of baseball for the Expos starting in 1969, the Montreal team’s first season in Major League Baseball. After providing the description of approximately one match per week, the one that covered the club’s daily activities The Press made the full-time leap behind the microphone in 1972 until leaving the club in 2004.
His consistency on the air was matched only by the consistency of his preparation.
“I would say methodical: he always arrived at the same time, always took out the same kind of pens of the same color, the same number of sweets. Method like that is rare. He had a superb voice, but it was above all his hard work that impressed me,” emphasizes Alain Chantelois, who worked with him for nearly 10 years.
“When we played games together, we spent hours talking, making game plans, deciding what would be good for our report or not, adds Claude Raymond, who was at his side from 1972 and during ten years. On the road, we listened to TV and radio reports from other clubs to find information between two small glasses of scotch! I learned with him, as I believe he learned with me. It was easy to work with him. »
“Baseball, they can say anything, it’s a radio sport. And there was no one who was better than Jacques to make you visualize the action”, adds Chantelois.
Once the Expos left, Doucet described the games of the Capitales de Québec, before returning to Major League Baseball on TVA Sports.
In 2003, he received the Jack-Graney Award from the Canadian Temple, given annually to a member of the media who contributes significantly to the development of baseball in Canada through his work.
“It was not an induction, notes Doucet. Every time I went to give a talk or was invited to speak somewhere and was introduced as a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, I had to make the correction. »
Not anymore.
Doucet was also inducted into the Baseball Quebec Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Expos Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2017, he was inducted into the Quebec Sports Hall of Fame as a builder.
The National Assembly of Quebec presented him with its Medal of Honor in 2011. He considers this medal and his official admission to the Canadian Temple to be the two greatest honors bestowed on him.
Health problems – he suffers from anemia and he had to take a professional break until the end of June – will prevent him from taking part in the ceremony. But he no longer needs to wait: this Saturday, the master enters the Temple.