(Montreal) The pandemic will no longer be able to delay the inevitable: after being admitted in 2020, Jacques Doucet will officially enter the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame on Saturday. An honor that should have come sooner according to many.
“It’s time for him to be sworn in!” Sadly, it’s still not Cooperstown, but at least its impact on baseball in Canada is underscored, said Denis Casavant, who worked with Doucet in the late 1980s. was influenced by him, as hockey descriptors were influenced by René Lecavalier and Richard Garneau. . Everyone knows the voice of Jacques Doucet, everyone has heard it once in their lives.
“When I arrived at CKAC, I left CKCH in Hull to do the baseball Expos with Jacques and Rodger (Brulotte) as director and give the results abroad. I was 21 years old; Jacques was my mentor. Every time we came to 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 with training: I did my CEGEP at CKCH and spent four years at university working with Jacques and Rodger at CKAC, until I left for RDS in September 1989.
Rodger Brulotte and Doucet are still working together at TVA Sports. The analyst is full of praise when it comes to talking about the work of the descriptor.
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“Jacques Doucet, it’s not complicated, besides being the voice of the Expos, it 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 of his impeccable French: he spoke the language of Molière as only René Lecavalier knew how, but in a way that everyone could understand. »
And Doucet did not need to be invited to teach the craft.
“I remember his great patience when I started with him: how to explain to me how to describe a game without offending me, without provoking me, emphasizes Brulotte. He said to me, ‘Rodger, try this and that, to put it this way.’ He always, always guided me. »
“During matches, I saw him pick up a pen and a piece of paper. I immediately wondered what I could have said that wasn’t correct! recalls Marc Griffin, who still serves as an analyst at Sports Network. After each game, he returned to his notes: ‘Attention Marc, you said such a word, such an expression; I suggest you say this or that. I went to a very good school for those four years. »
This is, without a doubt, his greatest legacy.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is that every single person who plays French baseball in Quebec has, at some point, worked with me,” admitted Doucet. All these people recognize that, in a way, I was 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 a description of approximately one game per week, the one that covered the club’s daily activities The press made the full-time leap behind the mic in 1972 until leaving the club in 2004.
Its consistency in the air was matched only by the consistency of its preparation.
“I would say methodical: he always arrived at the same time, always took the same type of pens of the same color, the same number of candies. Method like this 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 almost 10 years.
“When we played together, we spent hours talking, making game plans, deciding what would and would not be good for our report,” adds Claude Raymond, who has been by his side since 1972 and for ten years. On the road, we listened to TV and radio reports from other clubs to find information between two small glasses of whiskey! I learned from him, as I believe he learned from me. It was easy to work with him. »
“Baseball, they can say anything, it’s a radio sport. And there was no one better than Jacques to make you visualize the action”, adds Chantelois.
Once the Expos were out, Doucet described the Capitales de Québec games, before returning to Major League Baseball on TVA Sports.
In 2003, he received the Canadian Temple Jack-Graney Award, given annually to a member of the media who has contributed significantly to the development of baseball in Canada through their work.
“It wasn’t an induction, notes Doucet. Every time I went to give a talk or was invited to speak somewhere and was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, I had to make the correction. »
No more.
Doucet was also inducted into the Quebec Baseball 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 constructor.
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 highest honors bestowed upon him.
Health problems – he suffers from anemia and had to take a professional break until the end of June – will prevent him from attending the ceremony. But he doesn’t have to wait any longer: this Saturday, the master enters the Temple.
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