Jacques Doucet, the original French-language voice of the Montreal Expos, has died at 86.
He started calling games for the Expos in 1969, the franchise's first season in Major League Baseball.
That means Doucet was there from the very beginning, describing a Canadian franchise's entry into the big leagues in real time.
He spent decades behind the microphone, becoming the voice generations of Quebec fans associated with the team.
Doucet was inducted into the Quebec Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002, recognition of a career spent chronicling the sport for francophone audiences.
The Expos followed a year later, inducting him into their own Hall of Fame in 2003.
Those two honors, back to back, say plenty about how much of an institution he became in Montreal baseball circles.
Why his legacy still matters to Canadian baseball
The Expos left Montreal in 2004, relocating to Washington and becoming the Nationals, but voices like Doucet's kept that era alive for the fans who lived through it.
For a long stretch, Toronto and Montreal were the only two Canadian cities with a seat at the major-league table.
Doucet's work helped build baseball's audience north of the border in a language the American game rarely spoke to directly.
His passing closes another link to that first generation of Canadian big-league broadcasting, one that predates the Blue Jays' own founding by a decade.
No cause of death has been reported.
For anyone who grew up listening to those Expos broadcasts, Doucet's voice was as much a part of the team's identity as any player who ever wore the uniform.
Did you grow up listening to Jacques Doucet call Montreal Expos games?
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