TORONTO -- Blue Jays french-language play-by-play announcer Jacques Doucet has been named a finalist for the Ford C. Frick Award, which is presented annually for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Doucet is best known for his time as the voice of the Expos. He spent 33 years in Montreal working for CKAC and later covered the Capitales de Quebec of the Can-Am League. Doucet previously has been inducted into the Quebec and Canadian Baseball of Fame.
Over the course of his career, Doucet has called more than 5,000 Major League games, and in 2004, he was the recipient of the Jack Graney Award, which is given to a member of the Canadian media for their contributions to the game of baseball in Canada.
To be considered for the Frick Award, an active or retired broadcaster must have a minimum 10 years of continuous Major League broadcast service with a ballclub, network, or a combination of the two. According to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, more than 200 broadcasters were eligible and a list of eight finalists was produced.
In addition to Doucet, the other seven finalists are: Gary Cohen, Ken Harrelson, Pat Hughes, Bill King, Mike Krukow, Ned Martin and Dewayne Staats. The winner will be announced on Dec. 7 at the annual Baseball Winter Meetings and will then be honored on July 29 during Hall of Fame weekend in Cooperstown.
Final voting for the Frick Award is done by the 13 living recipients and four broadcast historians/columnists. The list includes: past Frick honorees Marty Brennaman, Dick Enberg, Jaime Jarrin, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Tim McCarver, Jon Miller, Eric Nadel, Felo Ramírez, Vin Scully, Bob Uecker, Dave Van Horne and Bob Wolff, and historians/columnists David J. Halberstam (historian), Barry Horn (Dallas Morning News), Ted Patterson (historian) and Curt Smith (historian).