Fellow Canadian Dan Shulman is also a finalist.
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Quebec broadcaster Jacques Doucet is once again a finalist for the Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in baseball broadcasting.
Fellow Canadian Dan Shulman is also a finalist, along with Joe Buck, Gary Cohen, Joe Castiglione, Tom Hamilton, Ernie Johnson Sr., Ken Korach, Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper, the Hall said Wednesday.
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Doucet, 83, spent 33 years broadcasting for the Montreal Expos for its entire existence from 1969 to 2004, as the play-by-play radio voice on their French network. He called Blue Jays games in French for TVA Sports from 2012-22.
He called more than 5,500 matches during his glorious career, including Dennis Martinez’s perfect game on July 28, 1991.
Doucet was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame this summer, after being elected in February 2020. He was previously nominated for the Frick award in 2019.
Shulman, 56, was the voice of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball from 2011-17 and now calls Toronto Blue Jays games on Sportsnet. He also called Blue Jays games on TSN from 1995-2001.
“I’m just tremendously honoured to be even mentioned in the company of all of these great broadcasters,” Shulman said Wednesday. “It’s a very nice feeling.”
The ballot is the second of four consecutive elections involving broadcasters whose careers extend into the wild card era, which started in 1995. The pre-wild card era will be considered for the 2027 award.
The winner will be announced Dec. 6 at the winter meetings in Nashville.
A broadcaster must have 10 continuous years of experience with a network or team to be considered, and the ballot was picked by a subcommittee of past winners that includes Marty Brennaman, Bob Costas and Pat Hughes plus historians David J. Halberstam and Curt Smith.
Voters are 12 past winners — Brennaman, Costas, Ken Harrelson, Hughes, Jaime Jarrin, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Al Michaels, Jon Miller, Eric Nadel, Bob Uecker and former Expos announcer Dave Van Horne, elected in 2011 — plus historians Halberstam, Smith and former Dallas Morning News writer Barry Horn.
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