Sports

French-language broadcaster Jacques Doucet, ‘Voice of the Expos,’ dies at 86

Published

2 hours ago

August 28, 2026

Pioneering Canadian French-language sports broadcaster Jacques Doucet, known as the “Voice of the Expos,” died Thursday. He was 86.

“We join the MLB community and our colleagues at TVASports in extending our sincere condolences to the family and friends of Jacques Doucet,” wrote the Toronto Blue Jays in a statement. “The ‘Voice of Baseball’ in Quebec and a Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer — his impact on the game and the Montreal Expos will be remembered forever.”

The French Canadian was born in Montreal in 1940 and went from journalist to radio broadcaster, serving as the play-by-play announcer for the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals) for 33 seasons, calling more than 5,000 games, including two perfect games (Dennis Martinez, July 28, 1991; David Cone, July 18, 1999), as well as World Series games from 1982 through 1995.

We join the MLB community and our colleagues at @TVASports in extending our sincere condolences to the family and friends of Jacques Doucet.

The ‘Voice of Baseball’ in Quebec and a Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer – his impact on the game and the Montreal Expos will be remembered… pic.twitter.com/vPzqzIJVI3

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) August 28, 2026

In doing so, he broadened interest in baseball within Canada’s French-speaking audience. Doucet is also credited with helping coin many of baseball’s terms and phrases that did not exist in French. For instance, a shoestring catch became “vol au sol,” the type of lyrical mastery that led many to consider him the French equivalent of the late Vin Scully, a pioneering voice in his own right and the backdrop of Los Angeles Dodgers games for many generations.

“Everywhere I went, people said, ‘Jacques, we miss you,’” a 70-year-old Doucet told The New York Times in 2010. “It was part of my life for 33 years. To me it could be Little League or semipro or Major League Baseball; once the game starts, it’s all the same to me. I still jump out of my seat when I see a fine double play.”

Long after the Expos left Montreal for Washington, Doucet continued to call games, his deep voice providing the sounds for independent league games, his place in history solidified, his passion for an adopted sport unwavering.

“My teacher and mentor left us today,” broadcaster Denis Casavant, a colleague of Doucet, wrote online. “Thank you, Jacques, for your generosity and kindness, and especially for the influence you had on my career as a play-by-play announcer. My condolences to his partner Corrie and the entire family.”

Doucet is a member of the Quebec Baseball Hall of Fame, the Expos Hall of Fame and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. However, despite being nominated multiple times, including as recently as 2011, for the Ford C. Frick Award, the Baseball Hall of Fame’s highest honor for broadcasters, Doucet never received it.

“My only regret is that I never had the opportunity to broadcast a World Series game involving the Expos,” Doucet wrote in an article published by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

Sports

How to watch Rockies vs. Braves: TV channel and streaming options for August 28

Published

4 minutes ago

August 29, 2026

qasimgillani

Aug. 28, 2026 Updated 7:19 pm EDT

The Atlanta Braves carry a four-game winning streak into a home matchup versus the Colorado Rockies at 7:15 p.m. ET on Friday. Grant Holmes (8-5, 3.64 ERA) gets the start for the Braves, who are 79-55 this season and first in the NL East. Tomoyuki Sugano (12-7, 4.96 ERA) is expected to start for the Rockies, who are 52-82 and fifth in the NL West.

How to watch Colorado Rockies vs. Atlanta Braves

Rockies vs. Braves odds

Favorite Moneyline: Braves -227
Underdog Moneyline: Rockies +185
Total: 9
Total Over Odds: -110
Total Under Odds: -110

Injury reports

Braves

Reynaldo López: 15 Day IL (Knee), Robert Suarez: 15 Day IL (Elbow), Spencer Strider: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Spencer Schwellenbach: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Joey Wentz: 60 Day IL (Knee), Joe Jimenez: 60 Day IL (Knee)

Rockies

Kyle Freeland: 15 Day IL (Neck), Sean Sullivan: 15 Day IL (Undisclosed), Chase Dollander: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Kris Bryant: 60 Day IL (Back), José Quintana: 60 Day IL (Elbow), McCade Brown: 60 Day IL (Shoulder), RJ Petit: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Welinton Herrera: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Pierson Ohl: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Kyle Karros: 7 Day IL (Concussion)

Stats to know

Atlanta’s Matt Olson is slashing .259/.335/.535 this season with 37 home runs (2nd in MLB), 78 RBIs (19th in MLB) and an OPS of .870 (14th in MLB). He has a 25.3% strikeout rate and a 10% walk rate in 582 plate appearances, and he has scored 92 total runs.
In 571 plate appearances, Ozzie Albies is hitting .256/.310/.418 with a .728 OPS. He has hit 20 long balls, driven in 67 runs and scored 74 times.
Jake McCarthy has hit 13 home runs this season. He has also tallied 68 RBIs and has scored 63 runs. In 471 plate appearances, he has recorded a .290 BA, .330 OBP and .475 SLG with a 5.1% walk rate and a 17% strikeout rate. He has been effective on the base paths, recording 24 steals on 28 attempts.
In 526 plate appearances, TJ Rumfield has slashed .289/.380/.441 this season. He has hit 13 long balls and driven in 60 runs with a strikeout rate of 14.1% and a walk rate of 11.2%. and has scored 55 runs.

This watch guide was created using technology provided by Data Skrive.

Betting/odds, ticketing and streaming links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.

Photo: Jamie Squire, Ishika Samant, Scott Taetsch, Alika Jenner / Getty Images

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Sports

How to watch Diamondbacks vs. Giants: TV channel and streaming options for August 28

Published

11 minutes ago

August 29, 2026

qasimgillani

The San Francisco Giants host the Arizona Diamondbacks at 10:15 p.m. ET on Friday. Kohl Drake (0-1, 5.40 ERA) gets the start for the Diamondbacks, who are 71-64 this season and third in the NL West. Blade Tidwell (0-0, 3.58 ERA) is expected to start for the Giants, who are 55-79 and fourth in the NL West.

How to watch Arizona Diamondbacks vs. San Francisco Giants

Diamondbacks vs. Giants odds

Favorite Moneyline: Diamondbacks -118
Underdog Moneyline: Giants -102
Total: 8
Total Over Odds: -110
Total Under Odds: -110

Injury reports

Diamondbacks

Lourdes Gurriel Jr.: 10 Day IL (Adductor), Tommy Troy: 10 Day IL (Shoulder), Ketel Marte: 10 Day IL (Knee), Ryan Thompson: 15 Day IL (Back), Mike Soroka: 15 Day IL (Arm), A.J. Puk: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Cristian Mena: 60 Day IL (Shoulder), Blake Walston: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Ryne Nelson: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Zac Gallen: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Corbin Burnes: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Andrew Saalfrank: 60 Day IL (Shoulder), Nolan Arenado: day-to-day (Side)

Giants

Casey Schmitt: 10 Day IL (Leg), Willy Adames: 10 Day IL (Back), Marcelo Mayer: 10 Day IL (Forearm), Víctor Bericoto: 10 Day IL (Knee), Jesús Rodríguez: 10 Day IL (Elbow), Adrian Houser: 15 Day IL (Forearm), J.T. Brubaker: 15 Day IL (Ribs), Keaton Winn: 15 Day IL (Elbow), Harrison Bader: 60 Day IL (Plantar fasciitis), Hayden Birdsong: 60 Day IL (Forearm), Randy Rodriguez: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Joel Peguero: 60 Day IL (Hamstring), Matt Gage: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Trevor McDonald: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Jose Butto: 60 Day IL (Arm), Rowan Wick: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Matt Chapman: 60 Day IL (Leg), Daniel Susac: 60 Day IL (Knee), Carson Whisenhunt: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Jung Hoo Lee: day-to-day (Undisclosed)

Stats to know

Arizona’s Corbin Carroll has hit 18 home runs this season. He has also tallied 58 RBIs and has scored 81 runs. In 567 plate appearances, he has recorded a .247 BA, .344 OBP and .481 SLG with an 11.6% walk rate and a 21.9% strikeout rate. He has been effective on the base paths, recording 20 steals on 23 attempts.
In 562 plate appearances, Geraldo Perdomo has slashed .254/.362/.376 this season. He has hit nine long balls and driven in 46 runs with a strikeout rate of 12.5% and a walk rate of 13.9%. He has 18 stolen bases on 27 attempts. He has come around to score 61 times.
San Francisco’s Rafael Devers is slashing .248/.326/.486 this season with 29 home runs (11th in MLB), 76 RBIs and an OPS of .812. He has a 25.5% strikeout rate and a 10.4% walk rate in 568 plate appearances, and he has scored 75 total runs.
In 493 plate appearances, Jung Hoo Lee has posted a 9.9% strikeout rate and a 4.3% walk rate while slashing .289/.327/.423 with nine home runs, 47 RBIs and 59 runs scored. He has stolen 10 bases on 11 attempts.

This watch guide was created using technology provided by Data Skrive.

Photo: Jamie Squire, Ishika Samant, Scott Taetsch, Alika Jenner / Getty Images

Sports

Serbian soccer club faces UEFA charges over banners glorifying late war criminal Ratko Mladic

Published

18 minutes ago

August 29, 2026

qasimgillani

UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings into Serbian club Crvena Zvezda over banners appearing to glorify the former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, who died on Thursday.

The club, who play in the Serbian capital and have also been known as Red Star Belgrade, posted images on its social media feeds of its fans holding up banners during Thursday’s Europa League game against Viktoria Plzen stating: “General, eternal glory and thanks”.

Chants of Mladic’s name were also reported during the match.

🫡 pic.twitter.com/Mrh9Tnuf9w

— FK Crvena zvezda (@crvenazvezdafk) August 27, 2026

Mladic, 84, passed away earlier on Thursday. He was called the “Butcher of Bosnia” and was held responsible for Europe’s deadliest massacre since World War II, when 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995.

When his life sentence was confirmed in 2017, the presiding judge, Alphons Orie, said Mladic’s crimes ranked “among the most heinous known to humankind.”

Mladic died in custody in The Hague, the Netherlands, which houses convicts for international war crimes tribunals.

On Friday, European football’s governing body UEFA said in a statement to The Athletic it had opened disciplinary proceedings on three counts against the Serbian club, including “racist and/or discriminatory behaviour”, “transmitting a message that is not fit for a sports event” and “improper conduct of the team.”

The Srebrenica Memorial Center, which commemorates the 1995 genocide, contacted UEFA following the match to say that the banners could not be “reduced to the behaviour of fans.”

The statement, which is covered in the Bosnian media and has been verified by The Athletic, said: “A club that consciously uses its official communication channels to spread messages glorifying a man legally convicted of genocide cannot reduce such behavior to the behavior of fans.”

The statement added: “This is no longer just a question of the fans, but of the club’s institutional relationship to the values on which UEFA bases European football.”

Mladic in the defendant box at the Hague wearing a suit

Mladic lost a final appeal against his conviction in 2021 (Peter Dejong / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

The Srebrenica Memorial Center and Crvena Zvezda have been contacted for comment.

Crvena lost Thursday’s match in Czech Republic 5-1, meaning they missed out on a spot in this season’s Europa League and will drop into the Conference League, European football’s third-tier competition.

Crvena are Serbia’s most successful club, having won a record 37 national league titles — across the former Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, and modern-day Serbia — and won the 1991 European Cup.