The NHL announces Rodger Brulotte's death, and Quebec sports feels the loss

It became part of the game's memory here.

For a generation of fans, Brulotte was the sound of summer. His famous home run call, «Bonsoir, elle est partie,» lived right beside the biggest Expos moments and later followed baseball fans into Blue Jays broadcasts.

What made him different was that he was never only a man behind a microphone.

Brulotte started with the Montreal Expos in 1969 and worked in scouting, player development support, media relations, sales and marketing. He also helped create Youppi, one of the most recognizable mascots in pro sports.

That matters because his baseball life ran deeper than television.

He knew the sport from the inside, inside the organization, inside the dugout culture, and inside the business of building a team and selling a game to a city.

His TV career then made him a household name.

He called Expos games on CKAC with Jacques Doucet in 1984, joined RDS in 1990 with Denis Casavant, and later moved to TVA Sports in 2011 to work Blue Jays broadcasts.

Even late in life, Brulotte still carried that same baseball spark.

MLB.com noted how his style and personality stayed tied to the sport's biggest moments in French Canada, even while he was away recovering from surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his spine in 2025.

He also left a real mark on baseball in Quebec itself.

Baseball Québec honored him in its Hall of Fame, and the federation highlighted his role as president of the Ligue de baseball junior élite du Québec and his work promoting the sport through the media.

That's why this loss feels so personal. Brulotte wasn't only a broadcaster people watched.

He was a builder, a promoter, a storyteller and a bridge between the Expos era and every kid in Quebec who still picked up a glove because baseball felt alive here.

Some voices call games.

Rodger Brulotte helped make people love them. That's a much bigger legacy, and it's why his absence is going to be felt for a long time.

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