Former Expos broadcaster Rodger Brulotte speaks to reporters in Montreal in May, 2013. Mr. Brulotte's long on-air tenure made him famous throughout Quebec and the rest of French-speaking Canada.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
Rodger Brulotte sang hosannas for baseball’s Montreal Expos, his excited, over-the-top calls repeated by fans from memory as though part of a catechism.
An ebullient announcer and analyst for French radio and television, he became a beloved figure among Expos fans, a companion every summer even as the team’s roster changed from season to season.
His famous home-run cry – “Bonsoir! Elle est partie!” (“Good evening! It’s gone!”) – was known throughout Expos Nation.
Mr. Brulotte, who has died at 79, is also credited with helping unveil the orange mascot Youppi!, an anthropomorphic creature of uncertain genus but universal appeal.
After the Montreal franchise moved to Washington, D.C., Mr. Brulotte broadcast Toronto Blue Jays games, though the team never had the connection to his audience that the Expos did.
His long on-air tenure made him famous throughout Quebec and the rest of French-speaking Canada.
The announcement of his death earned tributes from prominent figures in the arts, including the chanteuse Celine Dion; former players, including Quebec-born Expos pitcher and broadcaster Claude Raymond; and from Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO of Québecor; as well as from Quebec Premier François Legault and Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
“He had a rare gift for instantly relating to people from all walks of life, from the most humble to the wealthiest, and everyone left feeling as though they had known him forever,” Journal de Montréal publisher Dany Doucet said in a statement. Mr. Brulotte wrote a city column for the newspaper.
More than two decades after the Expos departed, recordings of his voice even today conjure memories of languid summer evenings, of hot dogs and cold beers, and of the heartbreak of cheering for a team that never once in 36 seasons got to the World Series. Mr. Brulotte shared with fans a passion for a home team forever destined to be an also-ran.
While the ultimate prize eluded the Expos, it was Mr. Brulotte’s good fortune to describe the exploits of some outstanding players, including Tim (Rock) Raines, Gary (The Kid) Carter, Andres (Big Cat) Galarraga, Dennis (El Presidente) Martinez, Vladimir (Vlad the Impaler) Guerrero and Larry (Booger) Walker. Mr. Brulotte’s broadcast cry of “Oh Henry!” after home runs by Henry Rodriguez led Olympic Stadium fans to toss chocolate bars of that name onto the field.
The broadcaster’s career lasted long enough for him to also describe the wonder of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who was only 18 when he hit a walk-off home run for the Blue Jays in a spring-training exhibition game in Montreal, leading Mr. Brulotte to rhapsodize the young star by repeating his first name three times in sequence, each extended syllable in his gravelly barker’s voice seeming to demand an exclamation mark.
Mr. Brulotte said his approach to broadcasting was to share with viewers and listeners the joy of baseball.
“I’m trying to let the guy at home be an armchair manager,” he said in 1984. “I want him to have fun, too.”
Roddy, as his mother called him, was born in Montreal on Jan. 4, 1947, the first of two children born to Hazel Johnson and Jean-Paul Brulotte. His mother was a Protestant whose parents emigrated from Liverpool, England, while his father was a Catholic francophone from Quebec. At home, the children spoke English to their mother and French to their father.
The family lived in an apartment at the rear of a dépanneur on Rue Hogan in an East End working-class neighbourhood of factories and railyards. Young Rodger, who attributed the extra consonant in his given name to his mother’s preference for an English spelling, often played catch with his father in the street and at a nearby park, where the boy’s better efforts would be rewarded by his father’s narration: “Oh, what a spectacular play by Rodger Brulotte! What a sensational catch!”
The boy played hockey (worshipping Jean Béliveau of the Canadiens) and baseball (admiring pitcher Tommy Lasorda of the Montreal Royals).
He was working as a sales representative for Imperial Mops and Brooms Ltd. and still playing amateur baseball when Montreal was granted a National League franchise in 1968. He served as one of several area scouts for the Expos during their inaugural 1969 season before being hired as an assistant to scouting director Mel Didier, a Cajun from Louisiana who had been a minor-league pitcher.
Among the players Mr. Brulotte played a role in helping to sign were slugging third baseman Larry Parrish, right-handed starting pitcher Steve Rogers and Mr. Carter, a Hall of Fame catcher.
Each offseason, Mr. Brulotte toured smalltown Quebec with a player or two as part of the Expos’ winter caravan, stopping at brasseries and town halls to promote the team.
After a stint in the club’s public relations department, followed by two seasons as the team’s travel secretary, Mr. Brulotte joined the marketing unit under Roger D. Landry. On the club’s 10th anniversary in 1979, they revealed a new mascot – a miming, googly-eyed orange creature, the colour selected in homage to red-haired Rusty Staub, the team’s first superstar, whose nickname was Le Grand Orange. The character was designed by Bonnie Erickson, who created such Muppets as Miss Piggy, with input from the two marketing men.
The mascot needed a name. As Mr. Brulotte once told the sportswriter Marc Antoine Godin, the duo were chatting in the office one day when Mr. Landry said, “What I want is that when people see it for the first time, they scream youppi,” the French exclamation for yippee.
“Then you have your name,” Mr. Brulotte responded. “Youppi!”
The mascot, one of the most popular in sports, stayed in Quebec after the Expos moved and now promotes the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League.
Among his other front-office contributions, Mr. Brulotte got a teenaged Ms. Dion to sing the national anthems at Olympic Stadium, a gig she would repeat before becoming a global superstar, and he also worked on making baseball’s 1982 All-Star Game in Montreal a success.
In 1984, he replaced Mr. Raymond in the broadcast booth as Jacques Doucette’s analyst for radio broadcasts. During a day game at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego on May 17, 1984, Tim Wallach hit a two-run homer in the second inning.
“Bonsoir! Elle est partie!” Mr. Brulotte shouted spontaneously.
Mr. Doucette teased his partner that it was the afternoon, not the evening.
It’s nighttime somewhere in the world, Mr. Brulotte replied.
The phrase quickly caught on, eventually becoming his signature and an all-purpose catchphrase known even to those who do not follow baseball.
Strangers would stop him on the street to request a rendition. He also used it as a greeting on his voicemail. On the advice of Chicago sportscaster Harry Caray, Mr. Brulotte included the phrase when signing autographs. As well, he titled his 2015 autobiography, written with Christian Tétreault, Bonsoir…
In 1990, Mr. Brulotte added television to his repertoire, joining Denis Casavant in the booth for 50 Expos broadcasts on Réseau des sports, the French-language sister to TSN. Mr. Brulotte was twice nominated for a Prix Gémeaux, the French-language equivalent of a Gemini, for best sports broadcast. In 2011, he left the television network for TVA Sports, where he continued to offer colour analysis of Blue Jays games.
A regular figure at charity events, Mr. Brulotte was also a prominent figure in so-far-unsuccessful efforts to bring major league baseball back to Montreal.
His passion for youth baseball led to his serving as president of the Quebec Junior Elite Baseball League for 15 years. Last fall, the amateur league for players under age-21 renamed its championship trophy the Rodger Brulotte Cup.
Known as a bon vivant, the announcer was teetotal with a penchant for singing My Way whenever the opportunity arose.
In 2013, Mr. Brulotte’s contributions to baseball as a media member earned him the annual Jack Graney Award from the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ont. He was honoured for his advocacy for players from Quebec and his passion for baseball at the grassroots level, as well as for his broadcast excellence.
He was inducted into the Quebec Baseball Hall of Fame as a journalist in 2014 and received the Jacques-Beauchamp Tribute Award from Sports Québec as a builder in 2024. The city of Montreal named him an honorary citizen last May.
In 2019, Mr. Legault presented him with a medal from the National Assembly for his contributions to sports and the community. “For the first time in my life,” the normally loquacious honoree said, “I have nothing to say.”
Mr. Brulotte was diagnosed with a cancerous tumour in his spine six months before his death on March 20. He leaves his wife, Pascale Vallée, whom he married in 2010. An earlier marriage to Carole Pleau ended in divorce. He was predeceased by a younger sister, Isabelle Rahill, who died of brain cancer at age 43 in 1992.
At the Bell Centre the day after his death, the Montreal Canadiens paid tribute with a video montage of his career. Wearing a Canadiens cap and an Expos jersey, Youppi! stood vigil while clutching a photograph of Mr. Brulotte hugging the mascot.
The occasion also inspired John Bartlett on Sportsnet’s English-language television broadcast that night when he called Cole Caufield’s third goal, which put the game out of reach. “Bonsoir! Bonsoir! Bonsoir!” he yelled.
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