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Rodger Brulotte, renowned sports commentator and voice of the Montreal Expos, has died. He was 79.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was known for calling home runs with the French phrase, \u201cBonsoir, elle est partie!\u201d \u2014 roughly, \u201cGood night, it\u2019s out of here!\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, Baseball Qu\u00e9bec’s general manager Maxime Lamarche said, \u201cRodger had a very big heart, and he used it selflessly in service of others. His generosity touched generations of players, coaches, and volunteers. We will remember him as a unifying and deeply humane man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quebec Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault also took to X Friday, calling Brulotte a wonderful man and wishing condolences to his family. He commended Brulotte for his philanthropic efforts and said, \u201cI treasure a baseball he gave me for my birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Life with the Expos<\/p>\n
Born in January 1947, Brulotte’s career began in 1969 as a scout for the Montreal Expos.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 1970, I became assistant to the director of international player recruitment. I had the opportunity to contribute to the signing of legendary players like Gary Carter, Steve Rogers and Larry Parrish,\u201d Brulotte said in 2024 in an interview with the Webzine Le 76.<\/p>\n
In the years that followed, Brulotte shifted into the team\u2019s public relations and marketing.<\/p>\n
![\"man\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774073835_180_default.jpg\")
Rodger Brulotte began his career in 1969 with the Montreal Expos as a scout and later as head of public relations and marketing. (Radio-Canada)<\/p>\n
With then\u2013marketing vice-president Roger D. Landry, Brulotte helped create the Expos\u2019 famous mascot, Youppi!, for which the team enlisted a designer who had worked with Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets.<\/p>\n
Brulotte said the mascot\u2019s name came from a brainstorming session, where they wanted a word that would spark enthusiasm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quickly embraced by fans, the character even survived the Expos\u2019 move to Washington in 2004 and later became the mascot of the Montreal Canadiens.<\/p>\n
From television to radio<\/p>\n
In the early 1980s, Brulotte made a few television appearances. But it was on radio that he made his mark, joining Jacques Doucet in 1983 to call Expos games on CKAC.<\/p>\n
Charismatic and colourful, he became one of the defining voices of baseball in Montreal.<\/p>\n
It was in 1983, during a game in San Diego, that Brulotte first delivered his famous line, “Bonsoir, elle est partie!” When Doucet pointed out the game was being played in the afternoon, Brulotte quipped that it must be evening somewhere.<\/p>\n
For more than 20 years, he provided analysis on Expos games on radio and television, including on R\u00e9seau des sports alongside Denis Casavant starting in 1990.<\/p>\n
In a post on social media, Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said Brulotte was his “entire childhood and adolescence,” listening to the radio to follow the Expos.<\/p>\n
“But Rodger Brulotte was also a kind and approachable man, involved in many causes,” wrote Plamondon.<\/p>\n
In 2011, Brulotte left RDS to join TVA Sports, where he continued calling games for the Toronto Blue Jays. Brulotte also served as president of the Ligue de baseball junior \u00e9lite du Qu\u00e9bec for 15 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brulotte was diagnosed in September 2025 with a cancerous tumour in his spine, for which he underwent surgeries. He ultimately died of the illness.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-550611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}