“Joe Davis back to throw, looks left, now over the middle, complete, touchdown!”
Before his meteoric rise in the world of play-by-play, Joe Davis was a four-year letter winner at Beloit College in Wisconsin. He was the quarterback for two seasons until a shoulder injury forced him to move to wide receiver.
Perhaps the most important move for Davis in college was assuming play-by-play duties for the school’s athletic department. When football was out of season, Davis called baseball and both men’s and women’s basketball on local radio and television. He served as the voice of Buccaneers spring sports for his final three years on campus before graduating in 2010.
Now Davis holds two very high-profile jobs. He’s the television voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers and has been named the number one baseball guy at Fox Sports. In both cases, he’s replaced an announcer of legendary status, first Vin Scully and now Joe Buck. Big shoes to fill in both cases. If how Davis has handled the former is any indication, he’ll be equally as accepted in the latter position.
Davis is another in a long line of broadcasters that seemed to know what he wanted to do at an early age.
“If you had asked me when I was 10 what I wanted to do when I grew up, I would’ve told you ‘Call the World Series.’ So, when I say this is a dream-come-true, I really mean it,” Davis said in a statement after Fox named him Buck’s replacement.
In a recent story in The Athletic, Richard Deitsch chronicled how the offer was made to Davis. He recalled meeting with Brad Zager, who is the executive producer of Fox Sports. Zager flew to Las Vegas where Davis was for the Pac 12 Tournament. It was about 4-hours from the tip and the two met at a hotel bar in the MGM Resort. The offer was made, and a very emotional Davis accepted.
“It took me a little while to get it together after the meeting,” Davis told The Athletic. “And there were a number of times over the course of that week where I broke down because of the emotions of thinking it could happen and being so close to a dream coming true but not knowing.”
ROAD TO FOX/DODGERS
Before his senior year of college, in 2009, Davis secured a summer job as the manager of broadcasting for the Schaumburg Flyers baseball team of the independent Northern League. He served as the team’s play-by-play voice and media relations director. Also, during the fall, he filled in on men’s and women’s volleyball broadcasts at Loyola University Chicago. That year Davis was the voice of the State High School Volleyball Championships, for the Illinois High School Television Network.
From there Davis would go to work for the Montgomery Biscuits of the Southern League. The Biscuits were the Double-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. Davis called Biscuits games for three seasons and was named the Southern League Broadcaster of the Year in 2012. In the offseason, he also gained experience as a radio host for the Baylor Independent Sports Properties Network. While working that job, he also caught on at Comcast Sports Southeast, where he picked play-by-play duties for college football, basketball and baseball.
In July 2012, at the age of 24, he joined ESPN as a play-by-play announcer. He called college baseball, basketball, football, hockey and softball games. Davis also appeared in spot duty for Major League Baseball games that were broadcast on ESPN Radio. He made a little history in December of 2013, when he was assigned to call the Poinsettia Bowl between Utah and Northern Illinois. At the age of 25 he became the youngest person to ever announce a bowl game for ESPN. He was soon hired by Fox, and then a couple of years later by the Dodgers to call road games, and eventually succeeded the legendary Vin Scully for the team on TV.
WHY IS HE SO GOOD?
There is a smoothness about Davis that is kind of hard to describe. He’s calm at the right moments and he elevates to the big moments almost perfectly. Calling baseball can be a challenge at any age, but he seems a natural fit for the pacing of the sport. There are moments when the game is left to itself to breathe during his broadcasts. Now, there are also times when Davis shows off his ability for the big call.
The Dodgers have been in the pennant race, seemingly all the time. Huge moments demand a great call. Davis hasn’t disappointed yet.
Among his many moments with the Dodgers already were walk off home run calls, some miracle finishes, and a lot of victories.
In an article on MLB.com in August of 2020, Davis surprised a lot of folks, when saying a home run by pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu was his favorite so far. It took place on Sept. 22, 2019, in a 7-4 win over the Rockies that provided the Dodgers with their 100th victory of the year.
“High fly ball, centerfield and deep, back goes Hanson at the wall…it’s happened! It’s happened! Babe Ryu!” Then nearly 40 seconds of crowd noise.
Davis provided the backstory in the article.
“The call is, whatever, not a spectacular call, but Orel [Hershiser, analyst and Davis’ partner] and I had jokingly talked about it the entire season. You could go back to Opening Day [which Ryu started], and we were predicting he would hit one. Those of us who are around batting practice see how he swings, and we would joke every time he came up that this would be the time, and then it actually happened. It’s the only time Orel and I both stood up and high-fived, just the incredible feeling it had actually happened.”
It’s just an example of how the moment is never too big for Davis. He can have fun and still keep his composure, so the fans know what is actually happening as well.
His runner-up call at that time, was a more obvious choice. It his “absolute madness” call of the Dodgers’ 6-5 walk-off win over the Phillies in 2017. For more reasons than just the great call.
“It was my first month or so on the job after Vin,” said Davis. “It was maybe the first time where the fanbase seemed to say, ‘Hey, maybe this kid is not bad.’ Because of that, it will always be special to me.”
Also of importance, is the fact that Davis is able to play off of, and work well with, his analyst Orel Hershiser. The two have great chemistry. That’s the hallmark of a good play-by-play announcer, get the most and more out of your color commentator.
It speaks volumes as well, to have that kind of relationship with all the people he works with. That includes John Smoltz, his new partner for MLB on Fox games starting this season.
“Having worked with Joe before, finding our chemistry in the booth is already well underway and I’m looking forward to our partnership over the next several years,” said Smoltz in a statement. “I had the opportunity to work with the very best at Fox Sports in Joe Buck, and I feel fortunate to get to continue with another exceptionally talented ‘Joe’ in Joe Davis.”
For someone as young as he is, it’s impressive that he had those skills early on and continues to hone what has worked for him. When he was just 24-years-old and had a crack at the national spotlight, he might have been overwhelmed. Well, if he was, it surely didn’t sound like it, because he was able to advance in the business at a rapid rate.
DID YOU KNOW?
Davis named his third child, a boy, to honor his partner in the booth, Orel Hershiser. Theodore Orel Davis arrived in July of 2021. Hershiser was very touched by the gesture from the Davis’.
Did you realize that Davis’ daughter Charlotte broke the news of her daddy getting the World Series assignment from Fox? Davis explained to The Athletic that he tried to see if his daughter would understand the significance of the moment. Charlotte didn’t seem to grasp how important this was. After all, she is only 5 and a half. Davis wanted to make the point that the World Series was a big deal and that Charlotte, could achieve anything she wanted to.
“I dropped her off at her school one day and her teacher said, ‘Joe, congratulations!’ Mind you there were like five people in the world that knew at this point.” he told The Athletic. “I said, ‘Oh boy, I guess you have an inside source.’ She said, ‘Yeah, the first thing Charlotte did yesterday when we got into the classroom was announce to everyone, my daddy got the World Series.’ For whatever reason, that was another moment that just got me. I got in my car and broke down.” he recalled.
Eat your heart out Ken Rosenthal!
CONCLUSION
The sky is the absolute limit for this guy. I’m a little jealous, in fact, of the talent and poise that he possesses right now. There are just a few people blessed with all of that, plus a kind nature.
It’s hard not to cheer for a guy like this, he paid his dues, made some good choices and basically let his talent do the talking. It’s pretty amazing and so well deserved. I’m pretty confident that the Fox MLB broadcasts are in very good hands.
Andy Masur is a columnist for BSM and works for WGN Radio as an anchor and play-by-play announcer. He also teaches broadcasting at the Illinois Media School. During his career he has called games for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He can be found on Twitter @Andy_Masur1 or you can reach him by email at Andy@Andy-Masur.com.
