ICYMI: Joe Davis becomes FOX’s next baseball voice

FOX has tabbed Joe Davis as its next baseball voice. PIC: Fox Sports

Replacing one of the all-time greatest MLB broadcasters was a task FOX never thought it’d have to do this offseason.

But when Joe Buck inked his five-year deal - worth up to potentially $75 million - with ESPN this past season, FOX was left with a hole in its primetime baseball coverage broadcast booth.

Buck had only missed two World Series since 1996, evolving him from Jack Buck’s son to one of the best to ever put on the play-by-play headset in the baseball world. His voice is behind the Diamondbacks’ legendary come-from-behind win over the Yankees in 2001, the Red Sox’s curse-breaking World Series title in 2004, and the Cubs first championship since 1908.

So, replacing Buck was a gargantuan task. Luckily, FOX didn’t have to look too far to find its next talent.

Joe Davis was tapped by FOX a few weeks ago to take over as the voice of the World Series. He’ll team up with John Smoltz, Tom Verducci and Ken Rosenthal to bring coverage of the MLB season on FOX-affiliated networks, as well as three playoff series and the World Series. He’ll also call the All-Star Game & the Field of Dreams game for the first time ever.

“If you had asked me when I was ten what I wanted to do when I grew up, I would’ve told you ‘Call the World Series,’” Davis told the media at the beginning of April. “So, when I say this is a dream come true, I really mean it.”

Davis has grown to be a staple in sports broadcasting, even at just 34 years old. He started off as a student broadcaster at Beloit College, then worked his way down to Chicago, where he contributed to the Loyola Ramblers and Schaumburg Flyers for a few years. Realizing quickly that he had potential in a very saturated business, he made the move to the Montgomery Biscuits, the Double-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Davis essentially wrote his path to the promised land afterwards. He was picked up by both ESPN and Fox Sports to broadcast college football, basketball, baseball, and hockey, and even got to call this legendary Texas A&M comeback against Louisiana Tech in 2012. The QB at the controls? You guessed it…Johnny Manziel.

Davis was tabbed by the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 2015, and it accelerated his career forward in ways he couldn’t have imagined. When Vin Scully took a step back from broadcasting after a 67-year career, the Dodgers tabbed Charley Steiner as the team’s primary play-by-play announcer, and brought on Davis to fill in. He impressed so many that he took the TV job full time, and Steiner moved to radio.

Since the 2016 season, Davis has called so many memorable moments. Here are a few of his highlights from 2020, which many would call a “breakout year” for him.

Sports broadcasting is an extremely tough business to break into. Joe Davis is one of those cases to remind aspiring broadcasters to keep going, even when it seems impossible to crack the code. He stayed the course, stayed true to his work, and was rewarded with a good chunk of the Fall Classic series for at least the next few years.