Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — These are heady times for Dodgers play-by-play man Joe Davis. Not only is he calling the games of the best team on the planet, he is also the new main voice of the World Series and other national Fox baseball games. So, we were glad that he had the time to drop by the Bleed Los Podcast for a visit recently.
Of course, you can’t be the Dodgers’ broadcast voice in 2022, and not talk about the master Vin Scully, whose death is still on the minds of most Dodger fans.
“The greatest ever to do the job, and there’s never going to be anybody like him,” Davis told the Bleed Los gang. “He will always be the voice of the Dodgers, and to me, the voice of baseball… he’s the greatest storyteller that our game has ever seen. I think you could argue that he was the greatest storyteller in any industry in our lifetimes.”
Though Scully’s legacy is one of a kind, Davis is laying down a marker of his own in this profession. Already in his sixth year with the Dodgers
Michigan native Davis has already been on a meteoric rise to the heights of sports broadcasting. Still only 34 years old, Davis got his first taste of calling baseball games when he was in Beloit College. He interned with the independent Schaumburg Flyers back in the old Northern League while still a student. Then, thanks to some of his Schaumburg connections, Davis got a gig for the Montgomery Biscuits in double-A. But his talent was too big to say in minor league baseball for long. After two years in Alabama, and he was working for ESPN, and then Fox Sports, where he covered football, basketball, and baseball.
And then the Dodgers came calling. He started out just calling road games when Vin was still around, but then upon Scully’s retirement graduated to the first chair in the orchestra that is the Dodgers’ TV broadcast.
In a far-reaching discussion with hosts Juan, Alonso, and Alysha, Davis also touched on the controversy over whether or not Fernando Valenzuela’s number 34 should be officially retired by the time. “I’m glad that they don’t give it out,” Davis said, referring to the team’s unofficial policy not to issue the number.
Then, thinking of his own boyhood favorite team, he recalled how Cubs great Ron Santo was not inducted into the Hall of Fame until after his passing. “That always broke my heart,” he said. “He’s got his rightful spot but he didn’t get to appreciate it. So, I can totally get where you guys are coming from on this one. If they were to ever make an exception for it, he would be the guy to do it for.”
Check out the rest of the Davis interview here. Or, go to bleedlospodcast.com for all past episodes of this excellent show.
