Roughly one year from now the Los Angeles Dodgers will have closed the curtain on a golden era in the franchise’s history.
What may not have been known in 1950 has long since been so very clear. There will never be another Vin Scully.
So talented, so revered, so humble. “When it all boils down, I am the most ordinary man you’ve ever met,” Scully said in August. “I was given an extraordinary opportunity.”
What the Dodgers face with the 2016 season likely being Scully’s last in the booth is impossible. There’s no replacing the Hall of Fame broadcaster.
But, the show must go on, as Scully has said. That’s where Joe Davis enters. The Dodgers announced last week Davis will call 50 road games for SportsNet LA next season.
Davis, like Scully in 1950, joins the Dodgers organization in his 20s. Scully was a tad younger, becoming part of the Brooklyn radio and television broadcasts at 22 years old, while Davis is 27.
Despite the similarity, that’s not to suggest Davis is setting out to replace or be Scully. He learned that’s attempting to accomplish the impossible.
“When I first began doing games, and I think this is the case for a lot of people since he’s the greatest that’s ever done it, I just tried to be Vin,” Davis told DodgerBlue.com in an exclusive interview.
“And anybody that tries that obviously falls flat on their faces.” However, there isn’t reason to believe Davis is incapable of becoming the next voice of Dodgers baseball. A Michigan native and graduate of Benoit College, Davis’ career rise has been nothing short of impressive.
And that’s without attending a major university with a renowned broadcast program. “I played football in college, but the recruiting pitch from the head coach was that I could announce the basketball games as soon as I got there,” Davis said.
“I could’ve gone to a place like Syracuse or a broadcasting school like that and maybe walked onto the football team. But play-by-play reps at those places, because they are such fantastic schools, there’s so much competition a lot of times you have to wait until you’re a junior to do the significant sports.”
Instead, Davis was able to quickly focus on the laying the foundation for his career. “At Beloit, it wasn’t a broadcasting school, but because of that, I had no competition for the repetitions as soon as I got there,” he said.
“That helped get me ahead of the curve a little bit and I lucked out to get the Montgomery job right out of college.” Prior to his current role with FOX Sports, Davis honed his craft with Double-A Montgomery, the Tampa Bay Rays’ affiliate, and ESPN, among other stops.
“It was awesome. I was 22 years old when I took the job, so I was the youngest Double-A guy in the country,” Davis recalled of his experience with the Rays. “I didn’t really have any idea what I was doing as far as being with the team on a day-to-day basis.
“I was just kind of learning as I went and it was nice that it was a relatively small market where I was able to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes that you can’t make any more at this point.”
CONTINUE READING: More From Joe Davis On Joining The Dodgers
His time in the Rays organization overlapped with that of recognizable names Chris Archer, Alex Cobb and Matt Moore. “Those guys were all on one pitching staff in 2011,” Davis said.
“We had all those guys being caught by Stephen Vogt, who’s now obviously in Oakland. It’s cool now to look back and see some of the guys we were together with that have gone on to great careers in the Majors.”
Not able to choose a preference between football and baseball, calling the sports “1A and 1B,” Davis is enamored with the unique bond between baseball and broadcasting.
“You go way back in history and it’s such an important part of the fabric of the game and how people followed it and how people became fans of teams,” he said.
“I’ve always loved the idea of being part of the story that writes itself over the course of the summer. You start out with a team in Spring Training and that team is going to write its story from March until hopefully deep October and into November. Being able to help tell that story is something that’s always appealed to me.”
Turning a baseball game into an opportunity to connect with the viewer is something Scully mastered over his decades of calling games. Davis utilized the MLB radio app to regularly listen to Scully’s broadcasts during his college days, and nights on the road with Double-A Montgomery.
Naturally, the young announcer couldn’t help but be floored upon receiving a voicemail from a familiar voice on the eve of his hire getting announced.
“I hit play and it’s, ‘Hi Joe, this is Vin Scully in Los Angeles.’ I about dropped the phone. This is the first time I had heard from Vin, but he left me about a minute and a half long message. He really became the first person to welcome me to the Dodger family,” Davis said.
“He told me how excited he was I would be joining the family and told me he can remember what it was like to be in his 20s and join a big club. He said he knows it’s going to be a great marriage for years to come. As you can imagine, to hear from the most legendary figure in the industry I’ve always dreamed of being part of meant so much.”
Charley Steiner called Davis the following morning to welcome him to the Dodgers, and the two spent roughly 10 minutes “getting to know each other.”
Scully’s influence and the Dodgers’ storied history certainly isn’t lost on Davis, who can technically lay claim to the franchise winning a World Series in his lifetime.
“I think it’s important to recognize how significant the Dodgers’ history is to the team. Second part is embracing that. That means diving in and learning all you can,” he said.
“I’m reading tirelessly, every book that I can get a hold of. But I think that can only take you so far. I think it will be key for me to sit down with Vin, sit down with Tommy Lasorda, sit down with people that have been around to see these things firsthand.”
Davis doesn’t yet have his schedule of road games identified, though believes he will be with the Dodgers when they open the 2016 season in San Diego. His presence wouldn’t be to deter Scully from calling any of the games against the Padres, however.
“I know Vin doesn’t travel very much anymore, but it would be great if Vin would do Opening Day if it was something he wanted to do,” Davis said.
The Dodgers have not anointed Davis as Scully’s successor, nor is the 27 year old attempting to present himself as such.
However, just as Davis did at Beloit College in Wisconsin, the Dodgers appear to have gotten a head start on building for the future.