The Dodgers will have a new television play-by-play voice for road games in 2016: Joe Davis.
Davis, 27, is already a veteran of several national MLB, college football and college basketball telecasts on Fox Sports. He’ll call 50 games on SportsNet LA with Orel Hershiser, Nomar Garciaparra and dugout reporter Alanna Rizzo next season.
“Joe Davis has put together an outstanding play-by-play resume,” Dodgers chief marketing officer Lon Rosen said in a statement. “We are thrilled to have one of the top young sports broadcast talents in the nation join our great television team.”
Davis is scheduled to call Saturday’s college football game between Washington and Utah on Fox Sports.
Update (5 p.m.): Davis will call Kansas-TCU on Fox Sports 1 on Saturday, per colleague Tom Hoffarth, who spoke to Davis at length this afternoon.
If you can’t wait that long, I did a quick YouTube search for some of Davis’ clips and came up with this high school football game from 2012 on ESPN:
Charley Steiner is slated to do play-by-play on the 31 road telecasts that Davis doesn’t call. Vin Scully will call all 81 home games. I’m told he might do some road games as well, likely close to home (Anaheim, San Francisco, etc.), though that hasn’t been determined yet. Scully’s schedule wasn’t announced until spring training last year.
Here’s more from the Dodgers’ press release:
Davis, a native of Potterville, MI, is currently calling play-by-play for FOX Sports on many of the national college football games with former Notre Dame star Brady Quinn. Davis also has called Major League Baseball and college basketball games on FOX Sports. He will continue in his role with FOX Sports.
Davis attended Beloit (Wis.) College, where he was a four-year letter winner on the school’s football team, as well as earning a B.A. degree in communications with a minor in journalism. A two-time team captain, he played quarterback in his first two seasons before a shoulder injury forced him to move to wide receiver for his final two years.
During the football off-seasons, Davis assumed play-by-play duties for the school’s athletic department, announcing baseball and men’s and women’s basketball games on local radio and television. Davis served as the voice of Buccaneer spring sports for his final three years on campus before graduating in 2010.
Prior to his senior year of college, Davis secured a summer job as the manager of broadcasting for the Schaumburg Flyers baseball team of the independent Northern League, serving as the team’s play-by-play voice and media relations director. He moved on to the Montgomery (Ala.) Biscuits, the Double-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. Davis called those games for three seasons and earned Southern League Broadcaster of the Year honors in 2012.
While in Montgomery, Davis also earned the opportunity to work for the Baylor Independent Sports Properties Network and also caught on at Comcast Sports Southeast, where he called play-by-play for college football, basketball and baseball.
In July 2012, Davis made the jump to national television at the age of 24, joining ESPN as an announcer, calling college baseball, basketball, football, hockey and softball. He also appeared in spot duty for Major League Baseball on ESPN radio.
Davis was assigned to the network’s broadcast of the Poinsettia Bowl between Utah State and Northern Illinois on Dec. 26, 2013 and thus, at the age of 25, became the youngest person to ever announce a bowl game for ESPN.
