Just 35 and already the voice of the World Series, Joe Davis has only touched the surface of the baseball magic coming his way. But the Fox Sports and Los Angeles Dodgers play-by-play voice knows he was part of something extraordinary on Tuesday night at LoanDepot park in Miami. It was Davis’ voice that FS1 viewers heard when Shohei Ohtani struck out Mike Trout in the top of the ninth inning to seal Japan’s 3-2 victory in the World Baseball Classic final. Less than 48 hours after calling one of the most memorable at-bats in recent history, Davis was still processing the moment.
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“The World Series stands alone for me, but that specific at-bat might be the next thing,” Davis said. “It’s just one of the coolest things I’ve ever witnessed. You almost wish you could press pause on the moment and just sit there and really have a chance to soak it in. I think we all know that it was Shohei Ohtani on the mound. We knew that it was Mike Trout in the box and the game was on the line. But to really be able to sit there and reflect on the greatness that we’re watching on the same field, going head to head in that moment, I wish I had a rewind button to get me back there and a pause button to really soak it in.”
There it is! Japan wins the WBC for the 3rd time in history! 🇯🇵
🏆🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/4iwSRlqU9D
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) March 22, 2023
Davis thought calling the event would be an interesting assignment, but he initially considered it as prep work heading into the regular season. It eventually became, in his words, one of the most special assignments he’s had in his broadcasting career. The final averaged 4.5 million viewers on FS1 and 5.2 million viewers including Fox Deportes. Viewership was up 69 percent from the 2017 WBC final. FS1 and Fox Deportes peaked at a combined 6.5 million viewers from 10:30-10:45 p.m. ET.
“As you started to hear there was a chance Ohtani was going to pitch in relief in the days leading up to the championship game if Japan got there, then it was like, wouldn’t it be cool if he faced Trout?” Davis said. “You fantasized about that. Not only did he pitch, not only did he face Trout, he faced Trout with two outs in the ninth inning in a one-run game and the count went full. It was just absolutely incredible.
The at-bat is likely to be replayed for decades given the two players. I asked Davis if he was satisfied with how his call came off.
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“I’m OK with it,'” he said. “Rarely in a championship call, or to finish off a big game, do I think it’s necessary to give you the actual play-by-play of it. So where I said Ohtani strikes out Trout, that’s not something I would normally do. If you look back at the World Series final out, I don’t say Kyle Tucker makes the catch. I say whatever I say about the Astros winning in the World Series. What it is in the scorebook is usually irrelevant compared to the bigger picture. But that for me needed to be in there. It needed to be Ohtani strikes out Trout, because as much as it was Japan winning the World Baseball Classic, it was clearly that made-for-a-movie moment. I’m pretty hard on myself. I think a lot of us are. I’m just very happy to have been there and had a chance to call it. I guess I’m glad I didn’t screw it up. I’d give it a B.”
One of the challenges for Davis when it came to the WBC — he called six games — was getting information on some of the teams, including pronunciations. He credited MLB Network’s research department and fellow Dodgers play-by-play broadcaster Stephen Nelson for aiding his prep. On the subject of when to hold future World Baseball Classics, Davis posited an interesting idea.
“I know there’s been a lot of different ideas thrown around, and I just can’t imagine a better tournament than we just had,” Davis said. “I know you can poke holes in some of the things — pitchers aren’t completely built up or whatever. How can you mess with what was so perfect an event? That said, what if you played the group stage at this time and then took a week off around the All-Star Break and played what we just had in Miami, the knockout round? Or if that’s too much, you take the top four teams and have them compete during the All-Star break. I don’t know if that would mean every three years you don’t have an All-Star Game, but I think that’s an idea that you could play around.”
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The World Baseball Classic was a big success in 2023. What will make it better for 2026?
ESPN executive editor-in-chief, special projects Rob King, who reported directly to ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro and at times during his 20-year tenure was one of the most prominent editorial decision-makers at ESPN, is no longer with the company. The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand reported that King was removed over allegations of harassment; King wrote on social media that it was his decision to leave the company. When reached by Poynter’s Tom Jones, King said he would let his social media post stand for now. ESPN confirmed King was no longer employed at the company but declined further comment.
The MLB Network announced that Harold Reynolds and Adnan Virk will co-host a new daily 6 p.m. ET edition of “MLB Tonight.” They will debut on Opening Day (March 30) at 12 p.m. ET and again at 4 p.m. ET, before settling into the 6 p.m. ET time slot on March 31.
The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn reported that Boston-based WEEI Radio producer and on-air personality Chris Curtis has been suspended without pay by the station for a week for commentary that included an ethnic slur about ESPN NFL analyst Mina Kimes. Curtis said he had conflated Kimes and actress Mila Kunis during a segment about the banning of miniature bottles of alcohol, which are sometimes known as “nips.” (The term is also a slur used against people of Japanese descent.) Kimes was born in Nebraska and her mother’s family is from South Korea.
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Curtis apologized on air Wednesday. In a statement, an ESPN spokesperson said, “There is no place for these type of hateful comments, which were uncalled for and extremely offensive.” ESPN declined to comment on the suspension. Kimes briefly changed her Twitter avatar to Kunis in a bit of genius amid the clown show.
MLB’s rule changes are going to have a significant impact on how you consume baseball as a viewer.
“I think it’s going to drastically (change) our rhythm, cadence, selectivity within replay sequences, selectivity in packaging and game content,” “Sunday Night Baseball” producer Andy Jacobson said this week. “Changing the mentality of pre-produced elements that we come in with, we can’t afford to be long 20 to 25 seconds. Everything has to be packaged tightly and selectively. Similar to Karl (Ravech), Eddie (Eduardo Perez) and Coney (David Cone), don’t use 10 words when you can use four. Same concept goes with our production selectivity. I do think we’ll push more replay two-boxes, almost like football hurry-up offenses. That eight-second mark, when batters have been in the box and engaged looking up at the pitcher, we as production groups need to be on that shot, so we can see if that batter is alert and ready to go at eight seconds. That doesn’t leave a lot of in-between time.”
Some sports media stories worth checking out: SI’s Jon Wertheim on the death of the local sports anchor; The Athletic’s Jason Jones on Fox NFL and L.A. Clippers reporter Kristina Pink; and The Athletic’s Chad Jennings on MLB announcers adjusting to the rule changes. I found this non-sports story by Gina Kolata fascinating: “DNA From Beethoven’s Hair Unlocks Medical and Family Secrets.” It’s mind-blowing what the advances in DNA can produce.
I had an interesting conversation with Kevin Harlan this week as part of my Sports Media Podcast. Harlan, the outstanding game-caller for CBS, Warner Bros. Discovery and Westwood One audio, said he was uncomfortable that the video of his memorable call of Furman beating Virginia was filmed. The video has since been viewed more than six million times over multiple platforms.
“You don’t want to see how hot dogs are made,” Harlan said. “It’s like if we put a camera on you if you’re writing one of your stories for The Athletic. This is kind of a personal space.”
I think you’ll find it an interesting conversation. The New York Times best-selling author Jeff Pearlman is also a guest, and one of the topics we discussed was the ethics of editorial people paying sources.
(Photo of Shohei Ohtani: Eric Espada / Getty Images)
