If Joe Davis had stayed healthy and become a productive college quarterback, chances are the Dodgers would have someone completely different calling their baseball games. The torch would have been passed from legend Vin Scully to someone who probably wouldn’t have been nearly as good a fit as Davis.

But Davis was neither healthy nor productive in his time at Beloit College, a Division III program that sits about a half-mile from the border of Wisconsin and Illinois. Undaunted, he turned his full attention to his broadcasting career and the rest, as they say, is history.

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In this edition of Baseball Voices, Davis talks about his passion for broadcasting, his journey to the Dodgers’ booth and many other topics. It’s well worth a few minutes of your time.

(Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.)

SPORTING NEWS: I’ve read that being a broadcaster, a play-by-play guy, has long been a goal of yours. When did that start?

DAVIS: I don't have an exact moment where I said to myself, “This is what I want to do.” Just, as far back as I can remember watching games, for whatever reason, I always paid attention to the guys calling the games as much as I was the games themselves. I grew up around sports. My dad is long-time high school football coach, so it was always a big part of my life. I just kind of naturally gravitated toward a job in that field, I guess. As far as actually thinking to myself, “OK, this could be a job. This is what I want to do,” maybe fifth, sixth, seventh grade? That’s when I knew it's exactly what I wanted to do.

SN: A lot of the guys I’ve talked to for these pieces said when they were kids, they’d put the TV on mute and call the games themselves. Did you do that too?

DAVIS: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I used to do that. I used to do that with my video games, too. I was big on making imaginary sports leagues and everything, where I would then play those game out in my backyard, and I would broadcast those fake games, too.

SN: Really?

DAVIS: Oh, yeah. My parents kind of joke around — well, I don't know if it's joking or if they really felt this way — but they said they kind of worried about me, hearing me down in the basement — where we had painted a basketball court on the concrete down there, with Little Tykes hoops and everything — talking to myself. I was announcing the games from a very early age. So, I guess even before I started thinking about it as a career, I was practicing.

SN: So you'd shoot the little 3-pointer and be like, “Joe shoots a 3-pointer!”

DAVIS: Exactly. Yeah.

SN: That's amazing. When you’d play games with your friends, did you do that with them, too?

DAVIS: Probably a little bit. I’ve never been a shy or bashful guy, but I remember a stage where I was a little bit guarded about, you know, announcing in front of friends. In that awkward teenager stage that everybody goes through. I used to probably do it more quietly with my video games in my room and stuff. Wouldn’t want my parents to hear me doing it. But yeah, I’d do that any time I could.

SN: Did you have a favorite video game to call?

DAVIS: I was always big college football video game guy, so NCAA whatever year.

SN: Speaking of football, give me a scouting report on Joe Davis, college football player.

DAVIS: (laughs) Ummm, bust!

SN: Bust?

DAVIS: How about that? Really good, productive high school career. And then I get to college and we weren't very good. I went to a place where I could be a starter on Day One. It probably wasn't the brightest thing in hindsight. I was coming up with a new coaching staff that was transitioning to the spread from a program that had run the Wing-T forever. I was part of that first class that was recruited to run that offense, and it didn't go great. Then I had a shoulder injury and moved to receiver. So the scouting report is not a glowing one.

SN: Well, at least college wasn't all a bust for you. You got the Schaumburg job. How’d you talk your way into that one?

DAVIS: Honestly, the silver lining to my football career not going how I had anticipated was that I could focus a little more on the career. I did everything that I could to try to squeeze every ounce out of the college experience I could to prepare myself for once college was finished, to be able to take a legitimate job right away. I don't think there's anything wrong with enjoying your college experience fully, whatever you want that to mean. But if you can plug away while you're in college, where there really is no pressure, you kind of set yourself up to be ahead of the curve when college does end. So I was doing everything I could on campus. It wasn't a broadcast school, but because of that I kind of had a monopoly on any of the opportunities that were there. And it being a small liberal arts school, I could find somebody to help me start anything that wasn't available. I tried to make it the best broadcasting school I could make it for myself while I was there. And then that Schaumburg job, that was the summer before my senior semester. I graduated in three-and-a-half years, to make sure that I would be ready to take a full-season baseball job right out of school, as opposed to graduating in early May and having to wait to full calendar year before I was eligible to take one of those full time.

SN: That’s smart.

DAVIS: So the semester before, before the semester to finish my time, I go the Schaumburg job. I guess the little trick was I wrote the thank-you note once I got an interview, on a baseball to try and stand out a little bit. There were something like 90 people that applied for that job, which was an unpaid internship

SN: That was unpaid?

DAVIS: Oh, yeah.

SN: Wow.

DAVIS: I think it was probably illegal, what they had us do, not paying us a cent, having us do all the duties as a broadcaster and the media relations stuff, and we were selling and not making commission off our sales.

SN: What?

DAVIS: Oh, yeah. At that point, I was ripe for the picking for that kind of illegal labor. I was gung-ho every day going to the park.

SN: That’s what they were counting on, right?

DAVIS: Exactly.

SN: I read about the note you wrote to Len Kasper. Len was the second guy I talked to for a Baseball Voices piece. He's someone I've always loved listening to. He's one of good guys in the sport, isn’t he?

DAVIS: He really is. I grew up a Cubs fan, listening first to Chip Caray and then to Len, and, of course, all along to Pat Hughes on radio, who I think is as good of a radio guy as there's ever been. But Len was in the job as I was really starting to get the age when I knew it's exactly what I wanted to do and was diving in a little bit deeper, paying attention to announcers. And he was the announcer for my favorite team, the one I was watching every day. I grew to really appreciate the way he prepared, so many things about the job that he does that I figured, hey, I’d try to reach out to him. The story's been told a million times now, but I hand-wrote him a letter and when I was going to a game with my dad, the letter fell out of my pocket on the way to the booth. Which, looking back, those must have been some really baggy carpenter pants, carpenter shorts or something, to have it fall out. The owner of the Taco Bell found it, called me, left a message, got it to Len and we were in touch soon after that.

SN: That’s still amazing.

DAVIS: Not only has he been a great sounding board for me and a mentor for me, but he was the first one, probably the first guy who told me that he thought I was good. And that’s such a huge moment for any young broadcaster who goes into it, of course, knowing that it's gonna be really competitive and really difficult. You have these dreams and you hope that you can reach the dreams, but you're realistic that there are a million other guys who want the same things you do. So there's a fear factor involved as you get ready to launch off into the business. And I vividly remember Len calling me after hearing my tape for the first time, and this was probably a year after we connected the first time, via email — and to get his positive feedback, that was such an uplifting thing, such a boost for me going into my career.

SN: That’s very cool. So then you get the job in Montgomery. As a guy from where you're from, was Alabama a bit of a new adjustment? Not so much the job, just life in Alabama.

DAVIS: Definite culture shock for a kid who grew up in Michigan, you know? There’s a difference in cultures from North to South, but also the humidity. Just incredible humidity and heat. But it was a wonderful place for me to start my professional career, the Southern hospitality. And I'm sure you've grown to appreciate that being in Charlotte.

SN: For sure.

DAVIS: It really is real and true. There’s nowhere else I would have wanted to start, looking back. And that's what I tell people trying to get into the business. Even if they're not certain they want to do baseball, there's no better place to go as they play-by-play broadcaster than to be a minor league baseball announcer.

SN: Listening to you and Orel Hershiser work a game, it has a conversational field, almost like you're talking and there happens to be a baseball game going on and you're talking about that, too. Did that develop right away, that style? How did you guys approach coming into this job working together?

DAVIS: I appreciate you saying that. I'm glad that it does come off that way. I think that it all comes from a genuine friendship. That is who we are off the air, and it happened very quickly. We met while I was in consideration for the job, while I was weighing whether or not to take the job, and hit it off right away. I’ve said before that he is the youngest 60-year-old I've ever met, and I'm kind of a boring 31. So we meet in the middle. Different ages and generations, but very similar ways of looking at life and looking at the job. We both just want to be the very best that we can and have the same goals coming in. I think we see the game the same way. We appreciate and love the game the same way. The conversational feel, I don't think you could fake that. It's hard to fake anything in baseball since it’s every day. You’d get exposed for faking it. That’s just real conversation between two friends.

SN: I'm sure you've been asked about this a million times, but I’m gonna ask it, too. When did you first think about taking over for Vin Scully when he retired? When did that first thought enter your mind?

DAVIS: My dream had always been to be a voice of a network, to do national stuff. I wasn't gonna take a job with a team just to do it. It was gonna have to be kind of a perfect situation. This would have been the fall of 2014, probably. My agent called, and it was like an, “Oh, by the way,” kind of thing. We’d had a conversation about one thing, and then he called back a few minutes later and said, “Oh, by the way, is your baseball tape updated? The Dodgers were starting to talk about what the situation will look like once Vin retires, eventually, and your name came up.”

SN: That had to feel nice.

DAVIS: I was like, “Oh, that's flattering.” I’m surprised they know who I am, but let me get my tape updated, and sure, let’s see what’s there. A few months went by and we didn't really hear anything. I was out there that winter for some Fox meetings and decided to swing by the park just to say hi, put some faces to names for people we had dealt with a little bit. I went in the office and CMO of the Dodgers, Lon Rosen, gauged my interest. And, at that point I went into the meeting still not that interested because I didn’t know if it would work with my national schedule. And he said, “Well, you're one of three or four people we’re considering, if you have interest.” So at that point, I was blown away when he said that. But then I also had to kind of like fake my interest level, and be like, “Of course! 100 percent! I’m in! Let’s keep in touch.” And then I was like, OK, how is this gonna work? I'm not giving up the national stuff. Once they decided that I was their guy, which happened a few months later, randomly got a call, “Hey, we want to find a way to make Joe that the next guy,” it was probably half a year of figuring out how it was going to look and how it would work where I could do both.

SN: So they were all about making that happen?

DAVIS: I mean, I think that had they been all about it, it would have happened faster. I would have agreed faster. It took negotiating and compromising from both sides to be able to figure out a way where it would work. And, of course, the Vin context is attached to the entire thing, the entire time you’re thinking about that. For me, it wasn't gonna be something where I didn’t take the job out of fear of failing, because I wasn't Vin. I wasn't gonna go about my life that way and look back in 10 years and say, "What if I hadn’t scared myself out of taking it?” So I went into it saying, “I don’t look at it as a pressure-packed thing where I’m doomed. I look at it as a wonderful responsibility, and what makes it so special is that I get to be the guy to follow him. I’m gonna be in myself and hopefully, over time — and I was realistic that it wasn't gonna happen right away — but hopefully, over time, people can learn to at least tolerate me. And I jumped in.

SN: Do you get to talk to him often?

DAVIS: No. We talked some when I first transitioned into the job. But I think it's one of those things where he was in the spotlight for so long, an especially bright spotlight those final couple of years when everybody knew that he was finishing. Everybody wanted a piece of him. And he's so generous with his time that now that he's retired, he is fully retired, just kind of wants to be with his wife, Sandy, and his family. And I totally understand.

SN: Yeah, that's very cool. So this is one of the questions I ask a lot of the broadcasters. Where do you get your best info from the team to use on broadcast. Do you go down and stand around the batting cages and talk to guys there? Maybe the team hotel?

DAVIS: The advice that I got going into the job, at first especially, was to be seen but not heard. You don't want to be a nuisance, right? But you also don't want to be a ghost, where they’re like, “Who the hell is this guy talking about my swing that I've never even met? How does he know these things?” So I tried to ease into that side of it. My first year, I wasn't around the cage at all. I wasn't really in the clubhouse. I just would kind of linger down near the dugout and be around, but be seen and not heard, and let the relationships develop organically. Now it's part of my routine to be by the cage most days. And, again, it’s not like I’m taking with every guy every day, but over time those relationships have developed where natural conversations pop up. I'm not gonna get information from every guy every day. But I figure that the two or three little nuggets that I get each day, they really can fuel a broadcast. I’m still not big on being in the clubhouse. I look at that as their personal, sacred space where they live a lot of their lives during the summer, and I don't want to be down there lingering if I don’t have to. My job, obviously, is much different than a writer who has to be on the beat. So I try and stay out of the way a little bit more and get that work done out on the field and in the dugout, during the pregame work.

SN: You still love calling football games?

DAVIS: Yeah, I do. It’s a different experience. The buildup to a football game is special, how each week is an event. I mentioned my dad is a long-time football coach and I grew up on the game. And he’s my spotter now.

SN: Wait, really?

DAVIS: Yeah. So I get to spend each weekend with him on the road. So there are a lot of special things about it.

SN: I asked our college football writer, Bill Bender, if I should ask you any questions about the Pac 12. And he said, “You’ve got to ask him if the league needs UCLA and USC to be good to take that step to get back where it once was.”

DAVIS: Yeah. Just like the Big 12 needs Texas to be good. USC, especially, is your biggest national brand. Oregon has become that. Stanford has become that, but yeah, you need USC to be great. UCLA, too, wouldn’t hurt. And selfishly, I’d love for those teams to be good so I could do as many games in my backyard as possible.

SN: So my little girl was just turned 1 a few weeks ago. She started walking, a couple months ago, and she just goes everywhere and she babbles a lot and almost kind of says her first word, but I'm not sure we can really count them. You know how that goes.

DAVIS: For sure.

SN: So do you have any advice for me over the next couple of years? Your little girl is how old now?

DAVIS: My daughter turned 3 in June, and then I have a son who will be 1 in November. I don’t know that I’m qualified to give advice, since I’m almost as new as you are, but as I'm sure you feel too, it's just the greatest thing in the world. I used to, as I'm sure anybody that doesn't have kids would do, kind of inside you roll your eyes when you see new parents showing pictures, and it's like, OK, cool, but I don't totally get it. You can't possibly get it until you have kids yourself. But then you know once you do it, it really is an indescribable thing. And, you know, every guy wants a son, sure, but there's something extra special about Daddy's little girl. It’s an indescribable thing.

SN: It's the best, for sure. Do they come down to the ballpark much?

DAVIS: Not often. I'd say once a month or so my wife will bring the kids for, like, an early Sunday brunch or something before the game. But it's just hard with different nap schedules and everything.

SN: I get that. Yeah.

DAVIS: She’s knows one player. She knows Cody Bellinger. She always asks, “Can I see Cody Bellinger videos?” And with every single one of them, to no fail, she says, “And that’s you, daddy!”

SN: Because she hears you calling the highlights?

DAVIS: Yep.

SN: That’s probably what she really wants, to hear you calling them. OK, another couple of random ones here. Before you got the Dodgers job, do you have a favorite moment or a favorite game that you’ve called? Something that stands out.

DAVIS: There are quite a few to come to mind, but I said the No. 1 would be Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, 2014 in Norman. Neither team was very good that year, so it wasn't like a highly anticipated Bedlam game, but one of those rivalries that's always special. It was just an awesome game. Went to overtime because, for some reason, Oklahoma punted to Tyreke Hill. Oklahoma had it on the Oklahoma State 40 yard line or something, with less than a minute left, up by a touchdown, and instead of putting it out of bounds, they punted and tried to pin it. Hill caught it and went like 95 yards to tie the game and send it into overtime. And Oklahoma State won the game in overtime. That was my final game of my first year at Fox. It was my 25th birthday, and just everything about it was it was really cool. And, actually, earlier that year, on my brother's birthday … he lives in LA as well, moved away before I did. He's a director of photography and actually won an Oscar this year, at the age of 26. Very, very proud of him.

SN: Wow. For what?

DAVIS: He’s a director of photography on a short film called “Period. End of Sentence.” It won Best Documentary Short.

SN: Wow.

DAVIS: So, anyway, on his birthday, which was Oct. 4, of my first year at Fox, my mom was there, as well, for a game at USC. It was against Arizona State. So, special to begin with because my entire family, minus my sister, was in the booth. My dad’s spotting, my mom’s visiting and my brother, who was a student at USC at that point, and Arizona State won on a Hail Mary. For a lot of reasons, that was memorable, too.

SN: I know you don't have much of anything resembling free time, but think back to when you had free time. What did you do with it?

DAVIS: Before kids were born, I golfed a little bit. Partially having a kid, partially taking the Dodger job, partially not handling failure well on the golf course, I stopped golfing. Before that, before I was married, I used to play video games some. And now I’m big into my smoker, My Big Green Egg. We had an off day the other night and I did some big beef ribs for the family.

SN: I’ve seen the Big Green Egg smoker a lot of times, but haven’t used one.

DAVIS: I love it. It’s worth it.