Dodgers News: Joe Davis Unpacks Decision to Pay Homage to Vin Scully During World Series
While Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off grand slam in the tenth inning of Game 1, millions of Angelenos heard a call that resembled Vin Scully’s 1988 Kirk Gibson call.
“She is gone! Gibby, meet Freddie!”
In a moment that will forever be remembered in baseball history, Joe Davis paid homage to his predecessor in the best way possible.
However, Davis wasn’t satisfied with the call. He felt he could’ve paused longer in between his two short sentences that eloquently connected the two iconic walk-offs in Dodgers history.
“I felt like maybe I was talking over the crowd a little too much, even though it was only another two seconds or so,” Davis told Bill Shaikin of The Los Angeles Times.
Davis prepares for moments just like Freeman’s Friday night, but he never has anything memorized.
“I’m not smart enough to have the perfect caption come to my mind as the moment happens,” Davis said. “I think that’s my job: to caption and capture these moments for history.
“But I also never want to script anything, because I don’t think it’s possible to have a call scripted and have it not sound scripted.”
Like many Dodgers fans, Davis felt a sudden sense of deja vu watching the ball head to right field.
“The flight of that ball, we’ve all seen a million times,” Davis said. “We’ve seen that same exact home run a million times and heard Vin’s call of it. I think it kind of sparked that in my head when I had that context sitting there.”
Every Dodgers fan knows the iconic call by Scully.
“She is gone!,” Scully took over a minute to pause and then said, “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened!”
It’s a call that’s been memorized by Dodgers fans since the 1988 World Series. Now the next generation has its own call to cling to.
It’s only fitting that the man who replaced Scully got the final call of Freeman’s walk-off grand slam.
“That’s really special,” Davis said. “That’s not why you get into the business. But, once you’re in it, and if you’re lucky enough to have those moments happen in front of you, it’s a really gratifying thing when you hope you did it justice. That’s your job: to do it justice.
“The moment happens, and if you’re lucky enough to be the person in that chair, that’s your responsibility. It’s not just to say, ‘Home run, Dodgers win,’ but to caption that moment and capture it for history.”
Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
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