As Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani rewrites baseball history each day of his legendary career, Spectrum SportsNet and Fox Sports announcer Joe Davis has a front-row seat to the show.
And while it can sometimes be hard to contextualize greatness at Ohtani’s scale, Davis said in a recent interview on the Starkville podcast that he is more struck by the actual experience and awe of watching Ohtani’s career play out than by any one statistic or accolade.
“It really is a gift, I think if we look at it that way. How many things inspire wonder in us as adults these days? How many things make us stop and say, ‘Wow’?” Davis said.
“We get older and we’ve seen everything. And to have a guy who reminds us that it doesn’t have to be final, it doesn’t have to be impossible. That you can still pause and think, ‘What is possible here?’ and dream big. I think that when you channel it that way, it can really be a gift for all of us as we watch him from a bigger perspective than just, ‘How far can this guy hit the ball?’”
Whether we are watching Ohtani create the 50-50 club with three homers and two steals in the same 2024 game or being on the call for Fox as Ohtani hit three home runs and strike out ten batters from the mound in the same NLCS game, Davis’ use of the word “wonder” feels apt. Ohtani is playing America’s oldest sport and still finding ways to reimagine how it can be played and what greatness looks like.
Asked why some would rain on that parade in hopes of Ohtani ending his run as a two-way player, Davis again tapped into the spiritual.
“I think that those people are the kind of people that are going ot find something wrong with everything, and the greater it is, the harder they’re going to try to tear it down,” he said. “Is he going to stop eventually? Sure, we all are. But while we got it? How could you feel anything other than just love for what you’re watching him do?”
Often broadcasters focus on unique insights or observations about the players they most closely cover, but in the case of Davis and Ohtani, the announcer seems to be giving in to the otherworldly experience of watching a legend at work.
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