Joe Davis had a simple reason for thinking Joe Buck mattered long before he took over Fox's top baseball booth. Buck was one of the voices that shaped Davis from a baseball fan into a broadcaster, and Davis said so as Buck accepted the Ford C. Frick Award this weekend at the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The timing made the moment land harder. Buck is being honored for major contributions to baseball even as most of his current work comes on 's NFL broadcasts, where he is the lead play-by-play commentator and spends much of his time on the Monday Night Football package of games. That contrast is part of why Davis's tribute stood out: the sport that made Buck famous is still the one that put him in the Hall of Fame's spotlight.
Davis has a clear view of that path. He joined Fox Sports in 2014, became the official long-term replacement for Vin Scully in 2017 and then took over as Fox's lead MLB announcer when Buck moved to in April 2022. He also calls games for the Los Angeles Dodgers, which means he works inside two of baseball's most watched broadcasts and now holds the chair Buck once occupied at Fox.
That is also where the story gets interesting. Buck's award recognizes major contributions to baseball, but the work that put him there is not spelled out in the public remarks Davis shared. What is clear is that Davis saw enough in Buck's delivery, rhythm and confidence to model part of his own path on it, even as Buck's day job shifted to and the NFL. Davis is now Fox's No. 2 play-by-play announcer behind Kevin Burkhardt, who calls games with Tom Brady, so the broadcast ladder that Buck once climbed has already become the one Davis now helps define.
For Davis, the weekend was less about looking backward than about naming the broadcaster who helped show him what he wanted to become. For Buck, the honor confirmed that his influence on baseball did not end when he left Fox for in April 2022.
