Everyone has seen and heard it many times, perhaps even hundreds:

“In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened!”

Those are, of course, the immortal words of Hall of Fame broadcaster and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Vin Scully – the single greatest broadcaster of all time – which he so timely uttered on October 15, 1988, when Dodgers pinch hitter Kirk Gibson, who could barely walk, let alone hit, crushed his famous improbable ‘taillight home run’ into the Right Field Pavilion at Dodger Stadium to give the Dodgers the impossible come-from-behind 5-4 win over the highly-favored Oakland Athletics in Game-1 of the 1988 World Series.

Sadly, Scully, who retired following the 2016 season at the age of 88 after 67 seasons as the voice of the Dodgers, passed away on August 2nd of this year. He was 94.

In November of 2015 and prior to Scully’s retirement but knowing it was coming, the Dodgers hired (then) 27-year-old Fox Sports broadcaster Joe Davis for Scully to mentor and eventually hand over his microphone to. Davis immediately made it abundantly clear that in no way was he ‘replacing’ the irreplaceable Mr. Scully, but was filling the vacancy created by Scully’s pending and well-deserved retirement.

“You cannot replace the greatest anyone of all time in anything,” Davis emphatically said during his introductory press conference upon joining the SportsNet LA broadcast team to split play-by-play duties with Dodgers broadcaster Charley Steiner for games not called by Scully. The (now) 34-year-old Lansing, Michigan native said that he did not plan to entirely emulate Scully’s style, but wanted to maintain his focus on storytelling as a warm reminder of arguably Scully’s most popular trait.

As planned, Davis became Scully’s full-time successor for the 2017 season, with popular former Dodgers Orel Hershiser and Nomar Garciaparra providing the color commentary.

“Hopefully, some have listened and at least learned to tolerate me,” Davis said modestly after his first season in Scully’s chair. “But for my comfort level, last year was very important, and having Orel in the booth has been the best part and biggest reason for this being an enjoyable experience so far, personally and professionally. I’m eternally grateful to him for how he has gone out of his way.”

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Fast-forward to Sunday, October 23, 2022, for Game-6 of the 2022 National League Championship Series between the San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies at a sold out and very wet Citizens Bank Park in downtown Philadelphia, with the Phillies leading the best-of-seven series three games to two, and with Joe Davis handling play-by-play duties for FS1.

With two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning and the Padres clinging to a 4-3 lead, and on a 2-2 count with Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto on first base having singled, Phillies superstar designated hitter Bryce Harper crushed a 98.9-MPH sinker off of Padres right-hander Robert Suarez for a Gibson-esque two-run home run into left-center field, which Joe Davis immortalized in the spirit of Vin Scully:

“Harper! The swing of his life!”

Davis follow this with 15 seconds of complete silence, so that the deafening roar of the Citizens Bank Park crowd could tell viewers the rest of the story.

It was epic.

Although it was only a Championship Series home run call and not a Vin Scully-esque World Series home run call, Joe Davis has arrived – BIG time, having learned from the greatest of all time.

Well done, Joe.

Vin would be proud.

Play Ball!

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