Fox's Joe Davis explains why he loves MLB pitch clock

Fox Sports MLB announcer and Los Angeles Dodgers voice Joe Davis has explained that he's a big fan of the pitch clock embraced for the new season. 

"I love the pitch clock; I think it’s going to be so good for baseball," Davis told Lesley Goldberg of Hollywood Reporter’s "TV’s Top 5" podcast. "After a month, you’re not even going to realize the clock’s there; you’re just going to feel the benefit of it." 

Thus far, MLB has achieved its goal of shortening the lengths of games via the pitch clock, which remains a polarizing subject within the baseball community. According to The Athletic, MLB Opening Day games on Thursday were 26 minutes shorter versus the average for 2022 Opening Day contests. 

As Neil Best noted for Newsday earlier this week, popular New York Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen admitted before the season that he was worried his crew and others wouldn't "have as much spare time to gab" and tell interesting stories during games. Davis insisted he never wants "more time" during a broadcast. 

"The only person that needs more time and deserves more time is (legendary former Dodgers announcer) Vin Scully, and none of us are Vin Scully, and none of us are ever going to be so we don’t need a bunch of time between pitches," Davis added. "We need balls in play and we’ll tell the stories that we’re going to tell. It’s the nature of a two-man booth versus what Vin was doing." 

As mentioned by the Barrett Sports Media website, Davis largely missed out on calling spring training games played under the new MLB rules due to handling World Baseball Classic duties. He feels he nevertheless has enough experience to immediately adapt to calling MLB contests in 2023. 

"I think that I have a good feel and rhythm for the game," Davis remarked. "I’ve worked really hard on storytelling. I’ve studied it like it’s a discipline and have talked with great storytellers and have listened to Vin for years." 

In a piece published on Wednesday, Joe Reedy of the Associated Press noted how beloved Cleveland Guardians radio announcer Tom Hamilton said before Opening Day that he was "burned" a couple of times in spring training when the clock caused him to miss a play while he was writing something down. Davis' words, aside, both Hamilton and Cohen have reminded fans that it's not just players and umpires who are somewhat learning on the fly how to handle this new MLB world. 

"If you want to still broadcast Major League Baseball, you better adapt, or you’ll become a dinosaur," Hamilton said.