Joe Buck is the recipient of the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s 2026 Ford C. Frick Award, and he delivered his speech for the prestigious broadcasting award on Saturday in Cooperstown. From 1996 through 2021, Buck was the lead MLB play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports, and he called 135 World Series games.
In 2022, Buck left Fox to become the Monday Night Football play-by-play announcer for ESPN. Joe Davis replaced him as the top MLB play-by-play announcer and the voice of the World Series at Fox.
And on Saturday night, during an MLB on Fox broadcast of a game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets at Citi Field, Davis offered congratulations to Buck while sharing a personal childhood story about the impact Buck had on his broadcasting career.
Joe Davis: “I remember pointing to the TV (during a World Series) and saying, ‘That.’ I want to be just like him. I want to be like Joe Buck… I knew exactly what I wanted to do, who I wanted to be like.”⚾️🎙️ #MLB pic.twitter.com/Tt6JbA9N6c https://t.co/o1UhwmGElo
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 26, 2026
“You mentioned earlier, Joe Buck, heading into the Hall of Fame this weekend,” Davis said to Fox broadcast partner John Smoltz, who worked with Buck from 2016 through 2021.
“I was a 12 or 13-year-old kid,” Davis explained. “I remember sitting there watching the World Series. And my mom asked me; she happened to ask, ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?'”
“And I knew sort of what I wanted to do, but I remember pointing to the TV and saying, ‘That,'” Davis continued. “I want to be just like him. I want to be like Joe Buck, who was calling, I think, his fourth World Series at that point. It was Yankees-Diamondbacks in 2001. And I knew exactly what I wanted to do, who I wanted to be like.”
“So, to Joe, congratulations, and thank you for all those years of showing me the way the job should be done,” Davis added.
While reminiscing about his years at Fox during his speech on Saturday, Buck told the audience at Cooperstown, “Oh, and the job is in great hands at Fox with my friend Joe Davis.”
Buck has also praised Davis for Fox broadcasting calls in the past.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
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