NEED TO KNOW

• Joe Davis will call the World Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays beginning Oct. 23

• Neither team has won a championship, and Davis expects their speed-focused styles to create an exciting matchup

• During the offseason, the father of three enjoys coaching his son’s team and smoking barbecue for loved ones

Joe Davis can remember the moment as if it were yesterday.

Sitting in the broadcast booth during Game 5 of the 2022 National League Championship Series, when the Philadelphia Phillies hosted the San Diego Padres at Citizens Bank Park, the lead play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports watched as star Phillies slugger Bryce Harper hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to send Philadelphia to its first World Series since 2009. Being on the call for a moment like that, Davis says, is what he had dreamed about all his life.

“It was the kind of moment that, as a kid, when I’d sit there and watch these games and say, ‘I wanna be the voice of a play like that,’ “ Davis, 38, tells PEOPLE.

Since succeeding Joe Buck in April 2022 as the network’s lead MLB voice, Davis has collected a bevy of pinch-me moments and is eager to see what the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays have in store when he’s on the call for the 2026 World Series, which begins Friday, Oct. 23.

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“It’s an old-school approach matchup coming head to head,” says Davis. “I think in an era defined by home runs and power and strikeouts, this is a matchup of the top two teams in baseball making contact and hitting for a high average and then stealing bases. So, I think it has a chance to be a different brand of baseball than folks are used to seeing this time of year, at least over the last decade plus, and a really exciting version of it.”

He continues, “Both these teams are carving their own paths, Tampa Bay through the American League, Milwaukee through the National League, playing a style that other teams don’t see. They come and put this pressure on the other team, but now it’s gonna be like looking in a mirror, both teams doing that, trying to get on, create havoc once they’re on base.”

Another enticing element to this year’s Fall Classic is that neither the Brewers nor the Rays have ever captured a title. “They’re both likable teams with a lot of personality,” says Davis.

Although Davis’ MLB season will be coming to a close once the best-of-seven series concludes (if necessary, a Game 7 is set for Saturday, Oct. 31), the father of three — who shares daughter Charlotte, 10, and sons Blake, 7, and Theo, 5, with wife Libby — will still be on the grind as part of Fox Sports’ NFL coverage, calling games with color commentator and former NFL tight end Greg Olsen.

“There’s not a ton [of time off] between baseball playoffs finishing and getting back into NFL,” says Davis, who first joined the network in 2014. “While I’m really heavy on work, especially in September and October, once I do get into those months in the fall where it’s just the one NFL game a week, and then especially about a month and a half, two-month break between NFL and spring training, I go all-in on being with the family and being dad and being a husband and being a friend.”

That downtime consists of school drop-offs, volunteering for lunch duty at his kids’ school, coaching his son’s flag-football team and honing his skills on the grill.

“It was always something we would do as kids, my dad had a Weber charcoal grill that he would grill on for us... It was a lot of burgers and hot dogs and things like that,” recalls Davis. “But that was one of my first purchases when I was off on my own and had my first apartment, I got myself a Weber Kettle. And then, as time went on, I decided, ‘Hey, why don’t I try to turn this Weber Kettle into a smoker?’ I researched how to do that and got into the all-day barbecue-style smoking of meats, and it’s just become a passion of mine.”

Beyond fine-tuning the salt and pepper ratios of a brisket, what Davis appreciates most about the activity is that it “brings together a lot of the things that I’m most passionate about.” “Being able to give something to your family and friends,” Davis says. “To me, there’s nothing better than sitting down and having dinner with the people you love.”

Game 1 of the World Series begins Friday at 8 p.m. ET in Milwaukee.

Read the original article on People