Joe Davis, the play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers radio station, also called the Fox Sports broadcast of the 2024 (and 2025) World Series. Some time during the past season, I sent a baseball to Joe asking for his famous call of Freddie Freeman’s walk off home run in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series. I received it today! And it is awesome! Joe signed it with his call “Freeman with a ball to right field… She is gone! Gibby, meet Freddie! Game 1 of the World Series.” Amazing call to tie the two moments together. Interesting note related to this… I have a pair of tickets from Game 1 of the 1988 World Series where Kirk Gibson hit HIS famous home run. They are both signed and inscribed by Gibby and Dennis Eckersley!
Category: Call Ball Collection
A Walk-Off Winner!
August 6, 2023. This was the date of the last Twins game Cami and I attended before sending her off to college. We had a fantastic time at the game and the ending really was a nice send off for her to remember until she came back home after her first school year in Phoenix ends in May, 2024. The game was tied going into the ninth inning. The Twins were facing the Arizona Diamondbacks which was cool since Cami was going to go to college at ASU in a week so we were cheering for a good game. They did not disappoint. In the top of the ninth Christian Walker hit a solo home run off Caleb Theilbar to take the lead. That lead did not last long! The first batter for the Twins in the bottom of the ninth was Max Kepler and he delivered a solo home run of his own to re-tie the game at three runs apiece. After a walk to Jorge Polanco, hometown player Matt Wallner came up jacked a walk-off home run to right center!
Cory Provus, as usual, had an awesome call of the homer. I sent a ball to him and asked him to write his call on it to commemorate Wallner’s walk-off. I received that beautiful baseball today along with a note on the back of his business card apologizing for the delay.
Sean Called!
Today I received something that made me really happy. Not only is the baseball really cool but the note inside that accompanied it made it even more special. Sean McDonough is not only a well respected broadcaster, he is a GREAT broadcaster. I can add “human being” to that list of “great” that he is. Sean signed a baseball with his call of Joe Carter’s walk off World Series winning home run in game 6 of the 1993 World Series. “… The winners and still World Champions, the Toronto Blue Jays!” If you are reading this I am sure you remember the call and the moment. I included where I was when this happened (it was homecoming weekend at St Cloud State and I was in the back room of a little Mexican bar/grill listening to a single guy play a guitar and sing while watching the game with my buddy Mike T). Sean also included a really cool note and returned my donation stating it was not necessary and apologizing for his “subpar penmanship” (I could read it so it was not too bad!). The note was even cooler than the baseball and the baseball was really neat. Thanks for making my day Sean!
Feeling Chipper!
Today I received a cool baseball signed by Chip Carey. On what should have been Opening Day, MLB TV played a special game for each team on various channels. The game they chose for the Twins was Game 163 from 2009. I had a baseball already signed by Dan Gladden with his call from that game but reliving that game on Opening Day, I realized I did not have Chip Carey’s call from the game so I sent him a baseball. I got it back signed with his call perfectly! Thanks Chip!