Former MLB player turned broadcaster Rajai Davis has experienced one of the greatest highs a player can accomplish and now a head-scratching low to start his broadcasting career.
A hero of the 2016 World Series with his tying home run in Game 7, Davis got off to a rough start behind the mic on YouTube’s MLB Game of the Week between the Angels and Tigers. The analyst was supposed to ask Mike Trout a question while the broadcast team had the MVP on the mic but flubbed his first attempt.
“One thing, one thing I have for you man,” Davis started when his turn came to ask Trout a question. “It’s uh, it’s, it’s ya know, um … I just lost my train of thought.”
Veteran broadcaster Matt Vasgersian tried to play it off by telling Trout it was Davis’s first game, but then the former Indian hero remembered his question.
“I know what it is now, Trout, I’m back, I’m ready,” Davis said stepping back up to the interview plate. “Talking about Ohtani, how is he in the clubhouse? Is he the kind of guy where… does he speak English?”
Trout seemed flustered by the question but rolled with it and described how Ohtani is slowly becoming more comfortable communicating with his teammates using English.
Davis rightly asked Trout about his MVP-candidate teammate, but the framing needs a lot of work. Ohtani is smashing baseballs, and fanning batters left and right to an extent we haven’t seen since Babe Ruth. The historic season has Ohtani in a two-man AL MVP race with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who leads the majors with 22 home runs, barely edging Ohtani’s 19 dingers.
Davis wasn’t in the best logistical position to perform in his debut since Vasgersian and Mark Gubicza have hours of experience calling Angels games together. We’ll see if he gets another shot in the booth after speaking too much English in his debut.