It has been many months since we mentioned veteran NASCAR TV announcer Mike Joy here at The Daly Planet. That is Joy's 1979 MRN photo above showing him to be in pretty good company that season on-the-air.
This Saturday afternoon, TV viewers will once again hear Joy calling live sports on Fox for three hours. This time, he will be trading splitters, pit stops and lap times for runs, hits and errors.
Joy will be joining Fox Baseball analyst Joe Magrane to call the play-by-play on the Saturday afternoon match-up between the Minnesota Twins and the red-hot Rays from Tampa Bay. The Fox broadcast begins with the pre-game show at 3:30PM.
This is a regional game that can be seen in lots of areas. Boston, Fort Myers, Hartford, Jacksonville, Miami, Minneapolis, Orlando, Providence, Raleigh, Seattle, Tampa, and West Palm Beach are some of the key TV markets where the game will be seen.
Joy has drawn a great game, with the AL East leading Rays hosting the 2nd place in the AL Central Twins. His partner is a 10 year Major League veteran and a face that fans have seen on ESPN, the regional sports networks and Fox. Magrane regularly works on the Rays' TV games, so he will be well-prepared for this national exposure.
Growing up in Connecticut, Joy was a huge baseball fan and divided his early loyalty between the NY Yankees and the Chicago Cubs. While the love of the Yankees was easy to understand, it was attending games at Wrigley Field as a child with his grandfather who lived in Chicago that sparked the interest in the Cubbies.
Joy had the opportunity to call some college baseball games, but will be stepping into the big leagues for the first time on Saturday afternoon. This is a weekend with a MLB and NFL conflict for Fox and Joy got the call from Fox's Ed Goren to step-up and lend a hand. Fans may remember that Goren has also been instrumental in Fox's NASCAR coverage.
Update: Tampa beat Minnesota on Friday night, so Joy will be calling what may be the most historic single game in Tampa baseball history. With a win, the Rays would clinch a spot in the post-season for the first time since the franchise began.
So, good luck to Mike as he steps into the stick-and-ball world for one moment. The Tampa team is at home and the smaller style indoor stadium usually means lots of action. We will ask Mike to let us know about his experience and pass it along later this weekend. Thank you to all the fans who emailed about this topic.
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22 comments:
Congratulations to Mr. Joy for getting this assignment. I'm sure he'll do a fantastic job. I'm just disappointed that this game isn't available in my area because I'd definitely check it out in-between breaks during the Nationwide race.
Good luck Mike and I can't wait to hear you again at Daytona!
It would be very nice to be able to check it out. I really enjoy Mike and other than Barrett I don't think I've seen him in a non-racing format. But I know he'll do an awesome job :).
Maybe one of our friends will put it on YouTube for us to check a few minutes of it :)
Oh, what a tease - I read the headline and thought for a brief second that Mike Joy would be stepping in for Jerry Punch for the rest of the season.
One can dream, right?
Anon at 10:03- that's what I thought too - MJ was in for JP. We'll be dreaming until February I guess!
Mike has actually stepped into a wild situation. After a win Friday night over Minnesota, Joy will be calling a game on Saturday that could result in Tampa moving into the post-season for the first time in franchise history.
JD
I'm sure he's going to do a great job. It'll be very cool to hear him call baseball.
It's always been interesting to me how there are very few racing commentators that do "stick and ball" sports and vice versa. Two totally different animals, but we've seen Allen Bestwick call Arena Football in the past, so I'll be curious to see how Joy does here.
@anon 10:03--LOL! How nice would that be :)
JD--is Tampa Bay your team? I meant to ask that earlier and forgot!
gymmie,
Florida Marlins over where I live. Back when I lived in Clearwater in the Tampa Bay area, all we had was a football team.
JD
JD,
I congratulate Mike Joy on getting what is now a huge assignment, but I think it's a bit of a slap in the face to baseball fans that Fox seems to care so little about the pennant races that they dip into their NASCAR coverage to find a play-by-play man, as everyone else they have is off doing football.
Western New Yorker,
Your comment seemed to end with a problem to which you did not pose a solution. What Fox announcer is more veteran than Joy to fill-in as the MLB regular season winds-down? Remember, this is just a regional game.
JD
JD- Do you have a pipeline to the Smithsonian? SUPER picture. You keep topping yourself. Thanks.
Unless something has changed this year, Eli Gold has been the PBP for some football team - the Alabama Crimson Tide I believe.
JD,
I realize that this is just a regional game, but FOX seems to just make announce teams out of the blue when it comes to their MLB coverage, especially right now. Depending on just how well he will do Saturday, shouldn't Fox ask Joy to be a permanent PBP man for them after their NASCAR coverage wraps for the season?
It's probably been 3 years since I watched a baseball game on purpose.... But heck I miss Joy so much that its time to catch a inning or two. At least he wont turn something exciting into nap time, or something boring into coma time.
I think that this is great because Mike Joy is great in everything that he does. I love watching the Barreet-Jackson auctions because between Mike Joy and Bob Barsha, how in the world can you go wrong? Eli Gold has been the voice of the University of Alabama for years and he is just as good.
I really wish Mike all the best and may try to catch some of the game this afternoon.
I thought at first sight of your title that Heaven opened up, and angels started to sing.
You guessed it: I thought he was going to do the NASCAR coverage.
But, no.
We're still stuck in Hell, and no chance of parole......
I might just have to watch a little of that game. I have an afternoon of 2 sports that I love going on at the same time. My Gators are playing Tennessee Volunteers at 3:30 on CBS and the Nationwide race is on at the same time. Of course, now that you have posted that Mike Joy is calling the Rays game, I might have to watch that as well. My thumb is going to be sore after this afternoon.
The Tampa Bay Rays are my home team as they play about 60 or so miles away from me. I find it interesting that the mascot name change has resulted in such a great season. Just my observations.
I really wish that Fox would start a national sports network that would compete with ESPN to be able to cover all the sports that they do so well. I prefer to watch football on FOX and baseball is great on there as well. Of course, we all know about their Nascar coverage. I have heard Chris Meyers cover baseball and football on their as well.
BTW, Chris Meyers is the PXP guy for the preseason Tampa Bay Buccaneers football games on our local NBC station WFLA News Channel 8.
Sorry for the ramblings. Just had to express my thoughts.
GO RAYS! GO GATORS!!! GO MIKEY AND DAVID REUTIMANN AND MWR!!!!!!
I got Mike Joy's autograph this year when he came down from the booth at LVMS. He was wearing a suit and beat up tennis shoes. Too funny. He's a very nice man. Good for him and his moonlighting job.
The picture is great. Boy, they look so young, don't they?
Mike just read the column and dropped us a line. It should be a sellout today and fun to watch.
@JD--I see :).
@grover--LOL! I can't watch baseball on TV either. I might check out the last few innings especially if it's a back and forth or tie but if I watch it, it'll have to be in person. I went to my first game in College :)
@majorshouse--yes I don't watch all of the Barrett-Jackson's but I do watch them from time to time and Mike and Bob do awesome jobs! I don't know a thing about the cars but it seems that Mike covers every nook and cranny!
@dot--Mike really is! I've emailed him over the years and he's a really nice man. I hope to be able to meet him!
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