WISCONSIN— Raise your hand if you were absolutely sure what you wanted to do with the rest of your life by age 5.

Nobody? Well, consider yourself average.

Now let’s meet Joe Davis. And, no, not your average Joe.

Davis was a kid who grew up in tiny Potterville, Mich., whose dad made a basketball court for him in the basement with two little tykes’ hoops, and also painted a football field for him in the backyard.

“In addition to pretending to play the games,’’ Davis said, “I pretended to announce them, too.’’

When he graduated high school, Davis still wanted to play football, but a Division 1 opportunity was out of reach. What he absolutely knew is he wanted to become a broadcaster so, naturally, he chose … Beloit College?

“Obviously, it’s not a broadcasting school,’’ Davis said. “But I found that there were a lot of people there who seemed willing to help me chase those dreams. Whatever opportunities could be created, I knew there were people there who would help me create them, and that wound up being true.’’

True that. Today, the kid who once pretended to be Keith Jackson at the Rose Bowl is now the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

And all he had to do once he got the job was do what many in his profession would want no part of: Follow a national treasure in Vin Scully.

“It was, like, whoever is following Vin, that’s a death sentence,’’ said Davis of the view from the world outside. “But I couldn’t look at it like that. For me, it was part of it what made that job appealing.

“So instead of looking at it as a burden or a pressure, I looked at it as a great responsibility and a great opportunity to do something that I had never envisioned of ever having the chance to do. And I knew if I didn’t take the job out of fear of it not working, I would probably come to regret it.’’

There are zero regrets today. Davis not only has one of the best jobs in baseball, he gets to do it every day with one of his best friends from college, Rick Krajewski, who is in the booth with Davis, serving as the Dodgers’ statistician.

“When we’re sitting in the booth with (baseball hall of famer) John Smoltz,’’ said Davis, “and he’s yucking it up with Smoltz about fantasy football and there are many times I’m like, ‘Man, how did we get here?’’’

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Krajewski remembers one of the first times he met Davis, and quickly realized this guy was not like any other college freshman.

“It’s just, he was always unique to me because people go to college to figure out what they want to do,’’ Krajewski said, “and Joe went to college knowing what he wanted to do, and doing everything he could to get to that point.’’

Davis was already broadcasting Beloit College basketball games as a freshman. He learned about production and changed the primitive one-camera setup and expanded it to three. He started his own community access program at a downtown Irish pub. And then, after his junior year, he landed an internship with the Schaumburg Flyers (Ill.) independent baseball team in Illinois.

“It was an unpaid internship,’’ said Davis, “and I would get their early, 8 or 9 a.m., do all kinds of stuff besides broadcasting, like the game notes, and make sales calls and everything, but I loved it. Every day I’d get to drive up to the park, I had butterflies in my stomach. ‘Man, oh man, I’m not getting paid a cent   — this is probably kind of illegal to have a kid do this much work and not pay him.’ But I just loved every second. And it was the first chance to do baseball every day, and there’s no better way to improve and to learn than just to do it every day.”

Davis also sought the help of Amy Sarno, associate professor of theatre at Beloit College, to help with a variety of things with his voice. They met independently once a week for more than a year.

“I was always kind of unsure what the actual sports casting was all about,’’ Sarno said. “But I knew in order to do it, you had to be able to use language well and make the most of your voice.”

She worked with Davis on enunciation and pronunciation. She impressed upon him the use of words, and how the sound of it can impact its emotional quality. She also worked with him on his breathing while he announced.

“So a lot of it was not only how you pronounce, or how do you use consonants and vowels,’’ she said, “but what words do you choose to move the audience to feel something.”

Davis would bring her his broadcast tapes, and they would go over them together, and she would point areas in which he could improve.

“One thing that makes him different from a lot of other students I’ve had, is that he wanted to do everything he could to be the best that he could be,’’ said Sarno. “And so, he kept his mind open. And a lot of college students kind of sort through things thinking, ‘Well, that might not be important to me.’ But Joe never did that. He looked at every opportunity as a way of contributing to what he did and what he wanted to do.’’

Krajewski said there was many an evening when his friend would take a pass on the typical college experience to work on his craft.

“On Friday nights, when the other guys were out having a good time partying, he was upstairs, watching games, and a recorder, calling the game himself,’’ Krajewski said. “To get reps and to practice. He made sacrifices and like, at the time, we thought ‘What’s this guy’s deal? We like him but, he’s a little too serious.’ And now he’s the guy who’s earned every bit of success that he’s gotten.’’

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Krajewski was just grinding through another day in his San Francisco office, working the phones doing insurance technology and digital marketing sales.

Then, his phone rang. It was Joe. His old fraternity brother, who had gone from calling minor-league baseball in Memphis to ESPN and then FOX Sports in what seemed like five minutes, was calling looking for help.

He needed a statistician. And since Krajewski had a degree in business administration and had played on the Beloit College baseball team, Davis thought, why not?

“And as I always say,’’ said Krajewski, “my initial reaction was, I didn’t know that job existed.”

Krajewski wanted to help his friend, and the opportunity was more than intriguing, but he wasn’t sure it was a good idea.

“More than anything, I said, ‘Joe, I’m happy to do this. But I’m nervous that this is your opportunity at FOX and I’m going to be someone that screws up what you’re doing, your career path,’” said Krajewski.

Davis proved to be a capable scout. This experiment turned into a career change for Krajewski, who eventually joined his friend in the Dodgers’ television booth along with former Cy Young and World Series MVP Orel Hershiser.

And despite the disparity in age, the three have become tighter than Fort Knox.

“For me, personally, besides Joe being my best friend, Orel is right up there as one of the most influential people in my life,’’ Krajewski said.  
         
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It was 2017 when Davis, who also still works for FOX Sports, took over for one of the most popular and talented persons to ever sit behind a microphone. And it was Vin Scully himself who introduced Davis to the fans at Dodger Stadium on Opening Day.

By all accounts, Davis has handled this transition with aplomb.

“Of course there were questions, ‘What is it going to be like post-Vin,’’’ he said. “But I felt like I was given a chance from the beginning.’’

So the guy who decided to attend a small liberal arts college pretty much noted for everything but broadcasting, has become one of its most famous graduates.

“There is no one right path. There’s no one way to do it,’’ Davis said. “And I wondered about that, ‘Am I making the right decisions? Am I going the right way to get where I want to go?’ I think it’s proof that there is no one right way.

“And it’s also a testament to the kind of place Beloit is. It’s not a broadcasting school, but I was able to create this career that I have because of the people there. I knew what I wanted to do and there were so many people there willing to help me do it.’’

Story idea? You can reach Mike Woods at 920-246-6321 or at: michael.t.woods1@charter.com