TIM KURKJIAN ADDRESSES THE SELL-OUT CROWD DURING THE 2019 DELMARVA SHOREBIRDS’ HOT STOVE BANQUET AT THE WICOMICO YOUTH & CIVIC CENTER. PHOTO BY JOEY GARDNER
Are there any things you took from your time covering the Orioles in the late ’80s with the Baltimore Sun? The players aren’t always going to like you. [Hall of Famer and former Orioles great] Eddie Murray hated my guts for about two years, but we finally got that cleared up. What the Baltimore Sun and the newspaper business taught me was what a news story is and how to present it. Television is just a different way to present it. You’ve got to understand what a story is and then present it in a slightly different way. My days in Baltimore were great. My 10 years as a beat writer are the proudest days that I’ve ever spent. The Orioles ran the show every day, so everything that I wrote was on page one of the sports section, which was great pressure and a great reward at the same time. What are your thoughts on Harold Baines getting into the Hall of Fame? I was on the committee that elected him. I heard somebody say the other day that the Hall of Fame isn’t the same because Harold Baines is in. That is preposterous. It is not a worse place because a guy who nearly got 3,000 hits is in the Hall of Fame. He’s one of the best hitters I’ve ever seen. I think it’s great for baseball that somebody who lasted that long and swung the bat and conducted himself as well as he did all those years, is in the Hall. I think the Hall of Fame is a better place that he’s in. You’ve seen this game change a lot over the last 40 years. How do you see it changing moving forward? I’m a little discouraged with where we are right now. Trust me, nobody loves baseball more than I do. But we have too many walks, too many strikeouts, too many home runs and not enough in-between. I would like to see the game attempt to make an adjustment and start to go back to the way that
70 COASTAL STYLE / March-April 2019
Cal Ripken, George Brett, Paul Molitor and Robin Yount played the game. We’re going to situationally hit. We’re going to put the ball in play more often. And we’re not going to see how far we can hit it and how hard we can throw it every time. If you were trying to convince somebody to love the game as much as you do, what’s one good thing you would mention? I would point out all the young players we see every single day, starting with Bryce Harper and Mike Trout. I’ve never seen this many great young players in the game at the same time. They’re all coming at different ages, but they’re getting here sooner than ever. I tell people all the time: “I hope you understand what we’re watching right now. I hope you understand what we’ve watched the last 10 years, with some of the best players we’ve ever seen.” I’m not sure everyone is recognizing what is right in front of their eyes. Mike Trout might end up being the greatest player, a top-five player of all time, and he’s standing right there. Keep your eyes open. It’s worth it.
Tim Kurkjian AGE: 62 HOMETOWN: Bethesda, MD OCCUPATION: ESPN baseball analyst & senior writer, ESPN The Magazine (21 years) NOTABLE: Began his journalism career in 1978 at the Washington Star…moved to the Dallas Morning News in 1981, where he soon became the Texas Rangers beat writer at the newspaper…covered the Orioles for the Baltimore Sun from 1986-89 before spending eight years as a senior writer at Sports Illustrated...…published three books on baseball.