The Yankees-Dodgers World Series Is Already Delighting Tim Kurkjian

Kurkjian said this World Series could be the best since 1981.

Tim Kurkjian on what this World Series could mean for baseball. / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

ESPN's Tim Kurkjian spoke to Sports Illustrated a few hours before Game 1 of the World Series on Friday. He's always excited about baseball, the game he's covered better than pretty much anyone else for decades. But he was particularly excited about the possibilities of a New York Yankees-Los Angeles Dodgers classic. And considering the epic events at Dodger Stadium, capped by Freddie Freeman blasting a walkoff grand slam, all the incredibly high expectations may be exceeded.

Sports Illustrated: Your colleague Jeff Passan said the other day that he'd been waiting his whole life for a Yankees-Dodgers World Series. You were there to see some of those great matchups in the 70s and 80s. What comes to mind when you think about those?

Tim Kurkjian: The 1981 World Series, which was the last time these two teams played each other, was sensational. Fernando Valenzuela, who just passed, was one of the stars of that World Series. There were stars everywhere. I grew up in a time where Dodgers-Yankees was the way to go. This is the 12th time these two teams have met. I was only in college in 1977 and 1978 but I remember like it was yesterday when Reggie Jackson hit three home runs off of three different pitchers on a total of three different pitches in Game 6. The 1978 World Series was spectacular and I actually covered one of the games in the 1981 World Series so I know a little bit better than most what this is about. Not only was I alive for them, I was covering baseball in 1981 and it was a time when the game was at an unbelievable level of popularity. Now I think we're looking at potentially the best World Series since then given the star power that we're looking at here.

SI: The explosion of skill across baseball over the past few years is amazing. The players have never been better and the jump is just so clear. Does it feel at all like baseball has been building to a moment like this?

TK: Yes, it has. We're going to have five former MVPs in this World Series. No World Series has ever had five and you could make the case that all five are close to the primes of their careers. I think, with counting Clayton Kershaw here, there might be seven future Hall of Famers here playing in this series, which would be a record also. I'm not sure the last time we saw the two MVPs, who are probably going to win unanimously and are the biggest players in the game in Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge going at it here. I think you have to go back to 1980 when George Brett and Mike Schmidt played against each other in the World Series. Before that, when you're looking for the very biggest stars of the game going up against each other—Hank Aaron and Mickey Mantle in 1957 and you might even have to go back further to 1946 when Ted Williams went up against Stan Musial. That's the kind of star power that we are seeing. Shohei against Judge is just a ridiculous matchup and yet what makes this so beautiful is maybe the best hitter in this postseason isn't Judge or Ohtani, it's Juan Soto. Give me another World Series where you can say that. That's why this is going to be so big and so special.

SI: Or the way it's going, that could be Kiké Hernández. Who knows?

TK: Or it could be Tommy Edman, who just got 11 hits and 11 RBI in one postseason series. The last guy to do that was David Ortiz in 2004. This is why baseball is the greatest game ever. I love basketball with all my heart but in basketball, Jordan-Bird-Magic-LeBron all decide the win. Whereas in baseball, the best player in the postseason may be Tommy Edman. That can't happen in basketball. Steve Kerr was a great NBA jump shooter and one of my favorite players to ever watch. But it's impossible for him to win the MVP of the Finals when Jordan is playing in the Finals. It just can't happen. But it can happen in baseball.

SI: Along those same lines, it's sort of a testament to the game that we haven't had this matchup in over three decades. Considering the payrolls and all the great players who have played on the coasts. Baseball is a meritocracy, but a meritocracy mixed with a fair amount of luck and randomness.

TK: The 12th player in an NBA game is never on the court in the final 10 seconds of the game. And if he is on the court, he's never taking the last shot. The 25th guy on the roster could decide the World Series. That's something beautiful about this sport. You have to get 27 outs and everyone has to bat the same amount of times roughly in order to get a champion or a winner. That's why when you look at this series we have no idea how it's going to go. There are stars everywhere and runs are going to be scored because of the offenses for both teams, but after that it's a crapshoot.

SI: When you were a kid watching the World Series, did you ever imagine that you'd get to be a part of so many?

TK: There was zero chance that that was going to happen. While I was sitting there with my dad, one of the great baseball fans of all time, and my two brothers who were college players, it never crossed my mind that someday while watching the 1966 World Series that I would have anything to do with this. Here it is that many years later and I love this as much as I ever have. It just proves how seductive this game is. It grabbed me when I was literally four years old. Baseball was the primary language spoken at my house growing up. To think back to those days, I couldn't wait to get home to watch the World Series. In 1967 our sixth-grade teacher told us to put our pencils down, put our books away because we were going to watch the Red Sox and Cardinals play a Series game at 1:30 in the afternoon on a school day. Now, this is something that would have happened in my house every time given how much my father loved baseball. But this was an epiphany for me. My teacher told us that there's something more important right now than school. That's when I knew this was going to be wildly important in my life.

SI: Last one for you here. What do you think the ceiling is for Ohtani in terms of how big of a sports star he can become with a magical World Series run? There are so few historical comparisons for what he's doing.

TK: He's the most remarkable player in baseball history. Note I don't call him the greatest player because he simply hasn't done enough. I really believe if Babe Ruth was allowed to use the DH in 1920 and pitched 30 games a year he would have won 20 games and hit 50 homers. Not even Babe Ruth has been like this guy in terms of throwing a pitch 100 MPH, hitting a pitch at 100 MPH with an exit velocity close to 120 MPH. The first time I ever saw him play, in spring training seven years ago, I watched him run and I went oh my gosh, how can he be a pitcher-hitter and run like this? There is no ceiling for this guy. It's almost as if he said okay I can't pitch this year so what am I going to do that no one else has done? And then he goes and achieves 50 homers, 50 steals with room to spare. He gets his team into the playoffs, first time he's ever been in the playoffs, then he reaches 17 times in the NLCS. I just think there's part of him that's going to say now I have to do something in the World Series that no one has ever done. I don't think anyone would put it past him at this point.