Tim Kurkjian

speaker

907 appearances 11 recordings 3 series first heard Nov 2024 last heard 15 Jul

Tim Kurkjian’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 5 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 2.

Appearances

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The Dan Le Batard Show · The Big Suey: Buster Olney Looks Like… (feat. Tim Kurkjian) · 16 Apr 2025 podcast

He made it very clear to the Rangers early on that we are not going to eat free in your press room. And he sent them like a $500 check so the beat writer, me, could eat for the season in the press room at Arlington Stadium. And then we had this discussion. Oh, my God. My sports editor and Doug Rader and I, Doug Rader was the manager of the Rangers in 1983.

Dave Smith came down to meet him and Doug Rader said, if we win the World Series this year, Tim will get a World Series ring because he's the big guy. To which my boss, not recognizing how Doug Rader was just pulling a string, they got in this huge argument whether I should get a World Series ring or not.

Needless to say, they didn't win the World Series, but if they had, I promise you, I would not have gotten or accepted a World Series ring.

Timmy, you're wearing a beautiful, and we all noticed it, by the way, a beautiful Walter Johnson jacket. I'm wondering, did he hand that to you personally?

You guys, as you may not know, Walter Johnson died on December 10th, 1946. I was born. I was born.

Well, if you would let me finish, he died on December 10th, 1946. I was born on December 10th, 1956. Ten years to the day after Walter Johnson died, I was born. How can you forget that when you go to Walter Johnson High School, you work for the school paper.

All right. I have never been angry at you even one time, Dan. And you have asked me some of the dumbest questions in the history of radio. And I still have never gotten mad at you.

When did Rusty Staub die? Oh, no. I believe Rusty Staub. I know this. Rusty Staub died on opening day when the Marlins played on opening day. And... Happ hit a home run on the first pitch of the game.

No, I believe this. I believe Rusty Staub died that day. He did. Because we were talking about, you know, first pitch of the Marlins season is hit for a home run by Happ of the Cubs. Everyone knows that. And then we went through. And Rusty Staab, you know, hit a home run as a teenager and a home run as a 40-year-old. And he was the second guy to do that. Ty Cobb was the first.

And they once asked Gene Mauck, the manager of the Expos, when Rusty Staab was a star there. Gene Mauck, who was a pretty funny, quiet guy, he said he has Boku power. And I knew what that meant even before I knew what the word Boku meant. So... I'm pretty sure that's the day that Rusty Staub died. Opening day, the Marlins, and first pitch home run. Tell us something we don't know.

Let the guy make the call, huh? Swallowed, Billy.

Oh, wow. Yeah, well, this is what we do on our podcast. I challenge my son, Jeff, again, not a baseball aficionado like his dopey dad. I said, Jeff, look at the starting pitching matchups today and tell me what you notice. And he looked and looked and looked and came up with the starting pitching matchup today was Gore May. So he found it. I was so proud of him.

And I told him, you know, the day you got married, the day you had a baby, I was so proud of you. But today might be the most proud I've ever been because you found Gore and May and put them together. Yes, I look at all the starting pitching matchups. There's no telling what you might see. Of course, Yvonne Nova faced Matt Cain several years ago. the Nova Cane matchup.

That was always one of my favorites. And Chad Moeller, the only thing that baseball ever lets us down on, Chad Moeller, former catcher, if he had caught in that game, it would have been the greatest pitching matchup battery in the history of the sport, that Chad Moeller was the catcher for the Nova Cane game. I love it.

Yeah, look at him.

I would go with Dan, probably. Same, yeah. Every time on that. I know Stugatz has his ways of doing things. He got me to write something for his book. It didn't take long. You were great. But I think Dan is very persuasive because his use of the English language is absolutely breathtaking. And I'm not kidding.

And I just think sometimes if you use the proper words and you're really good with the language, you can get people to do what you want to do. And Dan is not only better than Stugatz, Dan is better than just about everyone. But Stugatz should still try, though, right? Oh, of course. Stugatz is always going to try.

I think that's fairly obvious. Thank you, Timmy. Not always, but thank you, Timmy. I appreciate it. Timmy, if you tell me to shut up on this, I will. Joe Mauer is not a first ballot Hall of Famer. I mean, he's not, Timmy.

All right, Sugata, I understand your point. To me, you're either a Hall of Famer or you're not. It doesn't matter if you're a first ballot or not. So if you think he's a Hall of Famer, you should put him in on the first ballot. That's just the way that I think about it.

Stugatz, you look at the first eight years, ten years as a catcher for Joe Maurer, there's really no comparable other than Mike Piazza, who's the greatest hitting catcher of all time. Johnny Bench is the greatest catcher. Yogi Berra is the second greatest catcher.

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