Getting To Meet ESPN's Tim Kurkjian at Cardinals Spring Training

By David
Kaye

As I was minding my own business watching the Cardinals workout I happened to see ESPN's own Tim Kurkjian walking by. Tim is both a reporter for Baseball Tonight and a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. Most importantly as I learned, he is a great person.

I was shocked to see one of the people that I love watching on ESPN at the same spring training camp that I was at. I quickly sprinted over and screamed out his name. He abruptly stopped and we struck up a conversation for the next five minutes.

After receiving Tim's autograph, I began to pick his brain about the upcoming season. He told me that he predicted a Mets vs. Yankees World Series, that the Brewers and Indians will be the two surprise teams if they can remain healthy, that Arizona's shortstop Stephen Drew will have a strong season, that it will be immensely difficult for the Cubs to go from 96 losses to 96 wins and much more.

Tim went on to say that he doesn't believe San Diego can duplicate the success they had last year and that the Dodgers are the class of the NL West. Tim concurred with me that the Phillies are vastly improved from last season and just like the Padres, Minnesota will not enjoy the same success that they did last year.

Lastly, I asked Tim if there was a player who would surprise the baseball world like Ryan Howard did last season and he replied that there will be many great players who do well, but no one can have the MVP season that Howard did.

It was a great honor to meet a recognizable and distinguished sports journalist like Tim Kurkjian and I hope to meet more people as I continue my journey through spring training.