ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian spoke with Sports illustrated a few hours before Game 1 of the World Series on Friday. He is always enthusiastic about baseball, the sport he has covered better than almost anyone else for decades. But most of all, he was excited about the possibilities of a New York Yankees-Los Angeles Dodgers classic. And when you consider the epic events at Dodger Stadium, culminating in Freddie Freeman shooting a walk-off grand slam, all the incredibly high expectations may well be exceeded.

Sports Illustrated: Your colleague Jeff Passan said that recently he had been waiting all his 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 that?

Tim Kurkjian: The 1981 World Series, the last time these two teams played each other, was sensational. The recently passed Fernando Valenzuela was one of the stars of that World Series. There were stars everywhere. I grew up in a time when Dodgers-Yankees was the way to go. It is the twelfth time that these two teams meet. I wasn’t in college until 1977 and 1978, but I remember like it was yesterday when Reggie Jackson hit three home runs off three different pitchers on a total of three different pitches in Game 6. The 1978 World Series was spectacular and I have even covered one. of the games in the 1981 World Series, so I know a little better than most what this is about. Not only did I live for them, I covered baseball in 1981 and it was a time when the game was incredibly popular. Now I think we’re looking at potentially the best World Series since then, given the star power we’re looking at here.

SI: The explosion of skills in baseball in recent years has been astonishing. The players have never been better and the jump is so clear. Does it feel at all like baseball has evolved to a moment like this?

TK: Yes, that’s true. We have five former MVPs in this World Series. No World Series has ever had five, and you could argue that all five are close to the prime of their careers. I think if you include Clayton Kershaw here, there might be seven future Hall of Famers playing here in this series, which would also be a record. I’m not sure when the last time we saw the two MVPs, who are likely to win unanimously and are the biggest players in the game with Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge starting 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, if you’re looking for the game’s all-time biggest stars going head-to-head – Hank Aaron and Mickey Mantle in 1957 and you might have to go back even further to 1946 when Ted Williams took on Stan Musial. That’s the kind of star power we see. Shohei vs. Judge is just a ridiculous matchup, and yet what makes this so great might be that the best hitter in this postseason isn’t Judge or Ohtani, but Juan Soto. Give me another World Series where you can say that. That’s why this will be so big and so special.

SI: Or as it goes, that could be Kiké Hernández. Who knows?

TK: Or it could be Tommy Edman, who just had 11 hits and 11 RBI in one postseason series. The last man to do that was David Ortiz in 2004. That’s why baseball is the greatest game ever. I love basketball with all my heart, but in basketball, Jordan, Bird, Magic and LeBron all decide the victory. While in baseball, Tommy Edman might be the best player in the postseason. That’s not possible in basketball. Steve Kerr was a great NBA jumpshooter and one of my favorite players to ever watch. But it’s impossible for him to win Finals MVP if Jordan is playing in the Finals. It just can’t happen. But it can happen in baseball.

SI: In the same way, it’s kind of a testament to the game that we haven’t had this match in over thirty years. Given the payrolls and all the great players who have played on the coast. Baseball is a meritocracy, but a meritocracy mixed with a fair amount of luck and randomness.

TK: The twelfth player in an NBA game is never on the court in the final ten seconds of the game. And when he’s on the field, he never takes the last shot. The 25th on the roster could decide the World Series. That’s something beautiful about this sport. You have to have 27 outs and everyone has to hit about the same amount to get a champion or a winner. That’s why, when you watch this series, we have no idea how it’s going to go. There are stars everywhere and runs will be scored because of both teams’ offenses, but after that it’s a crapshoot.

SI: Watching the World Series as a kid, did you ever think you’d be part of so many?

TK: The chance of that happening was zero. As I sat there with my father, one of the greatest baseball fans of all time, and my two brothers who were college players, it never occurred to me that one day while watching the 1966 World Series I would have something to do with this. to have. . Here it is, many years later, and I love this as much as ever. It just proves how tempting this game is. It grabbed me when I was literally four years old. Baseball was the main language spoken in my home growing up. When I think back to that time, I couldn’t wait to get home to watch the World Series. In 1967, our sixth-grade teacher told us to put down our pencils and put away our books because we were going to watch the Red Sox and Cardinals play a Series game at 1:30 p.m. on a school day. This is something that would have happened every time in my house, considering how much my dad loved baseball. But this was a revelation to me. My teacher told us that there is something more important than school right now. That’s when I knew this would become extremely 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 does.

TK: He is the most remarkable player in baseball history. Note: I’m not calling him the best player because he simply hasn’t done enough. I truly believe that if Babe Ruth had been allowed to use the DH in 1920 and pitch 30 games a year, he would have won 20 games and hit 50 home runs. Even Babe Ruth hasn’t been like this guy when it comes to throwing a pitch at 100 mph, and hitting a pitch at 100 mph with an exit velocity of almost 120 mph . The first time I ever saw him play, seven years ago in spring training, I saw him running and I went oh my god, how can he be a pitcher-hitter and run like that? There is no ceiling for this man. It’s almost like he’s saying it 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 gets 50 home runs, 50 steals with room to spare. He takes his team to the playoffs, the first time he has ever been in the playoffs, and then he reaches the NLCS 17 times. I think there’s a part of him that’s going to say that now I have to do something in the World Series that no one has ever done before. I don’t think anyone would put it past them at this point.