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Tim Kurkjian’s one of the best people in all of sports. The amount of enthusiasm that ol’ Timmy has for baseball is one of the most refreshing things on planet earth, as he’s a total stat geek who can basically remember the most absurd details about what happened in the 4th inning of the 1934 World Series. It’s impressive, and a little crazy, but, hey, it’s one of the things that makes Kurkjian so damn likable.
Given the amount of knowledge that Tim Kurkjian has and the stories he’s made during his longtime broadcast career, it’s not surprising that he’s sharing a few of them with us today, taking to Twitter to go into detail about guys like George Brett, John Smoltz and, because he’s just coming off his fifth Masters victory and 15th major title overall, Tiger Woods. Kurkjian, who routinely shares certain things like this on his Twitter account each Friday using the hashtag #BestOfAllTim, gave us some glorious recounts of MLB players on the golf course today, and, man, were they awesome. Take a look at some of the things Kurkjian shared below, which he admitted was inspired by Woods’ iconic victory at Augusta last Sunday.
Tiger Woods’ remarkable performance at The Masters inspired this week’s theme for #bestofalltim. Please share any stories, statistics and observations on any connections between two great and exceptionally difficult games, golf and baseball.
— Tim Kurkjian (@Kurkjian_ESPN) April 19, 2019
George Brett was on crutches on 18 green when KC teammates purposely hit from 150 yds into the green. Brett dropped his crutches, then using his putter, he hit the ball out of mid-air, 150 yds back down the fairway. How? “It was 1980,” he said. The year he hit .390. #bestofalltim
— Tim Kurkjian (@Kurkjian_ESPN) April 19, 2019
The @Astros’ Justin Verlander played in the group behind us in a charity scramble eight years ago. Twice, while we were putting on a par 4, he rolled his tee shot onto the front of the green. He won the long drive contest that day. His team won the tournament: -22. #bestofalltim
— Tim Kurkjian (@Kurkjian_ESPN) April 19, 2019
Many years ago, Tiger batted against Smoltz in a sim game in spring training. 1st AB, Smoltz, full effort, struck him out on three pitches, Tiger never got the bat started. Each of the next 3 ABs, Smoltz lowered his intensity. Fourth AB, Tiger grounded weakly to 2B. #bestofalltim
— Tim Kurkjian (@Kurkjian_ESPN) April 19, 2019
1/2 Ten years ago, Buck Showalter and John Hart were playing golf when Tiger, big baseball fan, asked them if they wanted to play the next day. “I called home and said, ‘I’m going to stay an extra day,” Showalter said. Buck and Tiger needed to win the last hole to halve the match
— Tim Kurkjian (@Kurkjian_ESPN) April 19, 2019
2/2 They played low ball-low total. “I played poorly, I could barely take it back,” Buck said. “Tiger had a look in his eye that I hadn’t seen all day, he looked at me on 18 tee and said, ‘Can you make a f——— five!?” Showalter made a par four, and they broke even. #bestofalltim
— Tim Kurkjian (@Kurkjian_ESPN) April 19, 2019
In his prime, Tiger beat John Smoltz, Jeff Francoeur and Adam LaRoche, 2 h-caps or better, 3 vs. 1. “Tiger was laughing and joking,” Francoeur said, “until he looked down at his ball, then he went into a trance, hit some incredible shot, then came out it. Amazing.” #bestofalltim
— Tim Kurkjian (@Kurkjian_ESPN) April 19, 2019
Jim Kaat, age 80, won 283 games and 16 Gold Gloves. Two years ago, he shot his age twice in one week: once playing left-handed, the next time playing right-handed. #bestofalltim
— Tim Kurkjian (@Kurkjian_ESPN) April 19, 2019
That story about George Brett is f*cking legendary. Dude’s hobbling around on crutches on the golf course with his former teammates just to play around and, just when they thought he’d be the butt of their joke by hitting into his group, dude goes nasty on them by sending their golf ball back by smashing it with his crutch. Wonder how much beer, if any, was involved in this? Actually, f*ck that, if there was any beer involved it wouldn’t make the story as great, because imagining Brett being able to do this cold sober makes it even more badass.
While Tim Kurkjian might be a little obsessive with his baseball knowledge and stories, it’s times like these where I wish I could grab a cigar, a nice bottle of whisky and just sit back and let him tell a bunch of them. Dude’s all-time, and these stories are the latest reason as proof.
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