Reviews for Is This a Great Game, or What?: From A-Rod's Heart to Zim's Head---My 25 Years in Baseball

The average rating for Is This a Great Game, or What?: From A-Rod's Heart to Zim's Head---My 25 Years in Baseball based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-10-12 00:00:00 Abel Martinez Ok, I adore Tim Kurkjian. And not just because he once CALLED ME PERSONALLY after I wrote him a letter. He is an insightful baseball mind who truly LOVES the game. He is so warm and enthusiastic about it. He is my favorite part of Baseball Tonight on ESPN. (Ok, I know you didn't ask, but here's the story: At the Philly airport 3 years ago, while waiting to board a return flight, my sister and I struck up a conversation with an elderly lady. We made small talk, and she asked what I did for a living. I told her I was in sports marketing. She brightened and said "one of the boys in our neighborhood grew up to be a real sportscaster on TV!" In my head, I'm thinking, the local Maryland news station. She goes on and on about these boys who used to play in her yard. "The Kurkjians," she said. I said, "um, as in TIM Kurkjian?" She said "YES! Timmy Kurkjian! Do you know him?!" I laughed and said, "well not personally, but he's great on ESPN!" and we talked a few more minutes. As she was boarding her plane, she called out, "if you see him sometime, tell him Helen Hughes said hello!" Cutest EVER. So I wrote Tim a letter about this experience and included my return work address. And one day, a couple months later, Tim Kurkjian CALLED ME AT WORK (he had to look up the general #, as I didn't include it on the letter) to THANK ME for writing and shared more about Mrs. Hughes. And he asked about my background in sports, and we chatted about baseball for about 10 minutes. He asked me if I traveled with my job much, and I said no, I didn't. And he said "well, if you're ever at an sports event, and you know I'm going to be there, please come over and say hello." NICE! NICE! NICE! So that's why I love Tim Kurkjian.) Can't wait to pick up and absorb these great baseball stories.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-08-17 00:00:00 Ole Barre This book is simultaneously pointless and incredibly wonderful; I mean, it's mostly 275 pages of Kurkjian telling baseball stories, which is, ultimately, pointless, but he's a good writer, funny and observant, and he tells stories on just about everybody in the major (and sometimes minor) leagues in the course of the book. Not a book to read if you want to be made to think or consider the greater implications of baseball, but funny and full of good stories. (I'd have given Kurkjian four stars instead of three, because there are some stories in this that made me laugh so hard I cried, except that he spends a little too much time taking backhanded pot-shots at the Orioles' organization. Look, Tim, man: it is not the Orioles' fault that you were the beat writer for the Sun when the O's were really bad in the '80s. Seriously. I understand that it sucked, but I guarantee you, Tim, the Orioles didn't enjoy it any more than you did, and they probably enjoyed it A WHOLE LOT less. Same goes for the early '80s Rangers: stop being a dick to these clubs and acknowledge that you got your motherfrakking start writing about the really, really bad Orioles' team in '88. You owe them, man.)