Is This A Great Game, Or What?

Thank you for what has been an absolutely incredible season of baseball and an amazing run for this podcast (can't wait for next year). We’re celebrating Halloween with unforgettable memories and a Team Tim episode that’s sure to blow your spooky socks off (with a little help from a special family guest).We recap the games in Los Angeles — packed with unbelievable baseball moments, including another first from Shohei, a surprising country star connection, and one wild coincidence. Plus, we dive into a pitching recap highlighting some unsung heroes who deserve their moment.What a postseason it’s been! But just wait until you hear how good the Blue Jays’ offense has been — it’s almost unbelievable. Even with the Dodgers’ strong pitching, this team continues to thrive.Oh, and Tim’s back in Canada! This time, though, he’s not recording from a hotel… but from a basement? Don’t worry, he explains. Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dan Shulman has done far more than just dabble in baseball — calling the game has been his life’s work (alongside being a great father). His son, Ben Shulman, has followed in his footsteps, making play-by-play broadcasting his own career. In fact, Dan and Ben have made history as the first father-son duo to ever call the same World Series. Dan serves as the television play-by-play voice of the Blue Jays on Sportsnet, while Ben handles radio duties.As a father-son podcast, we couldn’t have asked for better guests. From Princess Bride references to shared Syracuse University memories between Ben and Jeff, this conversation will make you smile and think of your own dad. Aaron Boone naturally takes center stage in several stories — including one memorable playoff press conference where Ben found himself in the spotlight.We also learn the origin of Dan’s nickname from his ESPN colleagues, and hear how this father-son duo keeps crossing paths at sporting events around the country.Thank you so much for listening — and happy World Series! Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Our last interview with Harold Reynolds brought out quite a few great Bo Jackson stories—and Tim has an update on what Bo himself thought about them. After that, of course, we dive straight into the World Series. We hope you’re enjoying the action as much as we are—it’s the perfect mix of dominant pitching and incredible hitting.Naturally, Tim got a little bored on the cross-country flight and started coming up with a few anagrams that had us scratching our heads. But hey, that’s one way to pass the time at 35,000 feet!On This Date in Baseball History, we’ve got more great October moments for you to stash away and use to impress your friends and family later. Plus, the Quirkjians—though a bit slim this week—dig a little deeper into the mysterious eBay glove saga that we know everyone’s still curious about. Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tonight is Game One of the 2025 World Series! And boy, are we ready for it. Nobody in the world has more World Series stories than our very own Tim Kurkjian, so Jeff decided to share his favorite games he’s attended. Surprisingly, even though Jeff has only been to five World Series games, he’s witnessed some incredible moments — you can be the judge of that.We wrap up our From Ozzie to Orel segment — teardrop — with our number 55, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone (it’s in the name, after all). Shohei Ohtani, of course, is doing something no other player has ever done as he heads into another World Series. Jeff also breaks down why, despite their NLCS sweep, the Dodgers might have history working against them. In fact, there are two key reasons why the Blue Jays could have the upper hand — and we’ve got both for you.It’s been an incredibly busy season for us, but we couldn’t be more grateful for your support. Don’t forget — you can always visit our website below to get in touch, and follow us on social media @GreatGameOrWhat for exclusive behind-the-scenes videos and bonus content you won’t find anywhere else.Happy World Series, everybody! Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Harold Reynolds’ name is synonymous with baseball — from his years on the field to his incredible work covering the game we all love. He and Tim go way back, having spent years together at ESPN and on Baseball Tonight, and trust us, the behind-the-scenes stories will have you in stitches.But Harold didn’t stop there — he even dropped a few stories Tim had never heard before! We’re talking Bo Jackson tales, unbelievable Shohei Ohtani moments, and if you don’t know manager Dick Williams, you’re about to.This interview is easily one of our favorites of the season. Huge thanks to Harold for his time, the laughs, and the unforgettable stories. We’re still cracking up over some of them — hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We’ve got our 2025 World Series match-up! But before we dive in, we have to honor what might be the greatest performance by a baseball player in the history of the game—Shohei Ohtani’s unforgettable Game Four.A series of classic Quirkjians takes us through the ALCS and NLCS, and Tim shares a collection of great "On This Date" moments in baseball history.Then comes a big surprise: Jeff presents his very own Team Tim, featuring players with October birthdays who won a World Series! It’s quite the combo, with Tim offering just a few small edits to help it along. He then wraps things up with a Team Tim of his own. Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Playoff updates galore from the ALCS and NLCS! The Dodgers and Mariners each take two games on the road, and Tim's got some mind-blowing facts about starting a series that way. The Dodgers’ pitching has been lights-out, the Mariners’ energy is unmatched—and don’t sleep on the Brewers or Blue Jays. We’re not counting them out yet.We’ve also got some classic Quirkjians, including a breakdown of what might be the strangest double play in playoff—maybe even baseball—history.On This Date: Yankees fans, this one’s for you. You’ll be smiling.Plus, a new Team Tim—and according to the Hall of Fame writer himself, this is the hardest he’s ever worked on one."Ozzie to Orel" is nearing the finish line, but today we hit No. 54. Tim dusts off a couple of old baseball cards and takes us down memory lane.Thanks so much for subscribing, following, and listening—it really does go a long way. We appreciate you!  Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

At Tim's request, he joins us as a guest on "Is This A Great Game, Or What?" — request approved!Jeff sits down with Eduardo Pérez, Karl Ravech, and Tim Kurkjian to talk about their dynamic as a broadcast team for ESPN's radio and television coverage. Fresh off the ALDS between the Yankees and Blue Jays, the trio is now on assignment for the ALCS on ESPN Radio.Spoiler alert: there wasn’t much baseball talk. Instead, the conversation dives into their hilarious travel mishaps — most of which involve Tim’s legendary inability to stay calm on travel days. Karl shares some wild stories from New York and Toronto, and Eduardo reveals the chaos of an unforgettable helicopter ride.Also, mascots. Yes, really. Eduardo confesses he’s part of MLB’s inner mascot circle (shocking, we know). Even an unexpected hotel interruption couldn’t derail the laughter.Thanks for listening — and don’t forget to subscribe wherever you’re tuning in! Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

WOAH! A lot has happened since we last checked in with you — and we’re doing our best to keep you updated (and stay updated ourselves!). With Tim’s travel schedule, we’re always hustling to find every spare second to get together, and we’re so glad we get to do this for you!We’ve got a quick recap of the Division Series winners, and we’re already diving into the Championship Series: Mariners vs. Blue Jays and Dodgers vs. Brewers — we’re in for a good one. Two of these teams have NEVER won a World Series, and one has never even been! We break down those possibilities.On This Date in baseball history — in OCTOBER? Count us in. There are some incredible playoff moments to look back on, and one of those stories leads into this week’s Team Tim, all about… numbers. (No, it’s not Ozzie to Orel — that’s later in the week!) Numbers take center stage in this one, and we love when you send us yours. Seriously — keep ‘em coming!Thanks so much for listening. If you haven’t already, please subscribe or follow wherever you’re tuning in. And don’t forget to share with a friend — the podcast is way more fun when you’ve got someone to talk baseball with! Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We are unbelievable impressed with our listeners, chiming in and chatting with us, it's incredible how passionate all of you are so for that we thank you. Due to the late nature of these games, we might be behind on potential clinching but we do our very best with Jeff's sleep schedule.The Blue Jays are in the ALCS, on the back of the great Vladdy Jr. What a series he has had! We are coming close to an end for From Ozzie To Orel, just a few more to go. We honor a couple greats with this one! Don't forget, we also grabbed some baseball cards from the basement bathroom for this segment, man is this a fun new one. Quirkjians are loaded with (potential) groundbreaking stats. Hey, you don't know unless you ask Frank from the Elias, right? On this date in baseball history sparked a hilarious conversation and Team Tim that Jeff's toddler could've seen coming but boy is it a great one. Thank you again for being so supportive of our show and remember, even though the schedule is off a bit during the playoffs, we still have three episodes a week so if you miss one, turnaround and bring it back!  Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Caleb Joseph is our hilarious guest this week on the podcast. He's a former big leaguer turned broadcaster who has stories for days. He's currently a part of the Blue Jays broadcast team. He played catcher in his career in the big leagues and actually played on the same team as his brother. Tim and Caleb became friends after the first fan-less game at Camden Yards, with stories you really wouldn't believe. They talk about their mutual friend, Buck Showalter, who taught them both a bunch about baseball. Their shared love of the game is undeniable. Plus, how did this whole interview start? With perhaps the strangest hotel interaction ever for pool Caleb. We've never heard of this one before! Thanks for listening and make sure to share with a friend.   Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Back at it again, Tim in the Bronx, Jeff in the basement during this exciting October in Major League Baseball. We get great insight from the Blue Jays-Yankees series because Tim is calling the games on ESPN Radio! But don't worry, we delve into each series matchup to talk about the ins and outs most shows probably glossed over. What makes this show great and different? The family aspect of it all!! Tim, in spirit of that and Vladdy, came up with a Father-Son Team Tim that is spectacular and very specific. We love getting yours too! Don't forget to send them, check out the GreatGameOrWhat.com for more info. We also hear some great notes On This Date in baseball history and the Quirkjians that occurred in the first week of the postseason. Tim is perplexed by AI and Jeff does his very best to explain it to him! Also, Jeff has big family news to share on this podcast, boy oh boy is this a good one!   Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We pushed this episode back an entire day JUST so we could be up as up to date as possible and boy oh boy are we. A late night recording session after the final games of the Wild Card week just to ensure we don't miss anything. Isn't October great? Man you will totally understand just how much we love it. The takeaways from each series, the Quirkjians as well including first postseason homers and first ever big league hits. We keep it business as usual around this podcast.We also wrapped up Best of All-Tim with the best players at each and every franchise. We round it all out with the Chicago White Sox. We also got two more numbers from Ozzie To Orel and in a shocking twist, Tim actually seems to ask Jeff for permission on number 51, which is not the order of how things should go down! Thank you for sharing the podcast, if you are new, WELCOME and don't forget to hit follow or subscribe! Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jeremy Schaap is a wildly successful journalist, winning eleven Emmy Awards and entertaining millions over the years with his incredible writing and storytelling. If you’ve noticed, we’ve actually been quoting him on the show a whole lot lately because we found out that he’s a member of the family—just like YOU!That's right, Jeremy Schaap is a fan of the podcast, which is extremely flattering given his unbelievable ability to captivate an audience. We discuss his latest project on Jim Abbott (a former guest of our show) and his obsession with Bobby Fischer (there's a tie-in to Tim, of course).As a father-son show, of course we have to bring up his father, the legendary Dick Schaap. The stories that father-son pairing has are just out of this world. Reminiscing about the late, great Dick Schaap was a joy for all of us.Please let us know what you think of the show by taking a minute to write a quick review and give us a rating. Thank you for listening, and thanks for being a part of our family. Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hall of Famer Tim Kurkjian gets us all excited for the 2025 postseason with his son, Jeff! Safe to say the ending of this regular season was SO exciting, last minute inclusions to the postseason and heartbreaking endings. We cover it all on this episode.Plus, Tim gives us not one but TWO Team Tim's that have had our audience captivated from the very beginning. They highlight the resilience of teams like the Guardians and Red Sox, delve into MVP candidates like Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, and preview the Wild Card matchups. The conversation also touches on memorable moments in baseball history, quirky facts, and some really impactful On This Dates. As the playoffs begin, they express their anticipation for the thrilling moments that October will bring.Thanks for being with us throughout the season. The easiest way to support our show is SHARE with a friend or family member who loves this game or is just learning all about it. That goes a long way! Thank you for listening.  Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thanks for joining another edition of "Is This A Great Game, Or What?" Today, we are also joined by a live studio audience, which makes every episode even more exciting when we have a crowd to entertain. The pennant races are absolutely insane right now with Seattle, Detroit, Cleveland, New York, Toronto and so many other fans asking "what the heck is going on here??" Obviously, we keep you up to date with that but it's hard to believe that the next episode you will hear from us will be the first day of the playoffs (could not be more excited). Many of you sent in great Team Tims to either improve upon ours or to help enhance the show and for that we are eternally grateful! We knock off two more number from Ozzie to Orel in our list and discuss the greatest Athletics player of all time (keep in mind, that team has been around for a lot longer than just Oakland). Thank you for joining, make sure to subscribe on YouTube to watch every episode and follow wherever you're listening right now!  Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thank you to Kevin Brown for joining our podcast! We have talked about him enough to warrant an excellent appearance for all of you. Kevin and Jeff Kurkjian both attended Syracuse University however just missed each other by just one year. Imagine that dynamic duo working at the same station at the same time? Unstoppable. But nonetheless, Kevin Brown went from college to do big things as a broadcaster including calling games with our very own Tim Kurkjian, an even better duo we might add. He currently serves as the play-by-play broadcaster for the Baltimore Orioles working along side a former guest of ours, the great Jim Palmer. Let us just say, we've had a lot of guests at this point and his impression of Palmer might be the best impression we've had (Jason Benetti, you're in the conversation don't worry). We want to thank Kevin Brown for his time, yes, this is broadcaster Kevin Brown, not the former big leaguer (wait until you see the autographed ball Kevin Brown has). Thanks for taking the time to listen, make sure to share this episode with a friend who loves baseball and laughter as much as we do. And a special shoutout to the WJPZ family that took time to listen or watch this episode, it means a lot! If you would like to support more, hit the follow or subscribe button! Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Coming to you from beautiful Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, we are so happy to have you listening or watching. At the worst possible time during the baseball season, five families decided that the last week of the baseball regular season was the best time to travel. However, that doesn't mean we aren't podcasting, we are ALL over it in person, wait until you hear where we are inside this massive house. We open the takeaways with a couple of notes concerning no-doubt first ballot Hall of Famers, including one that might make you tear up. Some strange numbers games with Mike Trout and Francisco Lindor. Plus, what is going on with these pennant races? It's unbelievable what's happening to the Mets, Mariners, Guardians and more, hard to understand but we love it so so much!We will have episodes from the beach all week including an amazing interview with the amazing Kevin Brown, play-by-play broadcast for the Baltimore Orioles. So make sure to subscribe wherever you are listening or watching right now.  Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Can you believe we are almost wrapped up with the regular season? This year has FLOWN by but boy is this an exciting time! We continue from Ozzie To Orel with numbers 46 and 47, plus the greatest Cleveland baseball player of all time, very much up for debate to many but Tim says he's nailed it. We also rake through some amazing Quirkjians and Takeaways including Shohei Ohtani madness and Cal Raleigh records. Plus maybe the biggest most complicated Team Tim of all time and Tim Kurkjian didn't even come up with this one. Shout out to Dan Simon for making this incredible effort, make sure to check him out!If you are considering becoming a part of our family, just make sure to hit subscribe and follow from wherever you watch or listen, that means a whole lot to us! Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jane Leavy is quite the decorated author and journalist and we were so happy to have her join our show. Her new book, "Make Me Commissioner: I Know What's Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It," is an ode to the sport she loves the absolute most. Don't be fooled, it doesn't trash baseball, it's a "love letter" to it. Thank you to Jane for her time, get the book now wherever books are sold!  Visit GreatGameOrWhat.com to contact the show with your questions, quips and insights.  Joy Pop Productions LLC Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.