Friday night marks the start of the 2023 World Series. The matchup between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks, however, does not contain a team from the three largest markets. Because of this, many sports media personalities and fans do not expect the series to attain high ratings. In a recent interview with Dan Bickley and Vince Marotta on Arizona Sports 98.7, ESPN MLB analyst Tim Kurkjian expressed his excitement for the matchup.
“I think it’s great for baseball, and I know I’m in the vast minority here, and I know that the networks aren’t real happy about this, but this is perfect for baseball,” Kurkjian said of the World Series. “You’ve got two, young, hungry, athletic fast teams – especially the Diamondbacks – and they’re going to show people who they are.”
Bickley asked Kurkjian how the 2023 baseball season will be remembered in the history of the game, with new rule changes quickening the pace of play in turn growing attendance, prompting him to reference a conversation he had with outfielder Mark Canha at New York Mets spring training.
“He said, ‘20 years from now, people are going to point back to this spring and say, ‘This is when the game changed. This is what the pitch clock has done.’ I covered three three-hour games out of 12, which is an amazingly low number,” Tim Kurjian said. “They would have all been four-hour games last year, and when the game moves as quickly as it does, it just makes for better games.”
