Tim Kurkjian of ESPN joins the show on the day Spring Training officially starts (you know, with games).

We give Kurkjian an intro that sounds ripped right from one of his ESPN reports and wonder if the man knows everything about the sport (note: the Elias Sports Bureau is the greatest organization on Earth).

I ask him, as a DC-area native, what he thinks of the Nationals and what would be worse -- having a terrible team or no team at all?

We discuss his book, Is This A Great Game Or What?, and I wonder, in a game he loves so much, who is Kurkjian’s favorite player of all time? He recounts a great story from the book about Cal Ripken (damn, gave it away) and a trampoline. Man that guy was competitive.

We then take a look at the sub-head of his book “From A-Rod’s Heart to Zim’s Head” to talk about the current situation surrounding A-Rod. Does Kurkjian still think he’s the best player of the last decade? How do we delineate greatness anymore?

And why, for a guy who seems to care so much about what other people think of him, would he dare to lie so much to reporters? Does A-Rod not understand that you cannot answer questions in a vacuum? People will do the research to find out if you are lying. We try to dissect why someone with so much to lose would act this way repeatedly.

Kurkjian recently did a report on the Astos, in which he talked to Roy Oswalt. One of the topics surrounding the ‘Stros is the mess with Miguel Tejada lying to the Feds. Kurkjian asked Oswalt about that, and his reaction to Tejada’s situation was vastly different from his reaction to A-Rod’s situation a few weeks ago. Are the clubhouse walls that strong that Oswalt can defend his teammate while deriding another player?

That leads to a very interesting discussion about getting what you can out of an interview when you’ve been told certain things are off limits. I ask if Kurkjian has ever pulled out of an interview because the terms were too stringent, and he gives a great example of an interview with Jason Giambi to illustrate how reporters often have to dance to get what they need.

We bring up the other 103 names (not the actual names) and I ask, with the whole steroid era still looming over the game, if he feels duped or cheated as a reporter. This leads to a debate about whose responsibility it is to break these stories. Beat writers? Tim thinks no.

We talk about the legacy of Bud Selig. And the legacy of Pete Rose. How badly has Selig’s been hurt and can he salvage a positive legacy? With all the cheating being exposed recently, how does that help or hurt the legacy of C. Hustle?

Which leads us to the Hall of Fame -- Kurkjian is a voter -- and wonder if any player will ever get 100-percent of the vote (Greg Maddox). How has this not happened yet? And is there a difference between a first-ballot HOFer and a guy like Jim Rice? Clearly to some media members there is a difference.

With the bankruptcy hearings the top story in Philadelphia right now, I ask Kurkjian if we’re making more of this ‘end of newspapers’ than we need to. This happened with records/cassettes/CDs in the music industry, but we still listen to music. Isn’t news news, no matter how we consume it? As an old newspaper guy, he takes umbrage with that notion.

Last, he’s a regular guest on Mike and Mike. Every time he’s on the show they use that old Timmy! drop from South Park. Doesn’t that make him just want to punch one of them in the face?