Last week, local Washington D.C. Native Tim Kurkjian was named the winner of the 2022 BBWAA Career Excellence Award. He will be honored with the award that is presented annually to a sportswriter “for meritorious contributions to baseball writing” during Hall of Fame Induction Weekend July 22-25 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Kurkjian currently works for ESPN, where he has served as a columnist for ESPN.com and a reporter/analyst/host for “Baseball Tonight." He is also the author of three books and has served on two Era Committees for the Hall of Fame.

“I cried over the phone when Jack O'Connell (BBWAA secretary-treasurer) called this morning. I couldn't help it,” said Kurkjian in a phone interview only an hour after receiving news of the honor. “It's the most overwhelming feeling I've ever had. It's the greatest day of my whole life professionally. And nobody loves the Hall of Fame more than me. It's such an honor. I can't even begin to tell you how thrilled and honored I am.

“Right now I'm at my home in Darnestown, Md., up in my office by myself. I've already had the big congratulations from the family. And now I'm just trying to figure out what to do next. It’s just so much. It's so good.”

But, according to the longtime storyteller, how he received the life-changing news is kind of a funny story.

“I go to Harris Teeter like every day to do grocery shopping. I'm a terrible grocery shopper, but I go every day and I'm very inefficient. But I was at the Harris Teeter at the self-serve checkout place,” he explained. “I had just put a case of water over the self-serve area and put it in my cart and was just about ready to walk out when Jack O'Connell called me this morning and made me cry at the Harris Teeter. That's how I found out. Which was quite appropriate for my family because they know I go there almost every day. And to have it happen at the Harris Teeter was not exactly my first choice but that's exactly how it happened.”

On September 29, 2020, Kurkjian helped commentate the American League Wild Card Series postseason game between the Houston Astros and Minnesota Twins alongside play-by-play announcer Karl Ravech and analyst Eduardo Pérez. Airing on ABC, the game marked the first time that the network broadcast a Major League Baseball game since Game 5 of the 1995 World Series.