Jimmy Kimmel Talks Dodgers, Clayton Kershaw On Larry King At Bat
During an April visit to the Time Warner Cable SportsNet LA studios, the regional sports network and exclusive home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, one of the aspects highlighted on the tour was the portion of the studio where award-winning TV and radio personality Larry King hosts and films the “Larry King At Bat” series.
The show features special sit-down interviews with celebrities, baseball legends and Dodgers personalities. Among those to sit across from King this include Jamie Jarrín and Charley Steiner. In an episode scheduled to air Sunday at 5:00 p.m. PT, King interviews fellow TV personality Jimmy Kimmel.
One of the questions posed to Kimmel is what his favorite sport is, to which he answers baseball and speaks fondly of legendary broadcaster Vin Scully:
My favorite sport is baseball. As a kid I would listen to or watch every Dodgers game growing up in Las Vegas, and Vin Scully’s voice, for me that represents my childhood.”
Now a New York Mets fan, Kimmel, a Brooklyn native, tells of the Dodgers twice breaking his heart:
I am a Mets fan now, but I still have a fondness in my heart [for the Dodgers]. When I was a kid, I liked the Mets when I lived in Brooklyn, and the Dodgers broke my heart twice. When they let Steve Garvey go to the Padres, and I became a Padres fan and I swore I would never root for the Dodgers again. And then I moved to LA in 1994 and I was doing sports and a couple years went by. I liked a guy named Mike Piazza. I thought he was a great player. I thought I’m going to root for the Dodgers again, and what did they do to me? [Traded Piazza].
As for the segment on his late night show that had Kimmel standing across from Clayton Kershaw with an apple positioned over his head so that the Dodgers’ ace could attempt to knock it off with a baseball, the ABC host recalled a few details from the challenge:
It was not a baseball. It was one of those safety baseballs, which is still not something you want to get hit with.”
Kimmel also laughed off Kershaw hitting him on the face with a baseball before managing to connect with the apple. “Larry King At Bat” is one of several original shows on the network dedicated to providing all-access coverage of the Dodgers.
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