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A Giant Friendship -- one of the best broadcast duos in baseball
Good read by Steve Fainaru, ESPN
Around 4:30, a golf cart driven by a Giants employee pulled up on the sidewalk. Mike Krukow, who is 62, grabbed a silver REI walking stick and began the short commute to his office -- AT&T Park, a waterfront ballpark that evokes the Disneyland slogan, "The Happiest Place on Earth," except that here Willie Mays is Mickey Mouse. AT&T has a 10-ton mitt and four slides encased in a Coke bottle behind the left-field bleachers and, on the field, a team that's won two of the past four World Series and is headed back to the playoffs Wednesday as a wild-card team. Krukow broadcasts the games on TV with his best friend and former teammate, Duane Kuiper; together they're known as Kruk and Kuip. In recent years, they've become as beloved in San Francisco as the crooked street and are recognized, by many, as the best local broadcasting team in baseball.
Their secret is the same effortless chemistry that characterizes their long friendship: Night after night, they deliver rare insights devoid of pretentiousness, mixed with the kind of whimsical Bay Area humor made famous by Robin Williams.
The two have been inseparable since they met as Giants teammates in 1983. Krukow, a 6-foot-5 right-hander who won 20 games in 1986, had been acquired after a short stint with the Phillies and a long one with the Cubs. Kuiper, who started at second base for the Indians for seven years, was reaching the end of his career. Between Krukow's starts, the two would sit at the end of the bench and perform profanity-laced broadcasts to entertain their teammates. After they took their act into the booth in the early '90s -- a gig that brings them together some 200 days a year -- they continued to hang out during the offseason and to vacation together, with their families.
Their secret is the same effortless chemistry that characterizes their long friendship: Night after night, they deliver rare insights devoid of pretentiousness, mixed with the kind of whimsical Bay Area humor made famous by Robin Williams.
The two have been inseparable since they met as Giants teammates in 1983. Krukow, a 6-foot-5 right-hander who won 20 games in 1986, had been acquired after a short stint with the Phillies and a long one with the Cubs. Kuiper, who started at second base for the Indians for seven years, was reaching the end of his career. Between Krukow's starts, the two would sit at the end of the bench and perform profanity-laced broadcasts to entertain their teammates. After they took their act into the booth in the early '90s -- a gig that brings them together some 200 days a year -- they continued to hang out during the offseason and to vacation together, with their families.
STORY: http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/11617731/the-giant-friendship-san-francisco-giants-announcers-mike-krukow-duane-kuiper
Krukow delivers insights you rarely (if ever) hear during a ball game -- it's like being privy to a Vulcan mind meld with the likes of Giants players Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey or coaches Dave Righetti and Bruce Bochy. It's awesome to experience.
These guys, along with partners Dave Fleming and Jon Miller, are so good that you want to listen to their playoff broadcast on radio while watching on television, despite the distraction of the 20 second or so TV delay.