Yesterday, Mike Krukow announced he will be retiring from broadcasting San Francisco Giants games at the end of the 2026 season. Krukow has been in the Giants broadcast booth, mainly with Duane Kuiper, since 1990. The pair, both former MLB players, are affectionately known as Kruk & Kuip.
Prior to joining the Giants broadcast booth, Krukow pitched in San Francisco for 7 of his 14 MLB seasons from 1983 to 1989 with his best season coming in 1986 when he won 20 games and finished third in NL Cy Young balloting. Krukow has spent more than half of his life with the Giants organization.
Krukow is retiring with great reluctance. Sadly, for the past 20 years, Krukow has been battling inclusion body myositis, a degenerative muscle disease. It has affected his ability to move to the point where he has been broadcasting games remotely from his home in Reno, Nevada for the past several seasons. Kruk hopes to remain with the Giants in some other capacity. Some suggest that the Giants make him a special pitching adviser given his encyclopedic knowledge of pitching.
I have occasionally viewed Kruk and Kuip cover Giants games on the MLB Network over the years. The pair have an easy camaraderie. Krukow is particularly knowledgeable without going over people's heads. Both men bring a joy to broadcasting and Giants fans tune in to find that joy even in a season which has been so disappointing for the Giants.
The Giants enter tonight 21 games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West. At this point, the only reason to tune into Giants games is to hear Kruk & Kuip together for one last summer. Because after this year, it just won't be the same.
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