LOS ANGELES -- Longtime Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper announced Sunday that he was recently diagnosed with throat cancer and began receiving treatment from his doctors at Stanford Medicine last week.
Kuiper, 76, said the illness was unrelated to the cancer he previously battled in 2021, when he was forced to step away from the booth while undergoing chemotherapy.
“I’m optimistic that it will be successfully treated,” Kuiper said in a statement.
Kuiper’s update comes amid an emotional week for the Giants’ broadcasting crew, which was already preparing to bid farewell to his best friend Mike Krukow, who plans to retire at the end of the 2026 season following a 36-year run behind the mic.
Kuiper hoped to travel to Los Angeles to call the Giants’ games against the Dodgers on Saturday and Sunday, but he had to scrap those plans due to his health challenges. He said he plans to return to the booth on Tuesday and will call the Giants’ final three regular-season games against the Dodgers at Oracle Park.
“I’m looking forward to returning Tuesday and this weekend to celebrate my partner, Mike Krukow, and his remarkable career as he calls his final game before retirement,” Kuiper said. “I’m incredibly grateful for the care I’m receiving and for the tremendous support from my family, the Giants organization, my broadcast partners and so many others.”
Fellow play-by-play man Jon Miller, who filled in for Kuiper on the Giants’ NBC Sports Bay Area telecast over the weekend, said he knew Kuiper was dealing with a health condition, though he didn’t learn the specifics until Sunday.
“I knew it wasn’t good,” Miller said. “I already knew that if everything was fine, he’d be here.”
While Krukow’s battle with inclusion body myositis, a degenerative muscle disease, made it difficult to carry on his broadcasting duties, Kuiper has said he plans to continue to call Giants games beyond this season.
“He’s a pro,” Miller said. “He’s ready to be there. He’s always prepared. When we’re at the ballpark, there’s no place we’d rather be. You can’t say that in every city, in every group of broadcasters. I’ve never heard him or Mike, [despite] all the things that both of them have been going through, I still have never heard either one of them say, ‘Can we just for God’s sake get a quick game tonight?’ Never, not even one time.”
Miller said it’s still hard to fathom that “Kruk and Kuip” will be calling their final game together on Sept. 27.
“I’m trying not to actually think about it,” Miller said. “What I want to say to Kruk is, at the end, when you had the ceremony, I think it would be so cool if you just said, ‘There’s this outpouring of affection and support from everybody. I’m just overwhelmed by it and so blessed to hear that from everybody. And so I’ve decided, I’ve changed my mind! I’m coming back.’ I thought, ‘This could kind of bring the house down.’ That’s the story I want to tell him, but I know that’s not going to happen. So it’s all sad.”