This story was excerpted from Maria Guardado’s Giants Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Duane Kuiper knew Giants fans would be hit hard by the news that his longtime broadcasting partner Mike Krukow was planning to retire at the end of the 2026 season.
“I told people that when this was going to be reported, this would be, for our fans, as big a story as when they traded Willie Mays,” Kuiper, 76, said Friday. “I don't think I was wrong.”
Kuiper and Krukow have been calling Giants games together since 1990, forming the beloved “Kruk and Kuip” tandem that regularly ranks among the most popular broadcasting duos in the Majors. But traveling to the ballpark has become increasingly challenging for the 74-year-old Krukow, who revealed in 2014 that he has inclusion-body myositis, a degenerative muscle disease that causes progressive weakness in the hand, forearm, thigh and lower leg muscles.
“I don’t want to quit, but I have to,” Krukow said on NBC Sports Bay Area’s Giants pregame show on Friday. “It’s just kind of where I’m at with dealing with this disease that I have. It’s become difficult. My wife Jennifer and I -- bless her heart, she’s really prolonged my career by a couple of years. It was time to recognize that. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Certainly, walking away from my partner, it’s been brutal. But these last 36 hours have been unbelievable. It’s hard for me to describe the emotions that I’ve had.”
Kuiper said Krukow told him and his brother Jeff -- their broadcast producer -- that the 2026 season would be his last during a pregame meal at Oracle Park two weeks ago.
“We were in the lunchroom with him, and he just said how difficult it was that day to get to the park and to get ready,” Kuiper said. “He talked about how dangerous it was for him. He just went on to say, ‘This is it for me.’ Jeff and I were moderately shocked, but not 100% shocked. We could see this coming.”
The Giants plan to celebrate Krukow during their regular-season finale against the Dodgers on Sept. 27 at Oracle Park, but the tributes are expected to pour in throughout the club’s final 27 home games.
Krukow received a lengthy standing ovation when he was acknowledged on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second inning of the Giants’ 5-2 win over the Tigers on Friday night, with one fan fittingly holding up a sign that read, “Enjoy your retirement, meat!”
“Wow,” an emotional Krukow said on the NBC Sports Bay Area broadcast. “I've been saying that a lot the last day and a half. I need a minute. Jeez.”
“Well, it's going to be like this until the end of the season,” Kuiper replied. “I think you better get used to it.”
Kuiper has dealt with his own health challenges in recent years, but he said he isn’t planning on stepping away from the broadcast booth anytime soon.
“Health-wise, if I'm fine, I'll go until AI takes over,” Kuiper quipped.
Still, Kuiper acknowledged that calling Giants games won’t be the same without Krukow.
“It went really fast,” Kuiper said of their iconic 36-year partnership. “I knew halfway through that eventually it was going to come to an end. But as hard as you think you can prepare for it, you really can’t. And that's why these next two months will be important.”
Right-hander Logan Webb said it’ll be hard to imagine not having Krukow as a voice of Giants baseball moving forward.
“I’m sad as a fan of baseball,” Webb said. “I grew up in Northern California, so I’ve heard him call so many games. He’s nothing but a professional when you get to see him. He always has some good wisdom or something to give you. I’m going to miss that a lot. I’m sure I’ll see him around. I hope he comes around a little bit. But I think we’re going to miss that. He’s a Bay Area legend. He’s a Giants legend. Not having him call games for us anymore is going to be weird.”
“It’s a legendary career,” infielder Casey Schmitt said. “I think everyone in all of sports loves him, loves listening to him on the broadcast. He’s going to be someone we’re going to miss deeply.”