Duane Kuiper was standing outside his daughter’s house in Alamo a few weeks ago when a neighbor pulled up in a white SUV. He rolled down the window and told Kuiper how much he enjoyed listening to him call San Francisco Giants games with Mike Krukow, his inseparable partner for going on four decades now in the booth. And he wished them both luck on Dec. 6.
Kuiper didn’t automatically make the connection.
“The Hall of Fame,” the neighbor said. “You and Mike should win.”
Kuiper had to break the news gently: this isn’t a package deal. Kuiper and Krukow are among 10 broadcasters nominated for the honor. Only one nominee will receive the Ford C. Frick Award. Only one will earn a place on the dais and the invitation to speak to the crowd in Cooperstown, N.Y., in July. The neighbor blinked in disbelief. Split up Kruk and Kuip? You might as well throw a pool party and wheel out a tank of hydrogen and a tank of oxygen.
Ten of the National Pastime’s most beloved voices have been named finalists for the Hall of Fame’s 2024 Ford C. Frick Award.
— National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum ⚾ (@baseballhall) October 25, 2023
“I know, it’s hard to imagine,” Kuiper said. “He’s a nominee and so am I. Which is fine. The first time this happened, we were both nominated for an Emmy for Northern California broadcaster of the year. My wife sat in the middle of our table. I was on her left, Mike was on her right. And I won. So I had to go accept and say something, and I said, ‘Look, I thank everybody involved, but I also want to say how important this is because my wife said she would sleep with someone who won an Emmy tonight. So I’m happy it was me.’
“Mike was super gracious and nothing has change since that night. Except now we both have 18 of ’em.”
From their trove of Emmys to the top spot that they routinely claim in fan rankings of local broadcast crews to the greatest honor of them all, the near universal love and acclaim that they’ve received from generations of Giants fans, Krukow and Kuiper are as decorated and celebrated as any regional voices in the industry. Their descriptions and accounts have been the backbeat as the franchise moved from Candlestick Park to the shores of McCovey Cove. Their tonal inflections and observations captured the exhilaration of winning four National League pennants and three World Series championships. They played into the anticipation every time Barry Bonds cocked his wrists in the batter’s box and awaited the next pitch.
A Bonds home run without Kuiper’s signature call — “Hits it high! Hits it deeeep! OUTTA HERE!” — would be like the Rolling Stones showing up without a drum kit. A first-inning recitation of the Giants defense wouldn’t be the same without the catcher in the squaaaaat, as only Krukow can deliver it. If you try to list all the catchphrases, you’ll probably need to sit down for awhile. So grab some pine, meat. In a less authentic partnership, or with less self-assurance, those phrases might come across as gimmicky or as trying too hard. With Kruk and Kuip, they’re the inside jokes and Easter eggs that their listeners crave. Perhaps it all works so well because they take the game seriously without ever taking themselves too seriously.
Ever since their first telecast together in 1990, when Krukow began filling in for Joe Morgan on weekends, Krukow and Kuiper have succeeded at never talking at their audience. Perhaps that’s because listening to them call a game is like being invited into a three-hour conversation between two best friends.
They’ve been having those three-hour conversations longer than almost any baseball broadcast duo in television history. And despite health issues, logistical challenges and personal heartache, they’re still going strong.
“Somebody’s gonna argue, because both managers are on the field.”
“Yeah, they’re in the go position.”“Hunter had it cocked.”
“Yeah, he did. That’s a balk”Kuiper is a Frick nominee for the third time after being a finalist in 2014 and 2022. It’s the second time for Krukow, who was a finalist in 2017 when the award went posthumously to Bay Area broadcasting legend Bill King. This is the first time Kuiper and Krukow have appeared as finalists together. But until they change the format (and perhaps they should), only one broadcaster per voting cycle will receive baseball’s ultimate honor. Naturally, Krukow is hoping it’ll be Kuiper. And Kuiper is hoping it’ll be Krukow.
“He’s genuine when he says that but so am I,” Kuiper said. “I really hope he wins, because I think it’d be a feather in the cap for all the analysts who have been nominated for this award. Normally it’s the play-by-play guy who holds up the trophy. But Mike, I think he represents all analysts, whether they’re former players or not. I just think he’s the guy when it comes to this stuff.”
Krukow is quick to add a thought: an analyst is only as good as the play-by-play announcer who tees them up.
“Man, I’ve been fortunate,” Krukow said. “When you think about the guys I’ve been able to work with, Tim McCarver, Lon Simmons, Joe Angel, then Jon (Miller) joins us and then Dave (Flemming). And Kuip does it as well as anyone. They tee you up and steer you into a situation and they’re all brilliant at it. I’ve been so lucky to have good opportunities and good mentors. I hit the jackpot twice, first as a player and then as a broadcaster.”
Longtime A’s broadcaster Ken Korach — a Frick nominee himself for the first time this year — would love to see the pair enshrined together.
“The Hall has always been steadfast about it being one person at a time, but if they were going to make an exception, I think it’d be great if they both went in winning together,” Korach said.
Krukow and Kuiper’s relationship began as Giants teammates in the spring of 1983, when a tall, right-handed pitcher walked into the clubhouse at Scottsdale Stadium for the first time and heard the team’s smooth-fielding second baseman cracking wise. “From that day, whenever I went to work, I knew I’d laugh my ass off at least 10 times,” Krukow said.
Kuiper was already an established broadcaster by the time Krukow’s shoulder gave out and he began to contemplate a second career. Krukow and his wife, Jennifer, had a young family in San Luis Obispo and he didn’t want to jump into coaching or some other baseball work that would make him an absentee husband and father all over again. So he dove into the restaurant business in which he owned a stake. He worked the line and manned the host stand. He bartended at the 19th hole at Avila Beach. When the seafood restaurant or the steakhouse was down a dishwasher, he’d put on work gloves that required no laces.
But he itched to get back into baseball. When Krukow asked Corey Busch about broadcasting, the longtime Giants executive thought for a moment. He had potential. He had the right personality. But there wasn’t an opening for him. He suggested Krukow might want to think about going into the acting business, instead.
“What a perfect resume to be a broadcaster,” Kuiper said. “The boss thought you should go into acting! But I agreed with Corey. Mike could be one of those guys who’s bigger than life. He could do a lot of different things in the entertainment business. Then Joe (Morgan) started doing ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ (with Jon Miller) on ESPN, which meant we needed someone to fill in on weekends.”
It was the perfect trial run for Krukow. He flew to Atlanta for his first assignment in 1990. He and Kuiper went to lunch in the hours before their first game together. Kuiper asked him: What do you have to do the game?
“I have me,” Krukow said.
Kuiper paid the check and the next stop was an office supply store. The shopping list: mechanical pencils, erasers, highlighter pens. Kuiper offered to give Krukow one of his scorecards. If you want to do this job and do it well, you have to keep score. You can look at how I do mine if you want.
“He latched onto it just like that,” Kuiper said. “He ended up making his own scorecard that was easier for him to read. And it’s a good one.”
It was apparent from the start that their partnership in the booth was uniquely balanced. There aren’t many play-by-play broadcasters who were former big leaguers. When Kuiper first put on a headset, he assumed his career would be as a color commentator. But working with Morgan gave him a different perspective.
“There wasn’t a better guy to start out with than Joe,” Kuiper said. “We were former teammates, we were friends, we lived within a half mile of each other in the East Bay, and I really loved the guy and respected the guy. One thing I learned from Joe was don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. Joe did play-by-play for three years on Giants Vision. That was a step not many former players took. When they asked me to do play-by-play in 1987, I was reluctant but I thought, ‘Hey, Joe took a shot at it. I’ll do the same thing.’ Then after the ’88 season, Joe said he didn’t want to do play-by-play anymore. He said, ‘You do it and I’ll do color.’ Then when Mike came aboard, you could tell he was going to be a natural fit.”
An odd coincidence: When Krukow first arrived with the Giants in 1983, it was in a trade from Philadelphia — with Joe Morgan going the other way.
When Morgan committed fully to ESPN, once again it was Krukow who replaced him. Joining Kuiper full-time in the broadcast booth was like having two analysts in one — a pitcher and an infielder. Aside from the one season in 1993 when Kuiper worked for the expansion Colorado Rockies, Kruk and Kuip have been together ever since.
“I love all the broadcasters I’ve been opposite, but there’s nothing like sitting next to a guy you played with for 10 years,” Krukow said. “I don’t have to be responsible for the bunt play or infield alignment, or tips you look for when a guy’s looking to steal a base. I can look to my partner for that, which is great, because you don’t want to come across as godlike in your knowledge of the game. If I’m not sure about something, I just ask him a question. ‘Hey, explain this play. You know what it feels like.’ And boom, he rolls right into the explanation. That has served us really, really well.”
