Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow reveals most heartbreaking part of retirement announcement

Mike Krukow announced that he plans to retire from the broadcast booth at the end of the San Francisco Giants’ season.

It’s the end of an era for San Francisco baseball, as Krukow has been with the team’s booth since 1990 and a full-time broadcaster with the team since 1994. The decision comes due to health issues stemming from inclusion body myositis, a degenerative muscle disease he publicly disclosed in 2014.

Leaving any job can be tough to process, but Krukow shared on Monday that the most difficult part of his decision was telling it to his partner in the broadcast booth, Duane Kuiper.

“Horrible. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever had to do — is walk away from him. In my life,” Krukow told KNBR of what it was like to break the news to Kuiper. “He looked at me, and he goes, ‘No, you’re not.’ He was quiet. Then we walked out of the lunchroom together. He put his arm on my shoulders, and we just quietly walked back to the booth. Went back and did our job.”

“I put my hand on his shoulder, and we walked to the booth to do our jobs.”

Mike Krukow on sharing the news of his retirement with long time partner and friend Duane Kuiper.

(via @knbrmurph & @MarkusBoucher) pic.twitter.com/k5ABeGeR1s

— KNBR (@KNBR) August 10, 2026

Krukow played 14 seasons as a starting pitcher in the majors, spending time with the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies before settling in with the Giants for the final seven years of his career. He and Kuiper first met as teammates in San Francisco and found a partnership that lasted a lifetime in their post-playing careers. Kuiper plans to continue in the booth for the Giants after Krukow’s departure.

“It’ll be different,” Kuiper told The Athletic‘s Andrew Baggarly. “I’ve done games on the road without Mike, but we’ve had this relationship for so long now. We could without a doubt win ‘The Newlywed Game.'”

“You know when something is really good, and you’re happy and having fun, and you don’t want it to end? Like a good meal or a vacation or a movie? Well, that’s what it was for us. We just never wanted it to end. And when you’re together for 36 years, every year you know at some point it’s going to end. You want to prepare for it, and you… you just can’t.”

Krukow and Kuiper are a beloved pair in the broadcast booth, ranking third in Awful Announcing‘s local MLB booth rankings in 2025 and being voted the best booth in baseball four times in the seven years that they have been contested. They’ve also been through a lot together, not just in time, but in experience — Kuiper missed time in 2021 while receiving chemotherapy but was back to a regular in the booth as soon as he was able.

The Giants will celebrate Krukow’s career with a ceremony in September.

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