Mike Krukow retiring after 36 years with Duane Kuiper

Giants fans have had the same voice in their living rooms for basically four decades, and that's about to change. Mike Krukow announced he's retiring at the end of the 2026 season, closing out 36 years in the booth and, with it, the run of 'Kruk and Kuip' as a package deal.

Jeff Passan

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San Francisco Giants announcer Mike Krukow will retire after this season, ending a 36-year career in which he and he best friend and former teammate, Duane Kuiper, formed one of the best broadcasting duos in baseball. For generations of Giants fans, Kruk is their voice of summer.

Jeff Passan's framing gets at why this one stings beyond the usual retirement-tour stuff: Krukow and Duane Kuiper aren't just a broadcast pairing, they're best friends who go back to being teammates. Kuiper actually helped recruit Krukow's trust when he was traded to San Francisco back in 1983, and the two have been essentially inseparable on air since the early '90s. For generations of Giants fans, that dynamic — one guy breaking down the game, the other cracking jokes — has been the soundtrack of the summer.

It's also worth saying plainly why now. Krukow, 74, has spent the last 20 years dealing with inclusion-body myositis, a degenerative muscle disease that's progressively weakened his hands, arms and legs. He's called games from a wheelchair and, more recently, worked road games remotely out of a San Francisco studio through a split-cast setup with Kuiper on the road. That he kept showing up through all of it is a big part of why this retirement lands as a legacy moment and not just a scheduling note.

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The Opener: Red Sox, Cubs, Krukow Retirement t.co/iHFSj4f1YZ

The resume backs up the sentimentality. Krukow has 13 local Emmy Awards, has been a Ford C. Frick Award finalist for the Hall of Fame's broadcasting honor multiple times, and called three World Series championships in San Francisco (2010, 2012, 2014) along with moments like Barry Bonds' 756th homer and Matt Cain's perfect game. That's a Hall-of-Fame-caliber broadcasting career, not just a long one.

The Giants are reportedly planning to honor Krukow during the regular-season finale against the Dodgers on September 27 at Oracle Park — a fitting sendoff for a guy who's spent his whole post-playing life in that ballpark. Expect the tributes to ramp up all September, with Kuiper likely to get emotional about losing the other half of the booth he's shared for over 3 decades.