Friday afternoon, I’m knocking around the house, flipping through books, looking for inspiration for this, my first blog post. I’m watching the Giants getting hammered by the Cubs at Wrigley Field, Madison Bumgarner continuing his winless ways, and my attention wanders to the broadcast itself.
In times like these, when the game has gotten away, but with several innings still left to fill, you really appreciate the wonderful good fortune that Giants fans enjoy in our eminent team of correspondents, Kruk & Kuip, aka Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper. Individually, they are each outstanding broadcasters, with careers and credentials that make their play-by-play and color commentary a valuable asset to the viewers; but together they have become that rare and wonderful thing, a couple of guys you look forward to spending some time with, maybe watch a ballgame.
They both played for the Giants, had modest careers with prior clubs, Krukow with the Chicago Cubs (1976–1981), 1982 with the Phillies, but his best years were in S.F. including ’86 when he went 20-9 with a 3.05 ERA and finished third in that year's NL Cy Young Award voting behind Mike Scott and Fernando Valenzuela. Duane Kuiper was a solid 2nd baseman and a disciplined hitter for the Cleveland Indians, leading the American League in fielding percentage at that position in ’76, Giants picked him up in 1982, for Ed Whitson.
One of the things I love about XM radio, which I’ve had for several years now, is listening to the broadcasts of any MLB game, all season, with the hometown feed, including local ads. You get a chance to hear the team as it is presented to the local market, including the local radio team; the differences are not that subtle. Even in this day of homogenized mass media content, a Boston Red Sox game is still different, delivered in a tone and pace, with asides and observations unlike those that accompany a game broadcast from the Astrodome.
In my opinion the National League is the clear winner in quality announcers. As much as I hate to admit it, the Gold Standard still resides with the Dodgers, in Vin Scully, the Fred Astaire of baseball announcers. There is just nothing else like what that voice brings to a July evening. I will always remember making the long drive west from Las Vegas, the sun setting across the vast desert, air hanging quietly, beginning to cool, as the sky darkens and the moon appears, Vin Scully, slowly, fitfully materializes on the airwaves, describing Dave Parker standing in against Burt Hooten; as close to a spiritual experience as you need to get.
I also like Bob Uecker in Milwaukee, Marty Brennaman in Cincinnati, and I will miss Ron Santo, the Cubs great who passed away in the off season. I know he is going into the Hall of Fame, but I just can’t stand Jerry Coleman.
The Giants have had their share of great voices over the years, Al Michaels, Hank Greenwald, Bill King and of course Jon Miller but these guys never connected with that natural, gracious alliance of a perfect broadcast partner, the congenial affiliation of style and personality that both fills up the more sluggish parts of a ballgame and renders the action scenes more vivid; this is what is hard to come by. Hank Greenwald will always be my favorite Giants announcer but he never really clicked with either Lindsey Nelson or Ron Fairly. You have to go back to the iconic team of Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons, who sat in the radio booth from 1958, through the great teams of the ‘60s and are forever the voices of baseball in my childhood, to find an apt analogy. I just hope the now rapidly swelling ranks of those cheering on the orange and black understand and enjoy the rarity of our good fortune.
