Mike Krukow has been in baseball for 54 years. He was drafted out of Cal Poly by the Chicago Cubs in 1973. He reached the majors in 1976, won his first game in 1977, was traded to Philadelphia after the strike-marred 1981 season, and came to the Giants a year later in a trade that was extremely unpopular at the time; GM Tom Haller gave up Hall of Famer Joe Morgan and top lefty reliever Al Holland to get "Kruke" along with Mark Davis.
"You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone," goes the song, but you also don't know what you're getting until it's here. And what we Giants fans got, and have, was and is one of the most popular Giants ever to put on the uniform, a beloved instantly-recognizable face of the franchise on par with the likes of Willie McCovey and Tim Lincecum-- enduring iconic personalities known as Forever Giants.
Mike Krukow won us all over in 1986 when he had his greatest season, winning twenty games for a vivid, exciting ballclub that wiped clean the sour memories of a decade-plus of failures and kicked off the "Giants Renaissance." He was Everyman's kind of pitcher, a wisecracking but intensely dedicated veteran whose personality and perseverence initiated and led a team of young players into the day-to-day grind of a long season. Krukow battled through injury as the Giants won the division in 1987, their first in 16 years, and he pitched the game of his life in Game 4 of the NLCS at Candlestick Park, a complete-game 4-2 win that seemed to sum up his entire persona and career. And, sadly, that was effectively his last hurrah, as well as his best; toughness and good humor sustained him over two more declining seasons until his good right arm simply gave out.
And soon afterward the love-fest began in earnest as Kruke teamed up with his former teammate Duane Kuiper to form an unbeatable team of baseball and Giants ambassadors to the world. "Kruke and Kuip" became an institution, and his catchphrases-- "Grab some pine, meat!", "Atta babe!," "Just another laugher" (for a close game)-- are known to and repeated by Giants fans everywhere. Kruke also may have coined the term "Forever Giant" (never intending, of course, for it to apply to himself), and his other inventions include "Gamer Babe," "Oil up," and "Ownage." It was simply a joy to listen to Krukow and Kuiper lead us through a game of Giants baseball, regardless of the outcome. And, of course, after 20 entertaining years in the booth "Kruke and Kuip" joined all the San Francisco Giants past and present in the franchise's first World Championship and the two that followed.
Now after 36 years, Mike Krukow leaves the broadcast booth and the game he loves, and leaves us all poorer. There's no way we salute the man with "Grab some pine," so instead we regard him with the ultimate compliment:
Forever Giant.
