3 best moments from Mike Krukow's emotional goodbye as SF Giants broadcaster

Sunday’s send off for beloved SF Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow was just about what everyone expected. There were laughs, tears, and lots of memorable moments. It still doesn’t feel quite real that Krukow is stepping away and it probably won’t really hit us all until next season when we go months without hearing his voice call games, but the Giants gave him a heck of a send off.

The whole day was special with speeches after the game from Kruk’s former teammates like Bob Brenly and Will Clark amongst others, but the whole day had some great highlights. Let’s take a look at what I thought were the three best, most memorable moments.

Highlights of Mike Krukow's SF Giants send off

Kuip’s stick figure with a boiler

Ever since the Giants put an “Atta Babe Kruk” sign in the outfield, Kuip jokingly said that he was going to put a stick figure of himself alongside Kruk. Well, true to his word he did just that and there was even a boiler to boot. 

The partnership between Kruk and Kuip is something that may never be matched again in sports broadcasting history. That may seem hyperbolic, but it’s tough to emphasize how rare and unlikely it is that two guys who were teammates in the big leagues for years and became best friends could continue their partnership in the broadcast booth.

That just doesn’t happen today especially since most play-by-play announcers are just in the booth because they have a nice voice, not because they actually ever played the game.

The stick figure with a boiler is just a perfect encapsulation of their shared humor and was a perfect way to remind everyone that it’s okay to laugh even though Sunday was still a sad day.

Kuip’s heartfelt words to Kruk

The really emotional moments on Sunday were all between Kruk and Kuip. You could tell it hit them several times throughout the day that this was the end of their regular partnership in the booth and Kuip’s closing words of his speech to Kruk got him choked up.

He referenced Jim Valvano’s famous speech as the ESPY’s and said that every day alongside Kruk he has laughed, thought, and cried. 

“He makes me laugh, he made me think, and today he really does make me cry.”

Well, he made me cry too. And so did you, Kuip. 

Kruk’s impassioned defense of Giants baseball

It’s hard to make Giants fans actually feel proud about the fact that they’re Giants fans after the team goes 65-97, but somehow Mike Krukow was able to do that with his farewell speech. He invoked different eras of Giants baseball, from the Barry Bonds era to the championship years and wove a tapestry that truly made one revel in the shared history of this franchise. This one line really hit me:

“This is who we are and we are not making apologies forever. It’s Giants baseball. And it was given to us by someone we loved and it is what we are going to give our children and in turn, they will someday pass it on to theirs.”

Absolute chills.

In case anyone needed a reminder of what it means to be a Giants fan, and one could be forgiven for having a crisis of faith after a year like 2026, Krukow reminded us all just what it means to don the orange and black. I’ve written it before but one can’t say or write it too much: thank you Mike Krukow, we are going to miss you. 

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