Mike Krukow Retirement: Legendary Giants Broadcaster Calling It a Career After 2026 Season
An era is ending in the Bay Area. Mike Krukow, the beloved San Francisco Giants broadcaster and one of the most distinctive voices in Major League Baseball, announced Thursday that he will retire at the end of the 2026 season.
Krukow made the announcement in a statement released through the Giants, calling his 36-year broadcasting career a “gift” and admitting he was “bracing for the emotional hits we know we are going to feel in the next few weeks.”
If you grew up watching Giants baseball on TV in the last three decades, you grew up listening to Krukow. He and play-by-play partner Duane Kuiper have been the soundtrack of San Francisco baseball since the early 1990s. Their chemistry is the reason “Kruk and Kuip” is one of the most iconic booth pairings in the sport.
A Career Woven Into Giants History
Krukow, 74, joined the Giants broadcast crew as a radio analyst in 1990 after wrapping his 14-year MLB pitching career. He moved to television full-time in 1994. From that booth, he called three World Series titles, Barry Bonds’ pursuit of the single-season home run record, and Bonds’ chase of Hank Aaron’s all-time mark.
The 1980 National League All-Star and 1986 20-game winner brought a pitcher’s brain to the booth without ever making it feel like a lecture. His signature calls, “Grab some pine, meatball” and “ownage,” became part of the Bay Area sports vocabulary.
More Than Just a Broadcaster
Krukow’s reach extended past baseball itself. A generation of gamers knows his voice from the EA Sports “MVP Baseball” series, where he called games alongside Kuiper from 2003 to 2005. He is arguably the most beloved local sports personality the Giants have ever had who did not wear a uniform for them full-time.
What made Krukow special was his honesty. He was diagnosed with inclusion-body myositis in 2014, a degenerative muscle disease, and he never hid it from viewers. He kept working. He kept telling stories. He kept being himself. That authenticity is what fans latched onto.
What Comes Next for Giants Broadcasts
Replacing Krukow is not something the Giants can just check off a list. His voice is stitched into the fabric of how a generation of fans experiences the team. Whoever slides into that seat inherits an impossible standard, and the reality is nobody is going to feel like Kruk. That is not a knock on his eventual successor. It is a testament to how singular Krukow was in that chair.
The Giants have several weeks left in the 2026 season, and every remaining broadcast now carries weight. Expect an outpouring at Oracle Park down the stretch, and expect Krukow to try to keep it business as usual right up until he cannot anymore.
Bay Area baseball is losing one of its greatest ambassadors. The good news is that fans get one final run to soak it in. Enjoy every inning.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
