A far-away farewell to a legend of the broadcast booth

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While traveling to fields and gyms across the state over the last two years, I have learned that I am far from the only San Francisco Giants fan living in Idaho. So I am surely not the only Idahoan touched with sadness today, the final day of longtime Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow’s career.

Krukow, who has been physically limited by inclusion-body myositis (IBM) for more than a decade, has slowly cut back his workload and, for the several years, has limited his duties to home games only. He announced earlier this year that he would be retiring at the end of the season — which concludes today with the Giants hosting the rival Los Angeles Dodgers.

So why is it that the retirement of broadcasters weigh so heavy on sports fans?

As any sports fan will understand, the voices of the game become synonymous with the game itself over time.

Vin Scully, John Madden, Pat Summerall, Jim Lampley, Chick Hearn, Mike Breen. The names associated with sports based purely on the word-pictures they painted, are endless.

Love him or hate him, Joe Buck’s name is as attached to football as any Hall of Fame player’s.

Locally, Idaho Falls baseball fans bid farewell to the only voice of Chukar baseball many have known — John Balginy. Balginy retired after 41 years in the Chukar broadcast booth.

His voice will be sorely missed, as will the kindness he brought to Melaleuca Field.

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Three years ago, Jerry Miller retired after 41 years as the voice of Idaho State Bengal sports.

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For a kid born in the 1980s in Hawaii, I did not have a local team to root for — not a professional one, at least. And as baseball fans who came of age in the early 90s will remember, when TBS named the Atlanta Braves “America’s Team” and began broadcasting all of their games nationally, there was suddenly a team everyone could root for as their own.

One problem for me, though. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for underdogs.

And, as you may again remember, the Braves — from Atlanta, Ga. — were in the National League West at the time, where their competitive little brother was the Giants. That was when I became a Giants fan. But it wasn’t until I moved to California after graduating high school that I discovered Krukow and his broadcast partner Duane Kuiper — the team known by Giants fans as “Kruk and Kuip.”

For me, Krukow’s voice is the voice of baseball, and with it the voice of summer.

His “Krukisms” — “Grab some pine, Meat;” “Yuckadoo;” “Boiler;” and “Gamer Babe” just to name a few — are common vernacular in the Hines household.

The seven-time Emmy Award-winner and Ford C. Frick Award finalist — several times over — will one day be enshrined in the broadcast wing of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. And I, like many, believe he should go in as part of a duo, with his partner Kuiper.

But we will wait to see about that.

For now, from me and the countless Giants fans in the Gem State, farewell to Mike Krukow. Attababe, Kruk.