Is SF Giants’ Kuiper ready to retire? His broadcast partner responds to new rumor

SAN FRANCISCO – Any suggestion that Duane Kuiper might be ready to step away from calling San Francisco Giants games at the end of this season is complete bunk, his longtime friend and broadcast partner Mike Krukow said Friday.

A report published Wednesday by media blogger Rich Lieberman said Kuiper has been “contemplating leaving for several months” and that NBC Sports’ decision last month to fire his younger brother Glen from his job as A’s play-by-play broadcaster last month might have accelerated the process. Duane Kuiper has also dealt with health issues that caused him to miss several games during the 2021 season.

Krukow, though, told KNBR’s morning show Friday that a Kuiper farewell after this season “is not going to happen.”

“So whoever was responsible for creating that BS, shame on you, because Kuip and I are not retiring,” Krukow said on the “Murph & Mac” show. “We’re both going to retire the same day, and it’s going to be when we drop dead behind the microphone it and not anytime soon.

“So, anybody who believes that, please don’t, it’s not true. We’re not going anywhere. Kuip’s the type of guy that’s going to … he’ll be buggy whipping me to come to work here.”

Krukow said his son sent him the story involving Kuiper during the Giants’ home game Wednesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“I looked at this thing and I looked at Kuip and I go, ‘Hey, did you know you’re retiring at the end of the season?’” Krukow said. “And he goes, ‘Where the hell did you get this?’ Sure enough, we brought up ‘Duane Kuiper retirement’ and there it was, in all its glory. And it was not only there, but there were people responding to it, and they had a little chat going on.”

The report also suggested that both Giants president Larry Baer, and the team’s executive vice president of business operations, Mario Alioto, are aware of Kuiper’s mindset. Baer, however, strongly denied the report.

“That report is simply not true,” Baer said via text Friday late Friday afternoon. “In fact, Duane is signed through ’24 and we expect him to be in the Giants family well beyond that.”

Former longtime Oakland A’s broadcaster Glen Kuiper was fired by NBC Sports on May 22, 17 days after he used a racial epithet on the air leading into a broadcast of an A’s game in Kansas City. He has maintained it was a mispronunciation of the word “negro”.

On May 23, Duane Kuiper said on KNBR that it has been a “tough period right now for Glen and all of us, the whole family. If I want to salvage any kind of relationship with some of the people I work with and for, it would probably be a good idea if I kept my mouth shut.

“And I’m not talking about the Giants, who I’m thankful for every day. This is really a special organization and I’m thankful that I’ve been part of it for I don’t know how many years, since 1982. It’s just a tough time right now and we’ll get through it.”

Duane Kuiper, who turns 73 on June 19, played for the Giants from 1982-1985 to close out an 11-year big league career. A 13-time Emmy award-winning broadcaster, Kuiper is in his 37th season behind the microphone in San Francisco. Thirty-two of those seasons have come alongside Krukow as the two have formed of the most beloved broadcasting duos in the Bay Area.

In 2020, Kuiper was named California Sportscaster of the Year as selected by the National Sports Media Association. He was one of 10 finalists for the 2023 and 2014 Ford C. Frick Award for baseball broadcasting excellence.

Two years ago, Kuiper took time off during baseball season for chemotherapy treatments to treat an undisclosed illness but returned to the booth late in the year as the Giants won 107 games and the National League West.

Staff writers Evan Webeck and Jerry McDonald contributed to this report.