Jefferson P. Nolan
jnolan@mustangdaily.net
It is April, and once again, baseball is the talk of the town. The San Francisco Giants return to AT&T Park to defend the team’s second World Series title in three years. And upstairs in the Giants broadcast booth is the man who tells their story. He knows the team, he knows broadcasting and he knows baseball — much of which he credits to his alma mater.
Mike Krukow is a former Cal Poly Mustang.
Krukow played professional baseball for 14 seasons, beginning with the Chicago Cubs and finishing his career with the San Francisco Giants. He accumulated a record of 124 wins and 117 loses and has received a vote for a membership to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Krukow helped lead his team to the National League West championship in 1987 and wears a World Series ring awarded to him by the Giants following their championship season in 2010. Since going into broadcasting, he has become one of the most respected analysts of the game.
But if you ask Krukow about his proudest achievements, he thinks back to his days at Cal Poly.
The year was 1970, and as a new graduate of San Gabriel High School, the young athlete had to survey his options. At 6-foot-3 and 185 pounds, the California Angels drafted him as a catcher in the 32nd round. But the war in Vietnam was in full swing, and going to college meant being granted a student deferment from the war.
“Cal Poly chose me,” Krukow said. “I didn’t have a lot of scholarship opportunities. I had nothing from any school. I really wanted to play basketball. I was playing basketball, baseball and trying to study, which at Cal Poly isn’t the easiest thing to do.”
The legendary collegiate baseball coach Augie Garrido was the Mustangs manager during Krukow’s first years in San Luis Obispo, and he convinced the young talent to quit basketball. His future was in baseball.
“I think I learned more from Augie than from any other coach I ever had,” Krukow said. “You learn the game of baseball. It was a new position for me.”
Under the guidance of Garrido, Krukow transitioned from a catcher and first baseman to a full-time pitcher. In his first season, Krukow went 6-0 and the Mustangs had the best record in Cal Poly baseball history to that point.
“We did something that no Cal Poly team had ever done,” Krukow said. “It was wonderful.”
Krukow still holds the record for most shutouts, with five, and had an earned run average (ERA) of 1.94, the lowest of any Cal Poly pitcher.
After Krukow’s sophomore year, Garrido left Cal Poly to coach for Cal State Fullerton.
“He asked me to go with him,” Krukow said. “But at that point, I was so in love with San Luis Obispo, there was no chance.”
When Krukow’s junior year came to an end, the 21-year-old Mustangs pitcher was ready to play major league ball. Having accomplished what he wanted at Cal Poly, he was drafted in the eighth round by the Cubs.
“My goal was to play as much as Augie did professionally, which was five years,” Krukow said. “I was a physical education major at Cal Poly, and I was probably going to be a teacher. (Playing pro ball) would be a good experience, and it would help me coach.”
Krukow ended up having a 17-year, 14-season career, earning a 3.90 ERA and accumulating 124 wins throughout his tenure as a professional pitcher.
Henry Schulman, a sports writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, has been covering the Giants since 1988 and remembers watching Krukow pitch. He told a story of when Krukow was battling the Expos at the old Olympic Stadium in Montreal.
“The Olympic Stadium had a roof; it was a big old cavernous building,” Schulman said. “With five or six thousand people, you could hear everything going on because there was no crowd noise. (Krukow) threw a pitch that he thought was a strike, and the umpire called it a ball. He yelled ‘Jesus!’ You could hear it echo like it was the Grand Canyon.”
Not many players would apologize for a simple outburst of frustration, but Krukow did. The last thing the veteran pitcher would want to do is embarrass an umpire behind the plate.
After Krukow’s pitching career came to an end, he and his family decided to settle down in San Luis Obispo.
“When I was done playing, my wife and I (who also went to Cal Poly) came back to San Luis Obispo and raised our family,” Krukow said. “It’s the greatest place in the country to live. It’s the greatest place to raise your children.”
But when the veteran pitcher hung up his uniform and began to raise a family, he certainly wasn’t done with the game he loved. Krukow turned to a new career — one not too different from his days as a pitcher.
In 1983, Krukow left the Cubs and joined the Giants organization. While in San Francisco, Krukow spent time in the dugout with his teammate and second baseman Duane Kuiper. And they would pretend they were announcing the game.
“We used to sit in the dugout and do games like we were doing the radio, never really thinking it would amount to much,” Kuiper said. “We’d act like we were broadcasters.”
Krukow was a natural. After his baseball days were over, the Giants hired him as a broadcaster.
“When I retired as a player, Hank Greenwald, who was my mentor in broadcasting, said that if you’re going to do this broadcasting, you have to realize they’re going to remember you more for being a broadcaster than they are for player,” Krukow said. “If you can’t handle that, then don’t be a broadcaster.”
He took the plug anyway.
Now a seven-time Emmy award winner, he is considered to be one of the best announcers in baseball. His partner in the broadcast booth is Kuiper — the same man he “announced” with while playing professionally.
And even though Krukow’s career path took a turn from his plan at Cal Poly, the one-time physical education major ended up teaching after all. His students are the fans, and his classroom is the ballpark.
Amy Gutierrez, the Giants in-game reporter on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, roams AT&T park during games to provide color from the stands for each broadcast. And she credits Krukow with much of what she knows.
“He was born with the gift of gab,” Gutierrez said. “Mike Krukow is an amazing teacher, and he’s so much fun to work with. I’ve learned so much from Mike. He loves San Luis Obispo and he loves Cal Poly. It’s a pretty amazing job to be able to work with him. Sometimes I pinch myself.”
It goes both ways. Krukow is only one of four Cal Poly baseball players to have his number (21) retired at Cal Poly. And being inducted into the Cal Poly Hall of Fame meant something extra for the retired pitcher.
“It says that what you did and what you accomplished meant something,” Krukow said. “It validates your career.”
Dave Flemming, a KNBR radio broadcaster for the Giants, knows this all too well.
“Mike loves his alma mater,” Flemming said. “(He’s) the best in the business, and I think he feels like he wouldn’t have made it to where he did without Cal Poly.”
Now, with the Giants back on field after the offseason, the AT&T Park broadcast team scans the sea of orange and black for people who will stand out, but they also search for some green and gold. If a kid in the stands is spotted sporting a Cal Poly sweatshirt, they know Krukow is going to want to talk about it.