Bruce Jenkins: Thanks to the coronavirus, Giants and A’s broadcasters are preparing for a unique work experience.
News, notes and observations after speaking with the Giants and A’s broadcasters about the coming season: Back to the bay
Mike Krukow and his wife, Jennifer, spent the past several months at their home in Reno, waiting for a baseball season. Now that it’s here, they’ve moved back into their San Francisco apartment, just a few blocks from the ballpark.
As a nod to Krukow’s condition — inclusion body myositis, a degenerative muscle disease that is not lifethreatening but causes progressive weakness in his extremities — the Giants have tried to make his broadcasting life as simple as possible.
“They’ll come and pick me up in a golf cart, as usual. But now I’ll be in the back seat with a mask and a protective shield, and they’ll be able to drive me up the ramp and drop me off at the back end of the broadcast level. So I can walk right to the booth,” he said. “They’re making it real easy for me to keep going, and that’s all I want to do: keep going.”
The Krukows’ life has been blessed by the presence of Patriot, the yellow Labrador service dog they procured last fall. Trained to create space between a vulnerable master and surrounding people, Patriot does exactly that any time Krukow is on the move. At rest, the dog is there to provide comfort.
“Oh, my God, he’s the bomb,” Krukow said recently. “It’s amazing how many things can upset you during the day, and when you’re out of sorts, Patriot knows it. This is what these dogs are bred for. If you have anxiety, they’ll follow you around, and when you sit down, they’ll hop right up on your lap. Will not leave until, in their mind, you’re OK. You just sit there and stroke this animal, and it’s unbelievable, the damnedest thing you’ve ever seen. He is a gift.” Protocol
Merely entering the ballpark is a safetyfirst process for the Bay Area broadcasters. Arriving at the 2nd and King entrance each day, “You call up an app that asks you a series of 10 questions,” Krukow said. “Do you have a cough, shortness of breath, any symptoms, all related to COVID? If you answer no to all of them, then you are compliant for that day. Then they take your temperature and you can move on to security.”
As opposed to the stringent testing measures required of the designated Tier 1 and Tier 2 personnel, media representatives are in Tier 3, unable to make contact with the players or anyone connected with the baseball operation. As such, they are beholden only to their teams’ testing policy.
The Giants’ official statement: “Tier 3 testing requirements are at the club’s discretion, and our guideline is for this category to be tested once a week.”
From the A’s: “We are partnering with Carbon Health to provide ongoing COVID19 onsite testing, education, and support for Tier 3 employees who will be working at the ballpark during the season, including media, broadcasters, vendors, and A’s staff. Testing will occur on an ongoing basis during the season.”
Crowd noise Krukow: “There’s nothing like the pure crack of the bat. Watching those practice games at Oracle when somebody really squares one up, and the sound echoes through the park, it sounds like the most righteous contact in the history of the game. That’s really been cool. I hope we get some of that.” Glen Kuiper, A’s television: “I think it’s important to have that hum, that background buzz. If you don’t hear that, man, it can be really strange. What about the crack of the bat? Yeah, but that only happens once in a while. I think there needs to be something solid in the background, to make it sound normal for the people at home.” Vince Cotroneo, A’s radio: “There are things teammates and coaches say to each other that they don’t want to be heard. It’s going to be HBO (language) for sure. And the reality is, our voices can carry, too, in the moment. We don’t want players suddenly looking up at us, like, ‘Really? We can hear you down here.’ So the crowd noise will cover a lot of that.”
Duane Kuiper, Giants TV: “I’ve tried to yell from my booth to people on the field, when the ballpark is quiet before games, and you really have to yell to get their attention. If there’s any kind of crowd noise piped in, they won’t hear us. It definitely won’t be like the radio booth in the old Tiger Stadium. That thing was so low and close to the field, broadcasters felt like they were in the game. Playing there for Cleveland (in the 1970s), I stepped into the batter’s box one time and I heard (legendary Tigers announcer) Ernie Harwell say, ‘And here’s Duane Kuiper, in a horrible slump: 2 for his last 30.’ I remember stepping out of the box, going, ‘Really? I’m that bad?’ ”
Miscellany
Fans won’t see Giants broadcaster Jon Miller on TV, nor will Duane Kuiper take some turns on radio. Miller generally worked out of the TV booth for games televised by NBC’s overtheair station, but NBCSBA has taken all of this season’s available telecasts. Kuiper said it makes no sense for people to be moving around from one booth to another, and when it comes to radio, “I don’t think Jon or Dave (Flemming) will be missing any games.”
Flemming, who covers multiple sports for ESPN, said working all 60 Giants games “will be a balancing act, for sure. But that’s what I want to do. In a short season, the games are just too precious. I will try to do a few ESPN events, including the PGA Championship, which will be in town (Aug. 39 at Harding Park). I could see doing golf all day and then heading to the ballpark at night. As for college football, which I love to do, it’s impossible to predict if they’ll even play. It may not overlap with baseball if they get a late start, but even if it does, they might not be traveling anybody. That’s going to be a very tricky one to pull off.”
Although the Giants’ radio has ruled out all travel for the season, Flemming said there’s a chance they would reconsider. “Our L.A. trips are all in the first month, but that lateseason series in San Diego (Sept. 1013) is a possibility,” he said. “We would consider a lateseason driving trip, even a plane flight, if we really thought, gosh, these are big games, and it’s amazing how much our fans have gotten into this season, and a big story is developing, I think we would reserve the right to go be there for that.”
When the national networks do games in any ballpark, none of their announcers will be present. They will use the local television feeds, perhaps with control of a couple of cameras and graphics, but the broadcasters will be working remotely from their home base. This applies to three of the Giants’ first four games, as ESPN will handle the Thursday and Sunday night games from Dodger Stadium, with Fox televising Saturday.
The last word from Krukow, on the presence of cutout photos of fans in the stands: “How about this: A foul ball is hit into the upper deck, and you’ve got a section of cutouts up there, like 10 guys, in a big dog pile to get the ball. Come back a little bit later and the dog pile’s still going on, but you see this little girl with pigtails and a Giants hat right underneath them, holding the ball. You could tell stories like that forever.”