Why Krukow's revelation nearly brought me to tears

I'm not a crier.

I'm a dude. I love baseball and beer, and Eddie Money and smoking pork shoulder for half a day, and I love football and America and hating the Dodgers.

I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a crier.

This is why I was so shocked at how absolutely emotional I became when I heard about Mike Krukow's degenerative muscle disease.

I was driving to work listening to KNBR, and I was nearly brought to tears. 

I got that weird feeling with the lump in the throat and the misty eyes. I was just plain crushed. Later in the day, I began to come to grips with my reaction and why I felt so horrible.

I just love Mike Krukow. That's what it is. I literally love the guy. I also love Duane Kuiper and Jon Miller, even Flemming.

I don't know about you guys, but these guys are a huge part of my life. I listen to them almost every day, and I can't remember a time where I didn't hear them broadcast a game 140+ days a year. Although I've never met them and they wouldn't know me from Adam, they are, in a way, family.

Kruk & Kuip are just the best. They really are. They make watching a game exponentially better. There is no better team in the world to broadcast a sport than these two, it's a fact. We're truly privileged to have our Giants games enhanced like this. 

This duo makes us laugh, they keep us positive, they keep us entertained. They were just as excited as us to win those championships. They're with us through the good times, and the horrendous ones. Hell. We can turn off the game if it becomes too much. They're the ones that are subjected to it until the end.

They're also great friends outside the booth-- just like we imagine them to be. Why don't you ask Steve Stone if he hangs out with Hawk Harrelson outside the booth. The answer would be a defeated but resounding 'no'-- probably with an extended sigh at the end.

That's why the part of CW Nevius's article about Kuiper being a "sherpa" and carrying Mike's bags for him-- because that's what teammates do-- gave me that same choked up feeling I got while I was driving. 

The idea that Mike Krukow, the funniest, most baseball loving-ist guy ever won't one day be able to toss a baseball in the booth or show someone how to throw a curveball is just plain heartbreaking. The idea that he some day soon won't be able to play golf or guitar or throw a baseball with his grandkids is just plain depressing.

No, he's not dying. No, he's not retiring from broadcasting. He's going to be okay for the most part.

It just really sucks.

Perhaps there's a bit of selfishness embedded in my feelings. 

I just recently came to terms with the fact that I didn't want anything to happen to Kruk, partially because my Giants experience wouldn't be as good. If he lost his trademark enthusiasm and humor, games just wouldn't be the same. Who would blame him if he did?

Fortunately, ol' Kruk doesn't show any signs of slowing down. In fact, it occurred to me that if there's a solitary soul in this world that could overcome such a lousy thing with flying colors, it'd be Mike Krukow.

Look at him after 13 inning games on the postgame wrap. He's still yukkin' and yakkin' with Flemming like it was the first inning, while Kuip is hilariously hunched over, ready for bed, and Miller stays as professional as possible. It's just plain remarkable.

As he told Bruce Jenkins of the Chronicle, "I'm the luckiest guy in the world - again," he said. "All I need to do is get in that room and talk baseball. It's my island. Once I get behind that chair, I am bulletproof, man. I am a young, vibrant man."

That's why I know I won't have to worry about Kruk. He's going to suck it up, the way I wouldn't be able to. He's going to keep entertaining us and keeping us positive, even when we feel like the sky is falling over some meaningless lousy road trip-- not because we want him to, but because he needs to.

It's the epitome of irony that someone who actually has the sky falling on him incrementally, to the point of an eventual wheelchair reality, won't lose the very things that have made him so beloved to so many.

And that, my friends, is why I love Mike Krukow.

Never change, Meat.

Things are pretty, kinda alright, and sorta good, but not really great, but much better than bad...

"Giants Baseball: Torture" -- Duane Kuiper

He's said it multiple times on the air, and usually, the description is plenty apt. This team isn't nearly as frustrating as version 20.09, in fact, not even close. The fact is, we're not going to win every game. The sign of a good team is that we are in every game, every night. The opportunity to win is half the battle, and the other half is doing a little bit better than a tie game.

Hey look, those two walkoff losses to the Mets were absolutely killer, and the one where Romo blew ANOTHER game on Sunday would've been a gut-wrencher after the previous two games. But look at the bright side. How about John Bowker coming up huge with a pinch hit dong off of one of the best closers in baseball?

I've said it before multiple times, and I will continue to say it:

"THIS TEAM NEVER GIVES UP, AND IT'S CAPABLE OF COMING BACK FROM ANYTHING."

I mean, last season we were giving up in the 6th inning with 4-1 deficits staring us in the collective face. This season? We're good to go. We can tie this thing up! We can win this thing! It's just sooooooo much better.

And how about some more positive stuff. Some guy named Aaron Rowand did as much for the success of this Florida/New York road trip as the starting pitching staff. He really did. He hit a huge homer in Florida, made multiple run-saving catches, and hit the biggest go-ahead roundtripper of the season on Sunday when the team needed it the most.

I know he's been only a first half player for us, but he's hitting .321 with 17 RBI. That's all we ever wanted for the $60MM, man...

Things are fairly solid around here. Not amazing, not terrible, but pretty, kinda, alright, and sorta good. As frustrating and torturous as Romo/Runzler have been at times, in conjunction with Wellemeyer, the "Other Jonathan Sanchez" in a couple starts, and Kung Fu's retarded slump, at the end of the day, you need to look at the big picture, and the manner in which that big picture is being filled in.

Anyway....

Notes/Musings:

Huffing & Puffing

Aubrey Huff is an absolute gamer. The guy has played a solid 1B. And for you Sabermetric jerks, you can even believe it, because he's sporting a 4.0 UZR/150 rating. See, I coulda told you he was playing a good first base by watching how he plays the game and the fact that he only has one error, but since I used an obscure statistical formulated index average thingy, now we can agree. End of side rant.

What I really love about Huff is that he is simply a ballplayer, a gamer, the type of guy who knows where to be, what to do, and you can tell that he is not the most gifted athlete in the land, but the guy who gets absolutely the most out of his abilities by giving his all. He's chasing after foul pop ups, covering second base when Uribe/Downs/Rowand can't make a catch. It's just good to see.

The most encouraging sign about Huff is that he's really driving the ball. Unfortunately, he's driving the ball to right-center most of the time in AT&T, Citi, and the Ghost of Joe Robbie Fields/Stadium. In all honesty, this guy has hit around 9 or 10 yahtzee shots thus far, but only a handful have made it out due to whatever cavernous outfield he happens to be swinging at.

Plus, whenever he has to run 180 feet at a time, it is absolutely hilarious. It's like he just ran a drunken marathon. All the Joe Eighteen Packs watching him can relate.

Romo has to go...

You ain't gotta go home, but you can't stay here bro. We all like you Serge, but you're losing games for us. If Row doesn't hit one out, you could've ruined another game Sunday in cahoots with your boy Runzler. Is this what we're doing now? You two are like the anti-win squad right now. Runzler sets the table with like 3 walks, then you serve up a hairy meatball for a dong?

It certainly seems that way lately, which is why I could've just KILLED Bochy when he brought you in on Sunday. I was like "Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!". Sure enough... well. You know what happened. This site isn't about recaps, remember?

There are rumblings that Romo may be sent to Fresno for a little while to regain his slider's snap, and maybe rest a little while. I find it hard to believe that the guy already has a tired arm, as we are what, like, 6 games into the season? However, he has been used a lot, and many times in high-pressure situations. As we know, this team doesn't do anything the easy way. He'll continue to be an important part of the team, but obviously his workload and stress level have to be reduced.

And as some of you will recall, I wrote an article earlier this season stating that indeed, the Romo/Runzler tandem was the key to the overall success and health of the bullpen. If they suck, we're screwed. Hell it made MLBTradeRumors. They know good stuff when they see it.

The Sanchez Sitch

I bet you haven't seen the word "Sitch" in print since the last TMZ article you read about Jersey Shore. Well. I'm bringing it back before Season 2 in a non-Mike Sorrentino sort of context.

This particular sitch involves a dude owed $12MM over this season and next, which is not looking like a very good scene right now. Honestly, we might as well be paying "The Situation" instead of Freddy Sanchez right now, because at least we'd get some entertainment value out of him. For all we know, Freddy Sanchez is going to the gym, tanning, and doing his laundry every day on Neukom's dime.

In all seriousness though, We've got an interesting couple of decisions to make once F-Sanch returns in a week or two. The common suggestion is that with our hundreds of mega-super-ultra utility men (sounds like a Japanese animation show that gives 8 year olds seizures), Bochy can just rotate guys in and out to give a guy a day off or play situational matchups.

More realistically, Matt Downs is actually hitting. Yeah. He's actually hitting to the tune of a .359 average and a .459 on base %. He's obviously not gonna win a batting title, and we don't know if the Tuscaloosa native will ever be a fulltime starter in this league, but my vote is for delaying Sanchez's arrival until Downs cools off at least.

But then what about when Renteria comes back? I'm still not ready to throw him away like gross 4 day old Chinese food. I still believe he's capable of being 70% of the Renteria of old. Groin pulls are nagging things.

The only thing about that is that now Uribe and Huff are in danger of losing AB's, while the .350+ hitting Downs is sent to Fresno or deep in "Bochy's Hole of No Return" like poor Johnny Bowker from next door.

It's quite the conundrum indeed. I expect to be frustrated by the outcome.

Panda & DeRosa... WTF?

DeRosa's struggles are frustrating. As we know, he's making good money, and all the Debbie Downer's out there who ripped the signing from the beginning are jumping around and clicking their heels like a prospector on angel dust. Well, forget you guys. The sample size is not nearly big enough to declare anything. It's just one of those deep funks... and not the good kind of funk like Earth Wind & Fire.

He's pressing, and that usually never works out. He had a multi-hit game in Florida, which was encouraging, but success overall has been eluding Marky Mark. I think perhaps he's the guy who could benefit from a couple days off and some hardcore video sessions.

Hey... that's not what I meant. I meant reviewing his at bats! Get your heads out of the gutter.

As for Kung Fu, well, he's a frustrating dude. It just looks like opposing pitchers are beginning to figure him out a bit. They're throwing high fastballs at him, and he's swinging at them (as usual). It's unfortunate that such a simple thing is having success with such a talented swinger. He's another guy who needs to ride the pine for a game or two, to get his head right.

But as Krook said, "He's a hack, and he's gotta hack his way out of this."

Pablo is 3 for his last 39 and is hitting only .231 from the right side. Cause for concern, yes. Freak out session? Not yet.

Knock knock joke!

Knock Knock.
Who's There?
Orange.
Orange Who?
Orange you glad we don't have Oliver Perez?

That guy sucks big time! One of the worst contracts in baseball history. 3 years, $36MM. You think Sabean is bad? How about Omar Minaya. Guy should be fired immediately.

And the NY Post is hilarious. "HOMEWRECKER". HAHA.