Beloved longtime Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow to retire at the end of the season

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Beloved longtime San Francisco Giants broadcaster and former major league pitcher Mike Krukow is stepping away from the booth after this season following a nearly four-decade run.

The 74-year-old Krukow made the announcement Thursday that this year would be his last, expressing gratitude from him and wife, Jennifer.

“I just want to let everyone know that I will be retiring at the end of the season. I want to take this time to thank you for your incredible support,” Krukow said through the Giants. “Jennifer and I have been so blessed to be able to stay in the game for as long as we have and it’s really made it impossible to feel sorry for myself that my career is coming to an end.”

Krukow said he expects an emotional farewell over the final stretch of the season, saying, “Jennifer and I are wondering if it is even possible to let everyone know how deeply we love and respect our Giants family.”

He has shown up with a smile, sense of humor and energetic spirit day after day, game after game, despite the physical challenges of the rare degenerative muscle disease that has slowed him for much of the past two decades and scaled back his travel to road games.

Still, it never kept Krukow and partner and dear friend Duane Kuiper from their tireless work, which included San Francisco's every-other-year World Series championship runs in 2010, ’12 and ’14.

“While we knew this day would eventually come, Mike Krukow stepping away from the broadcast booth is a deeply emotional moment for our Giants family,” Giants President and CEO Larry Baer said in a statement. “On behalf of our extended Giants family, I want to express our profound gratitude for everything Kruk has given — not only to this franchise, but to each of us personally. For decades, he has shared far more than his voice. He has been our spiritual leader.

“With his beloved and inseparable partner Duane Kuiper, he has taught generations of fans about baseball, brought us inside it from the perspective of a Major League pitcher and called every game with incredible insight, unmistakable humor and genuine heart.”

Baer asked baseball fans to listen in over the closing months of the season as Krukow makes his final calls, “and just watch and listen to the most dynamic TV broadcast partners – Kruk and Kuip.”

The club will celebrate Krukow's career on Sept. 27 when the Giants host the rival Los Angeles Dodgers in the last regular-season game of the year at Oracle Park.

A 6-foot-5 right-hander selected by the Cubs in the eighth round of the 1973 draft out of Cal Poly, Krukow posted a 124-117 career record with a 3.90 ERA over 14 seasons from 1976-1989 with Chicago, Philadelphia and the final seven for the Giants. He was an All-Star with San Francisco in 1986, when he had a career-best 20 wins.

“Our time together has been a gift,” Krukow said. “When Green Day asked, ‘I hope you’ve had the time of your lives,’ we certainly have.”

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FILE - San Francisco Giants broadcasters Mike Krukow, left, and Duane Kuiper walk on the field before Game 1 of a baseball National League Division Series between the Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Oct. 8, 2021, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn, File)

FILE - San Francisco Giants fan Grace Witt, center, is given a hat and jersey by announcers Mike Krukow, left, and Duane Kuiper after she was announced at the 50 millionth fan at AT&T Park, before a baseball game between the Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies in San Francisco, July 11, 2015. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

FILE - Radio broadcaster Mike Krukow waves before a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the San Diego Padres in San Francisco, Oct. 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

FILE - Broadcaster Mike Krukow speaks during a remembrance ceremony for former San Francisco Giants player Orlando Cepeda before a baseball game between the Giants and the San Diego Padres in San Francisco, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — Cameroon President Paul Biya on Thursday reached two months since the last time he was inside the borders of his country, a prolonged absence that has raised concerns for his health and criticisms about a possible power vacuum in the Central African nation.

The world’s oldest president, who has led Cameroon since 1982, began his eighth term in office in November after winning a widely disputed election in October. But the 93-year-old left the country on June 7 for what Biya's office described as “a brief private stay in Europe” that has become one of his longest trips overseas. His government later confirmed he was in Switzerland.

The health of the president has long been a topic of speculation as he spends significant time in Europe, including France and Switzerland, where he often spends weeks while leaving governance to key party officials and family members.

Cameroon’s constitution does not specifically prohibit a president from leaving the country for months. But without a vice president, an appointment Biya has full control over, the opposition has described the country as being run on “autopilot.”

Opposition leader Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the presidential runner-up in October's election and a former Biya ally, said Thursday there is a widespread perception in Cameroon that “all is not well” with Biya, whose absence has angered the opposition.

“Biya’s very long stay in Switzerland only aggravates that lack of legitimacy and his desperate attempts to hold on to power by force,” Tchiroma said in a text message from exile in The Gambia. Tchiroma won just over 35% of the vote but claimed victory, alleging fraud, citing results he said were collated by his party. Biya’s party members dismissed the claim.

The results of his nearly half-century in power have been mixed. Armed insurgencies by Boko Haram in the north and separatists in the west, along with a stagnant economy, have left many young people disillusioned with the leader.

Wilson Tamfuh, a professor of Public and International Law at the University of Dschang, compared Cameroon to a human body that is “seriously sick.”

“Even if Biya still proves to be strong at this age, it is clear that his health challenges are taking a toll on his leadership. Cabinet reshuffles over the past 15 years have amounted to little more than recycling the same people from one ministry to another,” Tamfuh said.

Biya's 2025 reelection sparked widespread protests that left at least four people dead, signaling significant tensions between the mostly young population and its aging leader.

On Monday, Biya reshuffled the top military leadership, replacing commanders of four of the country’s five joint military regions and promoting several senior officers to higher ranks. No official reason was given, but one of the replaced commanders had died and another retired.

Biya came to power following the resignation of Cameroon’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, who served from 1960 to 1982.

A 2008 constitutional amendment abolished term limits, and Biya has now led Cameroon longer than most of its citizens have been alive: more than 70% of the country’s population of nearly 30 million people is below the age of 35.

If he serves his entire term, Biya will leave office at nearly 100 years old.

Wilson McMakin in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.

FILE - Cameroon's President Paul Biya, of the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement party, waits to cast his vote during the presidential elections, Oct. 7, 2018, in Yaounde, Cameroon. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba, File)