SF Giants: Mike Krukow sings Duane Kuiper 'Happy Birthday' on air
Famous SF Giants broadcasters Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper are inseparable in and out of the booth. They travel together, dine together, and even vacation together. But on Monday, Kuip's 73rd birthday, they even sang together.
Well, Krukow was the only one singing, but they were together. With veteran broadcaster timing, Krukow waited until Kuiper was leaving the booth to croon the final lines of "Happy Birthday", getting it in just before the telecast cut to commercial. And after the song, the Giants outscored the San Diego Padres 7-1 en route to an epic victory.
Kruk may have also trained himself not to sing the whole song to avoid copyright infringement, as the tune only officially entered the public domain in 2016. That's right, you can now freely sing the birthday song on television without Patty and Mildred Hill's lawyers coming after you.
Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi also honored Kuiper's birthday the next night, which he shares with such figures as Lou Gehrig, Paula Abdul, Zoe Saldana, Dirk Nowitzki, and Garfield.
The Giants are now undefeated in 2023 in games where Mike Krukow sings "Happy Birthday," or Duane Kuiper eats an entire birthday cake during the 4th inning. They're also always walk-off wins, whether extremely climactic - Mike Yaztremski's Splash-Off home run.
Or anti-climactic, like Joc Pederson's walk-off walk, on a pitch nowhere near the strike zone.
Birthday or not, Kuiper brings it every time, even on a walk. And so does Krukow when it's time to sing to his buddy. Will we hear it again? Jon Miller's 72nd birthday is on October 11th of this year. So the SF Giants faithful have another added incentive to want their favorite team to reach the playoffs.
