Father's Day Message

I called my dad to wish him a Happy Father's Day and it was during the Giants at Red Sox game. He was not pleased with the Giants' efforts and harped on their inability to play situational baseball.

This is something EVERY Giants' fan is fully aware of and are probably tired of hearing about.

Then he jumped all over television broadcaster Mike Krukow, saying how the guy knows everything and never shuts up. I laughed because Krukow is a bit of a know-it-all and he can be excessive in his descriptions and accounts.

Mike Krukow was a career 124W 117L pitcher with a lifetime ERA of 3.90.
He won 20-games one time, as a Giant in 1986 when he was 20-9. (It should be duly noted that for the better part of Krukow's career he played on .500 or worse teams. So to be 7 games above .500 in the won/loss category does prove that he was no slouch.)

And yet if you heard his color commentary you'd think he'd have won a couple of Cy Young Awards and been named to a few All-Star games. But he did neither.

He sounds like a guy who does his homework and will go for the funny bone whenever the opportunity arises but to someone who just wants to watch the game and have to listen to this former player comment about how the pitcher throws the 2-seamer and 4-seamer and he has the ability to get Uncle Charlie over the plate at any time, it can be a bit too much.

Some of us do not care if the pitch was a slider, change-up, splitter, curve, screwball or fastball. We only want to know if it was a strike and where it missed. If the screwball doing the play-by-play would limit all the baseball jargon the game might be more enjoyable to watch on television.

Me, I don't mind all of the descriptions so much because I prefer the radio broadcast to the telecast. Although, there are times when the over-analyzing of things does take away from what just happened. I mean, I can hear the cheers or jeers in the background while the announcer is babbling about some play an inning or two ago while the game is in progress. With some announcers (namely Dave Fleming) most of the stuff you get is after the fact.
The background noises tell you what just happened before Fleming does.

It was good talking to my dad. I wished him a Happy Father's Day and to take his mind off of the struggling Giants I did say, "I'm liking what I'm reading about the 49ers."

His voice perked up noticeably. The 49ers are a San Franciscan's treat, if you savor sports. The five (5) time Super Bowl champions can do a lot to lift the spirits of a Giants' fan, that's for sure.

kevin marquez