{"id":228773,"date":"2025-09-15T13:08:42","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T13:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/228773\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T13:08:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T13:08:42","slug":"behind-the-scenes-of-a-giants-broadcast-with-duane-kuiper-mike-krukow-and-the-tv-crew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/228773\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the scenes of a Giants broadcast with Duane Kuiper, Mike Krukow, and the TV crew"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want the latest Bay Area sports news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here<\/a> to receive regular email newsletters, including \u201cThe Dime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rafael Devers crushed a baseball to the deepest region of Oracle Park, above the eighth archway and well atop the 415-foot marker.<\/p>\n

Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper\u2019s call: \u201cHigh drive \u2026 way out into right-center field \u2026 and \u2026 off the top of the wall \u2026 two runs are going to score.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a Devers-ian blast worthy of a three-run homer, but in this spacious ballpark, Devers was forced to settle for a two-run double.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s that, right?<\/p>\n

Inside a massive, high-tech broadcast truck under the left-field bleachers, adjacent to the player parking lot, with too many monitors and gadgets to count, a long-running production staff amps it up.<\/p>\n

Director Jim Lynch and producer Jeff Kuiper, Duane\u2019s kid brother, have been a Giants production tandem since 1987. It\u2019s an even longer partnership than the legendary Duane Kuiper-Mike Krukow duo, which initiated in the early 1990s and became permanent in 1994.<\/p>\n

With Arizona reliever Andrew Saalfrank on the mound Wednesday afternoon and Kruk and Kuip calling the action in the booth, Lynch and the younger Kuiper called the action in the truck.<\/p>\n

Like an orchestra conductor, Lynch was directing camera operators positioned throughout the park while his technical director, Ryan Newton, was alongside plugging in the various cameras requested in rapid fire by Lynch.<\/p>\n

\"\"The TV production crew builds a puzzle from a wide variety of pieces that change over the course of a game. <\/p>\n

\u201cReady 4. Take 4″ \u2014 showing Devers swinging at the 1-1 sinker and making contact, from the camera beyond center field.<\/p>\n

\u201cReady 2. Take 2″ \u2014 showing the zoomed-in flight of the ball and the bounce back onto the field, from the overview camera way up behind the plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cReady 5. Take 5″ \u2014 showing Patrick Bailey and Heliot Ramos crossing home plate, from the field-level camera near the visitors\u2019 dugout along the first-base line.<\/p>\n

\u201cReady 1. Take 1″ \u2014 showing Devers at second base gesturing to the Giants\u2019 dugout with both arms and looking back at the wall, wondering why a ball hit that hard and that far wasn\u2019t a home run.<\/p>\n

Ready 6. Take 6″ \u2014 showing four women in rally caps (turned inside out) celebrating and posing for a picture. \u201cGamer babes,\u201d in Krukow\u2019s affectionate vernacular.<\/p>\n

\"A\"A<\/p>\n

Fans accustomed to Giants broadcasts on NBC Sports Bay Area took it as a routine sequence of events in real time, an exciting play that made perfect sense based on all the camera angles.<\/p>\n

In reality, it was organized chaos. Countless moving parts. Fourteen folks in the truck, nine camera operators. All working behind the scenes and in unison to get it right amid the unpredictability and peculiarity of a big-league baseball game.<\/p>\n

\u201cMike and I have always said that the success we\u2019ve had, everything has to do with the crew because they\u2019re the backbone of what we do,\u201d Duane Kuiper said. \u201cIf somebody says something bad about those guys, we\u2019re going to fight them. We love them as much as we love our broadcast team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The foursome of Krukow, Kuiper, Jon Miller, and Dave Flemming, the latter two spending most their time on the radio side, seem inseparable. But the broadcasters\u2019 link to the production staff also is tight and cherished.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all baseball people. They know this game,\u201d said Krukow, flipping a baseball from hand to hand, a trademark for the former pitcher. \u201cThey anticipate where we\u2019re going to go, where the game\u2019s going to go. We try to complement them. With shots they get in return, they complement us. It\u2019s a relationship of respect and trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Several<\/p>\n

Bats adorn the wall in the Giants\u2019 broadcast.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A complex series of cables hang on the wall inside the production track.<\/p>\n

As Devers was running out his double, Jeff Kuiper was quickly mapping out which slow-motion replays to use, and he called for them right after the play.<\/p>\n

\u201cEffect to A\u201d \u2014 showing a tight frame of Devers\u2019 big swing.<\/p>\n

\u201cEffect to Red\u201d \u2014 showing the ball\u2019s majestic flight taken by the splash cam, which is used to capture homers into McCovey Cove and positioned way up in the right-field corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the longest double in the career of Rafi Devers,\u201d Duane Kuiper declared over the air, a bittersweet moment because it was inches from a home run.<\/p>\n

Willy Adames quickly made the third out, and Jeff Kuiper spent part of the commercial break securing the definitive shot of how close the ball came to clearing the wall. \u201cBack it up,\u201d he said to the tape room, making sure it was rewound a bit so viewers would see the ball approach the wall in slow motion.<\/p>\n

At the start of the next half inning, he called for another replay of Devers walking to the dugout and again looking back over his shoulder at the wall, in obvious disbelief, a shot caught by camera operator Mike Dunbar.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Meantime, associate director Dan Peterson did quick research to confirm the double would have been a homer in the other 29 ballparks. Peterson shared the info with Jeff Kuiper, who relayed it to his brother \u2014 he\u2019s the only person who\u2019s in the ear of both broadcasters.<\/p>\n

Duane Kuiper then told his audience, \u201cSafe to say it\u2019s a home run in every park except this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d Krukow said, \u201che\u2019s walking out of the ballpark today thinking this game owed him one.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was a single play in a nine-inning game. Every other play, the crew was on alert and in action. From first pitch to last. Actually longer than that. For a series opener, the crew arrives six hours before the game. Four hours in advance for the rest of the series. For Wednesday\u2019s 12:45 p.m. first pitch, the crew was on hand by 8:30 a.m., all receiving a one-page format with that day\u2019s schedule and assignments.<\/p>\n

The beauty of baseball is no one knows what\u2019s coming next. Unlike a concert or play, where much of the presentation is choreographed, a ballgame requires ad libbing and constant adjusting. That\u2019s the mindset and norm for the entire crew.<\/p>\n

The truck\u2019s big enough for a production room, audio room, video room, replay room, and engineering room. Just outside, there\u2019s a transmission room. All in a climate-controlled setting, In other words, quite chilly.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have a great crew that loves the game,\u201d Lynch said, \u201cand we\u2019ve had the greatest crew in the country for as long as we\u2019ve been doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jeff Kuiper, who sits to Lynch\u2019s left while facing a wall of monitors and working with an audio panel, gives the broadcasters a countdown in and out of every commercial break and alerts them to replays and promos. He\u2019ll also provide offbeat nuggets. On this particular day, the broadcasters go off on a tangent, to no one\u2019s surprise, a reason they\u2019re so beloved, and when the subject turned to the Akron Zips, Jeff Kuiper shared with the booth details of the nickname\u2019s unusual genesis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing this a long time,\u201d he said. \u201cDuane\u2019s my brother, and Mike\u2019s like my brother. It feels familiar. It makes it more fun, less stressful. I feel that way with Jon and Dave, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the pressure of it all, everyone in the truck remains extremely cool and calm, which starts with the director and producer, who have been doing this long enough not to panic even if things go sideways and are quick to dole out compliments when someone delivers a spiffy camera shot or replay etc.<\/p>\n

Lynch: \u201cWe have a very mellow department here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff Kuiper: \u201cNot many screamers left in this business. It used to be a thing in the old days.\u201d<\/p>\n

It helps when much of the crew has been together for decades.<\/p>\n

\"Multiple<\/p>\n

Jim Lynch (front left) directs his crew inside the TV broadcast truck. <\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Marty Coen, bottom left, mans the same camera position he used to capture Gregor Blanco\u2019s iconic catch during Matt Cain\u2019s 2012 perfect game.<\/p>\n

Marty Coen, the longest tenured camera operator other than Dave Benzer, dating to 1987 when broadcasts were shown on Giants Vision, was the one who captured Gregor Blanco making a diving catch in right-center to preserve Matt Cain\u2019s 2012 perfect game. He got the shot from the same position he worked Wednesday: section 210 in the club level, above the first-base dugout.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the ball\u2019s hit, I go wherever I need to go spontaneously,\u201d said Coen, explaining where he directs his camera. \u201cI follow the players. The players bring you to the ball. It\u2019s a lot of muscle memory. We\u2019ve been doing this a long time. We\u2019ve got a lot of consistency. Having Jim and Jeff in the truck is fabulous. They\u2019re like our teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grant Goodrich manned the audio room, an old bass player whose musical skills translate to his current gig \u2014 he has an ear for this stuff. He can regulate the sound from the field, cameras and booth, using what\u2019s akin to a giant router, and pays particular attention to the crowd mics throughout the park and bat crack mics at field level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a studio environment, when recording an album, everything is crystal clear,\u201d Goodrich said. \u201cHere, we\u2019re out in the elements. You\u2019re capturing the environment and following the ball from infield to outfield to bring the viewer the best audio experience possible. There\u2019s so much drama. Anything can happen. This is live TV. This is rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peterson, the associate director, will work with the Giants\u2019 PR department to line up a postgame interview (after wins) and snag factoids to run on the air. He also seeks pertinent social media posts, especially valuable at the trade deadline, and relies on a series of stat services and his personal files. A day after Casey Schmitt\u2019s 220-foot sacrifice fly, scoring Matt Chapman, Peterson found it was the fifth-shortest sac fly in the majors this year, a nice talking point on Wednesday\u2019s broadcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cKrukow was talking the whole series that the Giants were going to test the outfield arms,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cThe Diamondbacks\u2019 outfielders are very fast but without strong arms. It paid off. Chapman\u2019s sprint speed was 29.4 feet per second, elite level. Krukow said everything had to go right, and it did. You\u2019re always looking for those stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crew is always on alert for fun fan shots, especially when the Giants fall behind big, as was the case Wednesday. Not much action in the cove on this day (maybe if Devers had pulled the ball down the line \u2026), but cameras captured a couple of dudes dressed as Ferris Bueller in a gold vest and buddy Cameron in a Red Wings jersey. Also, a shirtless guy who deservedly got razzed in the booth. And a tiny kid holding up a sign that it was his birthday and how he hoped to get a ball.<\/p>\n

\"AThis is the set-up inside the Giants\u2019 broadcast booth for Mike Krukow. | Source: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades\/The Standard<\/p>\n

Balls were tossed his way, but he was unlucky, and Duane Kuiper noted in the booth that the kid needed a ball. The crew made it happen and delivered one. \u201cHumanity restored,\u201d someone said in the back of the truck. Of course, it was all shown on the broadcast, touching viewers\u2019 hearts.<\/p>\n

In a 162-game season, Krukow, Kuiper, and their crew have to blend the light-hearted moments with gripping action. On Friday, Kuiper broke out his signature walk-off home run call, \u201cAnd-we-are-going-HOME!\u201d as Patrick Bailey\u2019s grand slam sailed over the fence to beat the Dodgers. On Saturday and Sunday, with the Giants trailing big, the broadcasters\u2019 keen humor helped their longtime listeners better cope with blowout losses, and generates some laughs in the truck as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoverage depends on the score,\u201d Lynch said, \u201cand we know the importance of a kid getting on TV. We shoot tons of kids. If you\u2019re on TV, you\u2019re a rock star the next day in school, and you\u2019ll never forget that moment for the rest of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Giants lost 5-3 on Wednesday, but put the potential tying run at the plate in the ninth inning, a detail noted by Krukow when he and Kuiper did the postgame booth hit, a minute-long segment recorded immediately after the game and shown later during the network\u2019s postgame show. Jeff Kuiper was in his brother\u2019s ear, reminding him to throw it back to Bonta Hill in the studio.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fine. We needed a little bit more action,\u201d Duane Kuiper said of the broadcast before getting into his car just outside the production truck. \u201cBut without action, it gave Mike and I a chance to play around with other things such as nicknames.\u201d<\/p>\n

And kids in the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do that as much as we can,\u201d he said. \u201cIf there\u2019s a\u00a0kid who looks like he needs a ball, we\u2019ve got a ball. Especially if a kid has a ball taken away from him, like the kid in Philadelphia, we make sure the kid gets a ball.\u201d<\/p>\n